Month: March 2021

Posted on

March 4, 2017 – Octavia Spencer / Father John Misty (S42 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

JEFF SESSIONS GUMP
not-so-naive Jeff Sessions (KAM) recounts his misdeeds a la Forrest Gump

— I do like the idea of a Jeff Sessions/Forrest Gump mash-up, and Kate’s Sessions impression is still new enough at this point that I’m enjoying it in this Gump format.
— A decent structure to this sketch.
— A laugh from Aidy’s scene beginning with Kate’s Sessions immediately disclosing to her, “I talked to the Russians”, after denying to Kyle at the end of the previous scene that he spoke to the Russians.
— A funny brief scene with Beck’s Vladimir Putin.
— A solid The Help reference with the pie that Octavia Spencer’s character from that movie gives Kate’s Sessions.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host has moved beyond nurse roles, but people misidentify Hidden Figures

— Nothing much to say about the material in this monologue so far. It’s nothing too noteworthy, but Octavia is coming off really well here. It’s also nice to see a real monologue at this point of SNL’s run.
STARS: ***


COURAGE, COMPASSION, COUNTRY: THE TBD STORY
biopic of Donald Trump challenger profiles a to-be-determined Republican

— All of the abrupt “TBD” disclaimers are making me chuckle, even if the novelty has worn off after a while.
— Funny line about Paul Ryan.
— A laugh from the “Starring Bradley Whitford, probably” line at the end.
STARS: ***


DRUG COMPANY HEARING
Merck swiped drug names from former employee’s (host) relatives & friends

— A hacky and cliched premise by this point in 2017. It was fresher when SNL did a similar idea in 1995, in that summer camp sketch with Damon Wayans and Ellen Cleghorne.
— I did laugh just now at Alex’s knowing and depressed “No, it’s terrible” response to the “You think it’s nice being associated with high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction?” question.
STARS: **


GIRL AT A BAR
male feminists call (CES) a bitch when she rebuffs them

— Beck’s delivery of “I wear this shirt, you won’t even let me nnnnuut?!?” has me laughing so much.
— This feels like the first noteworthy thing Kyle has done in a while, though maybe I’m forgetting a big role he got in the last few episodes prior to this.
— A good satire of so-called male “feminists”, though the constant repetition of the main gag is a little too one-note and predictable for my likes, much like the TBD ad earlier in this episode.
— The look of Alex’s character is very funny.
STARS: ***


PRE-COMMERCIAL SHOT
going to commercial, texting Kellyanne Conway (KAM) kneels on SNL set

— A creative way to spoof a famous then-recent Oval Office photo. When this episode originally aired, I remember thinking this initial shot of Kate was a technical error, as I wasn’t yet aware of what SNL was going for.


ZOO-OPOLIS VOICE ACTORS
(MEV), (ALM), (host) fill in for celebrities voicing cartoon characters

— This sketch’s concept is kinda blah and flimsy, but at the same time, it’s a welcome showcase for Melissa, Alex, and Octavia’s impression skills.
— A decent Tracy Morgan impression from Kenan.
— Holy hell, that Kristen Wiig impression from Melissa. Freakin’ AMAZING.
— Wow, and I thought it was impressive that Melissa did a Wiig impression. Now she nails an impression of KATE FREAKIN’ MCKINNON, Melissa’s own cast mate. Hell, before this sketch originally aired, I didn’t even know a Kate McKinnon impression was possible. Also when this sketch originally aired, I remember that it led me to the conclusion that, despite her struggles for airtime this season, Melissa’s Wiig and McKinnon impressions ALONE automatically secured her a second season.
STARS: ***½


YOUNGBLOOD
(KET)’s chess ineptitude foils his attempt to spread wisdom

— Great tone to this short.
— A big laugh from Kenan trying to pass off a Troll Doll as a chess piece.
— I love Octavia’s interjections, as well as Kenan’s frustration towards her.
— Very strong twist at the end.
STARS: ****


PRE-COMMERCIAL SHOT
going to commercial, texting Kellyanne Conway (KAM) kneels on SNL set

— Great to see this become a runner in this episode. Kinda reminds me of the “Will Ferrell as Kenneth Starr subpoenaing everyone” runner in the season 23 Julianne Moore episode.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Total Entertainment Forever”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Donald Jr. (MID) & Eric (ALM) claim pa Trump has left the family business

Laura Parsons is surprisingly well-informed about serious current events

going to commercial, texting Kellyanne Conway (KAM) kneels on SNL set

 

— The camera is further back on Michael and Colin than usual. I think I recall this becoming a regular thing from this point on.
— Michael, after Colin’s story about his Irish ancestors coming to America because God took their potatoes away: “At least they had a choice.”
— Not only nice to see Mikey and Alex’s Trump Brothers make their first of many Update appearances, but it’s also nice to see Mikey and Alex so prominent on Update within these last few episodes.
— Alex’s dimwitted interjections as Eric Trump are hilarious.
— I wonder if that was an ad-lib when Alex’s Eric resorted to drinking from the juice pack by just putting the hole to his mouth because it took Mikey too long to get the straw through the hole. If that was indeed an ad-lib, kudos to Alex.
— The interplay between Mikey and Alex’s Trump Brothers is great.
— This ends up being the final appearance of Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character.
— A big laugh from Vanessa-as-Laura-Parson’s delivery of “Why I oughtaaaaa…!”
— The usual solid commentary from Vanessa’s Parsons. I especially laughed at her line “You might wanna Google it…BEFORE NANA GETS RAPED!!!”
— The great Kneeling Kellyanne Conway runner now carries over into the end of this Update, which ends up being the conclusion of this runner. When this episode originally aired, I remember wishing the runner carried over into the goodnights by showing Kate’s Kellyanne kneeling on the side of the home base stage while everyone else is hugging. SNL would instead later do that with a similar runner in, I think, the following season’s finale, where Aidy occasionally pops up as a real-life woman who went viral for calling the cops on black people innocently barbecuing at a park.
STARS: ****


STICKY BUN
Sticky Bun trainees (MID), (host), (MEV) fail at customer interaction

— Beck’s playing a very Mikey-esque smiley and good-natured straight man character who tries to maintain his smiley, good-natured demeanor when reacting to weird things. I wonder if that means Mikey and Streeter Seidell wrote this sketch.
— Good to see the underused Melissa getting a few big comedic roles tonight.
— Some laughs from the inappropriate things being said by the trainees.
— A funny airport reveal at the end.
STARS: ***


BAR CENTRALE
weird friendship of (CES) & (host) works despite initial ulterior motives

— No idea what to make of this sketch so far, but I haven’t been enjoying it.
— I did laugh just now at Sasheer’s “What?!?” after Cecily said Sasheer must be thinking “The thirst is real.”
— I’ve noticed that Octavia’s been having a few line flubs throughout this episode.
— Overall…yeah, this sketch pretty much came and went with me barely getting any laughs and not caring for the premise.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pure Comedy”


THE CHOCOLATE MAN
fired (BEB) purveys chocolate in hopes his co-workers will forget gunplay

— (*sigh*) Yet another sad sign of how much Bobby’s airtime has been reduced this season, as he’s just now making his first (and only) appearance of the night, and it’s just a non-comedic straight man role.
— I remember this sketch bombing pretty hard and kind of having a trainwreck-y vibe.
— So far, I like the darkness and weirdness this sketch is going for, but it’s falling fairly flat for me in its execution. And yeah, something does feel trainwreck-y about this sketch, even if I don’t flat-out hate it.
— A rare instance of breaking from both Vanessa and Bobby. Something seems significant about that, knowing that they’re both leaving the show in two months.
— That…that’s the ending?!?
STARS: **


SPENCER’S GIFTS
employees of host’s Spencer’s gift store pitch her goofy product ideas

— Quite a number of sketches tonight have taken place in an office.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember I didn’t understand it at all nor why Octavia was playing herself, as I had never even heard of Spencer’s gift store. After I found out, it made me appreciate the sketch.
— So far in my current viewing, I can’t find anything else to say about this sketch, except that Octavia is fun and is selling the material well.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode where there weren’t many segments that stood out as a whole. Octavia Spencer was a likable host.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
Youngblood
Zoo-opolis Voice Actors / Spencer’s Gifts (tie)
Girl At A Bar
Sticky Bun
Jeff Sessions Gump
Monologue
Courage, Compassion, Country: The TBD Story
The Chocolate Man
Drug Company Hearing
Bar Centrale


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Scarlett Johansson becomes a Five-Timer

Posted on

February 11, 2017 – Alec Baldwin / Ed Sheeran (S42 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) & Jeff Sessions (KAM) address reporters

 

— I see SNL ain’t wasting any time bringing back Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impression only one week after its very well-received debut.
— Some of the jokes and gags here so far aren’t all that special, but McCarthy is selling them well.
— Like last time, the sequence with McCarthy’s Spicer using props to make her point to the reporters is solid.
— A good laugh from McCarthy-as-Spicer’s listing-off of alleged terrorist attacks.
— The debut of Kate’s Jeff Sessions impression. Also the first of many instances of Kate playing a male member of Trump’s cabinet.
— I prefer Kate’s Betsy DeVos scene in the previous Sean Spicer sketch, but I’m still finding Kate’s Sessions scene here amusing  as a one-time thing when pretending I’m unaware of the future appearances that impression of Kate’s makes.
— The sequence at the end with McCarthy’s Spicer chasing the reporters around the room on her motorized podium is a freakin’ riot.
— Overall, while this cold opening didn’t work quite as much for me as the previous Spicer sketch, I still found this to be pretty solid as a whole, and McCarthy once again killed it in this.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
PED notes how much host has aged over the course of doing SNL 17 times

— I like hearing the audience audibly gasp out loud when a photo is shown of young Alec Baldwin in his very first hosting stint.
— Some funny back-and-forths between Alec and Pete, and Alec’s a good sport to take all those jokes about how drastically he’s aged over the years of his SNL hosting stints.
— The photos shown of older sketches that Alec was in are a nice trip down memory lane. The retrospective aspect of this monologue feels appropriate for what ends up being Alec’s final hosting stint (as of 2021, at least), though I don’t know if that was the show’s intention at the time, plus Alec DID have a slightly similar retrospective monologue when he hosted in season 31.
STARS: ***½


RUSSELL STOVER’S BLACK HISTORY HEART SHAPED BOX
Russell Stover has eminent chocolates in Black History box

 

— A very funny concept that’s being well-executed.
— Excellent straight man reactions from Sasheer throughout this commercial.
— The George Washington Carver/peanut butter bit with Alex is very funny.
STARS: ****


PITCH MEETING
per woke Super Bowl commercials, Cheetos seeks socially-conscious pitches

— The escalation of Alec and Aidy’s “deep” commercial pitches are a decent timely spoof of the trend of social commentary commercials from that year’s Super Bowl.
— I wouldn’t be surprised if this was SNL’s intention, but that bowl of Cheetos in the background behind Cecily and Alex is making me kinda hungry for some Cheetos right now.
STARS: ***


JAKE TAPPER
ignored Kellyanne Conway (KAM) has Fatal Attraction to Jake Tapper (BEB)

— Our second Jake Tapper/Kellyanne Conway pre-tape.
— A solid Fatal Attraction spoof. I especially like Kate’s delivery of Glenn Close’s famous “I will not be igNORED!” line.
— The acting from both Kate and Beck is very strong here. The great lighting is also adding perfectly to the tone of this short.
— Good sequence with Kate’s Kellyanne slowly coming back to life, limb by limb, after falling to her death out the window. I’m pretty sure that coming-back-to-life sequence is a spoof of something from a movie (not Fatal Attraction), as it seems so familiar, but I can’t put my finger on what movie it is. Thanks in advance if anybody in the comments section helps me figure it out.
STARS: ****


DRILL SERGEANT
at boot camp, Army colonel (host) hazes all recruits except his son (MID)

— A big laugh from Alec’s “cookie chillout/chili cookout” line flub, and he made a funny recovery afterwards. Showing what a damn pro he is, Alex Moffat keeps a perfectly straight face when Alec plays off of his own flub by comically screaming an ad-lib right into Alex’s face.
— Meh, the initial reveal of this sketch’s comedic premise makes me feel that I’m not going to care for this sketch.
— It’s now about two minutes later, and yeah, I’m not crazy about this. It’s not terrible or anything, but it just feels like such bland, generic, tepid comedy.
— The ending with Aidy was actually pretty charming.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Shape of You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
unsilenceable Elizabeth Warren (KAM) is persistent in her grilling of COJ

Guy Who Just Bought A Boat (ALM) offers smarmy Valentine’s Day wordplay

Greg (MID) & Shelly (LEJ) relate their experience with sadism & masochism

— Another political impression of Kate’s debuts tonight: Elizabeth Warren. I haven’t seen any of the more recent appearances that this impression of Kate’s made around season 44/45, when Warren was a presidential candidate.
— I really like the meta-ness of Kate-as-Warren’s questioning, especially her grilling Colin on why he and Michael get paid as much as other regular cast members despite only performing on Weekend Update.
— A noteworthy ending to Kate’s Warren commentary, with Colin panickedly cutting her off when she brings up Trump infamously hosting this show the preceding season.
— Colin awkwardly turning from the “joke camera” to the “introducing a guest commentator” camera rarely ever fails to get a big laugh from the audience whenever he does that this season.
— The noteworthy debuts tonight continue, as Alex not only finally gets what I believe is his very first solo comedic showcase on SNL, but it’s also the debut of his Guy Who Just Bought A Boat character.
— Alex is selling this material so well. However, the running gag with him subliminally throwing in occasional mentions of his small penis isn’t making me laugh much. I’m actually getting FAR more laughs from all of the other parts of this commentary, with Alex’s comically smug delivery of abbreviated terms. Those terms seem like they would be difficult for most performers to deliver in such a rapid-fire succession, but Alex is absolutely nailing it with total ease.
— Another Cheetos mention tonight?
— This character type is a nice change of pace for Leslie’s Update appearances, and the pairing of her and Mikey is interesting.
— A good use of Mikey’s trademark affable straight man delivery.
— Leslie’s character’s giggling habit is a good way for Leslie to hide her seemingly genuine giggling right now.
STARS: ****


THE PEOPLE’S COURT
Donald Trump (host) sues to reinstate his travel ban

— Our obligatory Trumpwin sketch in tonight’s episode. At least they rightfully buried it after Weekend Update.
— This sketch is actually a rare case of continuity within a modern-era SNL episode, as Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer alluded to this sketch in the cold opening.
— Grim Reaper Bannon is noticeably not being played by Mikey this time, since Mikey is playing Donald Trump Jr. I recall an online SNL fan once revealing that Pete would fill in as Grim Reaper Bannon whenever Mikey had to play someone else in a Bannon-involved sketch, but that’s clearly not the case here, as Pete is playing one of the judges. Maybe it’s an extra in that Grim Bannon costume tonight.
— Surprisingly, this is Kenan’s first appearance all night, and even this is just a very small role with only about two lines.
— I’m currently a few minutes into this sketch, and I can’t find much to say. I am so over Alec’s Trump impression that a lot of this sketch is washing over me. Beck’s Vladimir Putin didn’t really add anything in his appearance, either. I am really liking Cecily’s performance as the judge, though.
STARS: **


BEYONCÉ’S BABIES
Beyonce’s (SAZ) twins (KET) & (TRM) are excited during ultrasound test

 

— A very funny little walk-on from Aidy.
— Random Tracy Morgan. He’s always a treat to see pop up.
— Something feels kinda corny about this sketch, but it’s balanced out decently by Kenan and Tracy making a fun pair and having some okay lines, such as the Kelly Rowland/Michelle Williams burn.
STARS: ***


LESLIE WANTS TO PLAY TRUMP
LEJ wants to play Donald Trump on SNL, but LOM isn’t going to let her

— Ah, this. I could never remember which episode this great short came from.
— At least SNL is openly acknowledging how questionable it is for a non-cast member to regularly play the president.
— “Leslie Wants To Play Trump”. Oh, you can tell just from that title alone that this is going to be an extremely fun short.
— Love the nod to the Leslie/Kyle relationship storyline.
— A very funny visual of Leslie as Trump.
— I’m aware that this short isn’t serious about the idea of Leslie actually playing Trump on the show, but damn, I’d have gladly taken that over four years of Trumpwin. At least we would’ve had an actual cast member in the role.
— Leslie’s outburst at Lorne in his office is freakin’ classic.
— Excellent twist with Vanessa, playing the “mean girl” role to perfection once again in these last two seasons of her tenure.
— Why is an extra playing Cecily’s Melania Trump role, in the shots of Melania speaking to Leslie through a partially-opened limo window? It’s Cecily’s voice we’re hearing as Melania, but those aren’t her eyes that we’re seeing (the last above screencap for this short).
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Castle on the Hill”


GYM CLASS
(MID) repeatedly farts while breaking his high school’s sit-up record

— Alex has been all over tonight’s episode. Very nice to see, given how early in his tenure this is and how underused it feels like he’s been this season.
— Mikey has also been prominent in this episode, but that’s not unusual this season.
— Wow, is SNL kidding me with this main gag? They didn’t even TRY to subvert viewers’ expectations on where this sketch was going to go.
— I assume this sketch is going for a very self-aware “So dumb, it’s funny” approach, but it’s not even succeeding at THAT level. A shame, as Alec was usually reliable at selling the “So dumb, it’s funny” material that he was occasionally given in his previous episodes.
— The only remotely interesting(?) thing about this sketch is being aware that those fart sound effects are being vocalized live by an off-camera Steve Higgins.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, and the pre-tapes especially stood out (though that’s not new for this era). Alec Baldwin somewhat redeemed himself from the “Trumpwin fatigue” that I’ve been suffering from in the post-November portion of this season, but he’s had stronger, more noteworthy hosting stints than this. If this ends up being his final hosting stint, I wish he went out on a bit of a better note.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Leslie Wants To Play Trump
Russell Stover’s Black History Heart Shaped Box
Weekend Update
Press Conference
Jake Tapper
Monologue
Pitch Meeting
Beyoncé’s Babies
Drill Sergeant
The People’s Court
Gym Class


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kristen Stewart)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Octavia Spencer

Posted on

February 4, 2017 – Kristen Stewart / Alessia Cara (S42 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OVAL OFFICE
Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) hostile phone calls alienate world leaders

— The first appearance of Alec Baldwin’s Trump as president.
— I did laugh at Baldwin-as-Trump’s first “Australia sucks, etc., prepare to go to war” line over the phone, though they end up making that a mantra of this cold opening.
— A huge laugh from the “Guy who pays for the wall says what?” “Que?” bit between Alec and Alex.
— The second consecutive cold opening with a Weekend Update character/impression of Kate’s (though this isn’t the first time her Angela Merkel appeared outside of Update).
— I hate those long mid-sentence pauses Alec often makes as Trump. I know he’s spoofing an actual vocal mannerism of the real Trump’s, but something about the way Alec does those pauses hurts the humor of those lines for me.
— Kenan’s delivery of his threatening message to Alec’s Trump made me laugh.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
KAM & AIB fear that former Trump tweet target host is too cool for school

— Those Trump tweets about the Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson relationship are REAL?!?
— Something about Kristen Stewart’s delivery of this monologue’s material is coming off iffy to me so far.
— The Kate/Aidy bit in this is only mildly funny to me. Nothing great.
— There’s the famous F-bomb in this monologue. Kristen said it so quickly and mumbled it so much that I and probably a number of others wouldn’t have even caught it had she not had that reaction immediately afterwards.
— Speaking of reactions to Kristen’s F-bomb, Kate and Aidy’s reactions are very funny. I also like how afterwards, while saying the usual “We got a great show for you etc.” tagline, Kristen throws in an “and I’ll never come back” ad-lib about her F-bomb.
STARS: **½


U.S. CUSTOMS WELCOME VIDEO
Homeland Security employee (BEB) shoehorns travel ban into customs video

— The sloppy occasional voice-over additions from Beck are hilarious.
— Out of all the Beck voice-over additions, I particularly love the part where, when he’s saying a rapid succession of “No”s in regards to who in a photo of people at an airport will be allowed to travel, he initially responds to the sight of a little boy in the photo by quickly saying a faux-sincere “Awww!” before immediately saying a stern “NO.”
— The “highly detailed questionnaire” (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this commercial) is hilarious.
— Very sharp satire here. I am loving this commercial.
— Beck’s final line, in which he reacts in frustration to being told over the phone that a judge blocked the travel ban, was clearly thrown in at the last minute, after this commercial was filmed, given the fact that the blocking of the travel ban didn’t happen until the morning of this episode.
STARS: ****½


UCONN DRY FRIDAYS
(host)’s blitzed anecdotes wow college alcohol education class attendees

— Yeesh, Kristen’s delivery of that “no-hawk” bit was AWFUL and ruined the gag.
— Mikey’s always perfect at playing this type of laid-back, affable straight man role who tries to come off relatable to the people he’s speaking to and tries to maintain that laid-back affability when reacting to something weird. I particularly like his delivery of the “You can go ahead and…pop that beanie back on” line that he keeps saying throughout the sketch.
— Kristen’s delivery continues to be very iffy, which is a shame, as her lines in this sketch are very good, and her personality does seem right for this role. Her lines are still somewhat making me laugh despite her iffy delivery, but I can’t help but feel that this sketch would’ve been much better if they had done it with another female host this season. Emma Stone in particular would’ve killed it in this sketch.
STARS: **½


TOTINO
hungry guys go without Totino’s Pizza Rolls amidst torrid lesbian romance

— Our third and final installment of this fantastic annual Super Bowl tradition of SNL’s.
— An absolutely FANTASTIC turn this commercial unexpectedly takes once Vanessa meets Kristen’s character.
— Kristen: “Hi, I’m Sabine. What’s your name?” Vanessa: “I…I never had one.”
— Vanessa, after being told by Kristen to stay with her: “(softly) But…what about my hungry guys?” Kristen: “What are YOU hungry for?”
— The slow-motion montage of Kristen and Vanessa’s romantic, passionate embracing is utterly classic. I particularly love the part with them speaking to each other in a foreign language.
— Overall, a masterpiece, and the absolutely perfect conclusion to this amazing trilogy of Totino’s ads. And after getting familiar with Vanessa’s likable character over the course of these three ads, it’s so satisfying to see her have such a happy conclusion.
STARS: *****


PRESS CONFERENCE
belligerent Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) briefs & berates the press

— The debut of Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impression.
— When this originally aired, I remember that my shocked “Oh, that’s Melissa McCarthy!” reaction happened at the exact same time as the audience’s, when the camera cut to a close-up of McCarthy about 20 seconds after she entered this sketch.
— I love the extended pause McCarthy’s Spicer takes in the middle of his speech while chewing that ridiculously huge wad of candy.
— A lot of laughs from the ways McCarthy’s Spicer keeps twisting bad statements around to make them seem like the reporters at this press conference were the ones who said them.
— A great sequence with McCarthy’s Spicer using ridiculous props to make his point.
— Feels odd seeing Kristen Stewart playing a reporter like most of the cast is playing, but I guess they had to work the host into this sketch SOMEHOW. McCarthy’s dominant presence here actually made me temporarily forget who the actual host of this episode is.
— A very funny cutaway to Kyle as a CNN reporter locked in a cage.
— The mere gleeful, open-mouthed smile on Kate’s face when she enters as Betsy DeVos is cracking me up.
— A big laugh from the cut-off ending to Kate-as-DeVos’ speech, immediately after her guns-in-schools mention.
— Man, McCarthy is playing this material to perfection (even with the occasional line flubs). Even being aware of the McCarthy-as-Spicer follow-up sketches (none of which I recall being quite as strong as this one, but we’ll see), and the fact that this is the debut of the “women playing male members of Trump’s cabinet” habit that I would end up getting so tired of, I’m still currently finding this first Spicer sketch to be amazing to watch.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Scars To Your Beautiful”


WEEKEND UPDATE
on the eve of the Super Bowl, David Ortiz (KET) lists other endorsements

— Colin and Michael are so damn good by this point of their Update tenures that they even managed to get a lot of great laughs out of Michael completely botching the hell out of his “If your kid’s dog dies, you don’t tell them…etc.” bit.
— I love Colin’s speech about how much we’re learning about government and the world from Trump.
— Some of Kenan-as-Big-Papi’s endorsements tonight aren’t quite as hilarious as usual, but they’re still making me laugh a lot, and his Little Scissors bit is certainly up to par.
— Keeping up tonight’s trend of priceless huge Update gaffes (and priceless huge gaffes in general tonight if you include Kristen’s F-bomb in the monologue), we get a classic one with Colin ending the Big Papi commentary by VERY prematurely saying his “For Weekend Update, I’m Colin Jost” sign-off into the camera, before realizing there’s still several minutes of Update left. When this episode originally aired, this gaffe of Colin’s had me laughing for about a minute straight. Michael also has an excellent ad-lib in response to that gaffe of Colin’s, telling him “You just saved my job”, a callback to Michael’s own huge gaffe earlier in this Update.
— Colin, in an ad-lib right before delivering his first joke after his aforementioned huge gaffe: “I want to quote our host from the monologue.”
— Yet ANOTHER great ad-libbed callback, this time with Michael referring to Lady Gaga as “Lady Haha”, which Kenan’s Big Papi did earlier in this Update.
— Very strong ending to this Update with Michael’s Patriots vs. Falcons joke. This is also a rare Jost/Che Update to NOT end with a guest commentary. (Maybe that explains Colin’s gaffe from earlier.)
STARS: ****½


FAMILY FEUD
Steve Harvey (KET) queries supporters of Falcons & Patriots

— Surprisingly, Kenan’s Steve Harvey isn’t saying his usual comical one-liner about each celebrity contestant right after they make their intro statement.
— Interesting seeing Kristen completely playing against type as Gisele Bundchen.
— I absolutely love Alex’s Casey Affleck impression. He is nailing Affleck’s sleepy, monotone voice, and is also making it funny. As I said in a previous review, I always love when a cast member impersonates someone who recently hosted at the time, as it makes me assume the cast member developed that impression after having gotten used to that host’s voice and mannerisms from working with them all week.
— Kenan’s Steve Harvey, when Kate’s Justin Bieber is trying to impress Kristen’s Bundchen by doing his usual shy/swaggy mannerisms: “I got some bad news for you, playa – that don’t work on women that’s GROWN.”
— The casting of Leslie as Samuel L. Jackson is so damn weird and random that it’s kinda working for me. I’d like to think that weirdness and randomness of the casting is also what Leslie herself is visibly cracking up at.
— I’m enjoying the “laugh” that Bobby’s Bill Belichick keeps doing.
STARS: ***


MEET CUTE
(PED) & (host) agree to date without exchanging information

— Nice seeing Pete do a piece like this, which allows him to stretch his acting chops. He’s doing a very solid job here.
— A good laugh from Mikey’s cold and blunt delivery of “No” in response to a long question Pete dramatically asks him while pouring his heart out.
— Very funny scenes of Pete’s increasing desperation and panicking when trying to find where Kristen lives. I also like how those scenes are juxtaposed with shots of Kristen’s character going through typical upbeat romcom tropes.
— Good ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “River Of Tears”


WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Willy Wonka’s golden ticket reveals Charlie’s (host) grandparents’ health

— Wow, and I thought Pete played against type in the Meet Cute short. He’s completely stretching his range in this short. This has to be the most I’ve ever seen him disappear into character. Keep in mind that I haven’t seen SNL’s current 46th season, where I hear Pete’s been better than ever and has been doing well playing types of roles that are very different from what he was previously known for playing. I’m looking forward to seeing that when I reach that season in this project.
— A decent reveal of the grandparents being able to walk, much to Kristen-as-Charlie’s upset shock.
— Kristen, when angrily mentioning the things she did for Mikey when she thought he couldn’t walk: “I washed your balls!” Mikey: “I didn’t ASK you to. I also thought that was strange.”
— I’m pretty meh on that ending.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A slow start with the cold opening, monologue, and UConn Dry Fridays sketch (though the U.S. Customs Welcome Video commercial was very strong), but after that, this episode really took off. Two back-to-back five-star segments, one of the best-ever Jost/Che Weekend Updates, a great Meet Cute short, and two decent post-Update sketches. Kinda like this episode itself, Kristen Stewart had a rough start in her first few performances, but after that, she was fine for the rest of the show, and was especially good in the pre-tapes.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Totino
Press Conference
U.S. Customs Welcome Video
Weekend Update
Meet Cute
Family Feud
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
UConn Dry Fridays
Monologue
Oval Office


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Aziz Ansari)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin

Posted on

January 21, 2017 – Aziz Ansari / Big Sean (S42 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A PAID MESSAGE FROM THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Donald Trump fan Vladimir Putin (BEB) addresses post-inauguration America

— We have officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline…even though the new president (Trump) isn’t actually portrayed in this cold opening about his inauguration. The reason for that is because Alec Baldwin was participating in the women’s march that night, and wasn’t available for an SNL appearance. Yet another sign of what a poor decision it is on SNL’s part to have a non-cast member play the president. SNL had enough time between the election results and Trump’s inauguration to figure out which current cast member should play Trump in his presidency. I know Alec’s Trump got a lot of positive press in the pre-election portion of this season, but COME ON. And in my opinion, his impression had already gotten tired sometime between the election results and inauguration.
— Olya Povlatsky! Great to see this character make a non-Weekend Update appearance for once. This ends up being her final appearance in general.
— Some okay lines from Beck’s Vladimir Putin throughout this.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about Donald Trump’s electors & re-emergent xenophobia

— Aziz Ansari’s Chris Brown bit made me laugh a lot.
— The whole bit about the “lower-case KKK” is great.
— Another solid bit, this time about what causes Islamophobia.
— Much like Dave Chappelle’s monologue from earlier this same season, I like the occasional dead-serious parts of this, and how Aziz is taking his time getting to the eventual punchline of those dead-serious parts.
STARS: ****


BEAT THE BOOKWORM
pop culture category benefits contestant (VAB) over The Bookworm (host)

— A solid character for Aziz.
— A very funny stretched-out panicked yell of “Noooooooo!” from Aziz in reaction to the 90s Pop Culture category.
— The speed round segment is pretty good.
— An okay running gag with how Mikey’s host character, while maintaining his pleasant and professional demeanor, keeps sternly pointing out to Vanessa that she shouldn’t say “Damn” on this show.
— A nice and appropriate short length to this overall sketch.
STARS: ***½


INTERROGATION
cops (BEB) & (CES) interrogate (host) for not totally loving La La Land

— Something about the way Cecily said the name “Santangeli” in that tough cop voice early on in this sketch made me laugh, even though it wasn’t intended to.
— A funny reveal of the “crime” that Aziz committed, and this comedic conceit is being executed very well.
— Cecily is selling the HELL out of her character’s intensity.
— I love Beck’s reaction to Aziz revealing he fell asleep during La La Land.
STARS: ****½


KELLYANNE CONWAY
jubilant attention-hungry Kellyanne Conway (KAM) sings “Roxie” variant

— Beck continues to get lots of airtime, ever since the preceding episode.
— A change of pace having a The Lead With Jake Tapper sketch be pre-taped, though you soon see that this ends up taking a completely different direction from typical The Lead/Tapper sketches. This also ends up being the first of several Jake Tapper/Kellyanne Conway pre-taped shorts, each of which spoof a different movie, IIRC.
— Kate’s performance of this Chicago-esque number is solid, and I’m glad the show has changed their portrayal of Kellyanne by this point, given the inaccurate, overly positive way they previously portrayed her.
— I’m enjoying how the political TV show titles that Kellyanne is naming off in song are being flashed onscreen in fancy neon logos, Broadway-style.
STARS: ***½


BRODERICK & GANZ
personal-injury lawyers Broderick (KAM) & Ganz (BOM) are unequal partners

— Sad how extremely rare it’s become this season for Bobby to get a lead role.
— A perfect character for Bobby, who’s selling this so damn well.
— Aziz’s various reactions are very funny. I especially love his “So, wait – this guy’s walkin’ around with NO KIDNEYS?!?” line.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bounce Back”


WEEKEND UPDATE
LEJ highlights inventions that deserve acclaim beyond Black History Month

nice guy Jake Rocheck (MID) can’t move himself out of (CES)’s friend zone

 

— Interestingly, it seems to have become a regular thing lately for Michael to do the opening joke, after it had long been a regular thing for Colin to do that most weeks.
— Lots of strong jokes from Colin and Michael about Trump’s inauguration.
— Many great lines from Leslie about the things she recently learned were invented by a black person.
— Leslie, on how she sees herself: “Pam Grier about 15 years ago and Malia Obama 10 years from now!”
— Lots of fun ad-libs between Colin and Michael throughout this Update.
— A good running gag with that Michelle Obama photo that Michael vocalizes.
— Mikey in his very first Update commentary. (My apologies if I’m forgetting something.) The format of this particular “Friend Zone” commentary of his is an interesting change of pace for this era of Update.
— Mikey is always very good at playing this type of role. I especially like his straitlaced, affable delivery of “I am a little baby bitch boy.”
— A heartbroken Mikey, to Michael, after Michael has stolen Cecily from him: “Just…always make sure you’re there for her.” Michael: “Nah, Jake…that’s YOUR job.”
— Overall, the first above-average Update in a bit of a while.
STARS: ****


DIRTY TALK
in bed, (MEV)’s pre-sex dirty talk & role-playing is too real for (host)

— Melissa finally gets a showcase where she’s the sole comedic character.
— Already showing how good this sketch is going to be, Melissa immediately gets a laugh from the way she delivers her first line, “Oh, yeah, it’s Sunday night. That’s when we have sex.”
— Melissa is killing it in this and has an endless amount of funny questionable “dirty talk” choices. I particularly love the “Do me, dad!”, learning disability, “I’m the baddest girl in 6th grade!”, “I read at a 6th grade level because of my learning disability”, and Owen Wilson impression ones.
— This is the second sketch tonight that Melissa has flubbed a line in (the Broderick & Ganz sketch was the first), but this sketch is going so well and Melissa is earning so much goodwill in it that the flub doesn’t hurt it.
— Aziz is a solid straight man to Melissa in this.
— An overall excellent sketch, and was kept the perfect length.
STARS: *****


FIVE STARS
Uber driver (BOM) & passenger (host) try for a good rating

— Speaking of certain cast members getting a rare lead role this season, Bobby gets his SECOND lead role tonight. It’s like SNL suddenly remembered this week that Bobby’s still in the cast this season.
— I love the concept of this short, and the execution of it is great.
— A good laugh from Bobby choosing to play Indian music from the car radio after thinking to himself that he should play music that Aziz will like.
— I love the various inner thoughts we hear from Aziz and Bobby throughout this short.
— A very charming turn with Aziz and Bobby naturally bonding over Black Mirror.
— The dark turn at the end had me howling.
STARS: ****½


PIZZA TOWN
animatronic pizza band interrupts cops’ apprehension of criminal (KYM)

— The performers are good at acting like robots here. Mikey in particular is showing an almost Taran Killam-like mastery at robotic movements.
— Trying to replicate the success of Space Pants, I see. I’m still finding this to be a decent sketch, despite it being nowhere near as memorable as Space Pants.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sunday Morning Jetpack”


TO SIR WITH LOVE
CES & SAZ thank Barack Obama by singing “To Sir With Love”

— (*sigh*) If there was ever a time I wanted to use a “Get Out Of Reviewing A Sketch Free” card, it’s now. I reeeeaaaaaaallllly don’t want to have to review this.
— (*sighs again*) Well, all I can really say is that I don’t like this segment, as I’ve always had a lot of issues with the idea behind it. I don’t even know how to explain WHY I’ve always had issues with the idea behind it (I don’t have anything against Obama himself), nor why I can tolerate the Hallelujah cold opening from earlier this season, but not this. Someone in the comments section of this review can probably articulate my negative feelings on this piece better than I myself can. However, let me just remind everyone, BE CAREFUL AND DO NOT GO OVERBOARD in any political discussion about this To Sir With Love segment in the comments section.
— As I said in my review of the Jingle Barack short from a few episodes prior, I feel that that short was a better way for SNL to affectionately say goodbye to Obama’s presidency than this To Sir With Love segment is.
STARS: N/A (since this non-comedic tribute isn’t a cold opening, I’m not 100% sure if I can count it as an unratable segment or not, but I will anyway)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. There were no comedic segments that I disliked, and there was a good number of exceptionally strong pieces. Good to see this season get out of the mini-slump it was in with the two episodes that preceded this.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dirty Talk
Five Stars
Broderick & Ganz
Interrogation
Weekend Update
Monologue
Kellyanne Conway
Beat The Bookworm
Pizza Town
A Paid Message From The Russian Federation


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Felicity Jones)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kristen Stewart

Posted on

January 14, 2017 – Felicity Jones / Sturgill Simpson (S42 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUMP PRESS CONFERENCE
reporters ask about pee at Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) press conference

— A fairly funny listing-off of celebrities who will be at Trump’s inauguration.
— Pete makes his first appearance in three episodes, after being in rehab during the last two episodes.
— Blah at the part with Alec Baldwin’s Trump making a string of pee euphemisms in his speech.
— When the non-Pete cast members playing reporters are speaking, a seemingly-bored Pete can be seen in the background mildly making faces, including sticking his tongue out of his mouth at one point.
— Great to see Mikey and Alex’s Trump Brothers impressions become recurring.
— Cecily is great in her scene, and I got a good laugh from her reveal of the pile of documents all being fake.
— The non-Trump parts of this cold opening continue to be good, this time with Kenan making an appearance as Steve Harvey.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Princess Leia-like hologram of TIF gives nervous host advice about doing SNL

— Early on in this monologue, Felicity Jones’ natural nervousness is on display, but she’s coming off affable enough in her delivery. However, the writers have saddled her with some fairly blah jokes here.
— I laughed at Tina Fey’s initial mention of having a lot in common with Tupac, but that Dr. Dre/podiatrist joke she told immediately afterwards was groanworthy.
— Felicity, on hosting SNL: “I’m a bit nervous, to be honest.” Tina: “No, don’t be. If Steven Seagal can do it, so can you.”
— Felicity: “Does this show get reviewed?” Tina: “Yes. Waaay too much.” (*Stooge shifts his eyes nervously*)
— Tina: “Back in season 35, I put a fatal flaw in the system. If you take out Kenan Thompson, the studio will explode.” I was about to jokingly say, “Oh, so THAT’S why the season 35 January Jones episode was so bad” (Kenan is absent in that episode), but then I remembered that episode aired before Tina’s season 35 hosting stint.
STARS: ***½


BEARD HUNK
reality show bachelorettes all possess various flaws

— Our annual Bachelor/“Can I steal him for a sec?” sketch.
— Vanessa’s scene is good.
— At first, I almost thought that “Ashley/ally” mix-up from Felicity was a genuine gaffe (I guess due to her visible nerves again), but that mix-up seems to be part the script.
— Ha, Aidy’s “jack you off” line came out of nowhere.
— Felicity’s apparent attempt at an American accent is iffy.
— Kate, when telling Beck about herself: “I’m a judge…mental bitch.”
— It feels like this recurring sketch gets slightly less funny with each passing installment, though I never find it bad enough to give it a weak rating.
STARS: ***


SHONDRA & MALIK
car trouble preempts an urban turf war between (LEJ) & (KET)

— Yet another instance of Vanessa playing against type in her last two seasons.
— Great tone to this piece so far, and it’s bringing nice realism to go alongside the comedy.
— A funny sudden cutaway to Leslie helpfully trying to solve Kenan’s car troubles after its been established how much they hate each other.
— Some more laughs from Leslie and Kenan’s additional helpful actions toward each other while still maintaining their rivalry.
— Didn’t care for that ending.
STARS: ****


THEATRE DONOR
106-year-old (MID) disrupts the theater-in-the-round production he funded

— Feels rare in this early stage of Mikey’s tenure to see him doing wild physical comedy like this. He’s doing a very good job here and is cracking me up.
— I have mixed feelings on that ending, but I liked it more than I didn’t.
STARS: ***½


THE PRINCESS AND THE CURSE
princess’ (host) 15-pound weight gain is a deal-breaker for prince (BEB)

— Kate slipping into her Hillary when doing her evil sorceress laugh here, I see.
— Felicity’s big reveal and the direction this sketch takes afterwards isn’t making me laugh much.
— Pretty weak ending.
STARS: **


SUSAN B. ANTHONY HOUSE
summoned Susan B. Anthony (KAM) can’t keep modern women’s attention

— Not a bad conceit with the ladies’ increasingly dismissive attitudes towards Kate’s Susan B. Anthony when she keeps interrupting their trivial conversations, but something about this conceit isn’t fully coming together in the execution.
— Tonight’s theme of weak/iffy endings continues.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Keep It Between The Lines”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED gives his first impressions of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees

self-described pop sensation BEB specializes in very short songs

— I love the old-timey Southern tycoon-type voice Michael uses when saying “Jeff Beauregard Sessions”.
— A change of pace for Pete’s Update commentaries, with him trying out a “First Impressions” segment.
— I’m liking how Pete’s “First Impressions” segment has a David Spade “Hollywood Minute” vibe.
— Pete made me laugh out loud when doing the Silence Of The Lambs “Put the lotion in the basket!” imitation.
— Surprisingly, this is Beck’s first-ever appearance at the Update desk.
— I have mixed feelings on Beck’s commentary so far. His songs here aren’t all that funny to me, but his delivery of them and some of the jokes in between the songs are kinda amusing me.
STARS: ***½


FANDANGO ALL ACCESS
dumb sex comedy creators (host), (BEB), (KYM) cite political influences

— Beck’s busy night continues.
— The very dignified, straitlaced, low-key discussion about Felicity, Beck, and Kyle’s extremely low-brow, dumb movie is funny, especially when the movie gets tied into the tense election.
— Kyle and Beck both did a great job playing off of Beck’s genuine gaffe where he started saying the wrong line when it was Kyle’s turn to speak. I wonder if that gaffe of Beck’s is a sign that, as solid a performer as he is, perhaps he’s being spread a little TOO thin in tonight’s episode.
— A pretty good laugh from the movie clip.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Call To Arms”


CORPORATE RETREAT
timid (CES), (host), (MEV) tell intercourse jokes at a corporate retreat

— Wow, Beck has been in practically EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT tonight. He’s had one of the busiest nights a cast member has had in recent memory.
— Melissa finally gets a comedic lead role (if she had one in a previous episode, I don’t remember it), and even then, it’s only a co-starring role that she’s sharing with two others.
— I’m kinda meh on the conceit of the timid Cecily/Felicity/Melissa group always telling sexual-themed “loose” jokes, but I did like Felicity’s joke, as well as her delivery of it. I also like how fitting this timid, giggly character type feels for Melissa. I want to see her be given better material, though.
STARS: **½


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of TOR marks his passing


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While not all that bad, this was an extremely forgettable and somewhat iffy episode. Almost none of the segments in this episode stood out to me as strong, and, after the decent first 25 minutes, this episode took a hit-and-miss route, and even then, the hits weren’t particularly great.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Shondra & Malik
Theatre Donor
Weekend Update
Fandango All Access
Monologue
Trump Press Conference
Beard Hunk
Corporate Retreat
Susan B. Anthony House
The Princess And The Curse


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Casey Affleck)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Aziz Ansari

Posted on

December 17, 2016 – Casey Affleck / Chance the Rapper (S42 E10)

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

Posted on

December 10, 2016 – John Cena / Maren Morris (S42 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is Donald Trump’s drug enforcement nominee

— A laugh from the explanation Kate’s Kellyanne Conway gives on just how Trump is draining the swamp.
— Bryan Cranston is performing as well as always, but I’m not crazy about the writing he’s been given here. I also find it to be a very questionable decision on SNL’s part to make Walter White pro-Trump.
— I did like the line just now, where, after Walter White explained he’ll have less competition now that the wall that Trump promised to build will result in nothing coming in from Mexico, Beck’s Jake Tapper asks “You mean jobs?” and Walter responds “……….Sure.”
— Wow, surprised by how short this overall cold opening was. Nice to at least have a break from Alec Baldwin’s Trump impression, but I still didn’t care for this cold opening.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— Yikes, a huge and bizarre gaffe where, immediately after this opening montage starts playing, it suddenly gets cut off for a few seconds by a real commercial. Apparently, this wasn’t just a local affiliate issue, as I think I recall SNL fans from various states complained about the same thing happening.


MONOLOGUE
BOM, LEJ, KET challenge host in the style of wrestling opponents

— John Cena immediately coming off charming and composed.
— I like the sudden wrestling turn that Bobby’s Santa scene takes.
— I just realized how nice it is seeing Bobby get the spotlight as himself here, given his very reduced airtime this season.
— Man, the pure, raw energy that both Leslie and the audience bring at the beginning of Leslie’s scene is nothing short of fantastic, and sums up so much of Leslie’s appeal as a cast member.
— I love that Leslie’s “wrestling character” is just her as herself, and her reveal of that is followed by an awesome pre-taped wrestler intro clip of her. That was good enough to potentially become her new intro shot in SNL’s regular opening montage.
— Pretty funny visual of Kenan sneaking behind John with a folding chair.
STARS: ***½


HOOK A HUNK
bachelors are ignored when contestant (CES) falls for (host)

— This SNL era seems to do a lot of Dating Game-esque sketches like this: the one with Woody Harrelson, the one with Russell Crowe, and two from the following season with Charles Barkley and Bill Hader, respectively. I may have forgotten one or two.
— A decently funny conceit with how Cecily’s interplay with this dating show’s host is immediately having the type of romantic chemistry that she should be having with the contestants.
— I like how the Cecily/John romantic interactions are now taking a mock-dramatic turn, while the contestants try to remain unfazed and cheesily answer unasked questions that a bachelorette would typically ask in a show like this.
— Charming turn with Kyle and Beck bonding with each other when coming to terms with the fact that Cecily’s not going to give any of the contestants attention. I especially like the light, friendly punch to the arm Kyle gives Beck.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Mikey awkwardly asking, “Uh, so…should I just go, or…?” during the Cecily/John and Beck/Kyle make-out sessions.
STARS: ***½


THE KARATE TEEN
martial arts bully (host) destroys underdog (MID)

— John’s douchey, whiny-voiced delivery throughout this short is hilarious.
— A great and impressive visual effect of Mikey getting punched through four walls.
— An okay conceit to this short, though this feels like it would’ve been more fitting if it aired later in the episode.
— A very weak ending.
STARS: ***


SCIENCE PRESENTATION
Alabama football player’s (host) bad science project is graded leniently

— Aidy’s voice sounds very hoarse here.
— John’s banana’s presentation is very funny, especially him passing off an orange as a “round banana”.
— The overly lenient attitudes the teachers have towards John’s ridiculously simplistic science presentations are pretty funny.
— Good part with Kenan having to be held back from physically attacking Mikey, just because Mikey called out the unfair biased treatment John is receiving.
STARS: ***½


DYKE & FATS SAVE CHRISTMAS
Dyke & Fats rescue kidnapped Santa & take offense to their chief (host)

— Very surprising that they’re doing a second installment of this after THREE SEASONS.
— Showing how long it had been since the previous Dyke & Fats short, even the visual quality of the retro 1970s screen filter they’re using here looks different from the one in the first installment of this short.
— Good gags in the long opening credits sequence, even if these gags don’t measure up to the ones from the first installment of this short.
— I was about to say that the ending twist was very weak compared to the one from the first installment, but Aidy’s comical overacting when repeatedly yelling “WE’RE PAST THAT!!!” tickled the hell out of me.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Church”


WEEKEND UPDATE
distressed Angela Merkel (KAM) feels isolated by shifting political tides

Cathy Anne sounds off about fake news, the alt-right, social media

 

— Yeesh, an uncharacteristically very lame opening joke from Michael.
— After a slow start, this Update has really taken off.
— Kate’s always pretty fun as Angela Merkel, and she has a lot of great lines here. This is one of her better commentaries.
— I always enjoy Kate-as-Merkel’s pining for Barack Obama.
— Colin, after the audience’s “Ohhhhhh” reaction to his joke about how Hillary Clinton could’ve suffered the same fate of South Korea’s impeached female president: “Cool! Well, it’s dress rehearsal!”
— Love Colin’s Tracy Morgan pet reindeer joke.
— Good to see Cathy Anne return to her new home: Weekend Update. Such a better place for her than sketches.
— A funny visual of Cathy Anne’s extreme psoriasis.
— Cathy Anne, on how McDonald’s needs to stop calling themselves McCafe: “I’m not here for a fancy clappuccino, I’m here cuz I burned some bridges at Wendy’s!”
— Cathy Anne, when saying Trump should get off the internet for a few days: “I know he’s watchin’!” IIRC, that line is referring to how Trump infamously tweeted a complaint about the preceding SNL episode’s “Trump retweeting average joes” cold opening right after it aired.
STARS: ****


WHERE’D YOUR MONEY GO?
pro athletes on game show have no self-control

 

— It’s already inherently funny and fitting having Kenan’s Charles Barkley host this particular game show, given the subject matter.
— Kenan’s Barkley, on John’s Rob Gronkowski: “You’re like if Dave & Busters was a person.” Very spot-on comment.
— Alex looks completely unrecognizable in this sketch. In fact, if I didn’t know that was him, I’d swear that was Justin Timberlake. Alex looks eerily Timberlake-esque to me behind those sunglasses and fake beard.
— I love Kenan’s way of always saying “scenario” as “scenarioooooo” (my writing-out of it doesn’t do it justice).
— Bobby is providing some good laughs as John Daly, especially him answering the “buy a cheetah” scenario with “I’ll buy that son of a bitch, he can be buddies with my shark.”
— Another good moment from Bobby’s Daly, with him promoting his brand of an alcoholic sports drink by saying: “Smirnoff Sport: it’s just blue vodka.”
— John has some good lines himself throughout this sketch, and his performance is fun as hell. Alex, on the other hand, is unfortunately saddled with the weakest material out of the three contestants, which is a shame, as this is the first (or one of the first) big comedic role Alex has ever gotten on SNL, and that’s also why it’s a shame that he looks so unrecognizable in it.
STARS: ***½


THE OFFICE TREE
ledge-hanging (AIB)’s co-workers are unhelpful during Christmas party

— Aidy’s voice still sounding very hoarse.
— Interesting seeing a rare(?) use of a stunt double in a live sketch. (I’m referring to the part where Aidy falls out of the window. At least I *think* that was a stunt double, judging from how long the camera held on the other characters before cutting back to “Aidy” falling out of the window.)
— Speaking of rarities in live sketches, I’m not sure if the occasional overhead shots of Aidy are live or pre-taped, but if they’re live, they’re an interesting and very unique camera angle for a live sketch in this era.
— Having Aidy panickedly yell most of her lines in this sketch seems like a questionable decision from SNL, given how hoarse her voice is tonight. Maybe she blew her voice out in rehearsals of this sketch.
— I’m finding the main comedic conceit of this sketch to be a little on the “ehhh” side. I think I’m more interested in this sketch for the aforementioned rare aspects than for the actual comedy.
— Decent ending.
STARS: **½


THROUGH DONALD’S EYES
Donald Trump’s first-person view is very selfish

— An absolutely fascinating approach to this Trump spoof, and I like how it has the aura of a weird, freaky dream sequence, even if that wasn’t the intention.
— A particularly classic visual of the mirror reflection of John Cena as Trump with giant hands.
— Excellent theme with how everyone from Trump’s point of view is speaking in broken sentences. I particularly love it in Bobby’s “Thing you promised” speech.
— A good ending with Trump’s self-dancing sequence.
— Overall, one of the absolute best (if not THE absolute best) Trump spoofs in this era, far better than SNL’s regular Trump spoofs would end up becoming after this point of the season. I almost wish the approach in this short could’ve become SNL’s regular approach to spoofing Trump these next four years (kinda like those first-person perspective Hail To The Chief sketches that Joe Piscopo used to do as Ronald Reagan) if they weren’t going to have an actual cast member play Trump.
— I’m not 100% sure, but I think I recall hearing that this short was written by Julio Torres. If so, man, he’s been having one of the most incredible starts an SNL writer has ever had. The number of segments he’s had so far this season that I’ve given a five or four-and-a-half-star rating to is astounding.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “80s Mercedes”


EROTIC BOOKSTORE
bookstore workers (AIB) & (host) behave like romance novel characters

— I initially had mixed feelings for Aidy and John’s romance novel-like mock-passionate conversations in the back of the bookstore, but their dialogue has grown on me BIG TIME as this sketch has progressed. There are so many hilarious and well-delivered lines between Aidy and John here, such as John’s “I am a dirt man who knows only SEX!” line, Aidy’s mention of her “tiny pink nips”, and John’s “I’ll grab your ghost butt with my ten-pound hands!” line.
— I love Kenan’s very trademark Kenan-like deep-voiced outburst of “GET…THE…BOOK! GET THE DAMN BOOK!”
— Kenan is probably the only person who could’ve sold the corny ending.
STARS: ****½


UNITED STATES OF TALENT
brothers’ (host) & (MID) owl just craps & barfs

— Cecily and Beck’s character names on the bottom of screen seem to be displayed in the wrong order. (seen in the first above screencap for this sketch)
— The fact that there’s oddly only one celebrity judge in this America’s Got Talent-like show makes me wonder if this sketch was the victim of last-minute trimming for time reasons, and was originally supposed to feature three or four judges. If so, I wonder if the last-minute trimming and hasty approach to this sketch is the cause of that aforementioned technical error with Cecily and Beck’s character names.
— Blah, even for the low standards of pooping/vomiting gags, this is weak.
— They’re relying VERY heavily on Kenan to provide all the laughs in the post-pooping/vomiting portion of this sketch, but, as reliable as he usually is by this point of his tenure, not even he can put over the lines he’s been given here. Also, I wonder if the reason he has such a heavy amount of lines in this portion of the sketch is because his lines were possibly originally meant to be divided between three or four celebrity judge characters instead of just one.
— Cecily’s straitlaced, professional delivery of “got ass in its brains” made me laugh.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another good season 42 episode. The first half of this episode didn’t contain any standout segments though was still fine, but starting with Weekend Update, this episode had a few strong segments. As expected, John Cena was a pretty fun host.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Through Donald’s Eyes
Erotic Bookstore
Weekend Update
Dyke & Fats Save Christmas
Where’d Your Money Go?
Science Presentation
Monologue
Hook A Hunk
The Karate Teen
The Office Tree
The Lead with Jake Tapper
United States of Talent


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Emma Stone)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Casey Affleck hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 3, 2016 – Emma Stone / Shawn Mendes (S42 E8)

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

Posted on

November 19, 2016 – Kristen Wiig / The xx (S42 E7)

(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

Posted on

Politicial discussion in the comments section of this site

NOTE: This post is a comment I originally left in the comments section of my most recent review of the Dave Chappelle / A Tribe Called Quest episode. I’m re-posting it here in case there are any people who haven’t read it in the Chappelle episode comment section. Also, the comments section of this re-post is closed. If you have any response to what you’re about to read, please respond to the original post of it here, and as I said there, watch yourself in how you respond.

Commenters, cool it with the heated political discussion and ranting. While it hasn’t gotten TOO out of hand so far, I really don’t like the direction it’s going in. This is exactly why I was dreading reaching the Trump era of SNL in my reviews. The last thing I want is for the comments section of my blog to turn into what commenter Anthony Peter Coleman called “a political hellscape like the rest of the internet”. (And don’t worry, Vax Novier, your rant alone wasn’t what bothered me, it’s only the combination of it with all of the other heated political ranting in this episode’s comments section that feels very unpleasant to read altogether). It’s already an extremely demanding, exhausting process for me to churn these reviews out on a daily basis. Please don’t make me even MORE stressed out by having to deal with the comments section of my reviews turning into heated, toxic political discussions. This is absolutely NOT the place for that. And if you appreciate my reviews and respect how pleasant the comments section of this blog typically is, then please lead by example and do not continue any kind of heated political discourse here nor in the comments sections of any of my other reviews.

Oh, and for people complaining that I didn’t give the cold opening a rating, it’s a rule that I don’t give a rating to this specific type of somber, non-comedic cold opening addressing something major in the news (e.g. the post 9/11 cold opening, the post-Sandy Hook cold opening). Plain and simple. If you’ve been following this blog for a good while, you should’ve already known that. And if you’re mad because my review didn’t match your opinion that the Hallelujah cold opening deserves a one-star rating, GET OVER IT. Also, watch what you say to me. Reading comments like “Not a ratable segment, my ass” and “Give it *” really pisses me off. Friendly debating over an opinion of mine is absolutely fine, but you do NOT get to rudely demand what rating I give a segment. This is my blog, show me some damn respect. And at the end of the day, these are just dumb little episode reviews I do of a silly show. *I* don’t even take my reviews all that seriously, and neither should you.

If any, and I mean ANY kind of tension or unpleasantry continues in the comments section of this particular episode (including in response to this comment of mine), I’m closing the comments section for this episode, period. And from here on out, if any commenter goes off on any kind of unpleasant political rant in the comments section any other episode, that rant WILL be deleted.

[ADDENDUM (3/10/21): Please read this follow-up comment I made, in response to someone’s reply.]