April 2, 2022 – Jerrod Carmichael / Gunna (S47 E16)

Cold Opening – Fox and Friends

• Great to see three professional, committed, and underrated performers lead the open.
• Good laugh from Mikey’s “fatality”.
• Kenan’s not even pretending to impersonate Justice Thomas.
• Kate’s giving me good laughs from her facial reactions, she’s just so good at getting laughs from me without much effort.
• Why is the audience applauding Cecily? I guess her Judge Jeanine Pirro impression is that popular.
• A solid laugh from Cecily’s Jeanine ”Twinkerbells”.
• I did not need to see JAJ’s Trump, it’s still dead-on and well-performed, but we’ve been seeing it too many times.
• James’s delivery & lines as Trump are still on-point and I’m getting some laughs here and there, yet it’s been there done that.
• Didn’t care for the Truth Social callback at the end.
• An alright open, very average, checklist, yet it didn’t make me lose it like other opens, so that’s a plus I guess.

Rating: **1/2

Monologue

• Great to see another stand-up monologue so soon.
• A good laugh from Jerrod’s refusal to talk about the Will Smith/Chris Rock debacle.
• Love the “white people on Twitter” line.
• A hilarious “the nation need to heal” line about Lorne.
• Jerrod’s talk about how he’s not that famous as compared to other hosts is very funny & also quite endearing.
• Solid bit from Jerrod about being gay in New York.
• I’m enjoying the bit with Jerrod talking to Barack Obama directly through the camera, and a great conclusion to his “we need to talk about it”.
• A very solid stand-up set overall, filled with quick transitions, funny quick moments, and a solid recurring bit about that whole Smith/Rock debacle. Jerrod already is coming off great & likable so early on the episode.

Rating: ****

Is My Brain Okay?

• A solid choice of Kate as a game show host.
• Good laugh from Kate’s name being Lisa Something.
• Happy to see Sarah in yet another game show sketch, and damn if she doesn’t look really good in that wig.
• Creative comedic conceit to this sketch.
• Sarah’s getting her usual laughs from the audience by just delivering her lines.
• A big laugh from the first image, and I love how the contestant are having a hard time figuring it out.
• Strong straight man reactions from Kate, as always her versatility is underrated sometimes.
• A huge laugh from the contestants answering Kate’s “What’s wrong with me?”.
• Chris’ part is very solid, and is adding well to this sketch.
• Hilarious visual of Sarah licking her podium.
• Great part with Sarah writing “Let me be inside you now”.
• Solid laughs from Bowen’s overlong written message.
• Dark & guilty laughs from Jerrod’s writing.
• Good ending.
• Strong & creative sketch overall, led by a great Kate McKinnon performance.

Rating: ****

Short-Ass Movies

• Meh, this looks like it’s going to be our usual, boring, formulaic “Pete Raps!” vanity piece from one of the most limited, talentless, and frustrating performers in recent SNL history.
• Ok, some nice visuals & direction, but where’s the joke in this?
• Our obligatory music video with Gunna.
• Who the hell is this guy rapping with Pete? He’s cute though, I’m not complaining.
• Ok, we get that you want to watch short movies, is THAT the joke of this dull video?
• Ah, here comes Chris to hopefully add something to this video.
• A big laugh (my first of the sketch), from Chris’ crying while watching Bambi.
• And thankfully, this is over. Like the majority of “Pete Raps!”, this had the nice visuals, cool direction, and alright idea behind it. But NOTHING ELSE, just a vanity piece to show us how “dope” and “sick” Pete Davidson and his rap buddies are truly are.
• (*yawn*) Next, please.

Rating: **

ShopTV

• Uh-oh, seeing Cecily here with that accent and getup, this sketch looks straight out of Anderlette’s mind.
• Alex’s funny in that brief cutaway.
• Meh at the joke about Jerrod’s character last name.
• I’m getting mild guilty laughs from all the bits about Jerrod’s doll, these “jokes” aren’t enough to raise this above being below average in quality.
• Blaaah at the desperate bit about the doll having “rainbow bush”, this type of immature, crude, and desperate humor is the one I most despise.
• Ego’s call is almost saving this sketch for me, and god bless her for giving me my much-needed laughs.
• Pretty weak, immature sketch overall. Not that weak for me to give it a lower rating than the one it will get.

Rating: **

Seat Fillers

• The obligatory Oscars sketch.
• I guess you all know my feelings regarding Chris Rock getting that slap.
• While I’m still NOT caring about that whole incident, seeing Chris being his usual fantastic, charismatic, and hilarious self here is giving me faith in this sketch.
• Jerrod is pretty solid as the star-struck fan of Will Smith.
• Oh, here goes the joke.
• Chris is as expected, hilarious in his outburst, and good timing on the bleep by the way, but is THIS really the best they could’ve done? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t care about the incident, but SNL KILLED previously when it comes to covering big celeb stories (the fantastic R. Kelly cold open being a prime example of that), but this feels way too lazy and reliant on Chris’ energy.
• An ok ending, again helped by Chris’ charisma and energy.

Rating: ***

Weekend Update

• Again, I’m not caring about all of these Will Smith jokes.
• Ok, got a solid laugh from the Bad Boys joke just now.
• Colin: “Lindsey Graham: Seen here picturing the Orgy Madison Cawthorn went to”.
• I’m not that pleased to see Cecily back front-and-center on SNL, considering how much I had to suffer through her sketches in season 46 when I covered it.
• A predictable casting of Cecily as Marsha Blackburn, this is a role she could play in her sleep by this point in her tenure. I did expect Kate though, so I should be somewhat happy that my expectations were subverted for once, but I’m not.
• Not caring for Cecily’s lines in this, yet she’s performing this well enough.
• An ok bit with the board, again Cecily’s energetic here but the material is been there done that about a thousand times.
• Boy, the audience seems kinda dead at certain parts during this overlong commentary. You could kinda tell that she notices that, as they usually eat up Cecily schtick when she yells or acts like these right wing ghouls.
• An ok commentary from Cecily, yet again another instance of a performer showing us all what they have in their tool kit, it’s still better than the majority of Cecily’s work these past few seasons though (faint praise, I know).
• I should be happy to see Kenan’s OJ back, considering how many big easy laughs he gives me each time, but I don’t know why he’s here, aside from the lame Rock/Smith debacle, and if you know my feelings regarding Rock, you know how I feel about SNL bringing him so many times in this episode.
• A good laugh about love making you do crazy things, Kenan’s reliable delivery is elevating the material.
• Very surprised Kenan’s commentary is already over, got one or two laughs, yet I could’ve used better correspondents this time around.
• Pretty solid Update as usual, I’m loving the hot streak Update’s been on in the second half so far, and despite two alright commentaries from Cecily & Kenan, the rest of Update was pretty strong.

Rating: ****

In Memoriam – a photo of Taylor Hawkins marks his passing

Scattering Remains

• Why is Kyle here? At least I’m happy he’s not wearing that blonde teen wig #37373.
• A good shocking visual from the visual of the whole body being thrown off the cliff.
• This is kinda giving me season 20 vibes (not good), but Andrew’s reliability is kinda holding it together.
• Jerrod is kinda wasted here, he feels tacked on i sketches for most of the night, kinda sad seeing how naturally funny he clearly is.
• Andrew’s reactions are giving me my expected laughs so far, but the material is kinda meh so far.
• A weak ending.

Rating: ***

Story

• Why is Kyle here again? Where is Aristotle, Punkie, and Melissa? Don’t tell me that they are MIA tonight?
• Meh, this seems to be going toward the loser role that Kyle’s fucking played to death.
• Jerrod’s story is doing nothing for me, even with his reliable delivery.
• The sketch goes on and on and on and on…
• This sketch seems to be going toward the one-joke route, kinda like season 46 (not a good thing), and seeing Kyle here doing his tired shtick is not giving me any hope. Considering that this season is his low point, I’m sure I’m not going to care for him here.
• What am I watching?! How did this make it past dress?! And they cut an Angelo, and a Sarah & Bowen sketch for THIS?!?!
• It’s becoming morbidly fascinating to see how Kyle Mooney can continue to sink on a weekly basis. Oh Kyle, why didn’t you just leave with Beck?
• Terrible ending. Fuck this, I’m going to say it right now: Kyle needs to FUCK OFF SNL right now.

Rating: **

Osh Kosh F*gosh

• My goodness! Is this Chloe’s first & ONLY appearance all night? And in a pretape?! SNL’s frustrating underutilization of this fantastic performer is making my blood boil.
• I’m not pleased that Aristotle, Melissa, Punkie, and Aidy are not in tonight’s episode too, and with some performers making one or two appearances is giving this episode dead vibes, and low energy feel.
• Why do they have Cecily do the voice-over for everything on SNL???! I’ve never been a big fan of her voice-over work, and it mostly doesn’t fit the majority of the ads. I’ll admit, her work here fits the tone of this commercial.
• This is giving me unwanted flashbacks to the Swiffer Sleepers (*shudder*) fake ad.
• A pretty lame conceit to this commercial, and it’s coming off more cutesy than anything else, and I truly don’t know if there’s any point that whomever wrote this is trying to make.
• Ok, just got a couple of good laughs from some of the shirts.
• A pretty average, but not too bad of a fake commercial piece. Better than I thought it would be actually, which is something I guess.

Rating: ***

Goodnights:-

• Sarah holding a Flat Stanley just made my night. Can we love her even more?
• Aristotle is getting more airtime here than he had in full episodes, is it more obvious that the writing is on the wall by this point?

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Is My Brain Okay?

Monologue

Weekend Update

Scattering Remains

Seat Fillers

Osh Kosh F*gosh

Fox and Friends

ShopTV

Story

Short-Ass Movies

Final Thoughts:-

• A very average episode, with barely anything standing out as strong, aside from the monologue, Is My Brain Okay?, and Weekend Update. Also, the cast frustrations contributed to this episode having a dead, low energy feel. I mean, do we need Kyle in every sketch? And I love Heidi, but why not use Melissa at least once tonight?
• Jerrod Carmichael was a good host, but like some this season, he was way underutilized and not given any roles that would truly showcase his comedic skills.
• I hope this is just a minor slump in quality, as I’ve been enjoying this season a whole lot, but it’s starting to get shaky with our second consecutive episode that I wasn’t crazy about, hopefully the final five episodes finish the season strongly.

Next Week:-

• Jake Gyllenhaal returns to 8H after 15 seasons with musical guest Camilla Cabello.