Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Donald Trump (DAH) attaches superlatives to his GOP debate
— Another Darrell Hammond cameo as Donald Trump. Meh. Maybe it’s because of more modern times, but for some reason, it’s hard for me to laugh at Darrell’s Trump when looking back at these cameos he makes in this early 2010s era.
— Whaaaaa??? In real life, Trump moderated a GOP debate around this time?!? I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like. Why the hell don’t I remember that happening?
— They need to stop with the tired gag that Kristen’s Greta Van Susteren always does where she switches from talking out of one corner of her mouth to the other. We don’t need to see that EVERY time Kristen plays Susteren.
— Wow, and this cold opening has ended, without me getting a single laugh during the entire thing. Flat-out bad writing, plain and simple.
STARS: *
MONOLOGUE
sartorial inspirations for host’s music videos like “I Kissed A Girl”
— Decent but somewhat generic humor here with cast members coming out as characters/outfits from Katy Perry’s music videos. At least Bill’s walk-on as a fireworks-burned man is slightly inspired.
— Hmm, an unexpected turn with the homoerotic tension and singing between Kristen’s character and Katy.
STARS: ***
J-POP AMERICA FUN TIME NOW!
(host) heads Hello Kitty appreciation club
— During the opening “Coming up next on Michigan State Campus TV” bit, I got a cheap laugh from the mention of an acapella group being bluntly named The Dickheads.
— This sketch has officially become recurring. It’s also gone from appearing towards the end of the show in its first appearance to now suddenly appearing in the lead-off spot.
— Taran and Vanessa continue to be solid in these roles, and I find the recurring sketch itself to be okay. Like I said last time, I’m not quite as big on this recurring sketch as a lot of people seem to be.
— As usual for this recurring sketch, my biggest laughs in tonight’s installment are coming from Jason’s straight man character. I especially like him being heard yelling an off-camera “He’s Chinese!” when Taran and Vanessa say Yao Ming is Japanese.
— Another good line from Jason: “If there’s such a thing as a loving version of racism, I think you found it.”
STARS: ***
THE APOCALYPSE
eschatological movie is a star-studded romantic comedy
— Some fairly fun returns of good impressions we’ve seen this cast do before, such as Kristen’s Drew Barrymore and Taran’s Ashton Kutcher.
— Funny sudden turn with this jolly New Years Eve-themed movie trailer being revealed as a celebration of the apocalypse.
— Ugh, Fred in drag for the SECOND consecutive segment tonight, even if his Penny Marshall is usually good for a chuckle.
— I got a good laugh from how, during the listing of additional celebrities who will be appearing in this movie, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges is immediately followed by a mention of Kris “Ludacris” Kristofferson.
— I like how some performers are doing multiple celebrity impressions in this.
— A solid Kim Cattrall impression from Kristen.
— During the ending shot of this movie’s actors all being shown saying the movie’s title in unison, Seth, playing himself in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance, can be seen as one of the actors (seen in the bottom right square in the last above screencap). The reason for his appearance is seemingly because he’s in the actual New Years Eve movie that this commercial is spoofing.
— In the aforementioned ending shot of this movie’s actors, you can also see Paul as Osama Bin Laden (seen in the top right square in the last above screencap), despite him not appearing earlier in this movie trailer during any of the actual scenes shown. (Not to mention the fact that Osama’s been dead for half a year by this point.) I don’t know if perhaps a scene with Paul’s Osama got cut from an earlier portion of this commercial, or if him being shown in one of the squares at the end of this commercial was just thrown in as a random joke. Probably the latter.
STARS: ***
KALLE
Kalle’s (KRW) Finnish talk show features extensive clips of host
— Since Katy’s playing herself in this, why in the world is she wearing a wig of her former hairstyle, back when her hair was longer and darker?
— Funny escalation to the absurdity of the clips that Kristen’s Kalle keeps throwing to, and I like how it renders Katy increasingly unsettled. There’s a particularly funny part where, after Katy just says a taken-aback “I…” when she’s at a loss for words, Kalle throws to a quick clip of an eye (Katy’s eye, I’m assuming).
— I wonder if SNL intended this Kalle sketch to become recurring. Whether they did or not, we end up never seeing it return. Probably a good thing, as it seems best left as a funny one-and-done sketch.
STARS: ***½
BEST FRIENDS
ANS & host & addict (Matt Damon) & lunatic (Val Kilmer) & others sing about being besties
— Matt Damon is great as a mentally-disturbed homeless guy suddenly joining Andy and Katy’s jolly Best Friends song, and adding a dark flavor to it. Damon always does a solid job every time I’ve seen him on SNL. (I’ve yet to see the 2018 episode he hosted, though.)
— Now we get a Val Kilmer cameo.
— The sudden and rapid-fire Russian Roulette bit with Damon’s character instantly killing himself was absolutely hilarious, as was Katy responding to that by immediately saying “Okay, f(*bleep*)k this, I’m outta here” and leaving.
— A very funny crazy escalation to the type of people joining in on the Best Friends song, thanks to Kilmer’s time machine.
STARS: ****
DOGGIE DUTY
star-laden soundtrack sidelines canine courtroom movie
— The final appearance of this series of “famous singers do songs for the soundtrack of a fictional animated animal movie” sketches (Bunny Business, Horse Play, and now this). Also, this is the only installment in that series of sketches to NOT air in the 10-to-1 slot. I kinda prefer these sketches in that 10-to-1 slot.
— Also, do we really need two impression showcases tonight and airing so close to each other, with the Apocalypse commercial and now this?
— Why do these always begin with Fred as Randy Newman singing the first song? By this point, that’s beyond played-out.
— Always nice seeing Kristen do a great impression of different 90s singers in each installment of this recurring sketch, though we’ve already seen her play Gwen Stefani elsewhere on SNL.
— Pretty fun dancing from Jason’s Meat Loaf at the end of his scene.
— Meh at the “Remember Spin Doctors?” ending of Andy’s scene as Chris Barron.
— Ha, Bill’s Clint Eastwood!
— A very strong Florence Welch impression from Katy, and I especially like how we’re seeing it just two episodes after Florence + The Machine were a musical guest on SNL. Too bad the writers seemingly forgot to throw any actual JOKES into the song Katy’s Florence is singing here. And that’s how they chose to end this sketch?!?
— Overall, the weakest installment of this recurring sketch. I’m not sorry to see this recurring sketch be retired.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Call Your Girlfriend”
WEEKEND UPDATE
flirting expert Rebecca Larue (KRW) admits to SEM that she’s just a slut
Alec Baldwin [real] excuses his plane event by posing as a penitent pilot
Stefon offers multiple unsuitable diversions for NYC holiday visitors
— Another new one-off Kristen Wiig Weekend Update character. Sure hope this is better than that god-awful pancake bit Kristen did on Update earlier this season.
— An obvious and simplistic conceit to Kristen’s commentary so far, with her flirting expert character acting very flirtatious towards Seth. However, Kristen’s execution of this is decent enough.
— Kristen’s commentary is getting better as it goes along. The bit she’s doing right now with her legs is particularly funny.
— An Alec Baldwin cameo, spoofing a then-recent incident where he was kicked off a flight for refusing to stop playing Words With Friends on his phone. Ha, something about that incident always tickles me. Something about that incident also seems so on-brand for Alec, given his reputation for having anger issues and an attitude problem. (At least he seems to keep those things in check whenever he’s at SNL.)
— Decent turn with Seth openly calling Alec out on desperately trying to do damage control by posing as the pilot who kicked him off the flight. Alec’s performance is making this pretty fun.
— Stefon continues to grow in popularity, as the cheers his entrance receives from the audience gets wilder with each passing episode he appears in.
— Greatest bits in tonight’s Stefon commentary (and there are even more great bits than usual) are him saying the club password “Diabeetus” in a Wilford Brimley voice, his mention of A Fish Called Kwanzaa, his callback to the club name “SPIIIIICY!” from one of his previous Update commentaries, his mention of Hanukkah cartoon character Menorah the Explorer, and his mention of flaccid outreach group Doctors Without Boners.
— The semi-serious sentimental turn (complete with soft Christmas background music) with Stefon trying to cheer Seth up by promising him a Christmas gift continues the great story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon.
STARS: ***
PIPPA VISITS THE QUEEN
Queen Elizabeth (FRA) and Prince Philip (BIH) take liking to similarly-traited Pippa Middleton (host)
— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch.
— Fred in drag for the THIRD separate segment tonight?!? Are you fucking kidding me?!? Shit like this just adds further fuel to my “Fred needs to finally get his tired self off of SNL” viewpoint. Also, I wonder if this is a record for most times a performer dressed in drag in separate sketches in a single episode.
— The turn in these Royal Family sketches with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip suddenly speaking brashly and threateningly in crude accents towards their guest has gotten old by this point. However, given the fact that their guest is played by Abby and not SNL’s host (who has yet to appear in this sketch so far), you can tell this sketch must have something new in store for us.
— Bill’s way of saying “Hello, Pip-pa!” in a staccato manner with a high-pitched British accent made me laugh.
— Ugh at Fred hiking up his skirt so high.
— And there’s the new thing this sketch has in store for us, with Katy’s Pippa Middleton actually bonding with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip by speaking in the same brash, threatening manner with a crude accent. An okay turn, and Katy’s pretty fun here in her performance, but I’m still kinda burned out on this recurring sketch in general.
— Like the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight, the characters do a musical performance at the end of this. I liked it last time, but it’s not as fun this time.
STARS: **½
POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) butchers words toward the wrong camera
— Kenan’s Al Sharpton impression has improved from the last time he played him, which was surprisingly way back in season 33.
— The premise of Kenan’s Sharpton misreading names, facing the wrong camera, etc. feels kinda cheap (though, reportedly, the actual Politics Nation show that this sketch is spoofing really was gaffe-filled), but I admit that all of these Sharpton gaffes are making me laugh. Kenan’s executing this decently.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dancing On My Own”
ONE MAGICAL NIGHT
at a piano bar, lonely (host) falls hard after meeting her soulmate (BOM)
— Ah, a display of Jason’s great singing voice. That happens astonishingly little during his SNL tenure.
— I’m absolutely loving the structure of this sketch, between all the bizarre interplay between Katy and Bobby, and the interstitial songs from the Jason/Kenan/Fred band. And the execution of this sketch is great.
— I like how increasingly odd the lyrics that Jason’s singing are subtly becoming over the course of this sketch. The song is also VERY catchy.
— Bobby’s reaction to Katy falling down the elevator shaft is absolutely hilarious.
— Overall, an underrated and forgotten gem. This sketch felt so different from the typical style of sketches in this era. I’d love to know who wrote this. Thanks in advance if anyone answers.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Not much stood out as great, but most of the show stayed in the passable “just decent” range.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
One Magical Night
Best Friends
Kalle
Weekend Update
The Apocalypse
J-Pop America Fun Time Now!
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Monologue
Pippa Visits The Queen
Doggie Duty
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Buscemi)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jimmy Fallon hosts the Christmas episode