Tag: Drake

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUMP TOWER
Chris Christie (BOM) angles to be Donald Trump’s (DAH) running mate

— This ends up being the last time Darrell Hammond plays Donald Trump, before a certain non-cast member would famously take over the impression at the beginning of the following season. Yep, that’s right, we’re approaching THAT era of the show.
— Vanessa plays Ivanka Trump for the second episode in a row. I’m still baffled over how I had no memory of this impression of Vanessa’s before I did this SNL project.
— Watching this cold opening, it’s easy to see why SNL would soon re-cast the role of Donald Trump. Darrell’s impression is outdated by this point, being too boring, low-energy, and stuck in the Apprentice era, none of which matches how Trump was at this point in 2016.
— I do love this exchange between Darrell’s Trump and Bobby’s Chris Christie, when Bobby’s Christie suggests Bruce Springsteen as a possible running mate for Trump: “He’s a democrat.” “HE IS A GOD!!!”
— Meh, aside from a few lines from Bobby’s Christie, I’m not caring for this cold opening.
— The usual funny appearance from Jay’s Ben Carson impression, making what ends up being its final appearance.
— Boy, that sure was one sloppily-timed group LFNY.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
hurt by online teasing, host sings that he is “More Than A Meme”

 

— I like how the meme gags throughout this song of Drake’s is a unique concept for an SNL monologue. That being said, the memes here are only mildly funny to me.
— The mid-song interlude with Drake impersonating Rihanna, while at least KINDA fun because of Drake’s performance, felt way too random and unneeded, despite the connection I know Drake and Rihanna have.
— I did get a pretty good laugh from the “When u afraid Leslie gonna kill u” meme of Drake sitting on Leslie’s lap.
STARS: **½

PREMIUM RENT-A-CAR
car rental employees (host) & (JAP) have no vehicle for (BEB) & (VAB)

— A lazy, badly-written, stereotypical character that’s been given to Drake, but Drake’s charisma is saving it from being a dud.
— Despite the writing still being weak, Jay is now adding good life to this sketch with a fun performance and a characterization that we’ve never really seen him do before, which is interesting when you know in hindsight that this ends up being his second-to-last episode before getting fired.
— Nothing else I can find to say about this sketch so far, except it has absolutely no business being in the post-monologue lead-off spot, which sadly seems like it’s becoming a trend for SNL lately, after this season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode inexplicably led off with that Huge Jewelry sketch, which was a 10-to-1 sketch if I ever saw one.
— What was with that non-ending?
STARS: **½

AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR
feel-good story of tornado resilience (BOM) fails

— A big laugh from Bobby immediately failing HARD in his daunting physical challenge.
— Beck, regarding Bobby’s Captain Tornado character after he failed: “Maybe naming yourself after the thing that destroyed your town wasn’t the best choice.”
— A lot of other good laughs from the visuals (especially with Bobby’s very funny physicality throughout this), as well as the observations from Beck and Drake.
STARS: ****

SEXY KINDA EVENING WITH DENNIS WALLS & THE COOKIES
singer’s (host) 1978 special is sabotaged by director

— A funny surprising reveal of Kyle having been hidden behind Leslie all this time.
— SNL’s getting a lot of mileage lately from their vocal modifier, with this being the third consecutive episode to use it. (The usage in the previous two episodes was with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kate’s alien characters in a bar sketch, and Taran’s demonic turn as Ted Cruz in a Church Chat cold opening.)
— Mixed feelings on this sketch so far.
— More and more as this sketch goes on, the less and less I’m liking these dumb random gags. Yet another example of writers James Anderson and Kent Sublette being bad at attempting absurdist, random humor, usually my favorite type of comedy.
— Drake’s character, on all the bizarre things happening on his show: “This is bad, this is terrible.” Those words pretty much sum up my thoughts on this sketch.
STARS: *½

BABY BOSS
Paul Ryan (TAK) vets Mr. Patterson as potential Donald Trump replacement

— As yet another sign of how diminished his importance on SNL has become this season, as well as the fact that the end for him is near, Taran is JUST NOW making his first appearance all night. It used to be unheard of for him to make his first appearance this far into an episode.
— This is the first appearance this Baby Boss recurring sketch has made in a year and a half, and this ends up being its final appearance. As I mentioned in my review of the Cameron Diaz installment of this recurring sketch, I have no memory of this Drake installment.
— At least placing Baby Boss in a topical Paul Ryan sketch is a fairly creative change of pace.
— Love the “Where’d he go??? Ah, there he is!” bit being done multiple times in a row.
— Hate to say it, but even with the long absence, some of the baby mannerisms from Beck are feeling kinda old hat tonight. I’m still getting some laughs, but yeah, SNL has definitely done everything with this character that they can.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
CSR introduces host

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “One Dance”

WEEKEND UPDATE
anguished Olya Povlatsky sees Donald Trump as America’s Vladimir Putin

48 year-old LEJ says age is no barrier to achieving your dreams

JAP uses impressions to recap a secret meeting of rappers, including host

— As usual for Update lately, we start off with lots of great riffing on Trump from Colin and Michael.
— Nice to see that “Dan Quayle is dumb” jokes on Weekend Update haven’t gone out of style after all these decades.
— A funny beginning to Kate’s Olya Povlatsky commentary, with her greeting Colin and Michael and “Colin and Black Colin”.
— Colin, to Olya Povlatsky after she sneezes: “God bless you.” Olya: “(in a dead serious manner) He never has and he never will.”
— As usual for Olya Povlatsky commentaries, a lot of good laughs and a likable performance from Kate.
— Here we have Leslie mentioning that she tore her ACL playing a ninja in the Shanice Goodwin sketch from a few episodes prior. She would surprisingly still end up doing a sequel to that sketch the following season anyway.
— Leslie, in an analogy to Oprah getting fired from a job in her early 20s: “Lorne Michaels created SNL 41 years ago. But maybe if he had got fired like Oprah…he wouldn’t still be workin’ the same damn job.”
— Colin, after Leslie reveals she does yoga: “Namaste. And also, what’s your favorite position?” Leslie: “(sultrily) Downward facing Colin. I JUST WANNA NAMA YO STE, JOST!”
— Great to see Jay doing another Update commentary as himself where he does a rapid-fire string of celebrity impressions (this time of rappers instead of comedians), especially when you’re aware in hindsight that this ends up being his second-to-last episode on SNL. He’s been having a pretty big night so far, and this Update commentary makes a good unintentional last hurrah for him. It’s kinda interesting the different trajectories Jay and Taran are ending their tenures with. Jay is reaching something of a peak in tonight’s episode and probably had one more good season left in him after this, whereas Taran has fizzled out this season and definitely seems to be on his last legs as a cast member by tonight’s episode (despite him saying in an interview shortly after his firing that, prior to being let go, he had it in the back of his head that the following season was going to be his last one).
— Like the commentary he did as himself earlier this season, Jay’s commentary tonight is fun as hell, and he’s coming off so damn charismatic. While I’ve liked Jay as a cast member over the years, I wish we saw this charisma from him more often.
— Love the bit with Colin naming Will Smith as a rapper he likes, and then, after Jay fulfills Colin’s request to do a Will Smith impression, Colin responds “I got my money’s worth!” Michael also responds hilariously to that by saying an amused “You fool.”
— Seeing Jay, in what ends up being his final Update commentary, briefly do his Will Smith impression here is, in hindsight, meaningful and a full-circle moment, given the fact that Jay’s breakout moment in his very first episode was playing Will Smith on Update.
— Nice to see some new rapper impressions that Jay never did previously on SNL, such as 50 Cent and Nicki Minaj.
— Even the bit with Drake confronting Jay on his impression of him has a lot of fun charm and is avoiding enough of the corniness that these “sneaker-upper” bits (i.e. when a cast member is confronted by the celebrity they’re impersonating) sometimes have.
STARS: ****

BLACK JEOPARDY!
black Canadian (host) has different cultural touchstones

— An interesting change of pace from the two Black Jeopardy sketches that were done prior this, and a good way to get mileage out of Drake’s Canadian roots.
— Great little line from Kenan about Jay-Z now having 100 problems after Beyonce’s Lemonade song.
— Some of the audience members are REALLY into this sketch. If you listen carefully, you can even hear one of those audience members say an amused “Oh, shit!” to themselves in response to Kenan reading off the “Oh snap!” category title on the Black Jeopardy board.
— Kenan to Drake: “I know you’re speakin’ English, but, uh…it ain’t my English.”
— The aforementioned lively audience is starting to get a little rowdy now, starting during the “Today’s winner will receive…” segment. Even Drake seems taken aback by the audience’s rowdiness at one point when the camera cuts to a close-up of him.
— Who is that mic’ed person who I keep hearing busting out laughing off-camera all throughout this sketch? Since the person is mic’ed, it’s obviously not one of the aforementioned rowdy audience members.
— Overall, this was good, but couldn’t hold a candle to the previous installments of this sketch (Louis C.K. and Elizabeth Banks), to say nothing of the classic Tom Hanks and Chadwick Boseman installments that are still to come.
STARS: ***½

DRAKE’S BEEF
minor slights during host’s SNL week generate ill will

— A fun short, and an amusing conceit with how increasingly trivial things are setting off an angry Drake rap. I also like the running bit with him growling “DAMN!” at the camera at the end of every rap.
— Another hilarious running bit, with how Drake’s raps keep randomly mentioning his admiration of Josh Gad, of all people.
— A particularly funny bit between Drake and the cleaning lady, the latter of whom steals this short without even saying a word.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Hype”

SPRING FLING
high school dance chaperone (host) looks fifteen years into the past

— This sketch is so dumb so far, and I remember that so many online SNL fans trashed this sketch when it originally aired, but dammit, something about Drake’s performance is consistently tickling the hell out me throughout this dumb sketch. I’m probably one of the very few people who likes this.
— Some of the audience members continue to be a little rowdy tonight.
— Oh, right. Another reminder that Taran Killam is, in fact, still on the show. Man, he’s really disappearing by this late stage of his SNL tenure. That being said, I do love the stupid, goofy freeze-frame he and Drake do together at the end of this sketch.
— Overall, a so-dumb-it’s-funny guilty pleasure of mine.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very weak first half, where I barely cared much for anything. The show improved in the second half, but even then, one of the segments (Spring Fling) was really bad on paper and only got by in execution due to the way Drake performed it. Overall, a step down from Drake’s previous episode, but he himself did another strong job as host, and came off charismatic and fun even in the weaker material he was given.

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

 

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
Drake’s Beef
American Ninja Warrior
Black Jeopardy!
Spring Fling
Baby Boss
Monologue
Premium Rent-A-Car
Trump Tower
Sexy Kinda Evening with Dennis Walls & The Cookies

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brie Larson)
a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Season 41 comes to an end, with host Fred Armisen. It’s the final episode for Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah, and Jon Rudnitsky.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PIERS MORGAN LIVE
Chris Christie (BOM), Alex Rodriguez (host), Justin Bieber (KAM) respond to their scandals

— This ends up being the final appearance of both this recurring sketch and Taran’s Piers Morgan impression.
— I got a laugh from how one of the “positive” New Jersey qualities that Bobby’s Chris Christie lists off is “a vague chemical smell”.
— Drake already showing what a fun host he’ll be tonight, as he’s doing a solid job here in his scene as Alex Rodriguez.
— The debut of Kate’s Justin Bieber impression, back in the days when Kate playing a male in a cold opening was actually rare.
— Kate is absolutely priceless and spot-on in her Bieber impression here, especially the gestures.
— Kate’s Bieber, when asked what his age is: “I think I’m 40. Maybe I’m 5…I don’t know, my brain is broken.”
— That LFNY from Kate seemed abruptly thrown in out of absolutely nowhere. Makes me wonder if this wasn’t originally the cold opening in dress rehearsal. The fact that Drake appears in this supports that theory of mine, given how rare it is for hosts to appear in cold openings in recent SNL eras.
STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE
— Sasheer Zamata has been added to the cast tonight, as SNL’s answer to all of the criticisms they faced this season for having no black women in the cast while hiring an overabundance of new white cast members.

MONOLOGUE
black & Jewish halves of host’s family commingle at his bar mitzvah

— Drake is immediately coming off very likable here.
— A rare instance of a sketch within a monologue, utilizing a different set and everything. This could be fun.
— Some good corny lines from Vanessa and Jay as Drake’s parents.
— I like the little bit with Drake’s mom making him change his new “Drake” moniker to the Jewish-sounding “Drakob”.
— It sure didn’t take them long to drop the comical pretense of this bar mitzvah taking place in 1999, as the rap that Drake is doing is oddly making references to celebrities like LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West, none of whom I believe were famous yet in 1999.
STARS: ***½

HIP HOP CLASSICS
hip-hop artists got started on unlikely TV shows

— A fun and promising concept.
— Taran’s Eminem impression always cracks me up, and his “CHOOSE YOURSELF! YOUR INTERNSHIP’S IMPORTANT!” line from this sketch has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Boy, does this Family Matters spoof really take me back to my childhood in the 90s.
— Kenan’s Carl Winslow/Reginald Vel Johnson voice is absolutely spot-on and hilarious.
— The spoof of the Blossom opening credits is something else that’s taking me back to my 90s childhood.
— Jay’s 2 Chainz is very funny during his angry confrontation of Kate and Noel.
— The Wonder Years/Flavor Flav scene is pretty awful, and is kinda hurting the momentum of an otherwise good sketch.
STARS: ***½

NANCY GRACE
to Nancy Grace (NOW), legalized Colorado marijuana is a cause for alarm

— A rare Noel Wells showcase. It’s about damn time, SNL.
— Is Drake going out of his way to do ALL of the impressions from Jay’s repertoire? (Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and now Katt Williams.) Drake has been funny in all those roles, though, so I’m not complaining.
— As much as I want to root for Noel, I’m having very mixed feelings towards her Nancy Grace performance here.
— I’m also noticing that the audience isn’t all that into Noel’s performance either. They’re laughing less and less at her as this sketch progresses, to the degree that her last “WHAT ABOUT THE BABIES?!?!?!?” outburst receives a long, uncomfortable stretch of absolute dead silence from the audience. Ouch! If this sketch had any chances of convincing SNL to give Noel more airtime, the bad audience reaction must’ve put the kibosh on that fast. This would sadly end up being her final lead role on SNL, despite the fact that the woman still has, you know, HALF A SEASON remaining on the show. While I’m iffy on her performance in this sketch, she still deserved another chance to prove herself after this.
STARS: **½

RESOLUTION REVOLUTION
(TAK), (host), (JAP) undergo willpower failure

— Very catchy opening song from Taran. I kinda wanted it to go on longer before it cut off.
— The abruptness of the cutaway to Jay’s sex doll-humping scene is very funny.
— I like the randomness of how extended the cosplay scene goes on, and how that scene starkly contrasts to the rest of this music video.
STARS: ***½

SLUMBER PARTY
at a slumber party, Melanie (AIB) yearns for girl’s (SAZ) dad (host)

— Drake is surprisingly PERFECT as a cheesy middle-aged dad. And I’ll never forget some people on an SNL board jokingly referring to his character in this sketch as “Black Ned Flanders”, based on his look.
— Interesting kid voice from Kate. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her use that voice before or after this.
— Aidy’s doing well in this, and has good lines all throughout.
— Very funny ending regarding Aidy suggestively lying face-down on a beanbag with her hands under her body.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Started From The Bottom” & “Trophies”

WEEKEND UPDATE
spacey Jacqueline Bisset (VAB) has trouble getting from audience to stage

Arianna Huffington (NAP) mulls Hillary Clinton’s presidential viability

— I’m loving Vanessa’s bit as Jacqueline Bisset in SNL’s audience, spoofing Bisset’s appearance at the then-recent Golden Globes. This is not only funny and features solid execution by Vanessa, but the studio audience setting is a refreshing change of pace for an Update segment.
— For the second time this season, my growing tolerance towards Cecily as an Update anchor unfortunately gets set back by her regressing, though I don’t put the blame all on her this time. She’s been saddled with a lot of corny, weak jokes tonight that I’m not sure any Update anchor could’ve made work.
— This ends up being the final appearance of Nasim’s Arianna Huffington.
— As usual, some good comments from Nasim’s Huffington, even if I feel she’s had some better commentaries in the past.
— Given the trend the last few Updates prior to this of Update guests getting emotional over Seth’s soon-to-come departure, and also given the trend of Nasim’s Huffington always flirting with Seth, I’m surprised tonight’s Huffington commentary went by without her saying anything about how much she’s gonna miss Seth. Maybe SNL felt they overdid the “guests emotionally say goodbye to Seth” thing in the last few Updates, especially since Seth ends up staying a little longer than SNL originally expected, reportedly.
— A good continuation of Vanessa’s Jacqueline-Bisset-in-the-audience bit.
— Cecily’s punchline to the news story about a man who experienced an erection for five weeks after falling off of his mountain bike: “So…I know what I’m gettin’ my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day…..” Ugh. While that’s actually a funny joke in itself and Cecily’s delivery sold it, it’s a little disturbing when you realize Cecily’s real-life boyfriend at this time was her castmate Mike O’Brien. And thus, that mountain bike/erection joke of Cecily’s plants an image of Mike in my mind that I could’ve happily lived the rest of my life not ever having.
— The conclusion to the Jacqueline Bisset runner was somewhat predictable, but Vanessa executed it well.
STARS: **½

DISNEY WORLD SHOW
at Disney World, language barrier hamstrings would-be Indiana Jones (NAP)

— Nasim, upon her entrance, constantly repeating “I…am…Rahat” to increasingly dead silence from SNL’s audience makes me worried for what kind of sketch awaits me.
— And now, we get another often-repeated line from Nasim’s character: “This is my rice.” Blah.
— Most of Nasim’s character pieces work for me, but this is a big ol’ miss for me.
— Drake gives yet another fantastic performance tonight, and he is spot-on as a typical upbeat amusement park host (whatever the official title for that occupation is). He’s making me laugh far more than the actual main comedic focus of this sketch: Nasim’s Rahat character.
— Great line from Drake about a video of this whole Rahat situation being put up on YouTube.
— The ending was just plain dumb. And why did Nasim fall down a full second BEFORE the boulder “knocked her over”? And then she gets up and randomly throws herself onto the boulder??? Why???
STARS: *½

DETENTION
Miss Meadows brings her love of poetry to students serving detention

— A cute and oddly likable character from Vanessa the first time she appeared earlier this season, but I’m not sure I needed a second appearance from her, especially one that’s in the exact same classroom setting as last time.
— Oof, Brooks’ delivery of his one line in this sketch was pretty rough.
— When Vanessa’s Miss Meadows character asks if the students have any poetry-related questions, I love how the question Drake asks her is a concerned, “I’m just tryin’ to make sure, like, are you alright?”, in regards to her odd behavior and vocalizations.
— So far, this is way too much of a lazy carbon copy of the first installment of this sketch, right down to having the exact same two cast members (Aidy, Kenan) read a poem in front of the class. I did like Aidy’s poem in tonight’s installment, though.
— This continues to be a lazy carbon copy of the first installment, as Drake now reads a love poem that becomes increasingly clear that it’s about Miss Meadows, leading to Drake suddenly kissing Meadows on the neck, all of which Miley Cyrus previously did in the first installment.
— Continuing to show what an awkward live performer he is, Mike breaks in response to Vanessa’s over-the-top vocalizations while Drake is flirting with her.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Hold On We’re Going Home”
host & Jhené Aiko [real] perform “From Time”

MORNIN’ MIAMI
(host) & fellow Mornin’ Miami anchors are only sunny when the camera’s on

 

— Not only is this the SECOND consecutive sketch tonight that’s being brought back from this season’s Miley Cyrus episode, but these two consecutive sketches also aired back-to-back in Miley’s episode (separated only by a musical performance, much like tonight), though in the opposite order than they’re airing tonight.
— Unlike the Miss Meadows sketch, this retread is actually working, thanks to the fact that the bizarre promos that the three Mornin’ Miami hosts deliver into the camera are not only new in each installment of this sketch, but are hilarious. I especially like Bobby’s “One fish, two fish, red fish, Jew fish” line, and his mention of Orthodox fisherman Schmooley Majors.
— Like last time, I can forgive the repetitiveness of the sequences with the three hosts angrily sitting in miserable silence between promo shoots, but it was very unnecessary to repeat one particular gag from the first installment of this sketch, where Kate breaks the miserable silence by starting to sing, only to IMMEDIATELY get shut down by Bobby.
— I like the running gag this recurring sketch has with the mentions of “actor Topher Grace”.
— Like last time, we get a funny reveal of what Bobby’s character’s “B.F.” initials stand for. This time, instead of “Bitch Fantastic”, it’s “Burt Fingerblast”.
STARS: ****

I KNOW
(KYM) annoys (BEB) with nonstop casual claims of omniscience

 

— First time we’ve gotten a Beck/Kyle short in quite a while.
— A good and realistic situation for Beck and Kyle, and I’m enjoying all the fast cuts from Beck and Kyle at one location to another.
— I laughed at the intentionally bad, unconvincing way Kyle slipped on the floor.
— More laughs from intentionally bad cheesiness, this time with the visual of Kyle’s ghost and his stilted delivery.
— Speaking of Kyle’s delivery as his ghost, I like the little touch with the humorous “poignant” manner in which he says the word “smart” (“sss…mart”).
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

— Drake gives a special shoutout to newbie Sasheer, and asks the audience to give her a round of applause. Between the fairly large amount of appearances Sasheer made in this debut episode of hers, and now this special moment she gets during the goodnights, plus the special attention that her hire in general got in the media due to the many complaints SNL previously received for not having any black women in this season’s cast, I remember this episode made me think at this time in 2014 that Sasheer was a cast member we would be seeing PLENTY of over the years. Little did I know…….

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode, even if there were barely any segments that stood out to me as particularly great. Drake was a strong host, being fun, funny, and likable, and adding something to every single sketch. He even came off engaging during the longer-than-usual goodnights speech he gave, and even managed to throw in a funny mention of Lorne at the end of the second musical performance.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mornin’ Miami
Slumber Party
Hip Hop Classics
i know
Resolution Revolution
Piers Morgan Live
Monologue
Weekend Update
Nancy Grace
Detention
Disney World Show

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Fallon)
a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Jonah Hill