January 30, 2021 – John Krasinski / Machine Gun Kelly (S46 E10)

Cold Opening – What Still Works?

• Ah, a favorite open of mine from this season.
• The debut of Cecily’s Marjorie Taylor Green impression, which again sounds like Cecily’s wacky girl stock voice from her other 3,474 characters and impressions.
• Not caring for Cecily’s scene so far, despite it being well-performed, I guess Cecily’s three horrible showcases in Jason Bateman’s episode made me realize that I had ENOUGH with her.
• Kate is absolutely making this cold open, her reactions toward Cecily’s MTG, and her responses are great. As I’ve always said, Kate’s an underrated straight man in general.
• Mikey looking like Rasputin with that insane beard, a hilarious visual.
• Great seeing our host in the cold open, I love it when the hosts appear in either cold opens or even as a rare Weekend Update commentary.
• Good laugh from John’s Tim Brady leaving when asked if he supports Trump.
• Strong reveal that Kate’s playing herself all along.
• Kate gets to say LFNY all by herself, befitting of her star status. Although, I recall Alex saying the LFNY all by himself in an upcoming cold open.
• An overall great cold open, filled with sharp lines, strong satire, solid pace, and a standout Kate Mckinnon performance. Kate, as an openly gay person, brought it all in here with an emotional, witty, funny, yet still cohesive performance, as she was absolutely phenomenal here.

Rating: ****

Monologue

• Great suit on John, he looks really sharp, and yes, pretty too.
• Not pleased with this monologue turning into the typical dead “questions from the audience” with the exception of Christopher Walken’s fantastic monologue from his last hosting stint.
• Meh at the one-joke route (another season 20 comparison, not a good thing), with the cast asking John about The Office.
• Ohhh boy. The ”Kiss Pam” from Kenan is having me shudder right now.
• OH NO. Seeing Pete here, I know the infamous moment that this already-weak monologue is leading up to this whole time.
• Aaaaaaaaaand we get to the end of what this whole monologue was building up to: a man-on-man kiss as a cheap, unnecessary, and incredibly unfunny attempt at a laugh. REALLY SNL??!! We’re still doing this in 2021?! (*sigh*) Words cannot describe how FLOORED I, and many other SNL fans were when we saw this moment unfold, and considering how the rest of the episode will unfold (hint: not good), I could say that this moment was the beginning of a sinking ship of an SNL show.

Rating: *

Blue Georgia

• Great theme song.
• Great set and costumes by the way, the wardrobe and set departments are vastly underappreciated by general SNL fans.
• Just realized that Aidy’s back, given how long she’s been gone, it feels like she left the cast.
• Not happy seeing John & Pete here after that brutally unfunny moment earlier tonight.
• Yeah, Jesse is right, John sound JUST LIKE Paul Rudd here (hint: not a good thing).
• While I get & appreciate what this sketch is going for in its commentary, it feels very underwritten & much like most of this era’s weaker pieces, it needed further tinkering and revision by the writing supervisors.
• Andrew’s coming off well here, and is FAR less awkward than I recall him being early on in his tenure.
• Melissa in thankless, dull, non-comedic role #6636363 of her tenure.
• This sketch pretty much washed all over me, while not bad, it was mediocre, underwritten, and with a promising potential that was unfulfilled. I appreciate the shoutout to R.E.M., one of my favorite bands to listen too though.

Rating: **

The Loser

• Always good to see Andrew continuing his low-key decent first season.
• I recall fellow SNL reviewer and frequent commenter Jesse Nathan, likening this season & some of its sketches to season 20-esque level of quality and general distastefulness. While I disagree with his overall assessment of the entire season, I totally agree with him when it comes to certain sketches and episodes being right out of season 20. The notorious NBA Bubble Draft Finals is an example of the typical sexist bullshit that filled season 20. But THIS sketch, with its general mean-spirited attitude and getting laughs from bullying victims takes the cake. THIS one definitely feels like a leftover sketch from season 20. this piece is yet another low in a season filled with lowlights, absolutely disgusting.
• A predictable turn with John revealing various embarrassing moments about Andrew.
• Now this sketch is getting into bathroom humor, is SNL freaking kidding me with this?
• Is SNL expecting me to sit back and laugh my ass off as this sketch is turning more and more uncomfortable and mean-spirited?
• Andrew & John are performing this well though, all that I can say.
• Awful ending.

Rating: *1/2

The dividend

• I recall this sketch having the potential to be a solid absurdist gem.
• An ok creepy visual of both Kate & Mikey as the twins.
• Why is Kate about to break? Why in this potentially-strong sketch of all things?
• OH GOD. Why turn this into a freaking REACTING sketch?! What happened to the jokes?! What happened to the comedic buildup?! Why waste such a promising and creative premise?! God, tonight’s episode is DESTROYING me.
• What’s the deal with this season and miserable sketches that involve news anchors reacting to events or people? First DC Morning and now this tripe.
• Not even Beck’s reliable straight man performance is doing anything to help this sketch. Man if even BECK cannot elevate this tripe, you know you’re in for trouble.
• Terrible ending.

Rating: *1/2

Now That’s What I Call Theme Songs Sung By The Stars Of The Show

• A promising & fun-feeling concept.
• A surprisingly weak Anya-Taylor Joy impression from Melissa, I thought impressions were her thing! What the hell Melissa?!
• An ok Julie Andrews impression from Cecily.
• This is kinda slowly dying, and the theme songs aren’t remotely as fun as I thought. A real shame as the premise is very promising & fun.
• A spot-on Kim Cattrall impression from Chloe, continuing her solid season.
• (*sigh*) This is flopping so HARD that not even Chloe could steal it with her dependable sketch-stealing abilities.
• The return of freaking Baby Yoda! This piece is immediately starting to bottom down in quality.
• Not caring for the lyrics in ANY of these theme songs.
• Not even John singing The Office’s theme is making me feel anything.
• (*sigh*) Tonight’s episode continues to die a miserable death, it’s becoming surreal & morbidly fascinating to see how low this episode can sink

Rating: *

Pandemic Game Night

• Meh at the reveal that Beck stormed the capitol. Really SNL?! We’re going to make jokes about that dark day? So many wrong decisions in tonight’s episode in general.
• This sketch, is another one that’s going toward the one-joke route and beating it to death.
• Bowen is pretty solid here, and that reminds me of a performance he’ll later do tonight on Update.
• Weak ending.

Rating: **

Weekend Update

• Good Rand Paul joke, while not as funny or memorable as there “seen here” jokes.
• As expected, a strong race joke from Michael, loved his Harriet Tubman joke just now.
• A very rare visit to the Update desk from Beck. I think his total visits to the desk barely cracks the double digits, although he did at least four commentaries prior to this season.
• Some fun energy from Beck & several good lines, and I also love the visual of the pillow that constantly holds and hugs.
• Here comes Bowen & with a rare pairing of him with Kyle.
• Spot-on and funny Fran Lebowitz impression from Bowen, also kyle’s here.
• I’m not really liking the direction of this commentary, Kyle’s endless laughing as Scorsese is getting on my nerves and ruining Bowen’s solid performance.
• And yes, before anybody jumps at me, I get that they’re parodying how Scorsese behaved in his docuseries with Fran, but that doesn’t make it funny to me.
• Overall, I’m mixed on this commentary, Bowen was his usual professional and reliable self; but Kyle’s addition ruined the comedic potential and turn this commentary into yet ANOTHER one-note joke premise in tonight’s episode.
• Cathy Anne is back, like much of Cecily’s output in this stage of her tenure, I’m don’t care about the material, and I cannot forget those two unbelievably cringe-inducing and horrid sketches that starred her as this character back in season 40.
• Yeah, this commentary is pretty much a wash, even though I enjoyed one or two of her previous commentaries.
• An overall average Update, aside from Beck & half of the Bowen and Kyle commentary, I didn’t care for most of the jokes or Cathy Anne’s and Kyle’s annoying presence.

Rating: ***

Supermarket Sweep

• No… just … NO! I won’t waste my time and yours by reviewing this piece of shit sketch.
• I just realized that Aidy’s back in the cast with tonight’s episode, giving how invisible and barely involved with the show she is.
• So, the premise that Kate & Aidy’s characters are lesbians? THAT’S the sketch? How did this even make it past the table read with such flat writing? Oh, yeah I remembered this was co-written by headwriter Anna Drezen to her golden girls. We get this D.O.A. tripe instead of a sketch that showcases the newbies or a better and far classier material the majority of tonight’s episode.
• I’m not enjoying how everyone is weirded out by Kaidy’s behavior, this attempt to make same-sex relationships seem weird and unnatural for few laughs is appalling and unfunny to me.
• (*sigh*) This sketch goes on and on and on and on….
• The part with Aidy and Kate on the floor is going on FOREVER and is unfunny to watch.
• A huge waste of time of a sketch, if it didn’t start two of the more popular performers on the cast, and wasn’t co-written by one of the headwriters, it wouldn’t have passed even the table read.

Rating: *

Subway Pitch

• Ah, here comes Beck Bennett to try to save tonight’s trainwreck of an episode.
• Great makeup job on Beck by the way, and I like the old-school look of his character.
• John & Beck are doing a solid job as these two characters, and their various lines are cracking me up.
• It’s actually shocking that this John’s first comedic role in this whole episode. What the hell SNL? Don’t you know that John is actually FUNNY and doesn’t need to be cast in these dull, straight roles the entire freaking episode?!
• Andrew’s performance seems kinda off hear, I don’t know if he’s being nervous due the airtime he’s been getting, or this is part of his character.
• The part when Beck & John sing their jingle is perhaps the best part in this whole damned episode, so many laughs from their commitment.
• Solid & fun sketch overall.
• This is the third passing rating I’ve given to a segment tonight since all the way back in the cold opening, and we are almost at the episode’s end.

Rating: ***1/2

Ratatouille

• (*sigh*) As if it’s like tonight’s episode wasn’t mostly unwatchable and miserable to sit through enough, here comes a notorious sketch to end this episode.
• Look, Ratatouille is a childhood favorite of mine, but even I cringe at this concept.
• Why in the world are they naming Remy Ratatouille?! Did the writer(s) even watch the movie?!
• One of my biggest problems with this sketch is how intentionally-corny and grade-school-level of comedy it is. It actually reminded me as it aired live of a typical bad season 6 sketch. And, after a while I remembered one of my least-favorite SNL sketches ever, and a notoriously horrible SNL sketch in general, the Big Wigs sketch from season 32. That all-time worst sketch was regarded as straight of season 6’s corny and bad pun-filled sketches, tripe like Serf City & Royal Strippers, and now this sketch in front of me is not that different.
• I recall after the episode was over, just sitting in awe in front of my television set alone in the darkness, with my soul just being wrecked and losing faith in the show’s quality in general, especially after how refreshing and strong season 45 was before it.
• At least Chloe had a good amount of airtime tonight, and if my memory serves me right, she’s going to have a great average airtime in general for the rest of the season.
• Is SNL freaking kidding me with this sketch? Look I’m all in favor of more experimentation, of more random, absurdist, audience-alienating pieces. A type of humor that this era did countless times and pulled it off well, but that does not excuse me having my eardrums abused and my I.Q. lowered as I watch this sketch.
• This… just… how… how could a sketch like this one make it to air not to mention the dress reheresal? Did the writer(s) decide on writing an intentionally-corny and grade-school-level comedy sketch just to see if it will be even considered for the actual show? My goodness is all I have to say.

Rating: *

In Memoriam – a photo of Cicely Tyson marks her passing

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

What Still Works?

Subway Pitch

Weekend Update

Blue Georgia

Pandemic Game Night

The Dividend

The Loser

Now That’s What I Call Theme Songs Sung By The Stars Of The Show

Supermarket Sweep

Ratatouille

Monologue

Final Thoughts:-

• Aaaand the show returns from the Christmas break with a dreadful, DREADFUL episode, a one that seemingly got worse and worse as the night progressed culminating in the horrid Ratatouille sketch, aside from Machine Gun Kelly’s solid performances, the cold open, Weekend Update, and a SINGLE sketch in the entire actual show, the rest of the episode was weak and most of it was not only bad, but downright unwatchable.
• John Krasinski was surprisingly bland, useless host tonight, and a one that couldn’t salvage the horrid writing & bland roles he was given. A likable presence, but not the one needed to help tonight’s trainwreck of an episode.
• I remember how this episode, and the majority of the not-too-great first half, had me and many other online SNL fans worried about the direction of this season. We all were afraid that we would be heading toward a potential disaster season on the levels of seasons 6 and 20. Hindsight taught us better as this season turned out to be just mediocre in quality and the second half was mostly fine. I’d chalk the general shakiness of the first ten episodes due to the pandemic and the general feel of both the nation and the world as a whole, and knowing how the rest of the season plays out in general, a big failure like tonight’s episode is seen as SNL trying to experiment and find its voice after the election.

Up Next:-

• (*sighs the deepest sighs of relief*) Dan Levy hosts with musical guest Phoebe Bridgers. I recall this episode starting an upward trajectory in quality throughout most of what’s left of the season.