December 11, 2021 – Billie Eilish (S47 E8) 

Cold Opening – A Holiday Message From Dr. Anthony Fauci

• Cue the applause break that would go on endlessly for Kate as if she returned from saving the planet instead of making a Tiger King flop.
• Unlike some other hardcore fans, I still actually like Kate. Certainly more than Aidy and Cecily by this point of their tenure. Yet, my biggest issue with her returning for a 10th season is how suffocating her presence is, and how much it prevents other newer female cast members from succeeding and getting material on air. Not to mention, that she already did everything she wanted to do seasons ago.
• Kate did some actual strong impressions in the past (Emilia Clarke, Betsy Devos, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton) and some funny if not that accurate (Brigitte Bardot, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury) but her impression of Fauci is just her using that stock Smug old New Yorker voice that sounds EXACTLY like her Rudy Giuliani “impression” and a variation of her Wilbur Ross voice.
• Really SNL? You’re doing another version from that fine cold open from KMK’s episode from last season? I’ve been saying it these past few episodes, but the general sloppiness in rehashing and reusing some skits and bits is surprising this year, after having a couple of refreshing and unique episodes, the season returns to the easy choices.
• Too bad that a funny part with Sarah having Rabies and attacking Chris was cut before air, showing us early on some of this episode’s faults in my view. And also shows how much Kate’s presence is suffocating others, as Sarah’s been having a much better season than last year’s newbies, and gaining solid screen time, and even in this episode, with her limited presence she still gained about 90 seconds more, raising her total airtime to 13 minutes and half, higher than Melissa and Aristotle. And very slightly less than Punkie (!) and Chloe.
• Come to think of it, Punkie is mainly used as a background extra in many pieces, while Sarah took many small parts that count, similar to Chloe when she started her first season, and Sarah got cut from an episode early on, and contracted Covid before the next episode’s dress rehearsal began.
• A funny moment with Kyle’s Santa.
• Happy to see Chloe debut a new impression, and a funny look and voice to her Lauren Boebert’s depiction.
• Mercifully, this is Cecily’s first & LAST appearance all night. No complaints from me here.
• Chloe: “Guns don’t kill people, people people people”.
• Chloe, as usual, is being her funny and professional self here, trying to make much of the material given to her. What’s so funny is the clown congresswoman would attack Chloe‘s impression on Twitter the very next day. Great press for Chloe though.
• We now got the return of Aidy’s Ted Cruz and the anticipated ”reunion” between her and Kate, this cold open bottomed out for me.
• Overall, this had enough funny parts to make it not that terrible, it’s still below-average for me and the Kaidy part at the the end lowered my rating half a star.

Rating: **

Monologue

• Great dress on Billie here, and fits with the Christmas spirit perfectly.
• Billie is coming off very likable and down-to-earth as expected.
• As a Gen Z, it’s feels so surreal to see a person from my generation host SNL.
• A big guilty laugh from me with that Colin photo, and damn if he didn’t age so well.
• A solid delivery with Billie’s “seen here” joke, one my favorite recurring bits from the Che/Jost Update era.
• Overall, this was charming and pretty fun, Billie came of loose and very likable.
• Some lovely music & dancing from Billie as the show goes to commercial.
• Great to see our EIGHTH host-only monologue this season.

Rating: ***1/2

Christmas Cards

• Another weekly ensemble skit from this season.
• This reminds me of a similar piece they did when Matt Damon hosted the Christmas episode in 44.
• Very distracting to see the performers glued to their cue-cards when they’re supposed to be looking at the cards.
• Funny brief scene with Chris.
• Weird cameo by Miley Cyrus, yet she’s coming off loose and funny as always.
• Shockingly, this is Punkie’s first skit appearance since Jonathan Majors episode, and again I’m still FLOORED how she wasn’t cut with Lauren Holt last year, like nearly everyone predicted.
• Solid delivery from Punkie which again shows us how SNL is wasting her to far, as she’s naturally very likable and has sharp delivery due to her standup years.
• A funny reveal that Miley was forced to take this photo.
• A good laugh from Kate’s scene, yet the mugging storm got in the way, as we shall see in our final skit of the night.
• Interesting pairing of Aristotle, Andrew, and Billie.
• Great Douchebag look and performance from Aristotle, and again I ask: why won’t you give this man more screen time SNL??!!
• Another funny moment from Aristotle’s admission that he cheats on Billie, solid delivery from him once more.
• Too bad that an Angelo sketch was cut that featured a great Billie performance, it’s absurd how it got cut and a certain piece got on air.
• Despite an awkward pause, Billie is doing a very good job here and is selling her character’s disdain very well.
• Overall, this was fun and had a breezy & relatable atmosphere helped by the cast’s performances.

Rating: ***1/2

TikTok

• I recall liking this piece a lot.
• Very interesting presentation to this pretape, and again shows us that SNL is trying to reach the Gen Z crowd without sounding like the ”How do you do, fellow kids?” meme. I would again chalk that up to the newer & much younger writers.
• Kenan is his usual funny self at the beginning of this
• Interesting pairing of Sarah & Billie, and some fun dance moves.
• Spot-on and funny impression by Chloe of those people who are like this.
• Surprisingly, this is James’ first & ONLY appearance reprising his Homer impression. And as I remember he also barely appears next episode, but again that’s due to Covid, as he, Ari, and Sarah had big part in the planned five-timers monologue, and were supposed to appear in decent amount of skits.
• Decent appearance from Kate, relaying on her charm and likability as a person.
• An absolutely hilarious bit with Aristotle’s standup being heckled by some guy, and a solid sad turn from Ari.
• I loved the guy’s apology at the end of this bit.
• Alex is perfect as a typical cheesy dad.
• Overall, a great and well-written pretape which made a solid usage of the majority of our cast.

Rating: ****

Hip-Hop Nativity

• A very random premise.
• Heidi is again giving me Kristen Wiig flashbacks in this, and that’s NOT good to me.
• Never realized how short Billie is, again Heidi is pretty tall.
• According to dress report, there was a part that would clarify a rivalry between this church and another, with the other church putting on a Broadway-style nativity scene. It would at least make this piece appear more cohesive, and with some backbone.
• An interesting usage of Bowen, Chris, and Sarah.
• Sarah is AGAIN using her normal voice here, and it sounds nothing like her Update piece.
• Heidi’s various annoying ”Pimp waalk!!!” Shouts Are starting to get on my nerves.
• Hilarious how the audience is hyping Andrew’s twerking, and I could see fancams being edited with this skit in mind.
• Kyle’s walk is hilarious to me, and too bad Chloe barely had anything funny to do here.
• An actual fun ending, made better by the cast’s and especially Heidi’s commitment in riding the pole.
• A harmless sketch overall, if not again below-average for my taste. Also, this is Another sketch this season that was salvaged by the cast’s commitment, yet again it should’ve never been chosen instead of Angelo, as the latter would’ve boosted my overall rating average for this episode.

Rating: **1/2

Lonely Christmas

• Ah, I love this song by The Smiths so much, and it’s fitting this piece very well.
• Again with another pretape, this one also features some great cinematography and color grading.
• This is really sweet so far, and for once a Kate performance as an old lady seems fitting here.
• Ah, and here comes the first of MANY consecutive twists and turns in this piece.
• Huge guilty laugh from Kate’s character asking if there’s any black people in Billie’s apartment.
• Love Kate’s face after writing ”Jews?”.
• Billie is playing her fear & confusion very well here.
• Solid inclusion of Mikey as the creepy son Rutger, and he’s giving a strong performance here.
• The escalation here is done very well, and I’m loving how dark this is getting.
• A big laugh from Kate’s character dropping her dress and getting nude.
• An ok ending with this turning into a commercial & good tagline by the end.
• A great & potentially classic pretape overall, and featured a fantastic Kate showcase, easily her strongest since the two great showcases (Workout Mirror, Dating After Lockdown) that she had in Nick Jonas’ episode from season 46.
• I may have not said it before, but aside from the Kardashian, Majors, and Culkin episodes, the pretapes this season are ON FIRE. Reminding me of how damn strong they were in seasons 38-43, and 45.

Rating: *****

Weekend Update

• Decent jokes so far, I have none to highlight, they’re fine on their own.
• Ok, that technical difficulties joke is fantastic; possibly my favorite of the season.
• A surprising visit to the Update desk from Punkie, I forgot that she’s a cast member, as someone on Reddit said that she looks and acts like a background extra in each skit she’s in, and I disagree with that assessment, Punkie is fine & likable but she’s WAY underused to the point in which I still cannot say if I hate her or Like her. For crying out loud, we’re about halfway through this season so far, and I ALREADY have my opinions formed in regards to our three newbies. A group of featured players that are, well, actually featured decently enough. And in the case of JAJ, already took charge of the show.
• Back to the commentary, again I see some likable presence & energy from Punkie, yet I’m still not getting many laughs.
• Judging from the audience’s reaction, oof this one is going rough so far.
• Pretty tepid laughs from the audience so far in reaction to Punkie’s jokes, I’m certainly getting more amused than them.
• Solid bit regarding Punkie wanting gay kids, and some funny commentary regarding her relatives & family members, the audience is somewhat more responsive now.
• Overall, an average commentary from Punkie, I got some decent laughs and it featured a good showcase for her. Yet, I highly doubt if she would survive past this season, and I hope that I’m wrong.
• Colin: “It was reported that Sylvester Stallone will star in a new TV series playing an Italian mob boss from Kansas City, in what is an absolute nightmare scenario for the closed captioning guy.”
• Hilarious comparison between the Me Too movement and dogs, and as a cat lover & owner, don’t forget about them too. Furry little bastards.
• Andrew gets another Update commentary after the success of his first one from the tail end of season 46.
• Andrew is also continuing his quiet solid season.
• Interesting commentary so far, and especially since Andrew is not doing a character here.
• Good laugh from the dark reveal from the octopus that Andrew would die in 7 days. Good reaction from Andrew here.
• (*sigh*) about a minute more into this, and this seems to be the only joke this commentary is going for.
• This is dragging on forever!
• A very predictable blooper with the dog not facing the camera, and not even this is giving me more than a quick smirk.
• Overall, a subpar commentary from Andrew and a MASSIVE step down from his strong one from last season.
• The two commentaries tonight were overall better than the wretched ones from last episode, and even better than the commentaries from Culkin’s too.
• I was pleased to see two featured players get the spotlight in tonight’s Update and I’m hoping to see this trend continuing in the second half, and especially in the upcoming Ariana DeBose episode this Saturday. Yet, these commentaries again proved to me how much stronger our season 47 newbies are, and I know that they’re still very new, yet they made more of an impression to me and others in few episode. That is much more than I could say for Punkie & Andrew, the latter just this season I’m starting to get the gist of.
• Overall, this Update was a step up in the right direction after the shockingly horrible previous one, as it featured stronger jokes and actual ok commentary from Punkie.
• Yet, this one is still not as strong as the usual ones from this era, and I’m waiting for another Update that would come close to the Sudeikis & Majors ones.

Rating: ***

The Night I Met Santa

• Unsurprisingly, we get our obligatory musical piece with Billie.
• What is surprising to me is that they didn’t do a full-on musical pretape that involves the majority of the girls in the cast, but considering the quality of the two pretapes we got so far, that’s probably a good thing.
• To say something nice, this looks well-shot and Billie looks great in this and coming off endearing.
• Also, Ego and Kate look beautiful here, the latter pretty much DOMINATING the episode so far as expected.
• I’m about halfway through this, and aside from few decent comments by Billie and few lyrics, I’m not laughing much.
• I guess with this sketch, it depends on how you feel about Billie, I never cared much for her music, even when I find her very talented, this one is just washing over me so far.
• Funny Kenan appearance, and surprisingly he barely appeared in this episode.
• Overall, this was another below-average piece for me, yet it had enough ok moments and lyrics to make it not terrible.

Rating: **1/2

Kyle’s Holiday

• It feels so rare to see a Kyle-starring pretape, reminding me of how much I loved his Viral Apology one from last season.
• Good to see a backstage pretape, as it’s reminding me of the Issa Rae one.
• A surprising Beck mention & funny comment regarding Kenan.
• Didn’t care for that musical number, good that it was brief.
• Nice mention of PDD, reminding me of a very solid cut pretape by them from this episode, and yes it was much better than all of the live material tonight, featuring some strong absurdist tones that I LOVE.
• Strong dark turn with Kyle’s plans toward Mikey, and a rare interaction between them.
• Very solid delivery from Billie just now, and a good tone to her warning.
• Overall, this was great and of perfect runtime. Glad the pretapes were strong tonight, as if they weren’t, I can only shudder to think of what I’d be suffering from.

Rating: ****

Business Garden Inn & Suites & Hotel Room Inn

• Our penultimate Drezen/Gates densely-worded sketch. these ones are more of a hit-and-miss for me; ranging from modern-day classics (Peter Paula & Murray) to downright unwatchable (Supermarket Sweep,stunts). As for this one, I’m not that much into it.
• Interesting not to see Aidy indulging with Kate in their typical self-amused whackyfest, and I’m surprised that Billie is next to Kate instead of her.
• It’s so frustrating to see Kate in another suffocating apperance, while Melissa & Sarah are sitting in their dressing rooms watching this vanity piece play out.
• Some solid line delivery from Billie, who’s been impressing me as a host.
• WTF with Kate’s mugging just now??!! She’s reminding me of how some used to accuse her of trying to milk laughs and sounding desperate back in her first season, even though she had a very solid first year, and took over the show by the start of her third year.
• So far, Billie’s face while breaking gave me my only laugh, and I’m zoning out and feeling that I would literally fall asleep, even though I woke up an hour ago.
• This is feels like it’s going on forever!
• Ugh! I did not need another cameo from Billie’s brother, he did okay & I’m sure he’s a great person, but STOP.
• This was ANOTHER sketch that should’ve been cut and replaced by another. I would’ve cut this one and replaced it with Angelo, and perhaps the nativity one and replace it with any other sketch from dress.
• This is part one of our Anna Drezen swan song, as next episode is her final one as a writer. I have mixed reaction towards her as she wrote some great pieces, and many horrendous wackyfests that are more inside-joke than anything else. As for the second part of her swan song next week, all I have to say is: oooof!

Rating: *1/2

Goodnights:-

• Sweet visual with Kate being welcomed & hugged by her castmates. And as a person that met her in person only once, she’s a real sweetheart if not very surprisingly awkward and reserved.

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Lonely Christmas

TikTok

Kyle’s Holiday

Monologue

Christmas Cards

Weekend Update

The Night I met Santa

Hip-Hop Nativity

A Holiday Message From Dr. Anthony Fauci

Business Garden Inn & Suites & Hotel Room Inn

Final Thoughts:-

• An overall decent, calm episode from this season. This episode was greatly helped by the strength of the pretapes, without them this episode would’ve probably got the same, if not a lower average than the Jonathan Majors episode. As around half of the episode ranged from below-average to meh.
• Billie was a good host, not great, but came off very likable, charming, and game. She was mostly utilized well tonight, yet too bad that her best showcase, is in an Angelo sequel that got cut for our billionth Kate Vanity piece.
• I’m happy that this episode turned out to be better than I remember, I mean the live sketches were garbage aside from the Christmas Cards skit, which was decent, because I remember thinking that this episode was, aside from the classic Lonely Christmas piece, a total trainwreck nearing the Kardashian episode. Glad I was wrong, even when I rated certain segments (Hip-Hop Nativity, The Night I Met Santa, Christmas Cards) lower rating than I would’ve predicted. Again I had to stay truthful & honest in these reviews, otherwise they’ll turn out boring and predictable.

Next Week:-

• Paul Rudd hosts rather an interesting episode, our very first episode with no crowd and not even a LFNY being said. I’ll be only reviewing the original segments as I do remember them being mixed bag.
• Also, I won’t bring up the encore presentations in the review, hopefully that review will be uploaded very soon. After that, I’m hoping for a throwback review to an episode so dear to my heart, as the only time I ever attended an SNL episode as it was being performed live. I’ll probably do the throwback review after the Saturday’s episode. The episode in question is the Will Ferrell hosting stint from season 45. Thanks again to all who read these reviews.