Cold Opening – Biden Victory
- Always happy to see Beck’s Wolf Blitzer.
- Not caring for the joke about Wolf’s beard, despite Beck’s reliable delivery.
- OH GOD, it’s Carrey’s Biden. Mercifully, this will be the last time we’ll see him, even though the temporary replacement is not that much better. We’ll get to that when we reach it.
- The applause is starting to get on my nerves.
- OH NO, they’re now dancing??! End this SNL!
- Ugh at Trumpwin’s appearance in this, thankfully, Chloe just gave me a good chuckle with just facial reactions. A testament to how good Chloe is in getting laughs without even trying too hard.
- Not caring for Trumpwin’s lines as always.
- FUCKING KILL ME, he’s now singing.
- This song that Trumpwin’s singing is freaking BRUTAL to sit through, and the smugness of both Alec and SNL that they ”defeated” Trump is downright embarrassing to witness, and that’s after having him on for a 90 minutes ad campaign and kissing his ass with sketches like ”Live Tweeting” and ”White House 2018”.
- Didn’t care for Carrey’s smug “Lahoo zaher” line and the insufferable, overlong applause break afterwards.
- Simply put, after suffering through four-and-half-seasons with Trumpwin and SNL’s attempt to resist him after kissing his ass for a full episode, to have them attempt to celebrate defeating him (with fucking Alec Baldwin raising a sign of ”You’re welcome” at the goodnights) all I have to say in regards to this open and many other Trumpwins is: FUCK OFF SNL, FUCK OFF.
Rating: *1/2
Monologue
- Already, I know I’m going to love this.
- I’m loving that Dave walked into the stage in a suit and a tie instead of casual clothes like his first hosting stint.
- A great story and an even greater payoff to Dave’s bit about his enslaved great-grandfather.
- Some very sharp comments as one would expect from Dave, and especially his bit about Ronald Reagan’s well-known racism and being a piece of shit as both a person and president.
- So pleasing to hear the well-deserved applause about Trump being finally gone.
- Funny quick ad-lib from Dave in reaction to some of the groans after one of his jokes.
- Loved Dave’s trigger comment in reaction to his controversial bit just now.
- Dave: ”I’m sorry, Lorne. I thought we were having a comedy show”.
- There are just too many lines and moments to quote and mention in this fantastic monologue.
- The Chris Christie & Herman Cain bit is both very funny & so true, especially how their “leader” Trump, abandoned them to die and saved himself.
- Dave’s incredible charisma is holding this monologue and it does not feel its length AT ALL.
- Dave’s whole bit about ”kindness conspiracy” is phenomenal and a quintessential example of how incredible and brilliant Dave generally is as a comedian.
- Dave’s ending monologue about not hating anybody, but hating that feeling is excellent, enhanced even more by his charisma & stage presence.
- An overall very lengthy monologue, yet every single second, joke, moment, punchline, and lengthy bit in it was absolutely worth it. An outstanding monologue in general as one would expect from Dave Chappelle.
Rating: *****
Fired Mascots
- I’m loving how Dave is standing at the homebase stage and introducing the sketch, like how he used to do that back in his show.
- A certainly promising sketch concept.
- UGH at Alec & Maya in this, couldn’t they get cast members instead of them?!
- Why the fuck is Maya playing Aunt Jemima? Where’s Punkie or Ego? Why waste your cast SNL?!
- WTF with the breaking?! What am I watching?!
- Ok, this is getting better now.
- Some ok laughs from Maya’s lines about her pancakes, and that breastfeeding line gave me a good laugh.
- I love the music as Uncle Ben is delivering his speech.
- A good laugh from Dave’s voice as the Allstate guy.
- Damn at that n-word from Dave, just like his first hosting stint.
- WTF with all the breaking in this sketch, I’m assuming that Dave improvised that line to break Pete.
- I love how they’re showing us briefly after the sketch concludes the cast leaving and the camera giving us a wider shot.
- Overall, this was decent and got some good laughs from me. Yet, in parts it felt underwritten and unrevised, the potential could’ve made this sketch an EASY five-stars worthy.
Rating: ***1/2
Mario Memories
- Interesting novelty hearing Chloe doing the voiceover in this.
- Are they really basing this entire sketch around Kyle’s busting his nut, how did this pass the table read, let alone dress?
- The cast is performing this well enough, but it leaving me feeling empty and with nothing much to say.
- Kenan’s trying to save this sketch, as I did get a good chuckle from his shocked reaction and his angry line delivery just now.
- A very uninspired and meh sketch as a whole. A one that felt, once again, unrevised and underwritten, a thing really started to show up in this era halfway through season 43, and reached an ultimate nadir in season 44.
Rating: **
Take Me Back
- Ah, Beck & Ego starting in a pretape, this should be great.
- I’m loving the revelations that Beck is revealing to Ego.
- Ego’s a great straight man in this.
- A huge laugh from the revelation that Beck had herpes.
- A great & hilarious revelation that Beck used to do porn with guys instead of girls behind Ego’s back, like that is supposed to make it better.
- A truly great ending.
- Overall, add this to the ”Standout Beck Bennett showcase from his final season” folder.
Rating: ****
Weekend Update
- Loving the footage of the celebrations due to Trump’s downfall.
- That tie clip-on is one of my favorite Michael’s moments on Update, and it always makes me laugh hard each time I see it.
- MY MISERY CONTINUES, Kate’s back as Giuliani.
- Kate’s voice, mugging, and various movements in this are TORTURE to sit through and epitomizes how much free rein Lorne gives Kate to fuck around on air and take valuable airtime from those who deserve it.
- Kate is absolutely unwatchable in this, and her occasional character breaks and smug behavior is really making my blood boil.
- What’s with Kate’s occasional breaks in this?! inside joke?
- Wow, Update just ended! What’s the matter with them having only one guest lately, and usually some of absolute bane of the current era of SNL.
Rating: *** (Kate’s usual bullshit lowered my rating a full star)
Hailstorm
- I’m about halfway through this and I got nothing to say yet.
- Yeah, I’m not caring about the supposed comedic through line in this.
- Kate and Kenan are performing this well, but the writing seems way too flimsy to sustain a full sketch.
- A mediocre, underwritten, and seemingly unrevised sketch. A thumbs-down from me.
Rating: **
DC Morning
- Oh, we have a host tonight? Could’ve fooled me with how invisible Dave was after the lead-off sketch.
- UGH! I already not on board with how this sketch is unfolding.
- Seriously?! An OJ parody?! How old is the writer of this sketch? I’m assuming it’s the same writer that wrote the also-subpar Mario Memories from earlier this evening.
- NOT happy hearing Trumpwin’s voice in this, not Mikey & Alex could save this with their always-funny portrayal of Don Jr. and Eric Trump.
- Yet ANOTHER underwritten and uninspired sketch, this episode seriously feels right out of seasons 44,35,36,37,39 with how lame & BORING the sketches were, a disappointment.
Rating: **
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
Monologue
Take Me Back
Fired Mascots
Weekend Update
Hailstorm
Mario Memories
DC Morning
Biden Victory
Final Thoughts:-
- A surprisingly subpar episode for Dave’s big return to SNL after his epic first episode four years ago. An episode that aside from the highly-anticipated monologue, had a hollow and dead vibes, aside of course from the solid Fired Mascots sketch & the Take Me Back pretape.
- One of my biggest problems with this episode is our host, and before you guys throw stones at me, wait a minute. I LOVE Dave, and consider him to be a sketch comedy legend & near the top of my favorite comedians ever, but I don’t know something about his hosting performance was off, he’s NOWHERE to be seen for most of the episode, and felt tacked-on aside from the Fired Mascots sketch.
- Also, this episode is one of the first this season that feels ”off” and underwritten in terms of not only how boring most of the sketch concepts were, but also how unrevised some of the material is. You’ll be seeing me say the words ”unrevised” and ”underwritten” a couple of times in these next few episodes, which are very rough for the most part, and in some episodes in the second half, there some terrible sketches that ruin an episode’s perfect streak.
Up Next:-
- Jason Bateman hosts our first December episode with the return of Morgan Wallen.
Take me back is the sketch that last weeks Maid of Honor sketch wishes it was…
Exactly, you can do some revelations in a quick, fast-paced way without being mean-spirited or humiliating. Take Me Back had fantastic chemistry and performances by Beck and Ego that helped it.
Again, I can’t think of much to add here, as we’re pretty much on the same page about this episode. I will say that I honestly didn’t take into consideration how invisible Dave was until I read this review. In fact, I checked SNL Archives and found out that he was only in three segments that night. Three! What the fuck?
And as always, the averages:
Rock – 4.6
Burr – 7.0
Rae – 6.5
Adele – 5.9
Mulaney – 6.8
Chappelle – 5.8
Overall average (so far): 6.1
Again, the biggest disagreement I’ll be having with you Jesse is in regards to the 2nd half & this season in general being simply somewhat shaky instead of rough overall. I’m assuming that the Bateman, Wiig, and Krasinksi episodes will get a particularly low rating average, and afterwards the episodes, aside from Musk, will be between average to pretty good. And yes, I want that Mulaney review ASAP.