Tag: Season 41

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May 21, 2016 – Fred Armisen / Courtney Barnett (S41 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY & BERNIE
Hillary Clinton (KAM) sees off lingering Bernie Sanders (Larry David)

— The usual very fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
— A very funny and charming part with Kate and Larry’s Hillary and Bernie reminiscing over memorable things from earlier in this election season while having a hearty laugh.
— Love the turn with Kate and Larry’s Hillary and Bernie tenderly slow-dancing with each other.
— Hey, a dance around the studio! This is very fun, very fitting for a season finale cold opening, and feels like a more tender version of the memorable Office Costume Contest sketch that Kate previously did with Jim Carrey.
— Now the whole cast is getting involved in a very elegant manner during the backstage portion. I love that, and it’s another thing about this cold opening that’s very fitting for a season finale, even if, as I always say, I prefer my season finale full-cast sketches to be at the very end of the episode. No real complaints here, though.
— Good bit with Kate’s Hillary tricking Larry’s Bernie into a closing elevator at the end of their dance together.
— A great and very energetic full-cast LFNY, back when particularly-large group LFNYs were still fairly rare.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
portion of FRA’s one-man show dramatizes his successful SNL audition

— I often say this when a former cast member hosts for the first time, but it feels so unusual to me seeing Fred Armisen entering the home base stage as the host.
— Fred’s coming off well in this monologue so far.
— This “one-man show” routine is actually very fitting for Fred, since he previously did two spot-on spoofs of one-man shows when he was a cast member (one in the Drama Club Morning Announcements sketch from the season 31 Dane Cook episode, and the other in a pre-taped commercial from the season 37 Jimmy Fallon episode). Like those two previous one-man show spoofs, Fred is pulling the one in this monologue off well, and I really like how this particular one is on the topic of him auditioning for SNL.
— A meaningful little part with Fred doing a brief Prince impression, as this is a month after Prince passed away.
— The funny bit with Fred seemingly trying to prompt an audience member to respond to a question he keeps asking her is reminiscent of when he did that with Bill Hader in the aforementioned commercial from the season 37 Jimmy Fallon episode.
— Overall, a fun, funny, and unique monologue, and easily one of the better things Fred has done in a long time on SNL by this point in the mid-2010s. I can see some people complaining that this monologue was too long, but the length didn’t bother me.
STARS: ****


EXPEDITION
classroom presentation depicts horniness of Lewis (FRA) & Clark (KYM)

— Kyle’s delivery when introducing himself is hilarious.
— Some laughs from the cheesiness during the early portion of the presentation that Cecily, Fred, and Kyle’s characters are doing.
— Blah, after a promising start, I’m not caring much for the big turn the main joke of this sketch has taken, with the cheap, low-brow homoeroticism between Fred and Kyle’s Lewis and Clark, and how that has become the focus of this sketch. Also, why in the world do the performers keep breaking during this? I feel like this is an inside joke that I’m not in on.
STARS: **


FINEST GIRL
Conner4Real’s (ANS) girl (VAB) has an Osama bin Laden fetish

 

— “An SNL Digital Short”. Whoa, Lonely Island returning out of nowhere.
— Oh, a tie-in to Andy Samberg’s then-new Popstar movie.
— The “Fuck me like we fucked Bin Laden” conceit is absolutely hilarious, and a fantastic use of Vanessa.
— Speaking of Vanessa, this is yet ANOTHER outstanding season 41 Vanessa Bayer showcase, concluding what has been an amazing season for her. If I had to pick an MVP for this season, Vanessa would get my pick in a heartbeat. Back when this season originally aired, I would’ve picked Kate as season MVP, as she was my favorite current cast member at the time and could do almost no wrong in my eyes, but looking back at this season years later in hindsight, especially after Kate has been on what I feel is a big decline from season 43 onward that now makes it a little hard for me to enjoy some things from Kate’s peak years (2014-2017), I now feel that Vanessa’s work this season holds up more.
— Oh, that’s right, Jay is SNL’s President Obama impersonator. I can be excused for forgetting that fact, considering this is the FIRST AND ONLY Obama appearance that Jay has made all season. Sadly, this brief Obama scene here will be the only really noteworthy thing Jay does in this entire episode, which ends up being his last episode before getting fired that summer.
— So many hilarious visuals all throughout this short.
— The random “Damn, the whole thing was just a virtual reality experience!” twist ending made me laugh so much, due to Andy’s great, intentionally-corny delivery of it.
STARS: *****


NEW GIRLFRIEND
(JAS) overstimulates his holier-than-thou new girlfriend Regine

— The door opens and in walks both Fred as his fucking wretched Regine character from back in the day and good ol’ Jason Sudeikis in a cameo. I have rarely ever felt as many mixed emotions as I do right now.
— More and more as this sketch goes on, the “miserable” side of my aforementioned mixed emotions is becoming my dominant emotion. Any goodwill I had towards Jason’s cameo is sadly canceled out by all of the usual horrible Regine-isms in this sketch, particularly the interminable number of those damn “Watch her face while I (insert sensual action here)” bits.
— I did get a big laugh just now from Jason responding to Regine’s foot being in the guacamole dip by saying “That makes it better” and then proceeding to dip a chip into that guacamole and eat it nonchalantly. That moment alone sums up so much of Jason’s appeal as a cast member.
— (*barf*) Cue the usual part of every Regine sketch where Fred spreads his legs apart, letting us see up his skirt.
— A rare display of Vanessa breaking. Fred’s given her the giggles bad.
— For the second time in this dreadful sketch, Jason gets a laugh from me, this time with the way he exaggeratedly yelled “Hey!” in an angry manner (“HAAAAAEEEEEEEEYYYYYY!”) This sketch is reminding me of how fun and damn strong Jason was as a cast member. Man, where’s his hosting stint?
STARS: *½


FAREWELL, MR. BUNTING
schoolboys’ poetic tribute to ousted Mr. Bunting (FRA) goes horribly wrong

— Ah, a VERY memorable and beloved short film.
— So far, a spot-on spoof of an iconic scene in Dead Poets Society, and I love how this is taking its time in revealing the eventual comedic conceit. Hell, even the dramatic seriousness in this short so far is making me laugh, but maybe that’s because I know in hindsight what’s coming.
— And there’s the classic dark twist. Holy. Freakin’. Hell. This is absolutely PRICELESS.
— After Beck catches Pete’s now-headless body, I particularly love the visual of a horrified Beck’s face being DRENCHED in blood from Pete’s open neck hole (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this short).
— Bobby’s reaction when catching Pete’s severed head is hilarious.
— A particularly HUGE laugh from the bit with the off-camera lawnmower.
— It is absolutely incredible the amount of rapid-fire hilarious gags they’re jam-packing into this relatively short severed head sequence. Hands down, HANDS DOWN, one of the funniest things I have ever seen on SNL.
— A perfect way to end this, with Fred breaking the long, uncomfortable, taken-aback stretch of silence in the room right after the severed head sequence by just saying a subdued “Alright……I’m gonna take off”, and throwing in a forced little “Go, Wyndemere!” cheer before walking out the door with a box of his office belongings.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party”


WEEKEND UPDATE
impeached Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (MAR) is in good spirits

Willie has happy memories of traumatic incidents from summers past

— Maya Rudolph all of a sudden, ladies and gentlemen. Then again, this is a Fred Armisen-hosted episode, where cameos from some of Fred’s castmates from back in the day are to be expected, I guess. I’ll be tolerant as long as SNL doesn’t go too overboard with these cameos, like they did two season finales prior when Andy Samberg hosted. We refreshingly also haven’t haven’t gotten any Kristen Wiig tonight.
— An EXTREMELY hammy performance from Maya here, but I admit it’s working for me and cracking me up.
— Colin: “This Thursday was National Hepatitis Testing Day, and good news – I got an A! (*audience reacts, while he smiles*)” Michael: “Why are you smiling?!?” Colin: “(deadpan) Last year, I got a C.”
— For the second season finale in a row, we get a special segment with Colin and Michael doing their favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes that were deemed too harsh to make it on the air earlier this season. It’s nice how this has become a season finale tradition.
— Several hilarious jokes from Colin and Michael in this “Favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes” segment, especially the very off-color joke Colin tells about the Lucky Charms leprechaun’s voice actor’s tumor turning out to be “(*in a sing-songy manner, ala the Lucky Charms jingle*) maaaagically malignant!”
— The usual big laughs from Kenan’s Willie character, especially the bits about the candy van and his dog being locked in a hot car.
— And thus ends another strong season of Update in the Jost/Che era.
STARS: ****


ESCAPE POD
(FRA)’s spaceship crewmates’ magnanimity dims as he activates escape pod

— Man, I forgot Taran was even still in the cast before he showed up in this sketch. There’s a very staggering and saddening tone to how much he’s gradually disappeared in the homestretch of what ends up being his final season before getting fired. I, like many other SNL fans, remember being absolutely blindsided by the announcement of his (and Jay’s) firing that summer, but while doing reviews of this season these past few weeks, I’ve seen so many signs this season that Taran’s formerly-solid SNL tenure was slowly dying a sad death. That was nowhere near as visible to me when this season originally aired.
— Speaking of Taran’s decline this season, it’s sadly fitting for his final episode that he’s making his first actual appearance of the night (aside from the full-cast portion of the end of the cold opening) playing a depleted, non-comedic supporting character who’s about to die.
— A lot of pretty good laughs from the extremely drawn-out activation of Fred’s escape pod.
— A good twist ending. (And, hey, turns out Taran’s character didn’t die after all.)
STARS: ***½


THEATER SHOWCASE
self-congratulatory Student Theater Showcase is a crowd displeaser

 

— Always good to see this recurring sketch. Odd seeing it buried so late into tonight’s episode, but given the fact that this is the season finale, I actually like that.
— At least for once tonight, Taran has been given an actual good, comedic role.
— Ha, Larry David as an audience member in this sketch!
— Even funnier, Larry’s character immediately walks off after hearing that he watched what’s only the first of 85 scenes in this play. Even though that gag was basically just a knock-off of something Leslie did in a previous installment of this sketch, Larry still made it very funny.
— Very funny how, after Kyle demonstrates he has the Zika virus by exclaiming “Cough, cough!” and Kate demonstrates she has Ebola by exclaiming “Achoo, achoo!”, Aidy demonstrates she has malaria by exclaiming “Malar, malar!”
— The line about the theater showcase students getting into NYU was a topical reference to something, and got a big reaction from SNL’s audience, but I forgot the news story that it was a reference to. Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can refresh my memory on this topical reference.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pedestrian at Best”


THE HARKIN BROTHERS
honkytonkin’ Harkin Brothers Band comprises (Carrie Brownstein) & 19 more

— A sketch in the tradition of “Fred as the lead singer of a band” sketches from Fred’s later years as a cast member (e.g. the Blue Jean Committee sketch with Jason Segel, the sports bar sketch with Dana Carvey), only this one involves the entire cast (even Jost and Che!), as well as the cameos from earlier tonight, and Carrie Brownstein. Looks like I spoke too soon earlier in this review when I expressed minor disappointment that this episode’s full-cast cold opening wasn’t placed at the end of this episode. I absolutely love that this season finale has TWO full-cast sketches. And this particular sketch gives the cast more to do than this episode’s cold opening did.
— Ah, this is such a feel-good way to end the season. Also, with this sketch, Taran and Jay (oh, and you, too, Jon) get to end their SNL tenures in style, even if this sketch DEFINITELY doesn’t make up for how Lorne did Taran and Jay dirty in the manner that he fired them.
— This overall sketch felt like it got cut very short, probably because of how extremely late in the episode it started (about 12:57, IIRC). We’re lucky we even got as much of the sketch as we did.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong way to end the season. We got two classic short films (one of which, Farewell Mr. Bunting, is a particularly standout SNL piece), lots of other solid segments, and very little that I disliked. Fred Armisen was actually a good host. And I’m so glad that, aside from the Regine sketch, we got performances from Fred that not only didn’t bother me, but reminded me of how very good he was in the earlier seasons of his SNL tenure (in fact, he was, along with Will Forte, my favorite current cast member back in those days) instead of reminding me of how irritating and harmful to the show he became in the later seasons of his tenure.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Farewell, Mr. Bunting
Finest Girl
Hillary & Bernie
Weekend Update
Monologue
Theater Showcase
The Harkin Brothers
Escape Pod
Expedition
New Girlfriend


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


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2014-15)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 42 begins, with host Margot Robbie, and three new additions to the cast

Posted on

May 14, 2016 – Drake (S41 E20)

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

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.

Posted on

May 7, 2016 – Brie Larson / Alicia Keys (S41 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHURCH CHAT
Church Lady queries Ted Cruz (TAK) & Donald Trump (DAH)

 

— A Church Chat cold opening out of nowhere! Awesome.
— Some pretty funny comments from Church Lady in the segment with her snarking on celebrities’ attire at the then-recent Met Gala Ball.
— Dana Carvey’s still got his knack for playing off of the audience in his ad-libs, with his “Too soon?” ad-lib after the audience’s slightly-tepid reaction to his joke about Jay-Z’s “naughty parts”.
— The final appearance of Taran’s weak Ted Cruz impression, which will definitely not be missed by me.
— Ugh, there’s that annoying exaggerated “funny” laugh that Taran always does as Cruz, which never fails to come off to me like Taran’s trying way too hard to be funny. That laugh is particularly bad tonight, though that may be SNL’s way of intentionally foreshadowing a certain transformation Taran’s Cruz will go through later in this cold opening.
— Kinda interesting how this is actually the second time someone played Donald Trump as a guest on Church Chat. (Phil Hartman being the first to do that.)
— Hmm, I had no memory of Vanessa ever playing Ivanka Trump.
— After all of my negative comments about Taran in this cold opening (me criticizing Taran used to be almost unheard of in his previous seasons, which shows how downhill he’s gone this season), I do really like the turn with his Cruz re-entering this cold opening as a demon, complete with SNL using a vocal modifier to give him a demonic voice. Taran’s always good at playing this type of role.
— Jon playing a typical Jon Rudnitsky role, I see.
— When this originally aired, I remember the fact that Taran got the special honor of delivering a LFNY with Dana as Church Lady, coupled with the fact that Taran was previously also the only current cast member who got to play one of the four main Bill Brasky guys when the Brasky sketch was revived in Paul Rudd’s season 39 hosting stint, made me assume that SNL must feel very highly of Taran. Little did I know that, just a few months later, Taran would end up getting fired. I now look back at the special honor he got of delivering a LFNY with Church Lady as one of the last (if not THE last) big moments he ever got on SNL.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
on Mother’s Day eve, host, PED, KAM set up jokes by their moms [real]

— Pretty funny appearance from Beck.
— This is turning into Part 2 of the preceding season’s Reese Witherspoon monologue, only nowhere near as strong, and much more sloppy and rushed. This is still decent enough, though.
STARS: ***


PRESIDENT BARBIE
girls’ disinterest in President Barbie echoes Democratic nomination race

— I almost thought at first that this was a rerun of the Asian American Doll commercial from the preceding season.
— Now that the premise of this new commercial has been revealed, this does feel like an intentional companion piece to Asian American Doll.
— A good laugh from one of the little girls reacting to the President Barbie doll by saying a flat “Oh. Neat.”, and then immediately putting the doll down and moving onto something else.
— Cecily as the professional voice-over, in response to something one of the little girls said: “(mocking voice) I like Legos! (normal voice) That’s what you sound like.”
— Lots of other funny sarcastic quips that Cecily has to the little girls.
— While I feel this definitely doesn’t measure up to Asian American Doll, this is still pretty solid on its own merits and has good satire.
STARS: ****


NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
Ms. Rafferty’s near-death experience suffered from inept guardian angel

— This sketch has officially become recurring…very needlessly, at that. They’ll never match the classic first installment of this sketch, which should’ve remained a one-off.
— I’m currently a little over two minutes into this, and, yeah, everything in it is just a very inferior rehash of the first installment (right down to having Kate say “Donald Ducking it” this time instead of “Porky Pigging it”). Inferior follow-ups/variations is apparently going to be a theme in tonight’s episode (e.g. President Barbie not being quite as strong as Asian American Doll, the Mother’s Day monologue being kind of a half-assed version of the Reese Witherspoon one, and even the Church Chat sketch, while fun, wasn’t as strong as usual).
— Kate is at least still getting SOME laughs from me with her performance, as well as when, in regards to her story about a bunch of dogs sniffing “her drainer and her stainer”, she says “Look, at least SOMEBODY’S interested.”
STARS: **


BABY SHOWER
fellow moms at (host)’s baby shower welcome her to haircut sisterhood

— Good to see the perpetually-underused Sasheer getting a pretty good amount of lines and screen time here, which makes sense, as I recall hearing that she co-wrote this sketch (as well as the sequel/variation that appears the following Mother’s Day, in a Melissa McCarthy-hosted episode). I think I heard that Julio Torres was one of the co-writers of this, and that this was one of the very first things he ever wrote for SNL, but I’m not 100% sure.
— A solid premise, and great execution. If Julio Torres indeed co-wrote this, then this is an early sign of many great things to come from him over the next few seasons.
— Particularly strong delivery from Vanessa when disclosing how she received her calling to get “the cut”.
— A very good mock-dramatic, thriller-y turn with Brie Larson slowly and uncontrollably succumbing to motherly traits.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Common”


WEEKEND UPDATE
guest anchor Laura Parsons applies innocent delivery to serious subjects

SAZ discusses the use of the N-word by Larry Wilmore & others

PED is embarrassed when his mom [real] defends him on Twitter

— A solid breakdown from Colin and Michael of the infamous “Donald Trump eating a taco bowl” photo.
— Notably, Colin makes a prediction that Trump will win the presidency, and gives some interesting reasons for why.
— Trump talk has been absolutely dominating tonight’s Update so far (understandably so), with even Vanessa’s Laura Parsons commentary starting off with her talking about him.
— As usual in Laura Parson’s commentaries, there’s a lot of good laughs from her delivering disturbing, kid-unfriendly stories in her typical upbeat, child actor-y delivery, and some funny subversions with her initially making it seem like she doesn’t know what the stories mean, only for her to reveal she does.
— Tonight’s Laura Parsons commentary ends with Michael panickedly cutting her off when she segues into her next news story by saying “Speaking of smelly fingers…”. Was the “smelly fingers” thing a reference to a particular news story from that week?
— Wow, not only did a sketch that Sasheer co-wrote and co-starred in get on the air earlier tonight, but now she even gets her own Update commentary.
— Sasheer is oddly giggly throughout this commentary. Normally, that wouldn’t be too much of a hindrance in an Update commentary that someone is doing as themselves, but something about Sasheer’s giggling here seems very awkward and inauthentic, like she’s fake-laughing to hide her possible nervousness.
— And now, in addition to her strange, seemingly unnatural giggliness, Sasheer is ad-libbing lots of odd asides and making lots of awkward long pauses throughout this commentary, as if she’s trying too hard to milk extra laughs from the audience. What’s going on here? I sense a huge lack of confidence from her in this, and it’s ruining her commentary for me. Has her lack of airtime this season crushed her spirit THAT much by this point? She previously did an Update commentary as herself the preceding season, and came off much more confident, smooth, and comfortable than she is in tonight’s commentary.
— Well, Sasheer’s commentary at least ends in a very noteworthy fashion, with her saying the N-word.
— Ah, Sasheer mentions it’s her birthday. I wonder if that’s the reason why she’s been getting more airtime than usual tonight. If so, I really wish this Update commentary went better for her. I’m sure she’s fully aware of how badly it went.
— When this episode originally aired, given the fact that this was the third-to-last episode of the season, I assumed at the time that, with this badly-executed Update commentary of hers, Sasheer completely blew her last chance to save herself and be asked back to SNL the following season. As we know now, she surprisingly ended up being brought back that season anyway.
— I like Pete’s dig at how some people incorrectly refer to Lorne as “Lauren”. (Justin Bieber being one of those people, in the caption of a photo he posted on social media of himself and Lorne the week he hosted SNL.)
— The usual good Pete commentary, and nice involvement from his mom at the end, further establishing her relationship with SNL.
STARS: ****


GAME OF THRONES
Jon Snow’s (PED) revival is protracted & telegraphed

— I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, and thus, I’m not familiar with the character that Taran’s playing, but I really like the vocal mannerisms Taran’s using here.
— Meh, I’m not crazy about the premise of Brie and Cecily’s characters being audience surrogates pointing out the annoying slow pacing of Game of Thrones’ scenes.
— Kenan’s delivery of “Whaaaaaat???” made me laugh.
— Kenan got another good laugh from me just now, with his angry, sorta-staccato delivery of “PICK UP…THE PACE…WOMAN!!!”
— Blah at that ending.
STARS: **


QUIZ WHIZ 2018
contestants in the future (TAK) & (host) have forgotten about Ted Cruz

— Third consecutive episode with a game show sketch.
— I’m always interested in premises that take place in the future.
— More and more as this sketch goes on, I’m loving it. A clever concept, and the performances are on-point.
— Kenan’s delivery continues to kill in tonight’s episode, as his lines on the other end of the phone are cracking me up.
— Great reveal of Brie’s character being Ted Cruz’s wife, which is presumably SNL’s way of acknowledging the resemblance that a lot of people online pointed out that Ted Cruz’s wife and Brie have to each other.
STARS: ****


KICKSTARTER
Chris Fitzpatrick & bandmates (BEB) & (host) are crowdfunding a movie

— An interesting change of pace for Kyle’s Chris Fitzpatrick shorts (the second of which [from the preceding season’s Cameron Diaz episode] I now feel I underrated in my review).
— Wow, I absolutely love the voice Beck’s using here. It sounds nothing like his normal voice, and I’ve never heard him use that voice any other time besides this short.
— These Chris Fitzpatrick shorts continue to be spot-on at capturing the spirit of “edgy” teens.
— A very funny clip of Brie’s character awkwardly shoehorning a fan’s name into her personalized rap.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hallelujah”


DEAD BOPZ
album features dead singers’ holograms doing modern-day songs

 

— Odd how the final two comedy segments of tonight’s episode (the Chris Fitzpatrick short and this commercial) are pre-taped.
— Solid performance from Beck as the spokesperson, a hologram Bing Crosby.
— Good concept to this commercial.
— A funny little bit with Beck-as-Crosby’s failed attempt to grab the Dead Bopz CD because he’s a hologram.
— Sasheer gets even more airtime tonight, with her good Eartha Kitt scene here.
— Brie is coming off really well in her scene here.
— A particularly funny scene of Jay as Tupac singing “Shake It Off”.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, even if it had kind of an unassuming, not very memorable feel to me (maybe because of the host, Brie Larson, though that’s not a knock on her, as she did absolutely fine).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Baby Shower
Quiz Whiz 2018
President Barbie
Kickstarter
Weekend Update
Church Chat
Dead Bopz
Monologue
Near-Death Experience
Game of Thrones


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drake

Posted on

April 16, 2016 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Nick Jonas (S41 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Elaine Benes (JLD) questions Bernie Sanders (Larry David) at debate

— Despite still being on the show, Jon has been replaced by Beck in the role of Wolf Blitzer. Yep, it’s official: SNL has undeniably given up on Jon as a cast member by this point of the season. Making that even more official is the fact that Jon’s ONLY appearances in this episode will be two roles buried in the last two segments of the night, and he has little-to-no lines in them.
— Beck (looking almost exactly like Jason Sudeikis did when he used to play Blitzer) is doing a better attempt at a Blitzer impression than Jon did.
— I got a good laugh from Kate’s Hillary Clinton claiming she agreed on a debate date of “Mapril 33rd at bloop blorp o’clock”.
— The usual fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David in these Hillary/Bernie cold openings.
— A funny “cool” entrance from Kenan as “black moderator” (as he’s referred to here) Errol Louis.
— Kate’s delivery of the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme song lyrics that her Hillary breaks out into cracked me up.
— I absolutely love the turn with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes being the next person who asks the candidates questions, and I also love how the conversation between her and Larry’s Bernie Sanders turns into a whole bunch of Seinfeld-isms. Very fun.
— Hmm, having Vanessa’s Rachel Green now ask the candidates a question feels way too needlessly shoehorned in (despite it fitting enough with the “90s sitcom” aspect of this cold opening’s Seinfeld premise), though I can never complain about seeing this spot-on impression of Vanessa’s. It deserves better writing here, though.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Oddly, Darrell Hammond announces Sasheer Zamata as just “Sheer Zamata”. Maybe Darrell’s microphone briefly cut out when he said the “Sa” part of Sasheer’s first name.


MONOLOGUE
JLD recaps her career arc from SNL to present; Tony Hale cameo

— I love Julia’s self-deprecation when mentioning her “memorable” run as an SNL cast member, and showing a clip of her small non-comedic role in an Ed Grimley sketch as an example of one of her “well-known big characters”.
— Hey, a Brad Hall sighting! (the third above screencap for this monologue) Granted, it’s just an old clip from the movie Troll, but still, it’s a shocking novelty to see a close-up shot of a former cast member as forgotten as him in a new SNL episode from 2016. I’d like to think Julia threw that clip in as an excuse to work her husband back into SNL. (Julia and Brad are married, for any readers who didn’t know.)
— Some good talk from Julia throughout this monologue, including what she says about the blackface movie Soul Man.
— A nice Tony Hale cameo.
STARS: ***½


HEROIN AM
inclusion of caffeine & cocaine helps users remain productive

— A very funny concept.
— I like how Julia being among the performers in this timeless-feeling pre-taped commercial makes her blend back into the cast just like the old days.
— Cecily as the voice-over: “Side effects include: it’s heroin….so…all THAT stuff.”
— A good laugh from Julia hallucinating her husband and son as horrifying monsters.
— Hilarious dark reveal of Julia’s heroin-taking character being a school bus driver.
STARS: ****


HUGE JEWELRY
Long Island sisters’ (JLD) & (KAM) kids model their line of Huge Jewelry

— I sometimes find this type of Italian stereotype sketch in recent seasons to be lazy and dull, but Julia and Kate are at least pretty fun here in their characterizations and chemistry. That being said, this is a questionable choice for a post-monologue lead-off sketch. This feels more like a sketch that would be more fitting near the 10-to-1 slot.
— The gag of the increasing size of the jewelry is a bit ehh for me.
— Wasn’t too crazy about the ending with Nick Jonas appearing as a character who just gets fawned over, though he himself performed pretty well here.
STARS: **½


THE POOL BOY
housewife (JLD) is more invested in tryst than is pool boy Chad (PED)

— The debut of Pete’s Chad character.
— I recall getting tired of the Chad shorts when they became recurring back when these episodes originally aired, but judging this debut on its own merits right now, I’m currently finding Chad’s slow-witted, monotone, one-or-two-word sentences to be funny, especially in how they comically contrast against Julia’s very lengthy, dramatic lines.
— Pretty funny running gag with how Chad keeps appearing back to work at the pool every time Julia keeps turning around to him in the middle of her dramatic speech to him.
— Another Nick Jonas sketch appearance where he shows up just to be fawned over by a Julia Louis-Dreyfus character.
— Great delivery from Julia of her ending line: “I’m gonna f(*bleep*)k that kid.”
STARS: ***½


CINEMA CLASSICS
actress (JLD) relied on line cues written on props

— A very strong use of Julia’s comedic skills. This sketch has the feel of the type of legendary material that you would’ve seen being given to highly-esteemed classic female comedians in the past, such as Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball, and it feels great that Julia has gotten to the point of her acclaimed career where she’s considered to be worthy of performing a big Burnett/Ball-esque piece. And Julia’s proving with her performance in this sketch that she’s fully deserving of that honor.
— Pretty funny bit with Kenan’s Reese De’What realizing he’s alone in the studio.
— Love the bit with Julia reading “Made In China” off a prop as if it was one of her lines.
— A very funny visual of a wordy line of Julia’s being written on Taran’s bare chest.
— Is Kate doing the same voice and accent she did as Ingrid Bergman in the Casablanca spoof (which also happened to be a Cinema Classics sketch, like this one) from the preceding season?
— A particularly fantastic bit with Julia struggling for a long time through the fruit bowl to find one particular line. And her eventual delivery of said line, “I’ve been shoootttt!”, absolutely slayed me.
STARS: *****


MERCEDES AA CLASS
JLD endorses the car powered by 9,648 batteries

— Great to see so many pre-tapes tonight featuring Julia front-and-center. And she’s absolutely perfect in her performance here as the spokesperson.
— Another timeless-feeling commercial tonight.
— A priceless visual of all those batteries set in place under the car hood.
— The Battery Status report is hilarious.
— Another priceless visual, this time of the “Auto-Dump Feature” with two small hatches on opposite sides of the car dispensing ALL of the batteries for a very lengthy amount of time.
— Julia’s slyly-delivered “Batteries not included” line at the end was utter perfection, and was the best way to close this commercial.
— Overall, a forgotten (by me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tove Lo [real] perform “Close”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) mull retirement from NBA

Animal Annie (AIB) has problems with humans, including herself

A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy details her degrading comedic role

— Our final Barkley/Shaq duo commentary, given the fact that this ends up being one of Jay’s final episodes before getting fired that summer. Speaking of which, I just now realized that Jay wasn’t in the preceding episode (Russell Crowe) AT ALL. No wonder he looked so miserable during that episode’s goodnights.
— A very funny line from Kenan’s Barkley regarding him betting on number “twive”.
— The formula of these Barkley/Shaq Update commentaries is feeling very standard in tonight’s commentary, but it’s still working for me.
— An interesting smiling-on-the-outside-crying-on-the-inside tone to Aidy’s commentary.
— A huge laugh from a puzzled Michael questioning why Aidy said he’d love the iguanas-having-two-penises factoid she told.
— I like Michael’s acknowledgment of how lazy and predictable Colin’s Wiz Khalifa joke was.
— The final appearance of Cecily’s One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy.
— As usual in these One Dimensional Female commentaries, very solid delivery from Cecily, and spot-on satire of this character archetype in movies. In fact, the satire is coming off particularly biting tonight.
STARS: ***½


WHO WORKS HERE?
game show contestants try to identify CVS employees

— Decent concept for a game show sketch.
— A killer appearance from Bobby, who steals this entire sketch, and has one of the funniest moments of this entire episode.
— The “lighting” round is fun.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champagne Problems”


MEET N’ MATCH
in a bar, aliens (JLD) & (KAM) are desperate to mate with human males

— A very promising oddball concept, and Kate and Julia (making another fun pairing tonight) are well-cast in these roles.
— I love the deep vocal modifier being used on Kate and Julia, which, along with the creepy contacts they’re wearing in their eyes, is adding perfectly to their odd, unsettling alien characters.
— Some minor glitches with Kate and Julia’s vocal modifier here and there, which is actually kinda adding a bit of a strange charm to this sketch.
— A funny casual visual of Kyle and Taran’s skeletons being left in the restroom.
STARS: ****


GOD IS A BOOB MAN
Christian (VAB) resists cultural rise of homosexuality

— I’ve never seen the type of religious movies that this pre-tape is spoofing, but I’m still enjoying this a lot and finding it to be very well-done.
— Yet another strong Vanessa Bayer performance in a season filled with standout Vanessa Bayer performances. (Seriously, you could almost make a full-length “Best Of” for her just out of this season alone, though she, of course, has great stuff from other seasons, too.)
— I love the detail of Kyle’s Jewish lawyer being named Schmool (not sure of the spelling).
— A lot of funny little parts all throughout this, such as Sasheer’s “Maaayybee” response to Vanessa’s statement about Christians being the most oppressed people in the world.
— A very funny reveal of the ridiculous movie title at the end.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. And SNL finally got it right in regards to how to perfectly play to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedic strengths, unlike in her previous two hosting stints (where, while she had funny moments, I recall her being used in a lot of generic straight man roles) and her tenure as a cast member (where she was notoriously underutilized and overshadowed).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cinema Classics
Mercedes AA Class
Democratic Presidential Debate
God Is A Boob Man
Heroin AM
Meet N’ Match
Weekend Update
Who Works Here?
Monologue
The Pool Boy
Huge Jewelry


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Crowe)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Brie Larson

Posted on

April 9, 2016 – Russell Crowe / Margo Price (S41 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM HILLARY CLINTON
Hillary Clinton (KAM) panders to New York in order to break losing streak

 

— A pretty good laugh from Kate-as-Hillary-Clinton’s inability to say “lose”, no matter how hard she tries.
— When Kate’s Hillary is trying to figure out how many states she lost, we get a funny walk-on from Kenan as a repairman saying “I’m here to fix seven holes in your wall”, which answers Kate-as-Hillary’s question.
— Good conceit to this cold opening, with Kate-as-Hillary’s unnatural attempts to come off New York-y.
— A very funny pre-taped spoof of the real Hillary’s infamous failure to swipe a subway Metrocard properly.
— Kate’s Hillary, in regards to voting on Tuesday: “And to Susan Sarandon, who said Trump might be better for America than me, why don’t you take Tuesday to drive off ANOTHER cliff?”
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host points out the comedic aspects of his dramatic film roles

— Russell Crowe, on his The Nice Guys co-star Ryan Gosling: “I watched him host in December, and I was like, ‘Wow, anyone can do that’.” Oh, don’t be too confident about that, Russell, ol’ boy.
— In addition to the above-quoted line of Russell’s, I’m also rolling my eyes at Russell’s joke about his family that lives in an Australian time zone telling him before the show that this episode went great, and his joke about his co-star Ryan Gosling being a pretty girl. Sure, they’re just jokes, but when delivered by Russell Crowe, given the negative reputation of his personality, those jokes just make him come off arrogant and unlikable. And speaking of his negative reputation, I’ve heard that he was a nightmare for the SNL cast and crew to work with all week, which is no surprise, given his notoriety for being difficult to work with on movie sets. (Online SNL fans even reacted to the initial announcement of him hosting by saying SNL’s making a mistake, because he’s likely going to be hell for them to deal with.) However, I’ve never heard any specifics of what exactly he did to piss off the people at SNL. Does anyone know? Was it just generic standoffish diva behavior, or even worse, like some Steven Seagal/Chevy Chase-level shit? Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section of this review can answer.
— Also, man, you gotta feel bad for the cast for having TWO nightmare hosts to deal with in just this one season alone. (I don’t think I have to say who the other host is.) I wonder if stuff like this only added to Taran’s well-documented sour attitude towards his later years at SNL.
— Boy, the humor in this monologue is cringeworthingly lame, especially the reliance on the ancient “calculator spelling out ‘boobs’” gag, made even worse by Russell actually having to POINT IT OUT TO US (as if it weren’t already obvious) and show that clip a second time.
— Overall, in a word: ugh. One of the worst monologues in a long time. Russell Crowe’s already off to a rough start.
STARS: *


PREPARATION H ADVANCED GEL
(BEB) indiscreetly helps fellow hemorrhoid sufferer (TAK)

— While I’ve gotten used to seeing Michael occasionally make non-Weekend Update appearances, his appearance here is very surprising and random. Usually, he only appears if an additional black male performer is needed in a segment that Kenan and Jay are already appearing in, but that’s not the case here, as neither Kenan nor Jay are anywhere to be seen in this.
— Some good laughs from Beck loudly speaking to Taran about Taran’s personal hemorrhoid issues, causing Taran’s friends to hear.
— Beck’s increasingly rattled, needy demeanor here is funny, especially when he cuts off the commercial’s announcer at one point. Beck’s always good at playing characters like this in pre-taped commercials, such as in that Jack Handey-esque Fake Cocaine/Poop Spray commercial from earlier this season.
STARS: ***½


POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
(Al Sharpton) rates candidates for Al Sharpton (KET)

— The final installment of this recurring sketch.
— The “celebrity impression meets the real celebrity” gathering that nobody was waiting for. If there was ever a right time for this meeting of Al Sharptons to occur, that ship had long sailed. SNL is several years too late to the party.
— No matter how many times I’ve seen Al Sharpton after his huge weight loss, I still can’t get used to his thin frame. It looks strangely unnatural.
— Meh at the meta bit with Sharpton pointing out of how Kenan’s Sharpton should be thin. Sharpton’s iffy delivery of that didn’t help.
— I did kinda laugh at Kenan’s wink-wink look into the camera when saying his extra weight makes him look younger.
— Aside from a few more funny lines from Kenan, I’m not caring much for this sketch, between the corniness, the meh humor, and Sharpton’s awkward delivery.
— Feels weird seeing a hostless live sketch leading off the show after the monologue, but that’s probably a good thing, given who tonight’s host is.
STARS: **


HENRY VIII: THE EXPERIENCE
hologram of Henry VIII (host) demands male heir from female museumgoers

— Blah at the “BEAR ME A SON!” turn this sketch has taken.
— Aaaaaand of course, the cry of “BEAR ME A SON!” is repeated over and over as the main joke of this sketch. (*grooooaaaaan*)
— An accidental brief glimpse of a stagehand handing Russell a turkey leg. Sadly, that made me chuckle more than the intended comedy of this sketch so far.
— A genuine laugh from Kenan, after preceding Russell’s “blackamoor” line with an innocent “Hello”, succeeding that line of Russell’s by saying “And goodbye!”
— Awful, awful ending.
STARS: *½


MATCH FINDERS
(host) woos bachelorette (CES) with his vaginal knowledge

— Love the meta bit with “White Jeopardy” being listed as an upcoming program.
— Ugh, so is EVERY SINGLE SKETCH that Russell appears in just going to be him saying crude sexual things?
— For the second consecutive sketch tonight, Kenan’s the only big saving grace, as he has funny straight man lines throughout this.
— Kenan’s ponytail reveal in the middle of this sketch makes me think this sketch was written by whoever wrote that Should You Chime In On This game show sketch from this season’s Matthew McConaughey episode, as the middle of that sketch had McConaughey revealing a pony tail (or long braid, rather) in the back of his head.
— Russell’s lines are PAINFUL to get through. And making them even worse is that annoying slow German accent he’s doing. We’re currently almost halfway through tonight’s episode, and I haven’t liked a single thing Russell’s done so far.
— A strangely long pause from Russell before delivering a line just now. During that long pause, Pete can be seen looking at Russell in a bit of a curious manner, like he’s thinking “Are you ever gonna say your next line, or…?”
— Oh, so now we’re making out-of-left-field digs at Michael Douglas’ throat cancer? Really, SNL?
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)”


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Merle Haggard marks his passing


WEEKEND UPDATE
Deenie eats while giving a rough recap of The People V. O.J. Simpson

clip of Charles Barkley’s Villanova win reaction suggests he bet on game

darkness subsumes Bruce Chandling during his stand-up on women & sports

— Man, even a Jost/Che Weekend Update is letting me down tonight, with Colin’s hacky Bernie Sanders bingo joke that tonight’s Update opens with.
— Thankfully, after that lame opening joke, Update has taken off and Colin and Michael are in usual top form.
— Michael’s rant about the subway is hilarious.
— Like last time she appeared, this Deenie character of Kate’s is funny and relatable, and has several good lines. Tonight’s commentary of hers is also helped by Kate not breaking like she kept doing throughout the previous Deenie commentary from earlier this season.
— That clip of Charles Barkley doing a wild celebratory dance after the buzzer shot at the NCAA championship game cracked me up. Sadly, Colin’s punchline about it afterwards was lame, and was far less funny than the actual clip.
— Hmm, Colin’s been having a number of clunkers tonight in general. Michael, however, is keeping this Update afloat with lots of solid jokes, including some long-form ones.
— When Michael was setting up a sports-related guest commentary by bringing up big things currently happening in various sports, I actually thought he was introducing Kyle’s “sporty” character from YouTube videos that Kyle used to do pre-SNL (and reportedly tried to bring to Weekend Update at least once, but it got cut after dress rehearsal). Michael instead ends up introducing a different Kyle Mooney character: Bruce Chandling.
— Standard Bruce Chandling stuff here, and he’s had some better, more standout commentaries in the past, but this is definitely still really working for me, and I love how engaged tonight’s audience is getting during Chandling’s usual depressed mood swing and subsequent upbeat attitude.
STARS: ***½


100 DAYS IN THE JUNGLE
(PED)’s uncle’s friend (host) visits reality show

— Pretty funny how the only loved one of Pete’s character that this reality show could bring on was his uncle’s friend.
— I want to like this fun, laid-back character of Russell’s, but I’m not sure how I feel about his execution of it so far.
— Beck, when Pete asks why neither of his parents showed up: “(in a deadpan, waving-off manner) They had a thing and couldn’t move it.”
— Pete’s a solid straight man here.
— At first, I thought the messages from family members on the TV monitor were pre-taped, but the puppy in Bobby’s scene unexpectedly yipping loudly and squirming around in Bobby’s arms briefly while Bobby’s trying to speak into the camera made it obvious that these messages are being performed live.
— Funny message from Leslie.
— I’m still iffy on Russell’s performance here, but at least I don’t flat-out hate it like I did his prior performances tonight. He’s still not bringing the laughs much here, though.
— Oh, wow. Russell’s character being overly willing to eat a disgusting animal part, after the two other contestants’ loved ones expressed reluctance towards doing that. Sure didn’t see THAT coming. [/end sarcasm]
— What was with Russell’s odd delivery of his final line? Well, in his defense, he was speaking with food in his mouth, so I guess he had a little trouble getting his line out.
STARS: **


POGIE PEPPERONI’S
(BEB) & (KYM) are stoked to be new employees at a kids’ pizza restaurant

 

— Great to see this, given the dishearteningly low number of Beck/Kyle pre-tapes we’ve gotten this season.
— Beck and Kyle are a blast here, and are so dorkily charming. It’s also impressive how, despite having played lots of oddball characters together during their SNL tenure so far, Beck and Kyle always manage to give each pair of those oddballs characters their own unique characterization instead of making them all seem derivative of one another.
— I love the little part with Beck greeting a group of running-by kids by saying a cheesy “Al-riiight!” while holding his hand up for a high-five.
— A solid visual of Beck and Kyle’s heads suddenly exploding confetti when meeting the owner of Pogie Pepperoni’s.
— A very funny ending In Memoriam montage of Beck and Kyle’s characters, as well as the reveal of just how briefly they worked at this restaurant before dying of excitement.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Since You Put Me Down”


SHANICE GOODWIN: NINJA
ninja Shanice Goodwin (LEJ) rescues (VAB) from Russian mob boss (host)

 

— Nice to see a childhood photo of Leslie (the first above screencap for this sketch), especially since we never got to see a childhood home movie of her in the preceding season’s Reese Witherspoon monologue.
— Oh, I’m already onboard for the very fun concept of Leslie playing a ninja.
— Russell apparently playing a lost Roxbury Guy, judging from that outfit. (It also resembles Goat Boy’s old outfit. Speaking of which, I remember when I was younger, I used to think it would’ve been kinda funny if, in the late 90s, SNL did some kind of Roxbury Guys/Goat Boy mash-up, given the fact that those characters dress the same as each other.)
— A worrying blooper with Kenan genuinely appearing to be choking on his drink (it probably just went down the wrong pipe), causing Taran to stop mid-line and, in an ad-lib, ask Kenan in a semi-amused manner if he’s alright. Even more worryingly, Kenan answers that question of Taran’s by repeatedly waving “No”, which you can tell concerns Taran, because Taran doesn’t continue with his line and instead just silently waits for Kenan to be okay, which he thankfully is after a few seconds.
— So many funny actions from Leslie, especially when she’s “discreetly” knocking out each villain. The part with her knocking out Taran is particularly hilarious.
— I absolutely love Vanessa’s mock-cloying delivery of lines throughout this sketch, such as “Somewhere in this room…there’s definitely a ninja!” That delivery of Vanessa’s is both funny and genuinely adorable.
STARS: ****½


OPRAH WINFREY: A LIFE OF LOVE
Oprah biopic stars oddly-cast MOB, plus features JAS as Whoopi Goldberg

— Sadly, this ends up being the final Mike O’Brien short film on SNL.
— A variation of the Jay-Z Story short that Mike did the preceding season.
— Much like the aforementioned Jay-Z short, Mike is hilarious in his very Mike O’Brien-y portrayal of Oprah, even if this short isn’t quite as amazing as the Jay-Z short.
— Kyle’s Michael Jackson impression has me on the floor.
— A big laugh from the “Before/After” photos of Mike’s Oprah.
— Funny how it’s become a running gag in Mike’s celebrity biopic shorts for Jason Sudeikis to randomly cameo as a famous friend of the celebrity that Mike is portraying.
— A particularly great bit with Mike’s Oprah stubbornly insisting on ALWAYS being on the cover of her magazines.
— Overall, another Mike O’Brien winner. I’m sure going to miss his reliable short films. He’s had what I’d argue is the best track record out of any of SNL’s regular filmmakers over the years. I don’t think he did a single short on SNL that received a rating less than four stars from me.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

— After having nothing positive to say about Russell Crowe all night, I will at least say that I kinda like the part at the end of his goodnights speech where he says “God bless the ghost of John Belushi. Still think about you, man.” Kinda surprised to hear that from Russell.
— These goodnights get cut off very early, and thus, we don’t get to see if there was any tension, awkwardness, or flat-out avoidance between the cast and Russell during these goodnights, though during his goodnights speech, he did thank “this incredible, beautiful cast I had the pleasure to work with”. (Even Donald Trump had some cast members being friendly towards him during the goodnights of his notorious hosting stint earlier this season. As much as I’m sure people would rather not hear this, Leslie could even be seen laughing it up with Trump throughout those goodnights.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very mixed episode, though the string of exceptionally great segments towards the end of the show gave this episode a big boost. Any highlights this episode contained were of no thanks to Russell Crowe. The segments that relied on him carrying the comedy were mostly DREADFUL, but SNL pulled the right move in keeping his airtime to a minimum, which is why this episode as a whole didn’t turn out to be a disaster. I’m pretty sure this episode had just as many segments without Russell as it had with him, which is a huge rarity for hosts in the 2000s and onward. At this point in SNL’s history, he’s got to be the least-used host in years. I’d like to think that was SNL’s conscious way of sending him a hint on how difficult he was to work with, and how bad he is at sketch comedy.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Pogie Pepperoni’s
Shanice Goodwin: Ninja
Oprah Winfrey: A Life Of Love
A Message from Hillary Clinton
Weekend Update
Preparation H Advanced Gel
100 Days In The Jungle
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Match Finders
Henry VIII: The Experience
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peter Dinklage)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Posted on

April 2, 2016 – Peter Dinklage / Gwen Stefani (S41 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN & BOLDUAN
Scottie Nell Hughes (CES) defends Donald Trump’s (DAH) misogyny

— The third consecutive CNN cold opening, but at least this isn’t a Jake Tapper one like the last two were.
— I feel dumb for not knowing before this sketch that “Bolduan” is pronounced “Baldwin”. I’ve never seen Kate Bolduan’s show (why isn’t the Berman who’s in the show’s title being portrayed in this sketch, by the way?), but whenever I’ve seen her show’s listing on my cable’s channel guide, I always assumed her surname was pronounced “bowl-dwonn”.
— Kate as Kate Bolduan: “I’ve got the brain for MSNBC, but the hair for Fox News, so here I am at CNN.”
— Cecily is absolutely priceless as the pro-Trump, “full-blown nutjob” (as she’s self-described in this sketch) Scottie Nell Hughes. Probably one of my all-time favorite Cecily Strong performances. I especially laughed out loud at her quoting one portion of the lyrics of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” (including the famous backwards part) in a spoken, very straitlaced manner.
— I had misremembered Beck’s Jeb Bush as the person who was on the receiving end of Darrell-as-Donald-Trump’s repetitive punches to the face in this cold opening. Instead, as I see now in my current viewing, it turns out that the person receiving Darrell-as-Trump’s punches is actually Bobby as a random citizen.
— An interesting and unique touch with Kate and Cecily, while seemingly being in two different parts of SNL’s studio, both turning to face each other in their respective split-screen shot while saying LFNY in unison.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Game of Thrones cosplayers KAM & LEJ are happy that host is on SNL

— Not that I want to immediately call attention to Peter Dinklage’s height, but it’s such an interesting novelty seeing a host of his height standing on that home base stage.
— Right out of the gate, I’m really liking Peter’s delivery here.
— After Kate says she refuses to do topless scenes, we get a very funny brief appearance from Vanessa eagerly beginning to take off her shirt, and then saying, as Kate is dragging her away, “Screentime is screentime!”
— A very odd gaffe with the camera suddenly slumping towards the floor for a few seconds while Bobby’s George R. R. Martin is speaking.
— A funny random cutaway that Bobby’s Martin throws to of Beck singing a cheese-dipping song backstage.
STARS: ***


WINNIE THE POOH
Winnie The Pooh’s (host) cousin Denny The Real (JAP) gives him advice

— I initially wasn’t crazy about the premise of Jay’s intentionally incongruous character in this Winnie The Pooh setting, but it’s actually turning out to be pretty good, and Jay’s executing it well.
STARS: ***½


NAKED AND AFRAID: CELEBRITY EDITION
host & LEJ test survival skills

 

— Hilarious reveal of Leslie, as herself, unashamedly making her entrance out of the car with her clothes ALREADY off. You can already tell this is going to be a great short.
— This is getting good mileage from the huge size difference between Peter and Leslie.
— I love the “Surviving Compton” bit in Leslie’s profile.
— Great scene with Leslie and Peter trying to sleep.
— I think I recall hearing that in the version of this short that was aired at dress rehearsal, they didn’t blur out Leslie or Peter’s “nudity” AT ALL, leaving their flesh-colored underwear fully visible for the entire short. Must’ve been an odd viewing experience for the dress rehearsal audience. I take it that the editing of this short wasn’t finished yet by the time dress rehearsal rolled around. Even in the aired version that I’m currently watching, you can tell that the editing was finished at the last minute, because the blurring on Leslie suddenly gets really shoddy for the final minute-and-a-half of this short (seen in the fourth-to-last above screencap for this short).
STARS: ****


SPACE PANTS
nightclub singer’s (host) space pants defuse mob boss’ (BOM) vengeance

— A very memorable sketch.
— Holy crap. A huge error right at the start, as Jon Rudnitsky is freakin’ MISSING from this sketch when he’s supposed to be in it. Jon’s absence renders Bobby’s “You two boys are hard to track down” line completely nonsensical, given the fact that we see him saying it to just Pete. Pete also responds to that line of Bobby’s by saying the scripted line, “We’re going to get you your money”, and you’re naturally left wondering, “Wait, who’s ‘we’?” Also, when the camera is on a close-up of Pete at that moment, the shot also includes Jon’s empty chair that’s next to Pete.
— Now, as the camera is on a close-up of Bobby and Beck while Bobby is delivering an intimidating spiel, the table they’re sitting at is seen suddenly shaking HARD due to Jon finally arriving and taking his place at the currently-off-camera side of the table. Ha, dude must’ve literally come RUSHING in, judging by how violently hard that table shook when he took his seat. Man, what in the world caused Jon to be so late for this sketch anyway??? Emergency bathroom break right before the sketch, perhaps? Whatever the reason, I imagine Lorne was not a happy camper. I’ve rarely seen an SNL rookie do something THIS bad.
— It should also be noted that, when Jon makes his late entrance while Bobby is in the middle of delivering his intimidating spiel, Bobby, while still acting in character, ad-libs an angry “Where were you?!?” at Jon. (Jon, of course, responds by sticking to the script and not answering that ad-libbed question of Bobby’s.)
— You can tell Pete must be thrown off by Jon’s late entrance, judging from the oddly long pause Pete took before delivering one of his responses to Bobby’s lines shortly after Jon arrived.
— Moving on, the absurd Space Pants song that Peter’s performing is absolutely slaying me, helped by his utter commitment to this material.
— A fitting use of Gwen Stefani, and she’s performing well here, though her involvement is slowing down the humor of this song for me. It was much funnier to me when it was just Peter performing it.
— Much like the template of writer Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell’s Kevin Roberts/David S. Pumpkins/Boo-Boo Jeffries/etc. sketches, the template of their Space Pants sketch would later be recycled in other sketches of theirs, though the only example I can remember off the top of my head is that pizza restaurant sketch from the following season’s Aziz Ansari episode.
STARS: ****½


GLORY HOLE
restaurant in former sex parlor serves food via retained glory hole

— A very funny random and casual reveal of a glory hole being on the wall right next to the main characters. I also laughed at the explanation of why it’s there.
— Kyle looks and sounds fairly unrecognizable when we see him speaking behind that glory hole. In fact, I had misremembered then-writer Mikey Day being in his role, and had assumed for years that Mikey being given such a meaty speaking role in this sketch was a sign that Lorne was preparing to add him to the following season’s cast (much like how some SNL writers such as Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Jason Sudeikis were given noteworthy onscreen roles shortly before being added to the cast).
— Cheap but huge laughs from Aidy and Peter happily munching on the various phallic breads that are sticking out of the glory hole.
— Okay, after a few minutes, the sight gag of the various phallic breads through the glory hole is starting to get a little old.
— Beck brings this sketch back around to being funny again with his pants-down bit, which was a good ending.
STARS: ***½


HBO FIRST LOOK
Game of Thrones motion-capture actor (BOM) is a dragon

— A funny visual of Bobby in a very low-budget dragon costume, even if we already had a “low-budget Game of Thrones dragon costume” gag earlier tonight with Leslie’s walk-on at the end of the monologue.
— I love the tone of the acting in this pre-tape.
— Taran’s Iain Glen, during the filming of a scene he’s acting in: “War is not a game!” Bobby: “…of Thrones!” That had me howling. Bobby’s sly, self-satisfied delivery of that line was priceless.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s crotch being blow-dried (due to a bathroom accident) in the background while Kate is in the foreground trying to give a serious interview into the camera.
— Bobby is great throughout this short in general.
— A good laugh from Bobby’s fall at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Make Me Like You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED lists negative repercussions of Hulk Hogan’s $140M sex tape ruling

David Ortiz (KET) details big lunch menu & lists additional endorsements

— The extended opening bit with Colin and Michael taking turns ranting about a Donald Trump news story is a precursor to Updates from the following season.
— Colin and Michael are starting out hot tonight with lots of great jokes (not just the Trump ones).
— Pretty funny subject matter for tonight’s Pete commentary, with him ranting about Hulk Hogan’s porn settlement.
— A good laugh from the bit with Pete asking Michael and Colin for assurance on penis size, including the camera doing a funny awkward impromptu cutaway to Colin (screencap below).

— Michael’s “Surge of Vanilla” joke about Colin is absolutely classic. Also hilarious is how, when the camera is on Colin reacting to that joke by giving a very funny gesture into the camera, an off-camera Michael is heard saying, while laughing hard, “No! No! No-ho-ho!”
— Kenan-as-David-Ortiz’s odd pronunciation of “baseball” is making me laugh so damn much.
— As always, Kenan-as-Ortiz’s various advertisements are absolutely priceless. I honestly cannot stop laughing during this commentary.
STARS: ****½


UNDERSEA HOTEL
dead body (TAK) floats against window of underwater honeymoon suite

— A very funny shocking visual of Taran as a dead body floating in the water outside of Beck and Cecily’s undersea hotel window. Beck’s initial reaction to that also made me laugh a lot.
— Ha, Taran’s body in the water has suddenly disappeared out of nowhere.
— A big laugh from an eager-to-have-sex-with-his-wife Beck asking how long is the dead body removal going to take, because he took a Cialis in the lobby.
— Lots of great sight gags all throughout this sketch.
— Taran deserves a lot of credit for his great physical work in accurately acting like a floating dead body.
STARS: ****½


VACATION NIGHTMARES
(KAM) & (AIB) poorly reenact mugging by Danish men

 

— Solid delivery from Peter in his scenes here, especially when admitting that the two actors playing the muggers claimed they could do a Danish accent and the show didn’t bother checking.
— Kate and Aidy’s silly, ridiculous, Danish-accented performances are cracking me up so damn much, and the decision to have Kate and Aidy play male roles actually works in this sketch, given the silly nature of the “crime reenactment show can’t afford to hire good actors for the main roles” premise. Good thing this sketch appeared in 2016, as the special novelty of Kate and Aidy playing these male roles would’ve been completely gone had this sketch appeared today in 2021.
— Kyle’s intentionally-bad, sing-songy half-Scottish/half-Jamaican accent is hilarious.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Misery”


CORPORATE MAGIC SHOW
humorless (host) dissects logic of magician’s (TAK) stolen underwear gag

— Hmm, another sketch with Taran playing a magician doing a magic act onstage, much like that sketch from the preceding season’s Blake Shelton episode?
— While this premise initially seems questionable and juvenile, it’s made hilarious by just how intensely Peter’s character is deconstructing Taran’s “stinky underwear” gag, leaving Taran in a gradually defeated, helpless state. Peter is selling the living HELL out of this, and is making me laugh so much with how increasingly seriously his character is taking his dissection of Taran’s gag.
— What was with the empty, abrupt ending? I take it the show is running long, and they had to shorten this sketch at the last minute?
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong, flawless episode. Lots of great sketches, and I love how this episode was filled with pretty much nothing but original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts. The template of this episode is basically what I consider to be an ideal SNL episode. In fact, I found this episode’s template to refreshingly be rather reminiscent to that of the season 15 Robert Wagner episode (one of my all-time favorite episodes), as that Wagner episode was also filled with original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts. (I recall the season 43 James Franco episode also having that same “nothing but original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts all night” template, and hopefully, that episode will live up to my recollection when I eventually review it.)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Space Pants
Weekend Update
Undersea Hotel
Naked And Afraid: Celebrity Edition
At This Hour with Berman & Bolduan
Corporate Magic Show
Vacation Nightmares
HBO First Look
Glory Hole
Winnie The Pooh
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ariana Grande)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Russell Crowe

Posted on

March 12, 2016 – Ariana Grande (S41 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN ELECTION CENTER
Ben Carson (JAP) endorses Donald Trump (DAH); Bernie Sanders (Larry David) enjoys a win

— Two episodes in a row with a Jake Tapper cold opening???
— There’s Jay’s always-funny Ben Carson impression.
— Jay-as-Carson’s parting words at the end of his speech: “Bye, America! It’s been weird.”
— Another welcome Larry David cameo as Bernie Sanders, and as usual, he’s been given a lot of great lines here, especially the digs at Bernie’s supporters.
— Darrell’s Donald Trump, towards his supporters, after they’ve beaten up Jay’s Ben Carson: “Guys, what did I say?!? Not THIS one!”
— Jay’s Carson, on Darrell’s Trump: “Donald’s actually got a lot of black friends. Omarosa, Dennis Rodman…” Darrell’s Trump: “The list goes on.” Carson: “Mike Tyson…” Trump: “The list ends.”
— Very funny how Larry’s Bernie is brushing his teeth while in his pajamas when the camera cuts back to him, as he assumed the interview was over.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings “What Will My Scandal Be?” in eager anticipation of disgrace

— As a 90s kid who grew up watching Kenan on Nickelodeon, I love him appearing right after Ariana Grande brings up the fact that she got her start on Nickelodeon.
— Kenan: “I’ve been on this show for 13 damn years, and people still ask me twice a week, ‘Where’s Kel?’” Ariana: “I loved you guys. Do you still stay in touch?” Kenan: “(angrily) A LITTLE BIT!”
— Ariana’s coming off as a natural here.
— Yet another musical monologue, but at least it makes sense with this particular host.
— After her lyric about pimp-slapping Adele, Ariana ad-libs “Oh, shit.” No idea why, as it came off really random.
— Insert obligatory statement here about how odd it is in hindsight to see Ariana and Pete innocently interacting with each other in this monologue, given their future, blah blah blah. Let’s just move on.
— I will say that, when Ariana responds to Pete’s offer to smoke pot by saying “Pot? Let’s smoke some crack, man”, I love Pete’s fearful delivery of “I’m good!” while walking away.
STARS: ***


HILLARY FOR AMERICA
to appeal to young voters, Hillary Clinton (KAM) mimics Bernie Sanders

— Good conceit with Kate’s Hillary Clinton, in a message she’s delivering to America, slowly and desperately transforming into Bernie Sanders while occasionally slipping back into her normal persona. Kate is executing this perfectly.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****


KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS PRE-SHOW
countdown to conclusion of Kids’ Choice Awards pre-show is mistimed

— Was it intentional for the chyron of Vanessa and Taran’s character names to be displayed in the wrong order (Vanessa’s name was displayed under Taran, and vice-versa), or was that intentional? I remember the same thing later happening in the United States Of Talent sketch from the following season’s John Cena episode, and I’ve always wondered if that was a gaffe or not, too.
— For obvious reasons, it’s fitting to have the lead-off sketch tonight be a Nickelodeon-themed sketch.
— I always kinda get this sketch mixed up with the Kids’ Choice Awards Orange Carpet sketch from the season 43 Natalie Portman episode. I think Mikey Day is the writer (or at least co-writer) behind both sketches, which makes sense, given his experience writing children’s entertainment.
— Meh, the premise of the hosts mistiming the countdown clock seems flimsy for a full four-minute sketch.
— Once again tonight, Ariana is coming off as a total natural and likable.
— Ha, I did get a laugh just now from the countdown clock now inexplicably counting back upwards after counting down to 0:00.
— More and more, I can totally see Mikey Day playing Taran’s role in this sketch, and not just because Mikey would end up later playing this same basic role in the aforementioned Natalie Portman-involved Kids’ Choice Awards sketch. Playing characters who are stuck in an awkward situation while still trying to maintain their pleasant, smiley demeanor would later go on to be one of Mikey’s trademarks as a cast member.
— Bobby steals this sketch with his small appearance.
— Another decent laugh from the countdown clock, with it now repeatedly blinking 12:00.
— Overall, not bad, given how wary I initially was over the flimsy-seeming premise. However, I would’ve preferred if this sketch took the route of Vanessa, Taran, and Ariana slowly being driven to absolute insanity by the endless countdown, kind of in a Wake Up & Smile-esque manner, though with enough originality that this sketch wouldn’t just come off as a knock-off of Wake Up & Smile.
STARS: ***


THIS IS NOT A FEMINIST SONG
potential feminist song is hedged by women afraid of a political misstep

— A funny and smart concept that’s being executed well, and the melody of the song is both catchy and fun.
— A laugh from Beck’s very brief involvement.
— Good turn towards the end with the ladies coming to the realization that this actually is a feminist song.
STARS: ****


TRUE TALES FROM THE SEA
(BEB)’s blobfish-based mermaid Shud (KAM) is homelier than other seamen’s

— A good display of Kate’s utter fearlessness in playing grotesque roles.
— Kate’s line about her “front ass” made me laugh out loud.
— When each mermaid sings a beautiful brief song after kissing their sailor, it’s quite funny how Kate’s song is that famous chant from the beginning of “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— An absolutely hilarious gaffe with Larry David messing up Ariana’s name, then making a comical “Ah, darn it!” gesture as the camera is panning away from him, without him even correcting himself. Classic.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Dangerous Woman”


WEEKEND UPDATE
despite her claims, The Bachelor’s drunkest contestant (CES) seems crazy

Riblet complements anchor work with a report from MIC’s mom’s house

— Some absolutely great riffing from Michael on racist Trump supporters.
— Cecily as The Drunkest Contestant On The Bachelor: “Can I get a second-chance kiss?” Colin: “No! And if Leslie Jones hears about this, we’re both dead.”
— This seems like a really standard Cecily role, but she’s pretty fun here, especially when she ad-libs with her “smile” towards Colin.
— Michael, in a very Norm Macdonald-esque moment: “March is Women’s History Month (*some women in the audience ‘whoo’ in excitement*), so ladies……that cake is not gonna bake itself. (*audience reacts*) Before you ladies get angry and send a bunch of messages about how sexist that joke is, let me just remind you…to finish bakin’ that cake.”
— After Cecily’s commentary, Colin and Michael have been having a (mostly) fantastic string of killer jokes.
— First time all season that we’ve seen Riblet. This also ends up being his last appearance ever.
— I keep kinda expecting the usual aspects of every Riblet commentary to get old, but they manage to always work, including in tonight’s appearance.
— Love Riblet throwing to a supposedly-live remote report from himself.
— Great ending to the Riblet commentary, with the split screen of him dancing both live in the studio and out in the street as a reporter. Also a nice nod to SNL’s history with him signing off by saying “Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.”
STARS: ****½


TIDAL
intern (host) provides vocals after power outage at Tidal headquarters

— A remake of the great and memorable Pandora sketch with Bruno Mars. Ariana probably saw that sketch and asked SNL this week if she could do something like that. I understand the SNL writers’ need to fulfill a host’s request, but man, couldn’t they have come up with a more original way to have Ariana do a whole bunch of singer impressions WITHOUT literally just redoing the Pandora sketch?
— I like Sasheer’s cheesy delivery of her corny Billy Joel joke.
— Credit to Ariana for giving an admirable performance and doing spot-on impressions of various singers, but this sketch is just way too derivative for my likes, and is trying way too hard to re-capture the naturally fun magic of the Bruno Mars sketch. I’m sure I’d be much higher on the Ariana version if it preceded the Bruno Mars version.
— Kenan’s fine here, but I’m not finding him to be quite as strong in this role as Jason Sudeikis was in the Bruno Mars version. Plus, Kenan flubbed one line really badly here (though it certainly didn’t derail the sketch or anything).
— At least this sketch has a completely different ending than the Bruno Mars version.
STARS: **


CELERITY FAMILY FEUD
Jennifer Lawrence (host) & other actors take on directors

— Kinda surprised to see this recurring sketch being buried so late into tonight’s episode.
— Another spot-on impression from Ariana, this time of Jennifer Lawrence. I remember an online SNL fan saying this impression felt really mean-spirited, but I’m not seeing that at all.
— SNL already used that joke referring to Tilda Swinton as David Bowie.
— I see what Taran’s going for in his Quentin Tarantino impression, but the result isn’t fully working for me, and he’s no Norm Macdonald when it comes to this impression. Then again, Taran may be going for a more modern take on Tarantino than Norm did. I’m far more familiar with 90s Tarantino than 10s Tarantino, so maybe I’m not the right person to gauge the accuracy of Taran’s Tino (sorry, I couldn’t resist calling it that) impression.
— I mentioned a few episode reviews ago that Jon’s Dirty Dancing routine was the first of only two things that he did in his short-lived SNL tenure that I liked back when this season originally aired. The second thing is his Martin Scorsese impression in this sketch, which I found to be very spot-on back then, and still do in my current viewing. On a semi-related note, man, Jon really disappeared after that Dirty Dancing routine. When that routine originally aired, so many online SNL fans called it his star-turn moment and assumed we would now be seeing much more of him on the show, but he instead has ended up doing practically NOTHING since then until this Scorsese impression. And the only noteworthy thing I recall him doing for the remainder of this season after this episode is him unfortunately adding another infamous moment to his SNL repertoire: him mysteriously making a very late entrance to a certain famous Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell-written music-involved sketch that appears in the very next episode I’m reviewing.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Be Alright”


THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Maria (host) complains about nuns’ musical shade

— Meh, I’m not caring for the premise of The Sound of Music’s Maria angrily confronting her fellow nuns in a very 2010s sassy manner. Seems like the type of thing that would appeal more to Ariana’s fanbase, who’s probably far more into this type of humor than I am.
— I wouldn’t call this sketch horrible as I’m not exactly miserable watching it and I can fully acknowledge it’s a sketch that’s just not for me rather than an outright bad sketch, but the only consistent positive I can find in it is that Ariana is at least performing this lead role well.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, despite somewhat of a drop-off in the post-Weekend Update half. Ariana Grande helped give this episode a nice feel, and, much like most former Nickelodeon and Disney Channel stars who host this show, came off as a natural in every sketch tonight.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
This Is Not A Feminist Song
Hillary For America
CNN Election Center
True Tales From The Sea
Monologue
Kids’ Choice Awards Pre-Show
Celerity Family Feud
Tidal
The Sound of Music


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Peter Dinklage

Posted on

March 5, 2016 – Jonah Hill / Future (S41 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN ELECTION CENTER
Ted Cruz (TAK) & Mitt Romney (JAS) weigh in against Donald Trump (DAH)

— The debut of Beck’s Jake Tapper impression.
— A good laugh from the conceit of Bobby’s Chris Christie shamefully acting submissive towards Darrell’s Donald Trump.
— Decent speech from Kate’s Hillary Clinton.
— A funny beginning to the Taran-as-Ted-Cruz interview, with the uncomfortably-close initial shot of his face, and Beck’s Tapper being startled by it.
— There’s that maniacal, over-the-top laugh from Taran’s Cruz again, which I never care for, partly because it feels to me like Taran’s trying too hard (he also did a very similar laugh as Peyton Manning a few episodes prior), and, as I said in a recent review, kinda signifies the fact that his SNL tenure is coming to a close, despite him not even knowing that. And in general, I just have a hard time buying him as Ted Cruz.
— Whoa, Jason Sudeikis cameo as Mitt Romney. I had no prior memory of that being in this episode.
— I like the callback to a previous Mitt Romney appearance of Jason’s, with him referring to rappers as “rapsters”.
— Some okay lines from Jason’s Romney here, and Jason’s giving his usual solid performance.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host fights career slump by performing “Jumpman” with musical guest

— Boy, we’re ALREADY launching into an audience Q&A, only 10 seconds into this monologue.
— Kyle, as an audience member: “Hey, Jonah, medium fan here.”
— A pretty funny and unexpected reveal of Kyle actually playing himself. I’d like to think that’s SNL’s self-deprecating way of making fun of how they’ve strangely taken to using cast members as fake audience members in Audience Q&A monologues in recent years. (Seriously, why’d they stop regularly using writers for those roles?)
— Jonah Hill, to Kyle, after Kyle passive-aggressively insulted him: “I love your videos that you make. They remind me of how much I miss Andy Samberg.”
— The Jonah/Future duet isn’t doing a thing for me.
— That’s the whole monologue? Aside from the funny back-and-forths between Jonah and Kyle at the beginning, this monologue felt like a whole lot of nothing, though it wasn’t horrible.
STARS: **


RACISTS FOR TRUMP
a variety of things make Donald Trump an attractive candidate to racists

— Given the nature of the set-up, the reveal of Taran wearing a swastika armband and Vanessa knitting a KKK hood is hilarious.
— Sadly, the shock value of the reveals wore off fast. After the big laughs from the first two reveals with Taran and Vanessa, this commercial had no other place to go. By the time they got to the final scene with Kyle, the reveal in his scene barely even registered.
STARS: **½


FOND DU LAC ACTION NEWS
off-topic personal items guide small town report

— A fairly amusing concept of a Midwestern folksy approach to presenting the news.
— Pretty funny how Aidy’s remote “report” just consists of Cecily and Jonah speaking to each other while Aidy silently stands there.
— There’s our obligatory display of Jonah cracking up, which seems to happen at least once in each of his hosting stints.
— Taran steals this sketch in his Lotto Picks scene.
— Overall, decent execution of a premise that I initially didn’t think would have the legs to sustain a full four-minute sketch.
STARS: ***


THE CHAMP
newscast details how much of a loser high schooler (host) is

— Unexpected twist with Jonah finding out the real reason behind the special treatment he received from his peers.
— There’s our obligatory display of “Jonah Hill plays a character who gets called out on a bathroom-related embarrassment”, which, much like him breaking out into giggles during a sketch, seems to happen at least once in each of his hosting stints.
— Kenan apparently doing an homage to Fred Armisen’s stereotypical Spanish-accented roles, I see. Kenan’s even using the same vocal inflection Fred would’ve used had he played this particular janitor role.
— The random bit with it being disclosed that Eric McCormack had just committed a murder next door made me laugh.
— The more this short goes on, the less I’m liking the mean-spirited tone of it. I can certainly get behind mean-spirited humor when done right, but this ain’t it.
— Great delivery from Cecily on the following breaking news she gives about Eric McCormack: “It’s twiiiiiins!…that he murdered.”
STARS: **


STUDENT AUCTION
Qatari emissary (host) bids for viral videomakers at high school auction

— Jonah looks like he’s struggling so hard to keep up that Middle Eastern accent he’s doing.
— Cecily, after being told that she and Sasheer will be made to prepare the evening’s feast: “(confused) I don’t know how to cook…” Jonah: “THEN YOU WILL LEARN!”
— A good laugh from Beck suddenly changing his tune in regards to his daughter going to the Middle East unsupervised after he hears how much he’s going to get paid for it.
— Not sure I need Taran in this.
— Overall, I feel like this sketch should’ve ended after the good first half. The second half, after the Cecily/Kyle/Sasheer group exited, was pretty blah for me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & The Weeknd [real] perform “Low Life”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is a pompous mess

News From The Future- musical guest declines to participate

110 Year-Old Flossie Dickey (KAM) wants no part of an interview with VAB

JAP uses impressions to recreate a secret meeting of black comedians

— Interesting hearing Michael do a Ben Carson vocal impression. Not bad.
— Cecily’s Girl At A Party, to Michael: “Just so you know, if it were up to me, every year would be Black History Month.”
— Michael: “So are you voting democrat or…?” Girl At A Party: “Why do we have to labia everything, Michael?!?”
— Girl At A Party, in a request to Michael: “Just slap me really hard. It’s about Wall Street.”
— The usual hilarious overall commentary from Girl At A Party.
— A funny idea to do a variation of “The Weeknd Update” bit that they did with The Weeknd earlier this season (funny how he also happens to be in this episode, too), and Future’s little delivery of “What’chall doin’?!?” at the end of his outbursts towards the camera particularly made me laugh.
— Interesting change of pace for Update with the segment with Vanessa interviewing Kate as the world’s oldest woman.
— Meh, as this Vanessa/Kate interview goes on, it’s not doing much for me.
— Okay, I did love Vanessa’s smiley delivery when asking “Oh, no?” after being told by Colin and Michael that she’s not quite done yet after she desperately tries to end the interview prematurely.
— As much as I’m not caring for Kate in this segment (another example of her “peak years” of 2014-2017 being more hit-and-miss than I had remembered), I did laugh just now at her deadpan, grizzled delivery of “Leave this place.”
— Vanessa continues to be the only consistent highlight of this overlong Kate segment. Vanessa’s selling her controlled frustration really well.
— Another interesting change of pace for Update, with Jay doing a commentary as himself that involves him doing a rapid-fire string of many vocal impressions.
— Pretty fascinating seeing Jay do his familiar celebrity voices while playing himself instead of playing the actual celebrities.
— Jay’s Kevin Hart impression has improved a bit from when he last did it in Hart’s season 40 hosting stint.
— This commentary of Jay’s is fun as hell. I’d say this is one of the best things he’s ever done on SNL, which is significant, as we’re nearing the end of his tenure.
— I like the new impressions Jay’s doing here that he never did on SNL before, such as Dave Chappelle and Hannibal Burress.
— Funny reveal at the end that Jay was making the whole event up.
STARS: ****


MURDER MYSTERY
(host)’s massive dump is revealed in course of murder mystery resolution

— A variation of the Couples Quiz sketch (a.k.a. the game show sketch where Jonah gets called out on clogging the toilet in the studio’s bathroom) from Jonah’s season 39 hosting stint. Is SNL freakin’ kidding me making this a recurring concept for Jonah Hill-hosted episodes? Plus, we just got a “Jonah pooping his pants” joke in that The Champ short from earlier tonight.
— I did at least crack up just now at Aidy’s quivery-voiced, British-accented, old-timey delivery of “Why…those are MINE!”
— Taran’s big line flub and subsequent brief giggling over it reminds me of a very similar blooper happening with him in that Murder Mystery sketch from the season 39 Jim Parsons episode, which is an eerie coincidence, as not only do that sketch and this Jonah Hill sketch both have the exact same title as each other, but both sketches even use a very similar-looking set.
STARS: *½


SIDE NOTE: At this point of the episode, just like something I pointed out towards the end of this review of Jonah’s season 37 hosting stint, we get a mid-commercial break shot of what appears to possibly be a red carpet awards show sketch being set up (screencap below), but when SNL comes back from commercial break a minute or so later, we instead get a pre-taped short. We end up never getting the sketch that was shown being set up.


INSIDE SOCAL
(host) reports on (CES)’s tragic breast-reduction surgery

— The third and final installment of this recurring short. Makes sense doing one of these tonight, given the fact the first installment was in Jonah’s season 39 episode.
— A very funny awkward “World News” segment about Indian food.
— Hilarious conceit to this short with Beck and Kyle mourning the loss of Cecily’s big breasts, as she’s getting a breast reduction. This comedic throughline makes this my favorite of all three of the Inside SoCal shorts.
— Funny visual of the hospital waiting room full of depressed bros, sad over the breast reduction surgery Cecily had just now.
— For once, an Inside SoCal short doesn’t end with Bobby entering the scene and sternly putting an end to the recording. The baby bit at the end of tonight’s short is pretty solid.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— A bit interesting how both of Jonah’s musical guest intros tonight have him so casual that he’s holding a Styrofoam cup that he was seemingly drinking out of before doing the intro. Channeling Elliott Gould, I take it?


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “March Madness”


SILVER STAR CATERING
caterer (host) aggressively overstates the success of his food offerings

— Ugh at the main comedic character of this sketch being an EXTREMELY broad, obnoxious, and unfunny gay stereotype.
— An even bigger ugh at the comedic lines that Jonah’s annoying gay stereotype character is blurting out, especially when he starts using sexual terms to describe the manner that the food was eaten by the employees (including flat-out saying at one point that the food was “raped”). This sketch is painfully unfunny.
— As if the reliance on a broad gay stereotype character didn’t already clue you in on the fact that this sketch came from the pen of writers James Anderson and Kent Sublette, the pointless, needless side plot (a trademark of Anderson/Sublette sketches) with the guy who Jonah’s in a phone conversation with being robbed during the conversation makes it official that this is pure “Anderlette” at their worst.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode. Jonah Hill’s episodes typically have a way of just washing over me without registering much, despite not being all that bad, but I felt this particular episode actually was all that bad. My problem with Jonah’s episodes isn’t with Jonah himself, as I don’t find him to be outright terrible as a host or anything, but he’s also not the kind of host who can salvage the bland or bad writing that dominates episodes like this.
— I just realized that, for the first time ever in a Jonah Hill hosting stint, we didn’t get the usual Six Year Old recurring sketch. I know some people really don’t care for those sketches, but they always really work for me, and an appearance from one tonight may have helped the quality of this episode a little.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
Inside SoCal
Fond Du Lac Action News
CNN Election Center
Racists For Trump
Student Auction
The Champ
Monologue
Murder Mystery
Silver Star Catering


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ariana Grande

Posted on

February 13, 2016 – Melissa McCarthy / Kanye West (S41 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT
Hillary Clinton (KAM) sings “I Can’t Make You Love Me” to Bernie Sanders backers

— Pretty funny turn with how the restaurant patrons’ conversation about how they’re no longer voting for Hillary Clinton is followed by Kate’s Hillary slowly being lowered on a seat from above while singing “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.
— The usual funny addition of Darrell Hammond’s Bill Clinton in these Kate-as-Hillary pieces, and I love him saying to the camera, in regards to him playing the piano, “Guess what? I’m not even playin’ this thing.”
— Funny appearance from Beck as a pathetic Jeb Bush, and him getting called out by the restaurant patrons on what he’s doing.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host prematurely celebrates Five-Timer status with “Born To Be Alive” variant

— Interesting conceit of Melissa McCarthy incorrectly claiming this is her fifth time hosting and launching into a celebratory song about now being a Five-Timer.
— Despite my usual fatigue over musical monologues in this era, I’m actually finding this particular song to be pretty fun and catchy. Come to think of it, that’s actually been true for most of this season’s musical monologues.
— There’s Kenan pointing out the inevitable: that this is, in fact, Melissa’s fourth hosting stint, not fifth.
— Pretty funny visual of Melissa’s “4 & One/Sixteenth” glasses after Kenan points out that Melissa’s appearance at SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special doesn’t count as a legitimate full-on hosting stint, but rather just 1/16th of a hosting, if anything.
STARS: ***½


THE DAY BEYONCÉ TURNED BLACK
a post-“Formation” horror film for whites

— A priceless overdramatic reaction white people are shown having to finding out Beyonce is, in fact, black. I particularly love the well-filmed visual of everybody in the streets panicking.
— Love Vanessa’s delivery of “I know he’s black” when Sasheer points out a random black citizen on the street.
— Great exchange between Kate and Kenan.
— Hilarious bit with Cecily nervously rocking back and forth and denying what she hears when it’s revealed on the news that Kerry Washington is also black.
— Great fake-out with a horrified Aidy initially thinking her daughter turned black, only for it to be revealed that that’s Leslie’s daughter. I also love Leslie being offended by Aidy saying a relieved “Thank God!” when seeing that her own daughter hasn’t turned black.
— Strong ending with Kate getting ready to smother her son with a pillow.
— Overall, SNL knocks it out of the park with another brilliant, epic pre-taped Beyonce-themed masterpiece, after their Beygency short from two seasons prior. It’s hard for me to pick which I prefer out of the two shorts, as I love both of them so much, but I think I’d give the edge to this one.
STARS: *****


TEST SCREENING
(host) assaulted fellow audience members in test screening of scary movie

— The pre-taped, night-vision footage is a bit of a refreshing way to change up the overdone “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” trope that this sketch is relying on.
— Pretty funny reaction shots from Melissa in the pre-taped footage, especially her randomly punching Vanessa in the face, and the whole bit she does with Pete.
— Great shot of Leslie laughing and saying, “Man, this bitch is pissing on herself!”
STARS: ***½


MOVIE NIGHT
awkwardness grows as (PED) & parents (BOM) & (host) watch Terminator sex scene

— Much like Pete’s character in this sketch, I surprisingly had absolutely no prior memory of a sex scene in the first Terminator movie when I first saw this sketch during this episode’s original airing.
— A lot of good laughs from Pete’s way of “lightening up” the awkward situation by blurting out all of the absolutely worst things he could possibly say in this situation.
— Good use of pre-taped audio of characters’ inner thoughts.
— After Bobby’s own inappropriate way of “lightening up” the awkward situation, we get a great cutaway to him with a self-satisfied grin while his inner thought says “Heh heh heh heh, nailed it!”
— Great delivery from Pete on his run of embarrassing statements before his abrupt exit.
— An overall refreshingly relatable and solid sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Kelly Price, The-Dream, El DeBarge, Young Thug [real] perform “Highlights”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rachel Green (VAB) is still living in an episode of Friends

Super Bowl MVP Von Miller [real] covers gravitational waves via football

hater of flowers & avocados LEJ lists her perfect man’s characteristics

— For the second consecutive episode, Weekend Update shows clips from a GOP debate that happened just hours prior.
— Good rant from Michael about the “outrage” over Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime performance.
— Wait, that infamous, controversial “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!” tweet of Kanye West’s was made this same week he was on SNL?!? Wow. For some reason, this also reminds me that he had an angry backstage meltdown between this episode’s dress rehearsal and live show, due to SNL changing up the musical guest stage without asking him first. Audio from that angry meltdown of his would be leaked online shortly after this episode’s original airing. (I think Aidy also disclosed in an interview that there was another off-putting incident with Kanye that same night, where, during the goodnights at dress rehearsal, he tried to bring Kim Kardashian up onstage when she clearly didn’t want to do that, or something like that. Of course, that’s small potatoes compared to what Kanye would do during the goodnights of his following SNL appearance.)
— Ah, Vanessa’s Jennifer Aniston/Rachel Green impression makes its first Update appearance, continuing the amazing season Vanessa’s been having.
— Like the last time Vanessa did this impression (in the Jennifer Aniston Lookalike Contest sketch from a few seasons prior), Vanessa is astonishingly spot-on and funny here.
— Hilarious bit with a Friends-esque scene transition happening right in the middle of Vanessa’s commentary.
— I like Colin pointing out how Vanessa’s Aniston/Green always sounds surprised, and that being followed by her immediately proving his point.
— Despite one flubbed line (which is expected for an athlete), Von Miller is coming off likable enough here.
— Surprised by how short the overall Von Miller commentary ended up being, but that’s probably for the best.
— Another Norm Macdonald-esque O.J.-is-a-murderer joke from Michael.
— Feels like Leslie’s on Update every two episodes this season. I can’t remember the last time prior to this that a cast member regularly appeared this frequently as themselves as a guest correspondent on Update. (I guess A. Whitney Brown in the late 80s?) That’s certainly not a complaint, though, as Leslie always kills it on Update.
— The style of tonight’s Leslie commentary is a very interesting change of pace from her usual commentaries, and an interesting change of pace for Update in general.
— I particularly like the part of Leslie’s commentary with her harping on how she equates flowers with dead bodies.
STARS: ****


PICK-UP ARTIST
in a bar, (host) clumsily practices pick-up techniques on target (KYM)

— Meh, seems like I’m in for exactly the type of “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” live sketch that the Test Screening sketch earlier tonight was a refreshing change of pace from.
— This sketch seems like it was partially designed to make Leslie crack up. If that’s the case, it’s succeeding with flying colors. Her constant amusement in this is somehow providing most of my only amusement. While I’m not HATING the main Melissa portions of this sketch, they’re not doing much for me.
— Beck made me laugh out loud appearing at the very end of this sketch in a bizarre brief walk-on role that allowed him to ham it up.
STARS: **


KYLE VS. KANYE
KYM’s delusion of rap greatness withstands verbal rout by musical guest

— At first, I thought that this was going to be the debut of the Kyle/Leslie backstage relationship shorts, until I remembered that those don’t debut until the following season’s Dave Chappelle episode. This short I’m currently reviewing is done in the same style as those Kyle/Leslie shorts, though.
— I’m liking how extensive this short is, even going through the lengths of having Kyle film an interview on Today.
— Love seeing the real-life home movies and photos of Kyle rapping and breakdancing when he was much younger.
— I like how Kyle saying he has no idea what he’s doing out there on SNL is accompanied by a clip of him dressed in a cereal box from a sketch in the season 39 Edward Norton episode.
— The sketch that’s shown being rehearsed at one point, where we see a lot of male cast members dressed for what appears to possibly be a wedding, doesn’t make it to the live show.
— Kanye’s extremely deadpan facial expression while speechlessly staring at Kyle awkwardly rapping insults at him is cracking me up.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****


BUS
on a bus, (host) annoys (LEJ) with attempts to be hip to black experience

— Lots of airtime for Leslie tonight, especially in the second half of this episode starting with Update.
— I’m liking how this quirky character of Melissa’s is a lot more subtle, low-key, and realistic than her usual characters in “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” sketches are.
— Some laughs from Leslie’s desperation to get away from Melissa, even asking the bus driver to just open up the door as the bus is driving on a highway.
— The sudden out-of-left-field turn at the end with this sketch becoming a Speed spoof didn’t do it for me.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Kelly Price, The-Dream, Kirk Franklin, Chance the Rapper [real] perform “Ultralight Beam”


WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & new gal (host) plug Valentine’s Cat Giveaway

— Blah, this again. So tired of this recurring sketch.
— Oh, wow, what a huge surprise: the character played by the female host feels up Kate’s breast while pretending they think they’re petting a cat. We’ve NEVER seen that happen in multiple Whiskers R’ We sketches in the past. [/end sarcasm]
— Quite a lot of O.J.-is-a-murderer jokes throughout tonight’s episode, with this being the third segment tonight to include one.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, and far more consistent than the previous episodes Melissa McCarthy hosted. It also helps that the way she was utilized in this episode felt less redundant than the way she was utilized in her prior episodes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Day Beyoncé Turned Black
Kyle Vs. Kanye
Movie Night
Weekend Update
Test Screening
Hillary for President
Monologue
Bus
Pick-Up Artist
Whiskers R’ We


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Larry David)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jonah Hill. Interestingly, this is his second consecutive hosting stint in which he and Melissa McCarthy host back-to-back episodes.

Posted on

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