December 5, 2020 – Jason Bateman / Morgan Wallen (S46 E7)

Cold Opening – Michigan Election Hearing

• Already dreading this cold opening from the usual wink wink, self-aware opening lines.
• Here’s Lauren stuck in thankless, background role #636 of her tenure. While a far past-her-prime cast member gets to be the “funnee” one here.
• A fart? Fucking really SNL? I guess we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel with added goofy fart noises as Kate’s Giuliani drones on for God knows how many minutes.
• Oh, excuse my early comment, now we’re getting MULTIPLE farting noises from Kate’s Giuliani…..
• As a sign of how FAR past-her-prime (did she even have one?) she is as a performer in this stage of her tenure (and it only gets somewhat worse next season), Cecily’s using her Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party voice with the EXACT SAME tone and vocal inflictions in this supposed ”impression” of hers.
• I’m not laughing at Cecily’s usual self-indulgent mugging and hamminess. And her role here epitomizes the many things that I despise about many of her performances.
• I’m getting a headache from the combination of Heidi’s, Cecily’s, and Kate’s voices in this overlong and endless cold open.
• Sadly, even Alex couldn’t give me a chuckle with his story.
• Chloe is absolutely trying to save & steal this cold open with her spot-on and fun Nicole Kidman impression. But, yet again with Alex, the writing is betraying her talents.
• Mercifully, this death march is now over.

Rating: *

Monologue

• I’ve always enjoyed Jason Bateman as an actor, yet he always had a problem showcasing his comedic skills & his fantastic straight man and deadpan delivery on SNL. And, IIRC, this episode will waste him yet again.
• A solid laugh with Jason finding out that he’s the only vaccinated person in the building.
• NOT caring for the “George Carlin line”, as it always made me groan and roll my eyes. Ok, we get it, this is sarcasm.
• Funny bit about the monkey that attacked Jason back in his season 30 (*shudder*) hosting stint being destroyed later that night.
• A good monologue that Jason Handled well with his charisma and natural likability.
• This will be our last host-only monologue this season, with every single upcoming one being either a musical, backstage, Q & A, or cast and cameos joining the host on stage. I’m all in for various creative decision when it comes to the monologue, but really SNL? Thankfully, the next host-only monologue, by Daniel Kaluuya, is a standout SNL monologue and amongst my favorites from this era.

Rating: ***

Sleepover

• The first edition of this sketch, from the all-timer Adam Driver episode in season 45, is a favorite of mine & many others. But, was it really necessary to bring it up back instead of leaving it being a one-and-done near-classic?
• Jason is solid in this sketch, but he’s NOWHERE near as good as Adam Driver was in the original sketch.
• This follow-up is EXACTLY the same as the original, and hitting the same beats, but nowhere near as charming, subtly-melancholic, and funny.
• A total waste of time & of Jason, and IIRC, he’ll be wasted throughout the entire episode.

Rating: *1/2

Stu

• A very famous piece from this season, and deservedly so.
• I’m loving how this short is parodying ”Stan” by Eminem, and as a fan of his general work I’ve always found this pice to be well-performed & expertly-written with a standout Pete Davidson performance (and he only gets better as this season continues IIRC).
• Beck, Chloe, and Kyle are perfect as Santa’s elves, and Chloe is particularly adorable in this.
• Pete’s rapping is very solid & I’m loving how well his flow is going in this, FAR better than his usual music videos.
• I’m loving the bit about wishing a PS5, and the very serious & dramatic visuals and performance are selling the hell out of the premise.
• Kate’s very solid in her parts in this and I’m enjoying her vocals and performance.
• IIRC, this is a piece co-written by Steven Castillo, who also wrote the also-fantastic An Evening With Pete Davidson, which became his swan song, and quite fitting that it got a perfect five-stars rating from me.
• The elf chorus is funny & weirdly catchy and providing an epic atmosphere to this already-great short.
• A great ending & a priceless surprise cameo from Eminem himself.
• Overall a very strong piece, and the one that made me realize that Pete Davidson will be having a fantastic, standout year.

Rating: *****

Outdoor Cabaret

• With Cecily’s return we’ll be getting the usual dreck from her throughout the season, some of these sketches will be brutal to sit through.
• (*groan*) Our obligatory Cecily singing sketch.
• I just remembered that this laughless tripe is not the only leading sketch role for Cecily this episode, there is one more too.
• I’m about two minutes into this and I cannot find any discernible comedy. The audience seems to be agreeing with me on this, due to how mostly unresponsive they are so far into this.
• Like the majority of Cecily’s pieces, she herself is not the problem. As she’s a talented performer and commits to her roles, it’s that her sketches happen to be amongst the most laughless, boring, inside-joke, creatively bankrupt material that is very hard to get through without cringing and rolling your eyes the whole sketch or falling asleep in the entirety of modern SNL.
• As usual with these lounge singer sketches that star Cecily, we got our obligatory effeminate gay stereotype with Jason’s useless sidekick, we’re STILL doing this SNL?!
• Overall, this is as horrible and aimless as I deemed it to be back when it aired.

Rating: *

The Christmas Conversation

• Nice to have a slice-of-life in an era that’s more and more soulless as it goes along (thanks to the pandering and vanity pieces).
• While this piece is not filled with laugh lines and various mugging storms, it’s low-key and has a warm, and Christmas-y vibes that make me appreciate it.
• Jason & Kate are performing their parts very well, and adding an air of warmth & realism to their characters.
• An overall solid, charming, and warm little short.

Rating: ***1/2

Morgan Wallen Party

• Tonight’s episode continues as I recall really hating this sketch.
• I guess casting Jason as the future Morgan Wallen makes sense, due to their facial resemblance.
• NOT caring for anything in this sketch, and its attempt to make lighthearted fun of what this jackass did during a pandemic is not working.
• Am I supposed to be laughing at Bowen coming out as an Asian Morgan? When not even Bowen with his dependable sketch-stealing and sketch-saving abilities can save this you know you’re in for a disaster of a sketch.
• Overall, one of the more pointless sketch this season, even when I *get* what they were trying with this, there was no single laugh throughout it.

Rating: *

Weekend Update

• Just got a good laugh from Michael’s Colin & Scarlett yacht party joke.
• Colin: “Obama’s will air on MSNBC, Bush’s on Fox News, and Clinton’s on Brazzers.” Gave my a bigger laugh than I needed & Michael’s usual hilarious ad-libs made it funnier.
• Always enjoy the ”seen here” jokes, and the one regarding Giuliani was solid.
• Good to see a Pete commentary, as I’ve been warming up to him as a performer with this season. And, his commentaries are usually decent with good laughs.
• Funny ad-lib from Pete regarding Giuliani’s fart.
• Pete did a table read of It’s a Wonderful Life? How wasn’t I aware of this? I cannot even imagine him playing a serious role in that.
• Funny Drake/DJ Khaled joke from Michael
• Ah, always happy to see Bailey.
• As usual, great & lived-in characterization from Heidi. And, Bailey is coming off adorable and likable as always.
• Solid meta bit with Heidi mentioning the legendary David S. Pumpkins sketch, one of the highest highs of both this era and SNL in general.
• Funny recurring bit with Bailey thinking that what she’s seeing is real.
• Ah, I always love the turn in Bailey’s commentaries were she starts to get upset, and Heidi sells the hell out of this moments. A testament to how incredible she is as a performer. I recall being absolutely mesmerized when I first watched the debut of this character in the season 43 Will Ferrell episode, and since then, I’ve became a huge Heidi Gardner fan, to this very day. And in this season, as Aidy/Cecily/Kate were busy with their vanity pieces and self-indulgnece, Heidi became my absolute favorite female cast member and possibly my favorite member of the cast, and that hasn’t changed in our current season.
• Solid Update overall, and it gave me time to enjoy this episode while it lasted.

Rating: ****

Santa’s Village

• Great set design, as I said in some of my reviews, the SNL wardrobe and set designers are vastly underappreciated. Kudos to them.
• I know you guys that I’m not even halfway through this season, but it’s getting depressing having to sit through all this material.
• This sketch seems to be a variation of the notoriously bad Nascarettes & Delinquent Girl Teen Gang sketches, from seasons 32 & 37, respectively. Yet ANOTHER evidence of how generally creatively bankrupt Cecily Strong is as a performer in her solo showcases outside of her utility work.
• This sketch is pure one-joke material; a joke that’s not even funny to begin with.
• So far, only Kyle’s brief reaction gave me my first (and so far only) laugh in this sketch.
• Yeah, this sketch is turning out to be a dud, and is absolutely bombing horribly with the audience (another season 20 similarity from this season, the quite, dead atmosphere).
• Boy, the audience’s silence during certain parts of this sketch is UNSETTLING, is this a sketch show I’m watching?
• Overall, a total waste of time, if it weren’t for Kyle’s funny bit this one would’ve also gotten a one-star rating.

Rating: *1/2 (being far too kind)

Bits

• Great to see a Kyle Mooney piece once again this season.
• Good visuals accompanying Kyle’s song & the usual subtle, fun, and absurdist hints in his pieces make me sad that this one will be one of his last to air in this late stage of his tenure.
• A funny moment with Kyle’s accidentally hitting Mikey.
• The usual solid Kyle/Beck piece, even when this one isn’t as strong as others, it was still pretty good & nice to end tonight’s miserable episode.

Rating: ***1/2

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Stu

Weekend Update

Bits

The Christmas Conversation

Monologue

Sleepover

Santa’s Village

Outdoor Cabaret

Morgan Wallen Party

Michigan Election Hearing

Final Thoughts:-

• A mediocre episode as a whole. This did have its share of solid highlights, but what was bad in this episode, was not only such, but was worryingly horrible and pretty much killed the episode’s potential as a whole. Some of not only the worst sketches of this season aired tonight, but also some of its worst individual moments, such as the farting during Kate’s droning as Giuliani in the cold open, the end of the Morgan Wallen sketch, and the eerie silence from the studio during long stretches of Santa’s Village.
• Jason Bateman is now 2-for-2 when it comes to horrible SNL episodes. I have nothing but love and appreciation toward Jason as a person and a performer, but SNL weirdly for some reason cannot write decent material for him, despite proving how naturally funny he is. I guess some aren’t fit for SNL in general, even when they’re funny & talented.

Up Next:-

• Timothée Chalamet hosts the with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band as our musical guest.