October 16, 2021 – Rami Malek / Young Thug (S47 E3) 

Cold Opening – NFL Press Conference

Jon Gruden (JAJ) & others address the litany of current NFL controversies

• Hoo boy. Here comes an open that will be hard for me to figure out properly, as I’m not a sports guy, yet I did some quick research regarding this particular scandal.
• By the way, great to see a non-political open for a change.
• A good laugh from Cecily’s comment at the beginning of this
• Colin! Great to see him outside of Update for a change.
• Colin “One of our coaches is accused of racism, misogyny, and homophobia, but at least no one’s talking about concussions”.
• Colin’s bit was brief, but funny and featured some sharp digs at the NFL. I still don’t know why he doesn’t do more bits outside of Update.
• That kneel line was solid and got quite the reaction from the audience.
• Good Jon Gruden impression from James, and I got a cheap laugh from his Louie line.
• Alex’s mere look is hilarious.
• Heidi looks great here; her bit with Kyle gave me easily my biggest laugh so far. Another sharp take on racism & ethnic stereotypes at the NFL and sports in general.
• As always, a good Colin Kaeprenick impression from Chris, and the audience is pretty hot so far tonight.
• I always love it when Kenan sings, reminding of his WUWT character, and his great Electric Shoes showcase from season 44.
• Overall, this was solid & sharp for a non-political cold open, even when it didn’t need that ”turns” part, it used the cast well, and was harmless enough.

Rating: ***1/2

Monologue

host prefers to portray villains because he can identify with them

• Good to see another straight monologue this season.
• Rami’s deep voice and expressions still remind me of his great performance in Mr. Robot, wherein he delivered COUNTLESS brilliant monologues.
• Good laughs from his talk about playing villains and heroes, I do need to watch this Bond film soon.
• Overall, another short & to the point monologue, Rami came off great here.

Rating: ***1/2

The Bug Assembly

at a middle school assembly, (BOY) is a flamboyant daddy longlegs

• Sarah’s appearance here is her first & ONLY one in this entire episode, showing that the show still doesn’t know how to utilize her well.
• Great to see Bowen starring in a sketch this season, after being invisible in the first two episodes.
• Pretty predictable premise, but Bowen, being his usual hilarious & charismatic self, is probably the ONLY performer in this cast, aside from Kenan, that could sell this premise.
• Boy, this is one energetic crowd tonight, great to see that.
• Kenan & Heidi are obviously struggling not to break, I would whine, but even I won’t be able to keep it together if I were to perform next to Bowen.
• Fun & energetic ending, and a good shot to fade to commercial from.

Rating: ***1/2

Squid Game

(PED), (host), (Big Wet) sing country tune about their Squid Game ordeal

• I loved Squid Game since I saw it couple of months ago, but it doesn’t really need a musical parody, it seems like a wasted potential for a stronger & darker parody.
• Never been a fan of Pete’s music videos, but this one is well-directed, and the production value on it is pretty great.
• Ah, Melissa absolutely steals this one for me, a testament to how strong she is when given the chance.
• Decent piece overall.

Rating: ***

Prince Audition

KET, host, Daniel Craig [real] audition to be Jordan Peele’s (KET) Prince

• An amusing concept, and Rami is again performing this well, even if I think he should’ve been given better writing.
• Nice to see the return of Chris’ Jordan Peele, as I’m a big fan of both of these comics.
• Ah, pleased to see Daniel Craig here, as his presence is always welcomed, and it just reminds of how much I liked his hosting stint from season 45.
• Craig is hilarious in this, great to see him even more loose than he was in his hosting stint.
• Amusing ending with Craig becoming the new Prince impersonator just because of his race, a solid take on Hollywood’s whitewashing.

Rating: ***1/2 (The latter for Daniel)

Celeb School

Pete Davidson (host) & Rami Malek (PED) on game show panel

• Surprised that it took this long to see a game show sketch this year.
• Fun concept for a game show; it’s also good to see Andrew & Punkie being utilized as the contestants.
• Great to see the return of Chris’ fantastic Lil Wayne impression, probably my favorite of his impressions.
• Happy to see Mikey’s spot-on John Oliver returning.
• Man, Melissa’s Kristen Wiig is FLAWLESS, absolutely uncanny to an eerie degree. I ask again, how in the world did Melissa only do about 20 or so impressions in FIVE seasons before this one?! absurd.
• As usual, a great impression from Chloe, she looks and sounds just like Jennifer Coolidge here, and as a fan of her, it’s great to see her parodied on SNL.
• Sadly, this is Chloe’s ONLY appearance tonight, her airtime so far is HORRENDOUS. and IIRC Sarah’s airtime will even surpass her soon, a newbie in her FIRST year, surpassing a popular and rising cast member. Again, it shows just how bloated the cast is.
• An okay, if repetitive idea of having Rami & Pete impersonate each other, the audience is certainly more amused than I’m, I’m getting good chuckles and that’s it.
• Great & very funny George Takei from Bowen, who’s really been impressing me with his impression skills, between his strong Fran Lebowitz last year, and now Takei.
• Once again, James crushes it with ANOTHER impression of his. His Adam Driver is both spot-on and hilarious to me. That outburst gave me a strong laugh just now.
• Overall, this was a fun impression showcase for the cast, it was nice that it was kept at length and contained enough good jokes.

Rating: ****

Musical Performance – “Tick Tock”

Weekend Update

gay Oompa Loompa (BOY) deals with being outed & trashes Willy Wonka

CRR avoids topic of his “Black people can’t get coronavirus” remark

complications ensue when (KET) wets himself after (MID) hypnotizes him

• Interesting to see Colin commenting on Pete buttigieg, for obvious reasons.
• Great laugh from Colin’s bit regarding the emails that Che sends him.
• That Harambe meme is as dead as that gorilla, at least Che had a funny response to that joke.
• Really??!! Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka??!! I like Timothée in general, but I ask: Wasn’t Johnny Depp enough of an abomination?!
• Bowen’s been having a big night so far, great to see that as he certainly deserves it.
• Due to SNL’s problematic past with over-relaying on stereotypical & insulting gay jokes it would be interesting to see how Bowen tackles this.
• So far Bowen is being his usual reliable & hilarious self, even if his commentary isn’t as funny as I would’ve wanted it to be.
• Well, that was one quick commentary from Bowen, a decent one at least.
• Great to see Chris on Update, it feels so rare to see him behind the desk.
• So far, Chris is coming charming as usual, even if his commentary so far is simply ok.
• And Chris’ commentary went by with me barely having any thoughts on it, good overall, yet I know that Chris could do even better than this, his commentary here was simple and had good heart.
• An interesting pairing of Kenan & Mikey, rare to see them together.
• Good chemistry so far between them, and a very funny bit with Mikey putting Kenan to sleep after he lost it when he found out that he pissed his pants.
• LOL that Zendaya line gave me a really good laugh.
• Funny that even Michael is putting Kenan to sleep.
• A somewhat long, but good Update overall.

Rating: ***1/2

Sleepy Town USA

married (host) & (AIB) play-act arguments while shopping for a mattress

• Now here comes a hidden gem from this season.
• Already, Rami & Aidy have great chemistry.
• Great to see Bowen here, and he always makes a fantastic & funny straight man in these types of sketches.
• Solid tension & subtle dark undertones between Aidy & Rami, reminding me of Aidy’s performance in the great Overnight Salad piece, from and that’s funny enough, Daniel Craig’s episode from season 45.
• Hilarious absurdist turn with their ”house” getting invaded, and a great visual of both the gun and the shotgun being under the pillows for some reason.
• Great ending with Rami being shot, and Aidy getting even more horny for him now.
• Overall, a great Aidy showcase and a true hidden gem. Also, Rami’s best usage & performance of the night, just up there with the upcoming skit.

Rating: ****1/2

Musical Performance – “Love You More”

Angelo

Angelo (ARA) produces identical-sounding songs from audience suggestions

• Needless to say, a famous skit that would go on to be one of the season’s highlights in many websites & Youtube compilations.
• So happy to see Aristotle get a major showcase finally, even if it was in the 10-1 slot of the episode.
• Great Look & characterization from Aristotle, you could tell that he has done this character countless times pre-SNL.
• Happy to see Daniel in another skit, and he’s a solid straight man here.
• Cecily just now makes her first appearance since the cold open, showing us how useless and out of place she’s in this cast.
• Fun conceit to this skit, and the anti-comedy vibes from this are great & enjoyable to watch.
• Rami looks absolutely HILARIOUS here. Always great to see the host loosen up.
• Angelo: ”Barafarbalas”.
• Angelo’s many asides & him saying: ” Thank you for this” never fail to make me laugh.
• The audience is being very supportive and hot tonight, heartwarming to see, especially for a newbie trying to prove himself.
• Rami’s a solid supporting player, and the dance he’s doing just now is simply elevating this skit to a classic status.
• Overall, I loved this as much as when I first saw it. I really had a hard time with my final rating for this piece. Yet, from the unique concept, the sheer commitment & to the brave anti-comedy feel from this piece, I had to just go all the way.

Rating: *****

Goodnights:-

• Really cute to see Daniel & Rami hugging here, it would be fascinating to see them as enemies when I finally watch the movie.

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Angelo

Sleepy Town USA

Celeb School

NFL Press Conference

Monologue

Weekend Update

The Bug Assembly

Prince Audition

Squid Game

Final Thoughts:-

• A flawless & great episode overall, and such a step up from the previous awful one. This episode consisted of nothing but solid, original, and creative pieces throughout. A template to a perfect SNL show in my view.
• This was such a great night for Bowen, getting two starring roles, and having constant presence throughout the episode.
• Rami was a solid host, who was weirdly used sparingly till the post-Update half were he really shined and gave great performances that remind me of how damn talented he is.

My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:

Next week:-

• Jason Sudeikis is hosting, which is long overdue by this point. I’ll review that episode soon, so do not expect another review until a few days from now..(ADDENDUM:- turns out my paper due date was pushed back a good enough while to allow me to review Jason’s episode very soon) Thanks all for reading my reviews.

My full set of screencaps from this episode is here.