Author: Stooge

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February 6, 2016 – Larry David / The 1975 (S41 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM TED CRUZ
Ted Cruz (TAK) exults in having overcome his inherent disadvantages

— The setting of this reminds me of one of the Mitt Romney cold openings Jason Sudeikis starred in four years prior.
— I’ve never felt Taran nailed his Ted Cruz impression in previous appearances this season, but the off-ness of the impression is particularly noticeable in this cold opening, now that he’s front and center.
— Decent part with Kate as Cruz’s daughter.
— Overall, not much to say about this at all. Despite Taran giving an animated performance, this felt too typical of the boring person-speaking-straight-to-camera political cold openings that dominated Jim Downey’s later years as a writer.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about his journey from poor schmuck to rich prick

— Already getting Larry David’s hilarious typical attitude right out of the gate during his opening “greetings”.
— I’m a little disappointed Larry didn’t mention being a writer on SNL when he mentions auditioning for this show in the past.
— Larry is absolutely slaying me with practically everything he’s saying here.
— I’m surprised this monologue is already wrapping up. This felt a little short and I was left wanting more, but I certainly can’t complain about what we got.
— Even the ending of this monologue is hilarious, with Larry breaking up the usual monologue tagline.
STARS: ****½


FBI SIMULATOR
neon-clad Kevin Roberts (host) is target in & creator of street simulator

 

— Ah, an all-time favorite of mine.
— A huge laugh from the initial sight of Larry’s Kevin Roberts character.
— Kenan’s delivery of the straight man lines is absolutely perfect.
— Leslie’s yell of “I’M HIGH ON BATH SALTS!” had me howling.
— Larry is freakin’ priceless as this ridiculous character.
— Kevin Roberts: “Can a bitch get a donut?!?”
— I absolutely love Bobby’s brief appearance as Kevin Roberts’ friend who “got the bitch a donut!”
— Kenan: “He said he got to second base, and I was like, ‘Who would do that with Kevin Roberts???’”
— Overall, my personal favorite of the countless number of this type of Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell-written character sketch (you know the type, though I’m not sure how to accurately describe it), even moreso than than the iconic David S. Pumpkins sketch from the following season (though I love that one as well).
STARS: *****


BERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM
Bernie Sanders’ (host) neuroses lead to Iowa defeat

— A brilliant concept of a Bernie Sanders/Curb Your Enthusiasm hybrid.
— Great bit with Larry’s Bernie Sanders refusing to shake Leslie’s “germ-infested hand”.
— Jay is priceless and spot-on as Leon/J.B. Smoove.
— The imitation of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s typical style and humor is absolutely top-notch, and the Bernie Sanders aspects of the premise are being worked perfectly into the CYE style.
— Larry’s Bernie: “I-I’m from Brooklyn, we don’t pop in Brooklyn.”
— Much like Jay, Taran is also doing a hilariously spot-on impression.
— Excellent reveal of the five people who voted against Larry’s Bernie.
— I’m sure it’s just me, but seeing a close-up of Kyle and Larry next to each other makes me realize that they both kinda look like different-aged versions of each other, even though we know what Larry looked like when he was around Kyle’s age and he looked nothing like Kyle back then.
— Overall, a true masterpiece, and my second consecutive five-star rating in tonight’s review.
STARS: *****


STEAM SHIP
passenger on sinking ship (Bernie Sanders) decries upper-class privilege

— Larry’s “Check for pubes!” request about the young boy being let on the boat is hilarious.
— Love the concept of Larry as a whiny passenger on a sinking ship.
— At first, I was almost kinda surprised just now that SNL could still use the word “midget” in 2016, until Larry followed it up by humorously saying “I can say that, it’s olden times!”
— Surprise Bernie Sanders cameo.
— While it’s not the best direction the last third of this sketch could’ve gone, Bernie’s appearance here is actually pretty fun, and he and Larry are playing well off of each other.
— Bernie, when asked his name: “I am Bernie Sanderswitzky, but we’re gonna change it when we get to America so it doesn’t sound quite so Jewish.” Larry: “(sarcastically) Yeah, that’ll trick ’em!”
STARS: ***½


TOTINO’S PIZZA ROLLS / THE X-FILES
hungry guys are chanting zombies during Super Bowl

— Ah, time for our second entry in the fantastic Vanessa-starring annual Totino’s trilogy.
— I’m loving the guys’ repetitive, generic chants of “GO GO GO GO GO GO! TOUCHDOWN!” and “NO NO NO NO NO NO! AWWW, FUMBLLEEE!”, and how it eventually keeps cutting off Vanessa’s statements into the camera.
— A priceless reveal that nothing is even playing on the TV that the guys are watching.
— An excellent creepy, thriller-y tone change this commercial suddenly takes.
— Great visual of all the guys slowly turning around towards Vanessa, revealing they now have creepy alien-type eyes, and proceed to now deliver their “No no no no no no! Awww, fumblleee!” chant in a slow, unsettling manner.
— Vanessa: “(horrified and confused) WHAT’S?!? HAPPENING?!? TO MY HUNGRY GUYS?!?!”
— Some people don’t like the X-Files twist at the end, but I’m fine with it.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
host & Bernie Sanders [real] introduce musical guest

— More fun interplay between Larry and Bernie, with Bernie doing Larry’s “Pret-ty good” catchphrase.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Sound”


WEEKEND UPDATE
COJ breaks down footage of Ben Carson’s failure to enter GOP debate stage

self-assured Sturdy Barbie (KAM) isn’t among the new doll body types

JOR mimes fallout of partner-catching fail in Dirty Dancing Live audition

Derek Zoolander (BES) & Hansel (Owen Wilson) critique political fashion

— I absolutely love the bit with Colin riffing on footage of Ben Carson missing his cue to enter that night’s republican debate.
— Hmm, I have absolutely no memory of this Sturdy Barbie commentary of Kate’s.
— So far, I’m not finding this commentary of Kate’s to be overly exciting or anything, but it’s the type of role she can sell well at this point of her tenure, and she has some good lines here, particularly the one about the accessories she comes with.
— Here we get Jon’s one claim to fame of his short-lived SNL tenure. This Dirty Dancing routine was something he previously did at his SNL audition, and some online SNL fans speculated that Jon dusted off this audition routine this week out of desperation due to how much he had been struggling this season.
— Very fun and increasingly-dark miming that Jon’s doing to the song “The Time of My Life”. I’m finding this to be an absolute blast. When this season originally aired and I, by this point of the season, had officially considered Jon to be a bust of a hire (especially with stuff like that painfully bad pirate sketch he did in this season’s Chris Hemsworth episode), he impressed me with this Dirty Dancing routine, and it ended up being the first of only two things he did all season that I liked back then (the second thing being a far more minor moment in a later episode, but I’ll point it out when we arrive at it).
— A number of online SNL fans at the time considered this Dirty Dancing commentary to be Jon’s breakout, “A star is born” moment (right down to some of Jon’s castmates eagerly pointing to him during the goodnights of this episode, an action that’s usually only reserved for new cast members in their first episode). Weird to think back on that glowing assumption people made about Jon’s SNL future, now that we know in hindsight the complete opposite direction his SNL future would end up taking. However, this Dirty Dancing commentary of his definitely still holds up for me.
— Wait, they’re not ending tonight’s Update with Jon’s commentary? His commentary seems like the perfect and most fitting way to end an Update.
— A surprise Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson cameo as their characters from Zoolander. I guess that’s why Jon’s commentary wasn’t what tonight’s Update ended with.
— Stiller and Wilson are fine here, but I’m a little meh on this commentary. And I liked Stiller’s Zoolander reprisal on Update better when he previously did it in a Stefon commentary.
— Colin and Michael’s mics seemed to be turned up abnormally high during their sign-off at the end. Come to think of it, there seemed to be some mic issues in general during this Update, as I noticed Jon’s voice strangely sounded a bit tinny at the beginning of his commentary.
STARS: ****


SONGWRITING CLASS
at a songwriting class, (host) eschews rhymes in favor of frog-toad saga

— Love Vanessa’s awkward look after singing her opening statement.
— EXTREMELY dumb and questionable material here, but it’s the kind of thing that Larry David is probably the only person in existence who could sell. His delivery of this incredibly stupid, badly-written material is cracking me up, making this sketch a guilty pleasure of mine.
— Pete’s doing a good job in a type of straight man role that he doesn’t seem to be cast in often during these early seasons of his tenure.
STARS: ***


A SUPER BOWL GREETING FROM CAM NEWTON AND PEYTON MANNING
Cam Newton (KET) & Peyton Manning (TAK) sing “Ebony & Ivory” variant

— Some pretty fun chemistry between Kenan and Taran here, and it’s helping to put this sketch over, even if I’m still not finding this sketch to be anything special.
— Second sketch tonight with Taran doing an overexaggerated goofy laugh as part of an impression. I can’t help but look at that as a sign that his SNL tenure is nearing the end at this point, even though he didn’t know it at the time.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Me”


LAST CALL
(host) & Sheila Sovage convince themselves they have chemistry together

— First time we’ve seen this recurring sketch in a while.
— Kate’s Sheila Sovage, when telling Larry her name: “You can remember that because if you mix up the letters, it almost spells ‘Vagisil’.”
— Sheila Sovage, after Larry reveals he’s a “before” model for teeth-whitening ads: “Get out! I have teeth!….for now!”
— Out of all of the installments of this recurring sketch, Larry is one of the better hosts at having fun chemistry with Kate.
— Love the bit with the tiny blinds that Kenan closes in front of his face.
— Another funny ending to this recurring sketch, this time with Kenan wrapping “Crime Scene Do Not Cross” tape over the bar while Larry and Kate are disgustingly making out.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A great, great episode, and has always been one of my favorites of this era. A fantastic host, THREE five-star segments in this episode, a few other great pieces, and almost no segments that I gave a low rating to.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
FBI Simulator / Bern Your Enthusiasm (tie)
Totino’s Pizza Rolls
Monologue
Last Call
Weekend Update
Steam Ship
Songwriting Class
A Super Bowl Greeting From Cam Newton and Peyton Manning
A Message From Ted Cruz


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ronda Rousey)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy

Posted on

January 23, 2016 – Ronda Rousey / Selena Gomez (S41 E11)

NOTE: Saturday Net, the SNL episode guide I usually borrow my sketch synopses from, is currently down (hopefully only temporarily). When/if the site comes back up, I’ll edit the sketch synopses for this episode into this review.

UPDATE: Saturday Net is back up! I’ve gone and edited the sketch synopses for this episode into this review.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUMP RALLY
Donald Trump (DAH) comments on Sarah Palin’s (TIF) rambling endorsement

— Tina Fey makes a cameo just two episodes after co-hosting, but given the real-life Sarah Palin endorsement this cold opening is spoofing, it’s understandable why SNL brought Tina back so soon.
— Ugh, I am not liking the running bit with Darrell’s Donald Trump being the voice of reason by giving asides to the camera about how crazy Sarah Palin is. A very bad take on Trump here, and it’s aged even worse over time. A shame how much this is souring this whole cold opening, because Tina’s lines here as Palin are funny as usual so far.
— The bit towards the end with Tina’s Palin giving an aside of her own to the camera came off really weak and corny, though it ended well.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host ensures successful monologue by invoking pandering audience-pleasers

— A pretty fun format to this monologue, with it being treated as a boxing match, right down to having Cecily occasionally pass by the camera as a ring girl.
— Kenan is perfectly cast in this role.
— Good execution of this monologue’s concept.
STARS: ***½


SCREEN GUILD AWARDS
Best Actor nominees are all white guys in mostly African-American movies

 

— Odd how Ronda Rousey’s only appearance in this sketch is a briefly-shown non-speaking role as Taran’s wife/girlfriend, which has her doing nothing but smiling at Taran while sitting next to him as his name gets called as one of the nominees. That role of Ronda’s might as well have been played by an extra, but I guess SNL couldn’t find any other role for Ronda to play in this sketch. I take it that, due to her lack of acting experience, SNL didn’t feel she could pull off Cecily’s role here?
— Pete is very funny as “Lil Q” in the Straight Outta Compton-esque scene.
— Surprisingly strong dramatic acting from Michael.
— Hilarious progression to how each movie clip of the white nominees features them playing increasingly insignificant roles while un-nominated black actors perform circles around them.
— The look on Jay’s face when Bobby tries to high-five him is making me laugh so much.
— The ending felt like it could’ve been a little funnier.
STARS: ****


LOVE STRUCK
bullied new girl (host) retaliates with mixed martial arts

— Great reveal of the very cruel, elaborate prank that was played on Ronda, concocted by Vanessa as a typical high school mean girl.
— Kate’s delivery of “Say hi….to the whole school!” cracked me up.
— A huge laugh from the sudden well-deserved hit that Vanessa’s mean girl character receives from Ronda’s timid character.
— This short is getting funnier and funnier as Vanessa keeps sustaining hits from Ronda while trying to act unaffected and maintain her mean girl image. A solid use of Ronda’s fighting skills, and, much like the pre-taped Santa Baby and Golden Globes shorts earlier this season, Vanessa is fantastic here playing against type. Mark this as yet another entry in the “Outstanding Vanessa Bayer performances from her final two seasons” category.
— I usually have mixed feelings towards surprise PSA twists at the end of sketches, but I liked this twist decently enough.
STARS: ****½


BLAND MAN
bachelorettes throw themselves at reality show vanilla Bland Man (TAK)

— The second in the series of annual Bachelor/ “Can I steal him for a sec?” sketches.
— Taran’s selling his comically bland role well.
— Sasheer: “I’m the black one.” Taran: “(immediately) Let me walk you out.” Sasheer: “Wait…”
— I’m not sure that Ronda’s delivery is working for me here, and it’s not blending in all that well with the delivery that the female cast members are using in this.
— I’m not finding the ladies’ lines quite as funny here as I did in the first installment of this sketch, but it’s still working decently.
— Selena Gomez is actually blending in with the female cast members’ acting style in this sketch better than Ronda is.
— The reveal of Selena playing herself didn’t make me laugh anywhere near as much as the reveal of Leslie doing the same in the first installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Good For You” & “Same Old Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
reporting from outside during a blizzard, (BOM) says “it’s not that bad”

LEJ imagines what it will be like after she & Leonardo DiCaprio have sex

follow-up report finds (BOM) frozen stiff

Willie has an unjustifiably cheery attitude toward winter weather

— Great rant Michael does about the Oscars boycott. I especially laughed at his digs at the movie Brooklyn.
— Hilarious bit from Leslie regarding making a ham sandwich after sex.
— Another huge laugh from Leslie, this time with her demonstrating a “laugh-gasm”.
— Leslie’s commentary in general about Leonardo DiCaprio is the usual great Leslie commentary, and I also like the running side bit with her accusing Colin of being jealous.
— An okay bit with Bobby as Your Friend Who Always Says “It’s Not That Bad”, and it provides a nice change of pace for Update. It reminds me a bit of something Rachel Dratch once did on Update in the season 30 Paul Giamatti episode, but I like Bobby’s version a little better.
— Willie!
— Willie: “It’s like the asbestos removal crew said: ‘My god, there’s somebody alive in here!’”
— Tonight’s overall Willie commentary was surprisingly short and didn’t have nearly as many quote-worthy lines as usual, but the commentary was still funny, even with Kenan flubbing his last punchline.
STARS: ****


THREE’S A CRIME: THE JANET JOHNSON-LUNA AND KARA TORKELSON CIVIL TRIAL
trial reveals teacher (CES) & (host) threesome made Gavin Daly a teen legend

 

— I liked the first installment of this sketch, but there’s absolutely NO REASON to do a second installment, and this isn’t the type of thing that’s going to work nearly as well in a rehash.
— Kenan is at least very solid again in his supporting role as the judge.
— Taran is strangely stumbly with several of his lines here.
— Much like in the previous installment of this sketch, I’m tired of the constant cutaways to Cecily (and now Ronda) delivering coy one-liners, and the audience apparently agrees with me, judging from their lack of response to those one-liners.
STARS: **½


SUPER CREW
all superhero team members must introduce themselves before saving city

 

— I’m currently three minutes into this, and while I kinda like the concept, absolutely none of the comedy in this sketch has been making me laugh so far. However, something about Pete’s silly, giddy performance during his brief bit as Noodle Man at least put a smile on my face (and, for some reason, reminded me of the Nickelodeon sketch show All That), despite the fact that he wasn’t given any funny material at all here.
— I’m noticing throughout tonight’s episode that the audience is quite dead at certain points. I certainly can’t blame them in this sketch.
— I finally got a laugh, from Aidy’s mere delivery of her spiel, though, like what I said about Pete in this sketch, that’s more of a compliment of the performer than the material itself, as the dialogue Aidy’s been given here is nothing special.
— Ugh at Jon as “Fire Butt”. We also get what appeared to be a very delayed fart sound effect during this part, not that the sound effect playing on cue would’ve made that bit funny.
— Overall, a flop.
STARS: *½


AT THE CLUB
(BEB)’s small penis undermines male trio’s sexy nightclub coaxing rap

— Beck’s providing some pretty good laughs in his stiff, unnatural attempts to speak suavely like Jay and Taran.
— Feels rare to see Beck starring in a rap short. He’s fun here.
— Love the sudden tone change with the very negative reaction everyone has to Beck rudely shoving Kate.
STARS: ***½


CITIZENS FORUM
Bakersfield city council hears more requests from eccentric citizens

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Tonight’s episode has a bigger-than-usual-in-this-era reliance on rehashed sketches, presumably because the writers were trying to go for an easy week due to Ronda being a non-actor.
— A big laugh from Leslie quickly saying “Bye!” and immediately walking out in response to the announcement that people unable to express their opinion without using foul language should leave.
— Kenan and Ronda’s scene is doing nothing for me.
— Overall, I could barely find anything to say about the content of this sketch, and I’m not sure what to say about this sketch as a whole. I didn’t find this sketch to be bad, but I felt it was a slight step down from the first installment of it, though the sketch wasn’t weak enough for me to give a rating less than three stars (the rating I gave the first installment of it).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hands To Myself”


FOOTBALL PARTY
(BEB) & (KYM) reveal themselves to be clueless about party protocol

— Big night for Beck.
— Interesting at this point to see a Beck/Kyle-led piece that’s live instead of pre-taped. Speaking of which, SNL’s reliance on Beck/Kyle pre-taped pieces seems to have gradually disappeared over the course of this season so far.
— A very simplistic conceit to this sketch, but it’s definitely working for me, and Beck and Kyle are executing their offbeat characters well.
STARS: ***½


SETTL
— Rerun from 12/5/15.
— The re-airing of this ad is very significant, as it’s the final instance of SNL ever re-airing a fake ad in a new episode. That’s surprising to me, given how it had long been a tradition for SNL to do that, though the number of re-aired fake ads had slowly-but-noticeably diminished the last few seasons prior to this. Does it have anything to do with how available SNL’s new material has become online in recent years? (I know some people have speculated that that’s possibly the reason why recent seasons have cut back so much on recurring sketches.)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A forgettable episode, despite a decent number of good things. Something also felt a bit off about this episode, possibly due to a combo of Ronda Rousey’s visible lack of acting experience (though she wasn’t particularly bad for athlete host standards), the unusual-for-this-era number of rehashed sketches, the unusual number of flubbed lines from performers (almost rivaling that of the preceding season’s Chris Rock episode), and the aforementioned subdued audience.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Love Struck
Screen Guild Awards
Weekend Update
Monologue
At The Club
Football Party
Bland Man
Citizens Forum
Three’s A Crime: The Janet Johnson-Luna And Kara Torkelson Civil Trial
Trump Rally
Super Crew


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Adam Driver)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Larry David

Posted on

January 16, 2016 – Adam Driver / Chris Stapleton (S41 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

REPUBLICAN DEBATE
Donald Trump (DAH), Ted Cruz (TAK), Chris Christie (BOM) rule GOP debate

— A fun description from Cecily and Kyle of what’s going to happen to any of the candidates that dip below 3% during the debate.
— Wait, what? Kate first played Lindsey Graham THIS early in her tenure??? I had no recollection of that. I had assumed she didn’t start playing Graham until the “LOL Kate McKinnon is playing a male politician!” era that started around 2017. I don’t like how the bad aspects of Kate’s later years on SNL (2017-present) are starting to pop up around this time (e.g. her breaking throughout her Update commentary in the Fey/Poehler episode, her playing lots of male roles), especially since I had remembered this period being part of Kate’s best years on the show (2014-2017).
— A good laugh from Taran’s Ted Cruz demonstrating how, when he smiles, it looks like he’s peeing.
— I’m enjoying how increasingly desperate and fraught Beck’s portrayal of Jeb Bush is becoming over the course of this season.
— Another good laugh from Taran’s Cruz, with his “Liberal Jews” bit.
— I love the visual of Bobby’s Chris Christie slowly moving both himself and his podium away from Jay’s Ben Carson after Carson’s very creepy, unsettling speech.
— A funny walk-on from Kenan at the end.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host parries lightsaber wielder TAK, Kylo Ren cosplayer BOM, confused LEJ

— I laughed a lot at how Adam Driver was IMMEDIATELY able to tell it’s Bobby inside of that Kylo Ren costume, due to his body type. I then laughed even harder at Bobby’s dismayed response to that: “Hey, come on! It could be Kenan in here!”
— Leslie in her usual scene-stealing walk-on.
STARS: ***½


FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
Packers’ 4th-string quarterback’s (PED) gruesome injury is replayed repeatedly

— A huge laugh from the initial footage of Pete’s horrific, cringeworthy injury on the field.
— The constant milking and replaying of the footage of Pete’s injury is very funny, a spot-on spoof of the way incidents like this are covered, and I like how it also reminds me of the same thing happening in the legendary Buckwheat Gets Shot piece.
— Kenan’s reaction to seeing the injury footage made me laugh out loud: “OH, LORD! TAKE MY EYES! BLIND ME, LORD!”
STARS: ****


UNDERCOVER BOSS: STAR KILLER BASE
Kylo Ren (host) poorly hides identity on Starkiller Base

— A well-loved short among many people.
— A very funny concept of Kylo Ren appearing on Undercover Boss and going undercover as “Matt, radar technician”.
— Leslie: “Can we rewire it please, so I can go have my muffin?!?”
— A particularly funny part with Adam’s Kylo revealing in his confessional that the reason for his guilt when Taran disclosed the death of his own son is because he’s (Kylo) the one who killed Taran’s son. I also love the part afterwards with Kylo trying to make it up to Taran by, while in disguise as Matt, giving Taran a cheap, sappy apology card on behalf of Kylo.
— So many great parts with “Matt”, especially him violently getting revenge on Bobby in the cafeteria.
STARS: *****


ALADDIN
Jasmine (CES) gets pelted during magic carpet ride with Aladdin (host)

— A decent laugh from the first hit Cecily’s Jasmine sustains.
— Meh, the progression to the hits that Jasmine suffers isn’t doing much for me.
— I do like the use of model toys to represent the visual of Aladdin’s carpet landing at an air base.
— The final minute of this sketch was at least good. However, this sketch as a whole felt very unfocused. The “Jasmine gets pelted with a whole bunch of things from above” conceit and the “Aladdin and Jasmine make an emergency landing at air base” conclusion felt like something from two completely different sketches.
STARS: **½


AMERICA’S FUNNIEST CATS
Joelle (CES) & Noelle (KAM) provide French ennui

— Blah, I don’t care for that opening “Finn Raynal-Beads” joke.
— Aaaaand now we get even more of writers’ James Anderson and Kent Sublette’s typical habit of giving characters “funny” names, with Kate and Cecily’s characters here having cutesy rhyming names: Noelle LeSoup and Joelle LaRue.
— After my complaints above, this sketch has really taken off with Cecily and Kate’s dark voice-overs for silly cat videos. The “Boi-oi-oing” thing is also a great running bit throughout their voice-overs.
— (*sigh*) That pointlessly ridiculous, out-of-place wig of Kenan’s in his small walk-on is yet ANOTHER typical bad Anderson/Sublette-ism.
— Overall, despite all of my minor quibbles, this was actually a solid sketch as a whole, as the main conceit carried the sketch through.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Parachute”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED weighs in on who should undergo gun-purchase background checks

guest anchor Laura Parsons has partial understanding of adult news items

— A solid rant from Michael about the Oscars.
— Ha, for the second time in two seasons, Weekend Update does a hilarious brief cutaway to Colin giving the camera a cheesy smile and thumbs-up (the fourth above screencap for this Update).
— We get our first-ever direct mention on SNL of Pete’s mental health issues.
— Some good self-deprecating comments Pete’s making about his mental health issues.
— A great breakdown Colin does about Michael Bloomberg.
— Some really fantastic jokes from Colin and Michael tonight.
— Like the previous time Vanessa’s Laura Parsons appeared on Update, there are so many huge laughs from her delivering harrowing news stories in her typical cheesy delivery. The Bill Cosby bit at the end especially had me howling.
STARS: ****½


AWARENESS SEMINAR
“social puppeteering” warning instead inspires kids to bully elaborately

— I love the first example Adam gives of “social puppeteering”.
— Even funnier is Cecily’s disclosure of once “Honey I Shrunk The Kids-ing” her cousin.
— This sketch continues to be very funny with all the different styles of gaslighting-esque pranks being described.
— Solid bit with Bobby realizing he’s been “21 Jump Street-ed”, and I love his delivery here.
STARS: ****


DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE
FRA marks David Bowie’s passing by setting up 1979 SNL performance clip

David Bowie [real] performs “The Man Who Sold The World” {rerun}

— The audience wildly applauding and screaming cheers at a Fred Armisen cameo for practically HALF A FREAKIN’ MINUTE as if Fred hasn’t made a bazillion cameos on SNL these past few seasons. You’d think that was, say, the seldom-makes-cameos-in-this-era Bill Murray or Adam Sandler up there from how long the audience’s wild cheers went on.
— I’ll go light on my typical salt towards Fred, because I’m really liking the childhood story he’s telling here about staying up late one night in 1979 to watch David Bowie’s SNL performance that year. This story is heartfelt, touching, and interesting.
— A very nice way for SNL to honor Bowie after his then-recent passing, by showing a clip of one of his season 5 musical performances.


GOLDEN GLOBES
married (host) & (VAB) party after Golden Globe win; Liev Schreiber cameo

— I absolutely love the sweet, sentimental, realistic tone of the scenes with Kyle and Kate.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, I guess this can be counted as the very first of this era’s short films that go back and forth showing a gentle scene and a related chaotic scene, which would become a running theme of a number of SNL’s short films over the following years (e.g. the Day You Were Born short from the season 43 Amy Schumer episode).
— The increasingly wild scenes with Adam and Vanessa are serving as a hilarious contrast to the lovely scenes with Kyle and Kate.
— A particularly hilarious part where, after Vanessa trips and falls down when she and Adam are running away, Adam initially stops running, looks back at Vanessa on the floor, then immediately continues running away without even helping her.
— A nice Liev Schrieber appearance, reminding me of how much I like his later hosting stint from season 44.
— A beautiful ending with Kyle and Kate.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody To Blame”


THE DOCTOR IS IN… MY BUTT 4
actual kid interrupts (host) & (BEB) in porno set in doctor’s office

— Already a decent cheap laugh from the porn title shown at the very beginning.
— Wow, Aidy is just NOW making her first appearance all night, in the final sketch of the show???
— Like the previous sketch this character of Aidy’s appeared in, there’s some pretty good laughs from her obliviousness towards the porno being filmed.
— Aidy, regarding an innocent statement Adam made to her: “Are you positive?” Adam: “Yeah, but don’t tell or they’ll make me leave.”
— A funny rapid-fire run of innuendos in the back-and-forth that Aidy and Adam have right before she leaves.
— What’s with Taran’s big pot belly in this? Or is he just randomly sticking his stomach out for comedic purposes?
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. An impressively large number of highly-rated sketches, one often-referenced classic short (Undercover Boss), one lesser-referenced-but-very-well-done short (Golden Globes), and only one thing all night that I didn’t care for (Aladdin, and not even that was horrible). Adam Driver is off to a solid start as a reliable recurring host.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Undercover Boss: Star Killer Base
Golden Globes
Weekend Update
Football Night In America
America’s Funniest Cats
Awareness Seminar
Republican Debate
The Doctor Is In… My Butt 4
Monologue
Aladdin


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ronda Rousey

Posted on

December 19, 2015 – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler / Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (S41 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Jeb Bush (BEB) acts tough with Donald Trump (DAH) during GOP debate

— So SNL’s making it a regular thing to have Jon play the moderators of this season’s debate sketches, even after the backlash he received for his Anderson Cooper impression earlier this season?
— Jon’s Wolf Blitzer impression doesn’t sound much different from his Anderson Cooper, only without the effeminate qualities.
— Darrell Hammond has taken over the Donald Trump role from Taran, and will end up remaining in that role for the rest of the season.
— A freakin’ fantastic angry rant from Bobby’s Chris Christie.
— I got a big laugh from Jon’s Blitzer responding to a statement from Kyle’s Rand Paul by telling him “Uh, sir, we’re not taking comments from the audience yet.” I also love Kyle’s defeated way of responding “No, I’m Rand Paul, I’m up here…”
— Jay’s Ben Carson impression is getting sillier and funnier over the course of this season. The increasingly cartoonish, fun, and caricature-ish nature of this impression is rather Dana Carvey-esque, which I like.
— Pretty funny speech from Pete’s Marco Rubio.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Christmas song by TIF & AMP is alternately jaunty fun & Biblical downer

— A decent beginning with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler being very simultaneous in everything they’re saying.
— Tina and Amy’s usual style of humor and rapport is coming off well here.
— The jarringly different tones to Tina and Amy’s respective Christmas songs are okay, despite the repetitive nature and the fact that it’s not anything I’m finding to be laugh out loud funny.
STARS: ***


A HILLARY CHRISTMAS
Hillary Clinton’s (KAM) 2008 self (AMP) & Sarah Palin (TIF) visit her

— I love this idea of having Kate’s Hillary meeting Amy’s Hillary. A great way to bring two different styles of the same celebrity impression together.
— The interplay between the two Hillarys is so damn fun.
— As much as I’m enjoying a lot of things in this sketch, all of the statements being made about what a cakewalk Hillary’s path to winning the election next November is (particularly both Kate and Amy’s Hillarys gleefully declaring in unison “We’re gonna be president!” upon Amy’s Hillary learning that one of her future opponents is Donald Trump, a moment that I remember finding to be pretty classic when this sketch originally aired) is casting a bit of a pall over this sketch.
— The inclusion of Tina’s Sarah Palin is adding to the very fun atmosphere and energy of this sketch.
— The bit with Kate’s Hillary furiously stopping Amy’s Hillary from sending those emails is great.
STARS: ****


MEET YOUR SECOND WIFE!
contestants’ future mates are much much younger

— An extremely awkward but hilarious big technical error right at the very beginning, where, when SNL tries to play audio of Steve Higgins’ opening announcement about Bobby’s character while the camera is on a close-up of Bobby smiling affably into the camera, they keep accidentally cueing up the wrong audio, going back-and-forth between the Bronx Beat theme music (giving away the fact that we’re getting the return of that sketch later tonight, and that Maya Rudolph is in the building), audio of Darrell Hammond announcing Tina and Amy for their monologue from earlier tonight, and the correct Higgins announcement for this sketch. Making all of this even funnier is the fact that, while all of these back-and-forth audio miscues are going on, Bobby, ever the pro, just continues affably smiling into the camera like he’s supposed to, and you can tell that he’s stifling his amusement over the gaffe.
— Great reveal of this game show’s title, as well as the subsequent surprised reactions the contestants have to that title.
— An absolutely priceless and shocking reveal of Bobby’s future second wife currently being an 8th grader.
— Bobby, to his currently-young future second wife: “I guess I’ll…see you again in 20 years.” Tina: “Actually, it’s 7.”
— Aidy: “I thought this was a home makeover show!” Tina: “In a way, it is.”
— Amy and Tina are perfect for the game show host roles in this particular sketch.
— An excellent progression to the shocking reveals in this sketch, with Taran’s future second wife currently being EVEN YOUNGER than that of Bobby’s.
— A very funny casual reveal that Aidy is going to die in a tragic kayaking accident. I also love Aidy’s reaction to hearing that.
— Love the initial cutaway to a very deadpan Leslie.
— Kenan repeatedly whispering to himself “Don’t be white” when his second wife is about to be revealed is a riot.
— A freakin’ perfect fake-out with the appearance of Cecily’s adult character, who you initially assume is Kenan’s future second wife, only for it to be revealed that she’s currently pregnant with Kenan’s future second wife.
— Aidy, after it’s announced that the contestants are all going home with a new kayak: “I know I shouldn’t, but they’re so fun!”
— Overall, a bonafide all-time classic. Everything in this was perfection, it kept topping itself with all of the surprising reveals, and there was an endless number of hilarious parts.
STARS: *****


HOVERBOARDS
exploding Hoverboards are the hot toy this Christmas season

 

— A good spoof of the Hoverboard craze from around this time.
— Great visual of Beck as an old man happily riding on a Hoverboard while he’s on fire.
— Hilarious visual of a fearfully-screaming Pete speeding through the streets on his suddenly-accelerated Hoverboard at sound barrier-breaking speed, complete with a funny close-up of the now-pee-stained crotch of Pete’s pants. Speaking of which, I remember some online SNL fans back at this time, including two hosts of a now-defunct podcast that covered old SNL episodes (not That Week In SNL, which is still running), didn’t notice the pee stain and were baffled over why SNL threw in a close-up of Pete’s crotch. The two hosts of the aforementioned now-defunct SNL podcast spent a good amount of time unsuccessfully trying to figure out why the hell SNL would throw in a close-up of Pete’s crotch during a scene of him speeding through the streets on a Hoverboard. How in the world did so many people miss the noticeable pee strain on his crotch???
STARS: ****


MOVIE SET
acting coach from The Jeffersons seeks inapt emoting during serious scene

— Yeah, I definitely didn’t need a second installment of this.
— Wait, now Kenan’s character says he did five seasons on The Jeffersons? In the previous installment of this sketch, he said he only worked on The Jeffersons for one day. And that made much more sense, because the cartoonish acting techniques he teaches are NOTHING like the acting on The Jeffersons.
— The more and more this sketch goes on, I’m actually kinda finding Tina and Amy’s imitation of Kenan’s cartoonish acting techniques to be kinda chuckleworthy (especially Amy doing the George Jefferson dance). While that still may be faint praise, it’s certainly more than I laughed at Chris Hemsworth and Kate doing that in the first installment of this sketch. (Odd coincidence how they brought this sketch back the week after Hemsworth hosted for a second time.)
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Meet Me in the City”


WEEKEND UPDATE
somebody’s mom Deenie (KAM) doesn’t know names of soap opera characters

TIF & AMP tell the last two Weekend Update jokes of 2015

— The audience’s energy in this episode is so high that even Colin plays off of it during his sign-on while the audience is applauding after the Update opening title sequence.
— The first appearance of Kate’s Deenie character, who I recall hearing was based on writer Paula Pell’s mother.
— Hmm, Kate keeps occasionally breaking for no apparent reason throughout this commentary. Am I watching a Kate McKinnon performance from 2015 or 2021?
— While I certainly have no familiarity with Paula Pell’s mother, I’m still finding Kate’s character relatable (which I’m sure is SNL’s intention), as she reminds me of my grandmother in a lot of ways. Too bad Kate’s constant breaking is distracting from the material and is serving as an unfortunate reminder of what’s to come in her later years on SNL.
— A somewhat interesting breakdown from Colin on Martin Shkreli.
— A special bit, with Tina and Amy doing Colin and Michael’s last two jokes of 2015. Since these jokes were written by this season’s Update writers instead of whoever wrote Tina and Amy’s dreadful Update jokes from their Update era together, I won’t complain like I usually do about the Fey/Poehler teaming on Update.
— A decent joke from Tina and Amy each, and my goodwill towards that is helped by the aforementioned fun, feel-good energy that tonight’s audience and general Christmas episode is bringing.
STARS: ***½


THE CHAD & MRS. DOUGLAS SHOW COLLECTION
clips on 1970s variety show DVD are colored by alcohol, cocaine, roofies

— Naturally, a Fey/Poehler hosting stint brings us a Maya Rudolph cameo.
— Maya dusting off her hammy singing routine, I see. Since we’ve gotten a long break from it, I don’t mind seeing it here, and the ending of her scene with her randomly hiding in the gift bag is funny.
— The decent execution of this sketch’s material is helping me overlook all of the aggressive James Anderson/Kent Sublette-ness of the material.
— A huge laugh from the reveal of Kenan’s Bill Cosby in the “Baby’s It’s Cold Outside” clip.
STARS: ***


TINA & AMY’S DOPE SQUAD
Amy Schumer & Gayle King [real] provide Dope Squad support for TIF & AMP

— Funny delivery from a laid-back Aidy at the beginning of the interview.
— After Tina and Amy’s initial song, which was certainly funny, Aidy steals this short with the hardcore rap she suddenly breaks out into. She’s doing a solid job here, and her rapping is actually very catchy.
— I love Amy Schumer’s “Wait, who are we mad at???” line.
— Good ending with the ladies’ reaction to the cliched explosion they’re walking away from.
— Another good line from Schumer, with her responding to being asked if she’s okay after the aforementioned explosion by saying “No, I’m suing everyone here.” She’s making me laugh more in this one short than she did in her actual hosting stint earlier this season.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Ties That Bind”


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
Betty & Philadelphian cousin (TIF) learn of Jodi’s pregnancy

— This ends up being the final appearance of this sketch (as of 2021).
— The usual solid performances from Amy and Maya as these characters.
— Fitting casting of Tina in this Philadelphia-accented role.
— The bit with Amy and Maya’s characters enviously saying they wish they had accents was already used in an earlier Bronx Beat sketch, the one from the season 34 Hugh Laurie episode.
— As expected, good interplay between Amy, Maya, and Tina here.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest, TIF, AMP, MAR, cast members, Paul McCartney [real] perform “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

— Ooh, a change of pace, with Tina and Amy delivering their goodnights speech from the musical guest stage as Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are getting set to do their special next musical performance.
— Paul McCartney making his required annual SNL appearance.
— So damn fun and rare seeing the whole cast get involved in this great musical performance. A very special moment.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good and fun episode, and, as mentioned throughout the review, featured a nice infectious energy, which is perfect for a Christmas episode. The feel-good atmosphere of this episode was also given a boost by the exciting novelty of having two hosts.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Meet Your Second Wife!
A Hillary Christmas
Tina & Amy’s Dope Squad
Hoverboards
Republican Presidential Debate
Bronx Beat with Betty & Jodi
Weekend Update
Monologue
The Chad & Mrs. Douglas Show Collection
Movie Set


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Hemsworth)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2016, with Adam Driver making his hosting debut

Posted on

December 12, 2015 – Chris Hemsworth / Chance the Rapper (S41 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) is preferable to any of the current GOP candidates

— For some reason, it feels weird hearing Darrell Hammond announce the usual “And now, a message from the president of the United States.” It also makes me realize how seldom SNL has done presidential address cold openings in the post-Don Pardo era so far.
— Random Will Ferrell appearance as George W. Bush! I can’t remember if this cameo was a surprise when this episode originally aired, or if it was announced/spoiled beforehand.
— Already a big laugh from Will-as-Bush’s opening announcement: “I’m entering the race for president of the United States.”
— Lots of other great lines from Will’s Bush throughout this as he does a breakdown of the republicans running for president.
— A particularly funny bit about leprechauns.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
cast members barely tolerate host’s backstage jokey pranks & roughhousing

— A decently funny bit at the beginning with Chris Hemsworth reacting to a photo of himself from his March 2015 hosting stint as if it’s a photo of him at a much younger age.
— I’m always a bit of a sucker for host-goes-around-the-studio monologues.
— Chris, to Bobby: “How many sketches do you play Santa Claus in tonight?” Bobby: “(in a depressed manner) All of them.”
— Chris’ dickish “playful” behavior towards the cast members is providing some pretty good laughs.
— A predictable but still-funny part with Leslie.
— Absolutely love the bit with Colin and Michael.
STARS: ***½


STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ACTION FIGURES
adult collectors like to leave Star Wars VII action figures in the box

— A funny spoof of some obsessed adult collectors of Star Wars action figures.
— A classic part with the melancholy, deep look Taran silently stares off with when one of the young boys asks him “Does your wife like toys, too?”
— Love the contrast between the loud, upbeat transition shot and the extremely quiet scene it’s immediately followed by, where Bobby is VERY slowly and carefully placing a Star Wars action figure in a glass case, all the while the young boys are just looking on in a deadpan manner.
STARS: ****


ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Ted Cruz (TAK) & other GOP candidates weigh in on Muslims

— Feels odd seeing Kate doing this impression, after I had gotten so used to seeing Kristen Wiig do this impression for years. Also feels odd seeing this sketch not appearing in the cold opening slot like Kristen’s Van Susteren sketches did.
— Looks like I’m in for a rare post-2010 hostless sketch, as I can’t see how they’re going to fit Chris Hemsworth in this.
— At least Kate is going for a different take on Van Susteren than Kristen did.
— I always love Bobby’s take on Chris Christie, and he’s very solid here as usual.
— When he, as Ben Carson, is intentionally butchering the names of several radical groups, Jay messes up by initially pronouncing “ISIS” correctly, even though Kate immediately reacts like he butchered it. He then butchers the pronunciation like he’s supposed to (“iss-iss”). As much as Jay has grown as a performer over the years, he still hasn’t outgrown his tendency to flub lines.
STARS: ***


TIME TO BLEED
gunshot doesn’t slow cop’s (host) crimefighting & wooing

— All of the interplay between Chris and Sasheer’s cop characters is such an accurate spoof of cop movies.
— A solid progression to this, and Chris is playing this role really well. Sasheer is also very strong in a rare co-starring role.
— Good ending, especially Sasheer’s delivery of the final line.
STARS: ****


BROTHER 2 BROTHER
Marky’s physiology is obviously inferior to Matty’s

— I liked the first installment of this sketch, but I’m not sure I needed a sequel.
— I’m not liking Beck’s long run of the differences between the twins as much as I liked Cecily’s delivery of that in the first installment of this.
— A very odd and awkward genuine gaffe where Chris, while making his entrance in the locker room, can’t get the door to open all the way and accidentally bumps hard into it, hurting himself and very audibly reacting in pain. Yikes.
— I got a laugh from the fake-out where the music sting made it seem like the show was going to end after the twins did their usual leaning-against-each-other’s-backs pose, only for the other characters to continue with their run of the differences between the twins.
STARS: **½


DEBRA’S TIME
obscure holiday song “Debra’s Time” derails Christmas carol singalong

— Oh, no. The second edition of these “Someone among a group of people sings a made-up song that they keep expecting everybody else in the group to join in on as if it’s a famous song” sketches that I never can stand.
— I’m getting sick of all the overdone cutaways to the straight man characters “reacting” with dumbfounded looks to the “Debra’s Time” song.
— The only positive I can find in this is that Cecily is performing this masterfully.
— Aaaaaand there’s that typical dumb, corny “Hey, the other people in the group do know the song after all!!!!11!1!!!” twist that these sketches typically have.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Jeremih [real] perform “Paradise”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jeb Bush’s new campaign ad solicits pity via Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”

Time’s Person Of The Year Angela Merkel (KAM) struggles to celebrate

Breaking Bad fan LEJ plans to make meth to pay for her retirement

— A somewhat interesting commentary that Michael and Colin are making on Donald Trump, but, even though they’re still taking a lot of digs at him here, it seems like SNL has continued to be on their “We’re still a bit defensive of Trump since he recently hosted our show” kick, with Michael and Colin claiming here that they don’t believe Trump’s actually a racist. Hmm. I’m sure they (or at least SNL in general) would soon change their tune on that.
— A good laugh from the “Rescue Jeb” ad.
— Kate’s Angela Merkel, on Donald Trump’s claim that Merkel is ruining Germany: “Oh, yeah. I guess he prefers our earlier stuff.”
— Blah at that really bad “egg nod” joke from Kate’s Merkel. A weak way to end her otherwise-fine commentary.
— Leslie, on Walter White’s wife in Breaking Bad not being happy with him making meth: “I’m like, ‘You need to get’cho ass in there and juggle them balls, BITCH!’”
— An overall fairly short but still very funny commentary from Leslie about Breaking Bad.
STARS: ***½


BRUNCH
ladies’ friend “Claire” is host in drag seeking hunkiness reassurance

— The initial reveal of Chris in drag is almost groan-inducing, but becomes tolerable when you gradually realize that the conceit is Chris playing himself in drag out of insecure desperation to keep ladies talking about how hot he is.
— During the discreet conversation the ladies have while Chris is in the bathroom, I laughed when they realized that they’ve never met their “close” friend Claire (Chris) before.
— Good delivery from Aidy of her ending line: “No, this was bad and you’re weird now.”
STARS: ***


PIRATE SHIP
on a pirate ship, crewman Mark (JOR) lifts spirits with his buffoonery

— After struggling badly in the last handful of episodes since the Tracy Morgan one, Jon Rudnitsky gets his first noteworthy role in a good while, and his first overall comedic lead role.
— Are they kidding me with the conceit of this sketch? The unfunny, dumb, intentionally-corny humor in this is cringeworthy.
— Something about Taran’s performance when he’s going on about Jon’s character’s hilarious “Jeffy” routine is coming off really bad and annoying to me, and I rarely if ever say that about Taran.
— The performers sure are having a good laugh amongst themselves over the blooper with Kenan being the only one splashed with water. Too bad I’m not laughing as well.
— Overall, what a dreadful sketch. I also remember some online SNL fans said this sketch seemed to be SNL trying way too hard to make the audience like Jon. Whether intentional on SNL’s part or not, this sketch indeed gave off that desperate “Please like this struggling new guy, everyone!” vibe. (Basically the inverse of future one-season wonder Luke Null’s first lead role, where, after Luke struggles to get anything noteworthy to do in his first few months, SNL makes the questionable decision to have Luke’s very first lead role be a really off-putting, dickish character in a classroom sketch that would end up making him come off unlikable to a number of viewers.) And as we know now, this desperate attempt to make Jon a hit with the audience didn’t pay off. And sketches like this, along with some other things (particularly that ridiculous and offensive Anderson Cooper impression he did earlier this season), makes his firing after this season no big loss to me AT ALL.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sunday Candy”


HUNK JUNKTION
earnest dancers (TAK), (host), (JAP), (BEB) don’t get strip club concept

— Another display of giggliness from Kenan tonight, this time caused by a slight delay in the music being cued up.
— Meh, I’m not caring much for the comedic conceit of the stripping routine, nor Kate, Cecily, and Aidy’s Mikey Day-esque “Straight man characters incredulously describe the already-obvious oddness they’re witnessing from the comedic characters” roles. Not even the gag of Leslie being the only person in the group of female customers bopping energetically to the stripping routine is working much for me, as it’s such a cliched gag on SNL.
— I howled at Kenan’s angry delivery of “Whip…out…ya nekkid ding-dongs NOW!” That’s one laugh in this sketch, at least.
— Very weak ending.
STARS: *½


ARONS LIST
Rerun from 11/14/15


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of a meh and unmemorable episode. Actually, there was a decent number of good things, but I can’t help but feel they were overshadowed by all of the things I either didn’t care for or felt were forgettably average.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Action Figures
Presidential Address
Time To Bleed
Monologue
Weekend Update
Brunch
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren
Brother 2 Brother
Hunk Junktion
Debra’s Time
Pirate Ship


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Gosling)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, SNL’s first dual hosts in 11 years, host the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 5, 2015 – Ryan Gosling / Leon Bridges (S41 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM DONALD & MELANIA TRUMP
Donald (TAK) & Melania (CES) Trump list who’s naughty & who’s nice

— This ends up being the last time Taran ever plays Donald Trump on SNL, after only three appearances. I have mixed feelings about SNL taking the impression away from him so soon. The impression isn’t very good despite the fact that I definitely see what he’s going for, but on the other hand, given how much SNL hyped the announcement that summer of Taran being SNL’s new Trump impersonator, I’m surprised they gave up on him so fast, and I can’t help but feel he deserved at least a few more chances to nail the impression. Also, I wonder if the impression being yanked away from him so fast is one of the many things that soured Taran’s attitude towards his later years at SNL.
— Like the previous Donald/Melania cold opening from this season’s premiere, I’m actually getting more laughs from Cecily-as-Melania’s lines than from Taran-as-Donald’s lines.
— Can’t find anything else to say about this. A pretty blah cold opening, even moreso than the previous Donald/Melania cold opening.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— Why has Darrell Hammond made it a habit lately to always deliver his “It’s Saturday Night Live!” a full second BEFORE the SNL logo even shows up onscreen?


MONOLOGUE
MIM & countryman host sing Canadian Christmas song to show homeland pride

— Decent bit with Ryan Gosling trying to pass his Canadian self off as being from New York.
— Mike Myers cameo, for the second time in two consecutive seasons.
— Mike is fun here as expected.
— Love the bit with Mike insisting Ryan use the Canadian pronunciation of “sorry”.
— Ah, there’s those wild tap-dancing moves that I remember Mike previously doing a few times during his SNL stint, including during a dance routine he and his mom did in SNL’s Mother’s Day special from 1992.
— Even for a musical monologue, this song is actually pretty fun and charming.
STARS: ***½


SETTL
Settl dating app is for women willing to lower their marital standards

— A funny concept for a spoof of dating apps.
— A good laugh from the initial close-up of Taran as Vanessa’s mustached boyfriend.
— Great line from Vanessa, with her upbeat, professionally-delivered “We’re getting married in April, which is before my sister.”
— Aside from the still photos of him shown here, Pete is completely absent in tonight’s episode. He was also barely in the preceding episode, making his only appearance in a small non-speaking role in the final sketch of the night. His airtime has taken a hit lately. (Jon Rudnitsky is also absent tonight, but that’s no surprise. So far, he’s yet to get any noteworthy roles ever since his bad gay-themed roles in the Tracy Morgan episode.)
— Lots of funny little bits all throughout this commercial.
STARS: ****


CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Ms. Rafferty’s (KAM) UFO trip was less transcendent than other abductees’

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its very noteworthy, memorable debut.
— Even the mere initial visual of Kate’s haggard, laid-back, cigarette-smoking character sitting next to Cecily and Ryan’s more conventional-looking characters is very funny.
— Kate’s characterization, delivery, and general demeanor here are all an absolute riot.
— Kate, regarding the aliens who watched her pee: “I don’t think I was dealing with the top brass.”
— Kate, regarding no longer having her pants at one point of her UFO experience: “I was full Porky Piggin’ it in a drafty dome.”
— Kate’s performance and ridiculous lines have now begun cracking up Aidy, Bobby, and even Kate herself a little (the latter probably only induced by Aidy and Bobby laughing). I can’t blame anyone in this particular case.
— Kate’s descriptions of her UFO experience are getting more and more priceless as this sketch goes on.
— I’ve been surprised to once learn that Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell write these Close Encounter sketches. Could’ve fooled me, as these sketches feel completely different from Day & Seidell’s usual very recognizable style. I would’ve bet money that Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider wrote these.
— Now Ryan has memorably begun cracking up, in what ends up being our first of several displays tonight of Giggling Gosling.
— Overall, a true classic, a prime example of the greatness Kate could reliably bring during these peak years of her SNL tenure, and was another Kate McKinnon performance from these years that, when it originally aired, had me feeling I was watching a legend in the making. It’s a damn shame that, instead of keeping this a classic one-off piece like they should’ve, SNL ends up needlessly making it recurring, where it would become a textbook case of diminishing returns and trying too hard to recapture the magic of the original.
STARS: *****


SANTA BABY
prospect of meeting Santa overexcites (host) & (VAB)

— I like the tense look the other party guests have after the unsettling too-long lovey-dovey stare Ryan and Vanessa give each other after their first kiss in this short.
— Very funny reveal that Ryan and Vanessa still believe in Santa, and very passionately so.
— A lot of good laughs from how even more unsettling Ryan and Vanessa’s lovey-dovey actions with each other are becoming over the course of this short.
— I absolutely love the extremely intense turn this has now taken. Ryan is performing the living HELL out of this, and Vanessa is equally fantastic here. This is just one of many things that make this and the following season Vanessa’s two best seasons. She’s the only example I can think of off the top of my head of a seven-seasons-or-more cast member who peaked during their final two seasons. Very impressive. [ADDENDUM: I just thought of another example: Tracy Morgan.]
— It’s a good thing this is pre-taped, because you KNOW Ryan would’ve broke hard during this if it were a live sketch. Unlike the Close Encounter sketch, a Giggling Gosling performance could’ve potentially hurt Santa Baby. The absolute intense, dead seriousness that he’s playing this material in this pre-taped format is part of what makes it work so damn well.
— The sequence with Ryan and Vanessa dancing on the table to the song “I Will Follow You” is a particularly standout portion of this fantastic short.
— A perfect emotional, helpless expression on Beck’s face during the bit with Vanessa sitting on his-as-Santa’s lap.
— Excellent ending with the real Santa peeking in through the window and fearfully backing away over the horror he’s witnessing.
— Overall, an absolute masterpiece. This is impressively also our second consecutive five-star classic in tonight’s episode.
STARS: *****


BIRTHDAY PARTY
at (VAB)’s 13th birthday party, Melanie yearns for honoree’s dad (host)

— The second and final appearance of this sketch. An odd coincidence how the two times it appeared was with a Canadian host (Drake, Ryan Gosling).
— Ryan is okay here, but he doesn’t compare AT ALL to Drake’s surprisingly masterful portrayal of a corny middle-aged dad in the first installment of this sketch.
— Wait, Aidy’s character says she’s 13-and-a-half here? So are we supposed to just forget the fact that the previous installment of this sketch had a reveal that Aidy’s character is actually in her 20s and had recently awoken from a years-long coma?
— This sketch is just following the exact same formula of the previous installment of this sketch, but it’s still working well, thanks to Aidy’s solid and fun performance. They probably made the right decision, though, to keep this recurring sketch at only two appearances and never do a third installment.
— Great pratfall from Aidy.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Smooth Sailin'”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Glamour Magazine correspondent Jill Davenport (CES) flirts with COJ

third-hand source Angelo Skaggs (host) is downstream of Anthony Crispino

— A pretty solid long-form news story breakdown/rant from Colin and Michael on the topics of congress defunding planned parenthood and President Obama making a statement about ISIS not being a threat to America.
— Hmm, so far, this commentary of Cecily’s is VERY reminiscent of an Update commentary Kristen Wiig once did as a flirting expert.
— During Cecily’s commentary, I like the cutaway to a headphones-wearing Michael casually bopping his head.
— Yeah, this general Cecily commentary is just a big ol’ reprisal of the Wiig flirting commentary, even though, to Cecily’s credit, she’s performing it really well. I’d like this commentary a lot more if it weren’t so derivative.
— Not only a very funny Isis Cosby joke from Colin, but I also love Michael’s ad-lib afterwards about SNL’s decision to have Isis Cosby be represented by a photo of a white baby: “There’s no way Isis Cosby is white.”
— A lot of Bobby’s big Update characters (Drunk Uncle, Anthony Crispino) seem to be on their way out lately, judging from how less and less they’ve been appearing. In fact, this ends up being Anthony Crispino’s final appearance.
— Oh, until now, I had completely forgotten about Ryan’s appearance in this episode’s Anthony Crispino commentary. This ends up being the first of two times in Ryan’s two hosting stints that he would appear as a recurring Update correspondent’s similar-traited friend.
— A huge laugh from the Star Wars/Cool Runnings bit in the Crispino commentary.
— Ryan’s doing a solid job emulating Bobby’s characterization, and, after just playing dull straight roles in all of his previous live appearances tonight (including in his own monologue), it’s good to see Ryan finally get to let loose and play a silly comedic role. He and Bobby are an absolute blast together here. Bobby’s Crispino is going out on a good note here.
STARS: ****


HOMETOWN BAR
(KYM) tries to embarrass boyhood rival host during his hometown visit

— An interesting absurd characterization from Kyle, playing a comically unconvincing bully.
— The more and more this sketch goes on, the more and more Kyle’s goofy, oddball characterization is cracking me the hell up. He’s probably one of the very few people who could make this sketch work with such a goofy and oddball characterization, as the material itself is nothing to write home about and I have a hard time picturing a lot of other performers being able to sell the goofy and oddball characterization that Kyle’s doing so well here.
— Another sketch tonight that sets off a bit of a chain reaction of breaking among the performers, as not only do we get another display of Giggling Gosling throughout this, but one particularly funny line delivery of Kyle’s also causes Cecily and Bobby to lose it.
— I’m really showing myself to be a 90s kid here, but something about the way Kyle’s face looks in that wig (along with the fact that he’s playing a bully) reminds me so much of Skull, of Bulk and Skull, the two bully characters from the original Power Rangers series.
— Nice turn this sketch takes with Kyle’s tearful breakdown.
STARS: ****


NESPRESSO
seeking Nespresso, puzzled Danny DeVito (BOM) trails George Clooney (TAK)

— Second consecutive episode with Bobby’s new Danny DeVito impression. At least he’s wearing a wig here that makes him resemble DeVito more, as opposed to that terrible wig he wore in the preceding episode.
— A laugh from the visual of Bobby-as-DeVito’s tiny legs while he’s being measured for an outfit.
— I don’t think I’m familiar with the actual Nespresso commercial this is spoofing (if I saw it, then I don’t remember it), but I don’t seem to need to be. The sheer oddness of this commercial (which I’ve been told is a very accurate spoof to the real commercial) is making me laugh a lot, Bobby’s a lot of fun in his performance and has a lot of good lines, and I’m enjoying the odd-couple pairing of his DeVito and Taran’s George Clooney.
STARS: ****


THE WIZ LIVE!
The Wiz characters meet Scarecrow (host) from The Wizard Of Oz

— I strangely love seeing Michael in that scarecrow make-up and doing that dance with the others at the beginning, just because it’s Michael Che, of all people, doing that.
— In that scarecrow make-up and with that goofy eager facial expression he keeps making, Ryan looks uncannily like Taran at times.
— Solid characterization and voice from Ryan, and, much like I said about his Update appearance, it feels good to see him get to let loose and play a goofy role, given the number of straight man roles he’s been playing all night.
— Funny bit regarding Ryan wanting to touch Sasheer’s hair.
— I can’t find much else to say, but I’m enjoying this sketch just fine, and it’s a huge improvement over the really lousy previous two times this SNL era attempted a spoof of NBC’s annual live musicals (Peter Pan and The Sound Of Music).
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “River”


SANTA AND HIS MAGICAL ELVES
(host) & fellow masochistic elves try goading Santa (BOM) into discipline

— Ohho, no. Not the return of this.
— What in the world was with that absurdly long, silent pause just now? Who exactly forgot their line? Kenan?
— The only positive I can find in this sketch is that I’m strangely kinda liking Ryan’s typical giggliness and smiliness here, and am finding that it works in this particular role.
STARS: *½


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of SNL wardrobe crew member Jenna Krempel marks her passing


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode with two absolute classics and lots of other good stuff. There was also a nice and fun vibe to this episode, partly helped by Ryan Gosling, who, even with his constant giggliness and bland straight man roles, had something likable and charming about him as a host.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Santa Baby
Close Encounter
Settl
Weekend Update
Hometown Bar
Nespresso
Monologue
Birthday Party
The Wiz Live!
A Christmas Message from Donald & Melania Trump
Santa And His Magical Elves


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Matthew McConaughey)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chris Hemsworth

Posted on

November 21, 2015 – Matthew McConaughey / Adele (S41 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

FOX & FRIENDS
Ben Carson (JAP) gives his thoughts on Syrian refugees

— Didn’t they just do this sketch a few episodes ago?
— This ends up being the final installment of this sketch with the Taran/Vanessa/Bobby lineup. This sketch would be revived for one installment years later with a new lineup of cast members playing the three hosts.
— The usual good laughs from Bobby’s dimwitted Brian Kilmeade.
— Kate’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz again, after she appeared in the last installment of this sketch prior to this. She’s fine here, but nothing particularly special, and it’s making this feel too similar to the last installment.
— An impression I’m more welcoming towards seeing is Jay’s Ben Carson, making its first appearance in a sketch that’s set in present day.
— Jay’s Ben Carson: “Oh, I’m like a koala bear – on the outside, I may seem nice, but on the inside, I’ve never held elected office.”
— Wow, for once, we get a deviation from the usual list of fact corrections that this recurring sketch typically ends with. This time, instead of showing a fact corrections list, the camera cuts to Leslie as the show’s fact checker, who answers Taran’s “How’d we do on our facts?” question with a very funny response: “Bad! Ya’ll gonna have me up all night!” I wonder if the reason for this deviation from the usual fact corrections list is because whoever writes these sketches was sick of coming up with those lists.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host recounts Dazed & Confused origin of “alright alright alright” phrase

— Much like Matthew McConaughey’s previous monologue from his season 28 hosting stint, this features him telling a very long-winded story.
— Is it true what Matthew says here about only having three lines in Dazed & Confused? I’ve never actually seen that whole movie, just a few clips, but from everything I’ve heard about Matthew’s iconic character in it, I assumed he certainly had more than a mere three lines.
— I do like the punchline of this story, but it wasn’t funny enough to justify neither the long length nor the dullness of the story. I also don’t like how self-indulgent both of Matthew’s long-story monologues feel. Plus, at least in his season 28 monologue, the long story was only the first half of the monologue, and the second half (featuring him going backstage and getting high with cast members in his dressing room) redeemed that overall monologue. Tonight’s monologue, on the other hand, just concludes after the story ends, leaving me with an unsatisfied feel.
STARS: **


A THANKSGIVING MIRACLE
musical guest’s “Hello” soothes tensions during family Thanksgiving meal

— Some great realistic tension in the opening Thanksgiving dinner table conversation about social and political issues, featuring strong acting from the cast.
— Very solid turn with Adele’s “Hello” song immediately stopping the tension at the table and leading to the family lip-syncing the song dreamily.
— The recurrent “Hello” lip-syncing sequences are getting funnier and funnier the more extensive they become in emulating the music video for this song. These lip-syncing sequences are also a great commentary on how much that song moves people.
— I’m loving how very well-done everything about this short is. Prior to my current viewing, I had forgotten just how damn strong this short is.
STARS: *****


BLUES SHACK
trouble-free (host) sits in with blues musicians who have legit hardships

— Something about the upper chin area of Kenan’s fake beard is distracting.
— Blah, the comedic conceit with Matthew’s character’s bad examples of blues isn’t doing anything for me.
— I do admit to laughing at the so-dumb-it’s-funny bit where, when told to act like Kenan’s character, Matthew’s character just mostly sings the words “I’m black, I am black!” over and over.
— Overall, aside from the above-mentioned part and some funny straight man reactions from Kenan, this sketch was a flop.
STARS: *½


3D PRINTER MAN
audience easily identifies 3D bioprinted man (host) via a Turing test

— Matthew’s unnatural sentence wordings and robot-like actions are fairly funny.
— The physical actions from Matthew when he and the other guys are demonstrating moves are providing pretty good laughs.
STARS: ***


STAR WARS AUDITIONS
Star Wars Episode VII roles go to Daisy Ridley & John Boyega [real] & not celebs

— A twist to the usual formula of SNL’s screen test pre-tapes, by having this one involve some real celebrities, including some from the actual Star Wars VII movie. This is providing more of a fresh feel to SNL’s usual screen test formula.
— The mere visual of Aidy in that ridiculous huge wig is alone worth a big laugh.
— Taran’s David Beckham scene is particularly funny.
— A hilarious scene with Bobby as Danny DeVito auditioning for BB-8.
— Jon Hamm!
— Ah, Hamm’s being his usual funny and charming self here.
— Leslie steals yet another segment.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hello”


WEEKEND UPDATE
COJ & MIC give their comedic takes on immigration & America

guest anchor Laura Parsons brings spunky delivery to serious news items

for Thanksgiving, COJ & MIC write jokes for one another to tell

David Ortiz (KET) is retiring from baseball but has endorsements lined up

— The usual very solid long-form news story breakdown from Colin and Michael, this time on the topic of immigration.
— Laura Parsons, an established sketch character of Vanessa’s, makes her first of several Update appearances.
— Laura Parsons delivering very harrowing news stories in her usual upbeat, child actor-y delivery is absolutely priceless. This is a great way to reinvent this character, and I feel she definitely works better on Update than in sketches.
— Ah, an important moment, as we get the official debut of the well-loved tradition of Colin and Michael swapping jokes. In this inaugural outing, the occasion for this joke-swap routine is Thanksgiving. IIRC, the occasion for this routine would later be changed to Christmas.
— The bad or self-insulting jokes Michael and Colin have been given in tonight’s joke-swap are very funny.
— The second-ever appearance of Kenan’s David Ortiz, after making his first appearance all the way back in season 39.
— The ridiculous ads that Kenan’s Ortiz is doing are hilarious, especially the “Smidgeon of Pigeon” and the “Go Outside” ones.
— Overall, yet another damn strong Jost/Che Update. It used to be rare for Updates to earn a four-and-a-half-star rating from me, but at the rate the Jost/Che era of Update has been going lately, it seems to be becoming a regular thing.
STARS: ****½


SHOULD YOU CHIME IN ON THIS?
ignorant contestants can’t resist engaging

— Yet another game show sketch in this decade where the game show host has a similar-sounding name to a celebrity (this time Allen DeGeneres), which is such a tired joke by this point.
— Something about the atmosphere of this sketch feels dead so far.
— Boy, Kenan is hamming up a storm in this sketch. Half of that is working for me, while the other half is too reminiscent of Kenan’s weaker tendencies as a performer in his earlier seasons before he became a reliable veteran. My problem is, his hammy, broad performance in this sketch doesn’t seem right for this particular role he’s playing.
— Pretty funny reveal of a long braid on the back of Matthew’s head.
— A surprising walk-on from Kate’s Hillary Clinton, who I had forgotten appears in this sketch.
— Overall, while this had a promising concept, I was underwhelmed by the execution of it.
STARS: **


RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED WITH GRACELYNN AND CORY
oven cleaner fumes overcome turkey chef (host)

— The third and final appearance of this sketch. Feels odd seeing this sketch buried so late in tonight’s lineup, given how early in the show’s lineup it previously appeared.
— Like the second installment of this sketch, the fun and charming interplay between Taran and Cecily continues to grow on me, after I didn’t care for it in the first installment.
— What was with Matthew goofily calling attention to his very minor opening line flub (so minor, that I didn’t even notice it until he called attention to it) and pointlessly making himself repeat the whole line?
— The different flavor that Matthew’s character is adding to this recurring sketch is…uh, interesting so far.
— Taran’s line about brush blocking Cecily’s “backwoods” area made me laugh.
— Ehhh, the more Matthew’s scenes go on, the less and less I’m liking them. His performance is reminding me an awful lot of how annoying and bizarre I found his performances in his season 28 hosting stint, if you remember my VERY negative review of that episode (link here).
— Ugggghhhh, the unfunny running gag of Kate showing up as a male singer in each installment of this recurring sketch continues.
STARS: **½ (Matthew’s performance brought this down for me)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When We Were Young”


TOWN HALL MEETING
at a community forum, inferiority complex leads (host) to object to train

— Oh, God. Looks like I’m in for another annoying McConaughey character piece, judging from his performance so far.
— I did get a laugh just now at the reveal of Matthew’s ridiculous-looking fake hand.
— Matthew actually has funny lines here, but something feels wrong about the overly hammy, broad way he’s playing this role, similar to my complaint about Kenan’s performance in the Should You Chime In On This sketch. Matthew’s bad performance is hurting the humor of this sketch.
— Surprisingly, this is Pete’s first and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s not even a speaking role.
— The ending was pretty awful.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly weak episode. Despite a few strong things in the first half, including the classic A Thanksgiving Miracle piece, this episode as a whole never fully took off for me, and there were a number of underwhelming pieces, especially in the second half of the show, where I didn’t care much for ANY of the sketches, despite all of them having potential. Matthew McConaughey is now 0-for-2 in good SNL episodes. And while I found him tolerable for a majority of his performances in this episode compared to his performances in his awful season 28 episode, the last 15 minutes of this episode sadly featured him relapsing into his annoying self from his season 28 stint. Might be a good idea to just keep him away from SNL from now on. I just don’t feel he and sketch comedy mix all that well.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Thanksgiving Miracle
Weekend Update
Star Wars Auditions
Fox & Friends
3D Printer Man
Right Side of the Bed with Gracelynn and Cory
Should You Chime In On This?
Town Hall Meeting
Monologue
Blues Shack


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elizabeth Banks)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ryan Gosling

Posted on

November 14, 2015 – Elizabeth Banks / Disclosure (S41 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WE STAND WITH PARIS
in wake of Paris terrorism, CES expresses solidarity in English & French

— One of the somber cold openings of this decade, where a recent tragic event gets addressed and is given a tribute, delivered on SNL’s home base stage. This is the shortest and most straightforward of those, with Cecily delivering a brief but heartfelt message about the previous day’s Paris attacks.
— Cecily’s voice is noticeably quivery during this heartfelt message, as if she’s holding back tears.
— Classy touch with Cecily repeating her English message in French.
— A rare instance of the camera not zooming in on the person delivering a LFNY. This time, the camera slowly zooms out during Cecily’s LFNY.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MONOLOGUE
actress-director host calls her own shots as she sings “What A Feeling”

— A very funny brief cutaway to Kyle as a cheering Hunger Games fan in the audience.
— A huge rarity, as we actually hear the voice of Don Roy King, SNL’s director, who gets a few lines here. Reminds me of the days when we would often hear director Dave Wilson’s voice, to the degree that his voice would become very familiar to us.
— For what is yet another musical monologue, this is actually damn fun, especially with all of the directions Elizabeth Banks gives and special effects she calls for. We even get some very rare overhead camera angles.
— Speaking of all of the huge rarities in this monologue, we even get a close-up of a gleefully-smiling Lenny Pickett!
— Overall, this monologue alone lets you know that this episode is going to be a complete turnaround from the unspeakable misery of the notorious episode that preceded this.
STARS: ****


ARONS LIST
handymen populate the registry of nonviolent sex offenders

— Hilarious reveal of the “Aron’s” in Aron’s List standing for “American Registry Of Nonviolent Sex offenders”. Vanessa’s facial reaction to that is priceless.
— The list of non-violent sex offenses is quite funny.
— A particularly funny brief cutaway to Jay as a seedy-looking, creepy-voiced character.
— A good laugh from the crude bit at the end with Kenan sneakily using a selfie stick to take a phone snapshot under Vanessa’s dress while she and everyone else are heartily laughing over a “joke” that Beck told.
STARS: ****


BLACK JEOPARDY!
white contestant (host) struggles to get the hang of it

— This sketch has officially become recurring, after two seasons (surprisingly).
— Elizabeth’s Allison character, on why she, of all people, is on Black Jeopardy: “I dated a black guy once, so…I don’t see color. It’s just Jeopardy to me.” Kenan: “……….Okay, we’ll see how THAT goes.”
— Another solid Kenan line, with him responding to Allison’s incorrect first answer by saying, “Might be a long night for you, Allison.”
— Jay and Sasheer’s black-centric answers are all very funny, even moreso than in the first installment of this sketch.
— A huge laugh from Bill Cosby being Allison’s answer to the “After everything he did, he try’na act like he don’t owe us an explanation” question, and Kenan revealing that the answer is actually Tom Brady. (Kenan: “Tired of him winnin’ all the time!” Me: “So are the Chiefs.”)
— I had remembered this installment feeling too much like a carbon copy of the first installment of this sketch, particularly Elizabeth’s character being too similar to Louis C.K.’s character from the first one. Instead, it turns out there are actually enough differences between Louis and Elizabeth’s characters, and I’m actually really enjoying tonight’s installment of this sketch and finding it to be even better than the already-solid first one, even if this still isn’t at the prestigious level of the later Tom Hanks and Chadwick Boseman installments of this sketch.
— Interesting use of Leslie in the Daily Double scene, and I love the fake-out with her question about paintings turning out to be a completely unrelated “Who killed Tupac?”
— Allison: “It’s just, ugh, no matter what I do, I-I can’t win!” (*the “correct answer” sound effect goes off*) Kenan: “Yes! That is the blackest thing you said all day, Allison!”
STARS: ****½


FIRST GOT HORNY 2 U
host, VAB, AIB, KAM, CES reveal teen crushes through song

— Oh, when I went into this episode in my current viewing, I had completely forgotten that it contains this short. I’ve always absolutely loved this short, and it’s tied with Twin Bed as my personal favorite of this era’s female-cast-starring music videos.
— Speaking of this era’s female-cast-starring music videos, this is actually the second consecutive episode with one, after the Bad Girls one in the preceding episode.
— Such a great subject matter, with Elizabeth and several of the female cast members telling us the celebrity they first got horny to during their adolescent years.
— A particularly funny and memorable part with Kate revealing that her feelings for Taylor Hanson are what made her realize that she’s gay.
— The only complaint I’ve ever had about this short is that I didn’t really need that intentionally-pointless interlude with Elizabeth pulling out her phone to find out the name of the actor from The Nanny. However, it’s not enough to hurt this short.
— Hilarious how Vanessa’s “first got horny to” disclosure is about the Menendez Brothers.
— Another great Vanessa moment in which she, while admiring a photo of the Menendez Brothers, looks up at a removable shower head and then gives a sly smile into the camera.
— Aidy’s whole part is great, especially the visual of her scooting on the floor.
— Love the part with Taran as Cecily’s dad walking into the living room, instantly catching Cecily sexually rolling back and forth against a pillow on the ground, and IMMEDIATELY walking back out.
STARS: *****


THEATER SHOWCASE
Student Theater Showcase performers continue to wage social justice wars

— I got such a big laugh from Leslie reacting to the first act in this showcase by just saying a deadpan “Hell naw” and immediately walking off.
— Kenan, in response to the “Whites run the world” act in this showcase: “Wh-why would they do that scene when they’re all white? Just sounded like bragging.”
— Kyle, to the audience, during the Sea World act in this showcase: “Would YOU…like to be jacked off for your sperm?” I also love Vanessa and Kenan’s dismayed reaction to that.
— Kenan: “(looking down at his pamphlet) It says…the proceeds from tonight’s show go to Neil Patrick Harris. (looks up from his pamphlet confusedly)………He doesn’t need that.”
— A priceless reveal from an appalled Vanessa that she’s Aidy’s mom, right after Aidy’s speech claiming her mom is dead.
— Overall, my favorite installment of this recurring sketch that has aired up to this point.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Lorde [real] perform “Magnets”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED doesn’t get the controversy regarding access to women’s bathrooms

per his stand-up & underage girlfriend, Bruce Chandling doesn’t get women

wretched Olya Povlatsky is unfamiliar with the concept of Thanksgiving

— Our very first of many instances over the years of Weekend Update showing a real clip of Donald Trump saying stupid shit. And right after he hosted this show to boot.
— Love Colin’s comment about how Bernie Sanders looks like if the post office became a person.
— Colin, after Pete reveals he’s been using the ladies bathroom at SNL for the last two months: “Yeah, we’ve actually gotten a lot of complaints.” Pete: “Yeah – from me! It’s filthy in there!”
— I like Pete’s little “That was my favorite line!” ad-lib after saying he uses the ladies bathroom at SNL because Cecily Strong has a beautiful singing voice.
— Another great long-form news story breakdown from Colin and Michael, this time about the Yale protests.
— Michael’s nerdy-sounding vocal impression of Colin has me absolutely HOWLING.
— Our first Bruce Chandling appearance in two seasons. Good to see this character back.
— Ha, Bruce Chandling’s jokes are even MORE hacky than usual, thus making them even funnier than usual.
— A very funny out-of-nowhere line from Chandling implying that his girlfriend fooled around with his close friends, leading to a great shocking realization from Chandling that his girlfriend is still in high school. This also leads into him going into his usual depressed self-reflection that I always love.
— This has been my favorite Bruce Chandling commentary that has aired up to this point.
— Colin makes another self-deprecating joke about that particular childhood photo of himself.
— Michael, on caffeinated peanut butter: “Perfect for that creep who wants the dog to just GO TO TOWN down there!”
— Always very nice to see Kate’s Olya Povlatsky character.
— I know I can’t be the only person who initially thought Kate’s thick-accented delivery of the word “fox” was her saying “fucks”. I think the audience thought so, too, because you can hear a few of them gasping in surprise while laughing.
— Olya Povlatsky, on her idea of a pick-up line: “I walk up to a guy and say, ‘Did you fall from heaven? If so, please tell me my babies are up there!’”
— I love Povlatsky’s imitation of an American accent.
— Another overall Jost/Che Update that was on FIRE.
STARS: ****½


THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG BEN CARSON
adventures from Ben Carson’s (JAP) youth are unlikely formative events

— The debut of Jay’s Ben Carson impression.
— I really like the idea of this sketch. I even love the detail of the late 1960s look to each character.
— Jay’s Ben Carson impression is both accurate and funny, and this sketch is getting good humor from Ben Carson’s low-energy, monotone demeanor.
— Leslie’s panicked delivery of “Oh, damn, he got a hammer!” made me laugh out loud.
— Very funny walk-on from Kenan as Black Jesus.
— I like Kenan’s little “You gonna cut Jesus?!?” line at the very end.
STARS: ***½


WALK-ON ROLE
charity auction winner (BOM) gets crime drama walk-on role as pervy perp

— A great unexpected turn with Bobby being shocked to discover during filming that his walk-on role in this cop show is as a perverted criminal, after all of that lighthearted set-up leading to the filming of this scene.
— After Elizabeth’s line about Bobby’s character in this cop show getting his jollies sniffing one-piece bikinis, I love the very nervous look Bobby gives into the camera in an uncomfortable close-up of his face (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— A funny mock-dramatic, over-the-top delivery from Aidy of the line “You are a MONSTER! I HATE YOU!!!”
— Another great reveal, this time Bobby saying he’s a middle school principal while he’s expressing panic over the fact that he told EVERYONE to watch his appearance on this show.
— Some odd gaffes from Jay during the airplane promo, including him mistakenly delivering it into the wrong camera. There’s quite a bit of sloppiness in general throughout this sketch, with several technical miscues. They’re not hurting this sketch for me, though.
— Great reaction from Bobby when hearing that the particularly troubling promo with him that was just filmed is going to air during the Super Bowl.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Sam Smith [real] perform “Omen”


UBER FOR JEN
Uber driver (MOB) takes indirect route to (host)’s destination

— Our first of only two Mike O’Brien films this season, which sadly end up being his last-ever films on SNL.
— A very funny bit with Mike driving off right before Elizabeth can fully grab onto her smoothie that the drive-thru cashier is handing her, causing her to drop it on the ground.
— A solid bank scene.
— Fantastic turn this short takes when Mike and Elizabeth start bonding with each other.
— I’m absolutely loving the montage of crazy activities Elizabeth and Mike get into during their bonding. Not only is this montage hilarious, but it’s also very charming.
— Vanessa’s been cast as a lot of pregnant women this season so far.
— Overall, yet another perfect Mike O’Brien short. The man’s track record in reliably churning out filmed masterpieces has been amazing.
STARS: *****


SO GHETTO
unlike her friends’ first-world problems, (host)’s life is truly ghetto

— Some pretty good laughs from Elizabeth’s descriptions of her literal ghetto life, and how it contrasts to her friends’ very trivial complaints about the alleged “ghetto” aspects of their spoiled lives.
— The constant superficial uses of the term “literally” reminds me of that I Can’t sketch that I hated from the preceding season’s Dakota Johnson episode. The similarity makes sense, as James Anderson and Kent Sublette wrote both that Dakota Johnson sketch and this Elizabeth Banks sketch, I believe. However, I’m finding this Elizabeth Banks sketch of theirs to be FAR superior to that Dakota Johnson sketch. The writing here is good, the lines are funny, and Elizabeth’s performance as the lead character is very strong. Definitely one of the better Anderson/Sublette sketches from around this time.
— The second consecutive segment tonight dealing with an Uber.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. It flowed really well, had a great atmosphere, featured no segments that I disliked (even James Anderson and Kent Sublette had a winner), and contained lots of strong segments (particularly in the first half of this episode, which had an endless string of segments that earned a rating from me in the 4-5-star range). A rare instance of me finding an episode from a recent season to be flawless. The difference between this episode and the notorious preceding episode is like night and day. And, much like Tracy Morgan’s hosting stint from two episodes prior, this Elizabeth Banks episode has definitely got to be on the “Highest rating averages in my SNL project” list.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
First Got Horny 2 U
Uber for Jen
Black Jeopardy!
Theater Showcase
Weekend Update
Monologue
Arons List
Walk-On Role
So Ghetto
The Adventures Of Young Ben Carson


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Donald Trump)
as the inverse of what I said in this section of my preceding episode review, a gargantuan step up of unmeasurable proportions


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Matthew McConaughey

Posted on

November 7, 2015 – Donald Trump / Sia (S41 E4)

Lord have mercy for what I’m about to walk into.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FORUM
Bernie Sanders (Larry David) is irascible at Democratic candidates forum

— Interesting seeing Cecily reprise her Rachel Maddow impression for the first time since her third-ever episode on SNL.
— A funny comically very brief, pointless interview of Taran’s Martin O’Malley.
— Kate’s Hillary Clinton getting her usual good laughs from me and the audience.
— A pretty fun format and atmosphere to this cold opening.
— Kate’s Hillary, when asked whether she’s an extrovert or introvert: “I would say I’m a little bit of both. I’m an extrovert because I love meeting people and connecting with them and smiling with them. But I’m an introvert because no I don’t.”
— Larry David’s Bernie Sanders impression has officially become recurring.
— Like last time, Larry’s Bernie has an endless amount of very funny lines, such as his ridiculous vacuum pennies spiel.
— I love the running gag with this debate occasionally cutting to very tight shots of black people in the audience to remind viewers that this takes place in South Carolina. The “Bitch, please” look Leslie gives the camera in her tight close-up after Larry’s Bernie says his “crush” is every black person in America is particularly hilarious.
— A great LFNY subversion, with Larry’s Bernie delivering a perfectly Bernie-esque “Live from New York…aaaaaah, you get it.”
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Oddly, Darrell Hammond forgets to precede the featured players portion of his announcements by saying “Featuring”. He just launches into the featured players’ names right after announcing all of the repertory players’ names.


MONOLOGUE
Larry David [real] yells “Trump’s a racist!” at host & doppelgangers (TAK) & (DAH)

— (*deepest of all deep sighs*) Oh, God, here we go.
— Only a minute into this, and, similar to what I said in my review of his season 29 monologue, Donald Trump’s typical bragging bullshit is INSUFFERABLE, especially his “hilarious” talk about Rosie O’Donnell.
— Aidy at least gets a laugh from me and the audience with her delivery of her response to Trump introducing her as Rosie O’Donnell: “Sir, as I told you many times, my name is Aidy Bryant, I’m a cast member on the show.”
— The return of Taran’s Trump impression. Again, I definitely see what he’s going for in the impression, but something about the voice just isn’t working for me.
— I see this monologue is going a similar route to Trump’s season 29 monologue, where he was paired with a doppelganger/stand-in, played by Darrell. I already didn’t care for this premise then.

— Seeing Darrell’s Trump impression in tonight’s monologue kind of puts Taran’s to shame, even if Darrell’s impression is still stuck in 2004, being more accurate to Apprentice-era Trump than presidential candidate-era Trump.
— Larry David saves the day! He provides easily the biggest laugh of this dire monologue in the bit with him heckling Trump, as a reference to some kind of money-involved dare that a website offered towards any audience member to heckle Trump during this episode. Also, for those keeping count, this is actually the second time Larry David heckled a host as part of a scripted comedy bit in the host’s monologue. The first time was in Michael McKean’s season 10 monologue (“Hey, Lenny, how’s your short friend Squiggy?!?”), back when Larry was an SNL writer.
STARS: *½


WHITE HOUSE 2018
in 2018, host’s presidency is the best of all time (because fuck common sense); Ivanka Trump cameo

— Note: the “(because fuck common sense)” I added to the above synopsis for this sketch was suggested to me by Vax Novier, a frequent commenter on this site. Thanks, Vax.
— Oh, are you fucking kidding me with this sketch, SNL? (*sigh*) I see the Trump ass-kissing is out in full-force tonight.
— Even the mere atmosphere of this “hypothetical great Trump presidency” sketch feels very dead and depressing.
— Further proving my point about how incredibly dead and depressing the atmosphere of this sketch is, Ivanka Trump’s cameo is welcomed with a hearty round of ABSOLUTE DEAD SILENCE from the audience. That will probably end up being my biggest laugh all night from something involving a Trump.
— Ugh at the part with Taran’s worried status report turning out to be that the Trump presidency is going TOO well and has just been endless winning for Americans.
— A horrible ending with Trump’s speech into the camera confirming how great his presidency would go. The soul of whoever wrote this Trump dick-sucking sketch has got to be long dead by our current point in 2021.
— Overall, yep, fuck every single thing about this sketch. One of the absolute worst, most miserable (if not THE absolute worst, most miserable) things I have ever sat through in all 41 seasons I’ve reviewed in this SNL project of mine.
STARS: * (and even that’s being far too generous)


BAD GIRLS
women oversell the naughtiness of their delinquencies

— As I implied in my review of the Say What You Wanna Say short from the preceding season’s Dakota Johnson episode, the format and basic premise of this Bad Girls short feel like a companion piece to that Say What You Wanna Say short.
— Vanessa’s leaving-ice-cream-by-the-bread-section-of-the-supermarket bit is particularly funny to me.
— Glad to see I’m not the only one who does that trash bin trick that Aidy did here.
— Good ending to the bathroom scene with Kate.
— Pretty solid conclusion to this short, with Aidy and the rest of the “bad girls” changing their tune when Aidy’s worried husband, Beck, shows up.
STARS: ***½


LIVE TWEETING
host’s defamatory live-tweeting distracts cast members during sketch

— Trump: “I hate to break it to you guys, but I’m not gonna be in the next sketch.” Me: “YAAAAAAY!” Trump: “Since I can’t do it and can’t be in it, I’ll live-tweet it.” Me: “BOOOOOOO!”
— The comedic premise of a host negatively live-tweeting a sketch is actually very promising, but you can’t get laughs from them being Trump tweets, as the tweets featured in this sketch are TOO close to the kind of mean-spirited bullshit Trump would tweet in real life (and it ain’t funny then), without having the comedic slant needed for a sketch like this. And thus, instead of coming off funny, the mean-spirited insults in this sketch just come off…mean-spirited.
— Yep, just as I was afraid of, this sketch has been DREADFUL so far. Not only are these mean-spirited Trump tweets TOO realistically mean-spirited as I noted above, but comedy-wise, they’re lame and painfully unfunny as all hell. “Kate McKinnon was born stupid”? That’s the type of comedic one-liner that third-graders would consider high comedy.
— Very awkward execution of the ending “I love the blacks” tweet. Not even Leslie’s angry reaction to that tweet could save it.
— Overall, not too far behind that White House 2018 sketch from earlier tonight as a contender for the absolute worst, most miserable sketch I have ever sat through for my SNL project.
STARS: *


HOTLINE BLING
Drake (JAP) defends Ed Grimley-inspired “Hotline Bling” dorky dance moves

— A fairly fun atmosphere to this Hotline Bling parody, even if I’ve yet to laugh out loud at anything so far. It’s amusing enough, though.
— Ed Grimley out of absolutely NOWHERE. I would normally be welcoming of a Martin Short cameo, but I just feel bad for him appearing in this of all episodes. Martin deserves better than that. He’s adding nice life to this short, though.
— Aaaaaand here comes Trump to hijack this fairly fun piece. Does the show really expect me to just sit back and laugh at this jackass comically and lightheartedly potentially dancing his way into voters’ hearts?
STARS: **½ (Trump’s awful involvement lowered my rating)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Alive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
COJ & MIC marvel at Ben Carson’s string of outrageous utterings

LEJ sees man-bitches’ texts to her as evidence of changing gender roles

Drunk Uncle is thrilled to have host representing his point of view

— Colin and Michael, save me from this episode!
— An awkward beginning with Michael being VERY late on his cue to say his “And I’m Michael Che” sign-on. As amusing as this awkward gaffe was, I can’t help but feel it also adds to the off, unfortunate vibe of this episode in general (including even little things like Darrell forgetting to announce the featured players as “Featuring” in the opening montage).
— Michael, regarding Jeb Bush saying he can fix things: “Which is true if the problem being fixed is the threat of ANOTHER Bush presidency.” Really? You’re really gonna say that in this of all episodes? Yeesh, this episode is even starting to make me a bit salty towards Jost and Che for once. I gotta check that saltiness at the door for this Update.
— Ha, a very Norm Macdonald-esque O.J.-is-a-murderer joke from Michael.
— Oh, I know at least Leslie’s gonna take my mind off of the misery of this episode.
— Great line from Leslie, regarding being sent suggestive eggplant emojis: “Don’t send me vestibles! Send me some MEAT!” And yes, “vestibles” is indeed how she pronounced “vegetables”.
— Michael, regarding the Kansas City Royals beating the New York Mets in the then-recent World Series: “(said in a professional-but-braggart manner) This week, Colin Jost spent three days in his dressing room crying like a bitch!” Colin: “……..Then I found out the Mets lost!”
— We get a reference to the people outside 30 Rock protesting Trump’s hosting of this SNL episode. I’m sure a large number of cast members in this episode wish they could join those protesters, but they probably refrained due to what happened to Nora Dunn after she boycotted a host.
— Two decent anti-Trump jokes from Michael (including him doing a takedown of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan) that I’m surprised Trump didn’t throw a fit about earlier in this week.
— Drunk Uncle seems to be appearing less and less lately.
— It at least makes sense to have Drunk Uncle be a Trump fan. However, I am so oversaturated on Trump in this episode that all of the Trump talk in this Drunk Uncle commentary is souring me a little on it. Only a little, though, because this commentary is still funny, and at least the Trump theme of it is offering a bit of a shake-up to the usual formula of Drunk Uncle’s commentaries.
— I remember an SNL reviewer saying they had a problem with the audience actually applauding during their laughter at Drunk Uncle’s one-liner about Caitlyn Jenner: “HIS NAME IS BRUCE!”
— A good laugh from Drunk Uncle being handed a new glass of alcohol after angrily crushing his first one in his hand when being asked his thoughts on Hillary Clinton.
— At least Colin refrained from uttering the beyond-tired “That’s not anyone!” line that he (and formerly, Seth Meyers) usually responds to Drunk Uncle’s “That’s not me!” line with in every Drunk Uncle commentary. It looks like it took Colin everything in him to refrain from saying it, though.
STARS: ***½


ROCK BAND
laser harp player (host) is bitter that his bandmates hog the spotlight

— Good “bass face” from Beck.
— The already-worrying first minute of this sketch, with several bad James Anderson/Kent Sublette-isms (such as every character having stupid “comical” last names), is followed by an even worse reveal of Trump’s character and the conceit of his appearance.
— I’m now a few minutes into this sketch, and man, what the hell IS this whole laser harp bit with Trump that this sketch is centered around? It’s going nowhere and is both baffling and painfully unfunny.
— Overall, oof. Yet another “One of the the absolute worst, most miserable sketches I’ve ever reviewed” contender in tonight’s episode.
STARS: *


MR. CROCKER
Mr. Crocker (BEB) embarrasses family with his karaoke fixation

— A great sudden angry outburst from Beck.
— Beck’s performance in this lead role is absolutely great, and I really like how off-kilter this material feels.
— (*groan*) Another pre-tape that Trump stops dead in its tracks. Why this of all pre-taped pieces? This was going so damn well.
— And to top it off, as if Trump’s mere appearance in this wasn’t bad enough, they end this short by having Trump do a goofy and unfunny mugging-into-the-camera bit. Way to have the entire Trump-involved portion of this short leave a very sour taste in my mouth and make me completely forget why I was loving this short in the first place. The fact that Trump’s appearance in this short came after he ALREADY ruined so much of the show makes me even more salty on this than I probably should be.
STARS: ***½ (Trump’s awful takeover of this and the obnoxious ending with him mugging was bad enough to bring my rating of this short down a full star, which is a damn shame, as it was a VERY strong Beck Bennett showcase prior to Trump’s takeover, and would’ve gotten the highest rating out of anything in this episode so far)


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
11 years after they did SNL together, Toots Hibbert (KET) & host catch up

— Ah, a big format break for a musical guest intro, and an interesting idea to have a callback to a host’s episode from 11 years prior. Again, though, this is another idea that would have infinite more potential had it been done with any host other than DONALD FUCKING TRUMP.
— Most of this material is absolutely nothing to write home about so far, but Kenan is at least pretty fun in his performance as Toots, and I got a good laugh from his line about eating some deep-fried parrot.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bird Set Free”


TRUMP 2016
host doesn’t approve of vacuous ex-porn stars’ endorsement

— This ends up being the final installment of this recurring sketch.
— Showing how past-its-prime this recurring sketch is, Vanessa and Cecily’s comical one-liners tonight are only mildly chuckleworthy at best, and feel WAY too formulaic and old hat by this point. I’ve become too numb to this humor by now. A shame, given how fantastic this recurring sketch used to be in its heyday.
— There’s usually at least two very quotable great lines in each installment of this sketch, but so far in this particular installment, I can’t even find ONE.
— Bobby’s imitation of Trump is surprisingly not bad. I kinda want to say it’s better than Taran’s.
— Okay, we finally got a good line just now, from Cecily: “Yeah, maybe we’ll visit the White House. I haven’t been there since the 90s.”
— (*sigh*) Another Trump walk-on to ruin the progress of a sketch and bring down my rating of it, even though my rating of this sketch was already going to be low even before he appeared. Wasn’t all of Vanessa and Cecily’s talk about him in this sketch enough without us having to actually see him in person here? I was hoping the equal-time rule announced prior to this episode’s airing would fully keep Trump out of at least ONE live sketch tonight, but nope. And even when he’s absent for the majority of a live sketch, the sketch still has to be aaaaallllll about him, as this sketch and that fucking dreadful Live Tweeting sketch showed.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Simply put, 1) soul-sucking misery wrapped in a 90-minute package, 2) THE biggest mistake made in SNL history, and 3) absolutely deserving of its horrible reputation. That’s all that can be said here, after everything I’ve already said earlier in the review.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Democratic Candidates Forum
Weekend Update
Mr. Crocker
Bad Girls
Hotline Bling
Ex-Porn Stars
Monologue
Rock Band
Live Tweeting
White House 2018


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tracy Morgan)
a gargantuan step down of unmeasurable proportions


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
(*first let me breathe a sigh of relief and happily tell myself “I did it!” after getting through the nightmarish task of having to review this Trump episode, which was by far the episode I was most dreading having to review ever since I launched this project*)
Elizabeth Banks, a.k.a. Not-Donald-Trump

Posted on

October 17, 2015 – Tracy Morgan / Demi Lovato (S41 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Bernie Sanders (Larry David) outshines Jim Webb (Alec Baldwin) in debate

— Ugggghhhhh, Jon Rudnitsky’s infamous inaccurate and offensive Anderson Cooper impression, portraying him in a stereotypically gay manner. Also not helping matters any is the fact that, back when SNL’s hiring of Jon was initially announced that summer, Jon came under fire for homophobic tweets he had made in the past. So for him to go from that to portraying Anderson Cooper in an absurdly effeminate manner doesn’t make Jon look good AT ALL. But I’m also very disappointed in SNL for even allowing Jon to portray Cooper in this manner in the first place, after how far society had progressed by this point in 2015. How the hell did nobody on the show pull Jon aside at any point during rehearsals and tell him how backwards his portrayal of Cooper is? At least this portrayal would rightfully end up receiving complaints from the real Anderson Cooper. I hope SNL and Jon heard those complains loud and clear.
— Kyle’s pretty funny in his performance as Lincoln Chafee.
— Wait, what??? A very random Alec Baldwin cameo as Jim Webb??? Just a year before Alec would famously regularly cameo in the debate sketches as Donald Trump??? How did I not remember this???
— To Alec’s credit, he’s performing well as Jim Webb so far.
— As much as I hate laughing at anything Jon is saying in this sketch, I did get a good laugh just now from his line after introducing the first few candidates: “Now that we met those people, let’s bring out the REAL candidates.”
— Ah, the debut of Larry David’s Bernie Sanders. This is the celebrity cameo I had remembered this cold opening having. I’m still dumbfounded over how I had no memory of Alec Baldwin’s cameo in this. These cameos in this debate sketch also serve as an unfortunate harbinger of the cameo-filled debate sketches from 2019 and 2020.
— Right out of the gate, Larry is absolutely perfect and hilarious as Bernie.
— Very funny how Larry-as-Bernie’s idea of “dialing it up to a 10” is him delivering a panicked “WE’RE DOOMED!!!” speech.
— I am absolutely loving all of the interplay between Kate and Larry’s Hillary Clinton and Bernie. Their chemistry is so damn fun.
— Kate as Hillary: “In 2008, of course I lost – I was running against a cool black guy. But this year, I thought *I* got to be the cool black guy.”
— Every single line out of Larry’s mouth in this cold opening is pure gold.
— An overall 10-minute-long debate cold opening, something viewers of SNL’s current 46th season would probably shudder to hear, from everything I’ve heard about that season, but the difference is, this particular debate cold opening was certainly worth the long length.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
30 Rock characters welcome back Tracy Jordan (TRM)

— Good fake-out with Tracy Morgan initially speaking in a brain-damaged voice, making it seem like the tragic car accident he had just recovered from severely affected his ability to speak, only for him to reveal in his normal voice, “Nah, I’m just playin’!”
— A great and heartwarming “I’m back” speech from Tracy.
— Very funny self-deprecation from Tracy, saying he never had 100% mental capacity before the accident, and may actually be a few points higher NOW.
— Oh, so that’s why Alec was in the cold opening.
— Very fun how this monologue has turned into a full-fledged 30 Rock scene. I also like how the atmosphere of this makes this feel like the live episodes 30 Rock would occasionally do.
— A hilarious part with the Smash promo on the bottom of the screen, to comically keep up the illusion that this is a 30 Rock episode from 2012.
— Why does the audience laughter sound so tepid in the second half of this 30 Rock scene?
— A nice feel-good ending to this monologue.
STARS: ****


FAMILY FEUD
remarried patriarch (TRM) plays against ex-wife (LEJ) & kids

— For once, a Kenan-as-Steve-Harvey-starring Family Feud sketch that’s NOT a celebrity-edition one.
— A priceless reveal of the second family being the new family that the ex-husband of the first family married into. I love how Kenan-as-Harvey’s reaction to that is a gleeful “Aw, DAYUM!”
— Given the similarities Leslie has to Tracy as a performer, I love seeing both of them paired together in the portion of this sketch where they’re both up at the main podium together,
— Such a fantastic sketch. So many great lines all throughout this. Too many for me to quote, in fact.
— Great bit with Michael (in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance) switching sides in this game, because the other family is actually happy.
— Okay, despite what I said about there being too many great lines to quote, I just have to quote this portion of the sketch: Kenan’s Harvey: “Looks like the Williams-Magill family has a chance to steal.” Leslie: “HE HAS STOLEN ENOUGH FROM ME, STEVE!!!” Kenan’s Harvey: “I guess I walked right into THAT one.”
— Another excellent line I just have to quote: Kenan’s Harvey pointing towards the Family Feud board and saying “Show me ‘I forgot to pull out’!”
STARS: *****


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a smoking beaver & a camel discombobulate

— Great to see the obligatory appearance of this sketch.
— This is hitting all of the usual beats of this recurring sketch, but as always, it works.
— A good laugh from Tracy’s Brian Fellow telling Pete, “You’re a liar, skinny man! Stop tellin’ lies on my show!”
— Like I said in my review of the Brian Fellow sketch from Tracy’s season 34 hosting stint, it’s a pretty fun novelty seeing newer cast members appearing in an old recurring sketch like this.
— Ah, we actually get a subversion to the usual Brian Fellow formula, with Aidy’s very long-winded, wordy intro of herself constantly cutting off Fellow’s usual utterance of “I’m Brian Fellow!”
— The voice for the smoking beaver in Fellow’s thought bubble is hilarious.
— Another great subversion to the usual formula, with Aidy having a completely unrelated thought bubble of her own about Pete, and the camel having a thought bubble about a monkey smoking a cigar (a callback to something earlier in this sketch).
— Ha, the camel has unintentionally started covering the entire screen during Fellow’s thought bubble sequence, making the camera frantically try to re-position the shot to fix this. This is priceless.
— Another very funny blooper with the camel, as he blocks the camera while Tracy’s Fellow is signing off, leading Tracy to ad-lib “I can’t see, camel!”
— Overall, one of the best Brian Fellow sketches.
STARS: ****


MITCHELL’S
Mitchell’s Fake Cocaine & Fake Poop Spray are ruses for party defecation

— Not only is this odd, convoluted concept very funny, but I love how Jack Handey-esque it feels.
— Beck is absolutely perfect for this role, and is helping sell this great material.
— By the way, this pre-taped ad ends up being Beck’s only appearance all night. For someone who’s been promoted to a repertory player this season, he’s been almost completely unused so far. We are three episodes into this season, and his ONLY live appearances were two very small ones in the season premiere, one of which he didn’t even have any lines in. He’s gone through the second AND third episode of this season making his only appearance in one pre-taped segment in each episode, one of those appearances also not being a speaking role. It probably doesn’t help that he’s got Alec Baldwin taking some airtime away from him, as Beck most likely would’ve played Jim Webb in the cold opening had Alec not been there.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cool for the Summer” & “Confident”


WEEKEND UPDATE
online porn’s egalitarianism means that TIF won’t get to pose for Playboy

Willie’s life-coach Woodrow helps him maintain a cheerful attitude

— Michael: “Playboy Magazine announced that, starting next month, it will no longer feature pictures of naked women. While Cat Fancy is still straight-up pussy!”
— Much like Alec Baldwin’s cameo in this episode’s debate cold opening, here’s something else I had no memory of in this episode: Tina Fey doing an Update commentary.
— This “Playboy stops doing nude photos” story seems like a good subject for Tina, almost reminiscent of her classic deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends back in her first season on Update.
— The arm-butt bit Tina’s doing right now reminds me of a similar arm-butt bit that she actually co-wrote into a Boston Teens sketch, from the season 27 Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— An overall pretty solid commentary from Tina, even if it’s definitely not at the level of her aforementioned deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends.
— Michael’s “The aliens are coming for us” rant to Colin is pretty odd, but I’m really enjoying it.
— I love Michael’s goofy, giddy little laugh (in response to the aliens bit he and Colin just did) while introducing the next guest commentary.
— Willie!
— A good laugh from the Halloween “candy” Willie proudly tells us he used to receive (e.g. raisins, duck sauce packets, rubber bands).
— Willie: “It’s like they always say: ‘Your daddy’s diddlin’ those pumpkins, Willie!’”
— Willie’s whole childhood story about his neighbor, “Jeff Dahmer”, is absolutely hilarious, especially his addendum to that story: “Plus, I always got a free homecooked meal.”
— Woodrow!!! Great to see the return of this Tracy character, and the pairing of him and Willie is strangely perfect.
— There’s that great pathos from Woodrow that was prevalent in his previous sketches.
— As always, a very funny bizarre, nonsensical song from Woodrow, this time with Willie dueting with him.
STARS: ****


THE LOVELIEST KINGDOM
lovely kingdom gets awkward when (TAK) mentions gay relationship

— A funny offbeat flavor Tracy’s character is adding to this sketch.
— Ugh at the sudden turn with Taran’s “I’m sleeping with this boy-child!” announcement. A very lame attempt at shock humor, and it taking over this sketch has really soured what was going well when it was just Tracy saying a whole bunch of nonsensical one-liners.
— That…that’s the whole sketch??? What kind of structure was that even? This sketch felt severely underwritten.
STARS: **


THE STANDOFF
barroom altercation is resolved when (TRM) & (TAK) dance

— A great novelty to see Tracy starring in the kind of pre-taped short film that’s typical for this era.
— I’m loving the conceit of this short, and Tracy in particular is selling the HELL out of this.
— The half-comical/half-serious sentimental turn this takes is reminiscent of Mike O’Brien’s typical short films. I doubt he made this, though (especially since this didn’t open with the usual “A Mike O’Brien Picture” intro screen).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stone Cold”


YO! WHERE JACKIE CHAN AT RIGHT NOW?
(KET) & (TRM) would like to know Jackie Chan’s current whereabouts

— A hilarious random sketch concept, and Tracy and Kenan are perfect in these oddball roles. This is EXACTLY the kind of absurd comedy that’s right up my alley.
— Ha, in two separate sketches tonight, Tracy has called a character of Pete’s skinny AND fat, respectively, as an insult.
— Love the sequence with the cutaways to various celebrities, one-by-one, each answering the “Where Jackie Chan at?” question.
— Sasheer has been quite prominent in this episode. Good to see after how particularly underused she was in the previous episodes of this season.
— I absolutely love how Leslie is randomly playing herself in the sequence of celebrities answering the “Where Jackie Chan at?” question. I also love her reveal that her Jackie Chan sighting was way back in 1997.
— The cutaway to the “Jackie Chan trap” that Tracy and Kenan have laid out is very funny.
STARS: ****½


ASTRONAUT JONES
red planet maroonee Astronaut Jones meets a Martian babe (musical guest)

— Great how what initially starts out as a spoof of The Martian actually turns into an Astronaut Jones sketch. A very clever fake-out, and a nice way to shake up the usual beginnings of Astronaut Jones sketches.
— Ah, that classic Astronaut Jones opening credits sequence and theme song is always a treat to watch. And, much like I said in my review of the Astronaut Jones sketch from Tracy’s season 34 hosting stint, it’s an interesting novelty seeing the huge difference between the look of modern-day Tracy and Tracy in 2002 when these Astronaut Jones opening credits originally aired.
— The main portion of this, with Astronaut Jones’ conversation with an alien, goes the same-old same-old route, but it’s always funny, especially after a long absence.
— The version I’m watching of this episode happens to be the West Coast airing, which uses the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. Understandable, because in the original East Coast airing of this sketch, Tracy badly botched his final laugh line to Demi Lovato’s character. In true Tracy Morgan fashion, however, he still made that botched line come off funny. In fact, I think I strangely kinda prefer it to his flawless delivery of that line in the dress rehearsal version I’m currently watching.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
TRM’s wife & daughter [real] join him onstage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An absolutely fantastic episode. Aside from the weak Loveliest Kingdom sketch, EVERYTHING in this episode was great and received a rating from me in the 4-5-star range. Man. This overall review of mine has definitely got to have one of the highest rating averages out of this entire project. And it goes without saying how funny of a host Tracy Morgan was, and how wonderful it was to see him make his big post-accident comeback, the latter of which gave this episode a feel-good vibe.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
(Way too many things to pick in this episode, as I’d just end up picking every single segment besides the Loveliest Kingdom sketch, so I’ll narrow it down to what I feel are the particularly best highlights)


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Family Feud
Yo! Where Jackie Chan At Right Now?
Mitchell’s
Democratic Presidential Debate
The Standoff
Weekend Update
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet
Monologue
Astronaut Jones
The Loveliest Kingdom


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Schumer)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
……………………………………………(*hesitates for 20 long minutes, before opting to just let the following screencap make the very unfortunate announcement of our next episode*)

Man, why does it always seem that the most notorious, controversial hosts come RIGHT AFTER a particularly phenomenal, feel-good episode? For example, in season 15, when Andrew Dice Clay hosted the episode right after Alec Baldwin’s legendary, outstanding first hosting stint. I dunno, maybe that’s the only other example. Wait, I just thought of one more: Milton Berle hosting right after the fantastic Richard Benjamin episode in season 4. And I guess you can count Paris Hilton hosting right after Paul Giamatti hosted one of the very few legitimately solid episodes of the dreadful season 30 (even if Hilton’s episode itself isn’t particularly awful). Granted, when it comes to notorious, controversial hosts, Dice, Berle, and Hilton are Tom Hanks compared to our next episode’s host.