November 1, 2014 – Chris Rock / Prince (S40 E5)

Cold Opening – The Kelly File

• Cecily-as-Megyn-Kelly’s opening line bombed HARD with the studio audience, ouch!
• Bobby’s Chris Christie is always worth a couple of good laughs.
• Ah, here comes Kate with a manic, hilarious energy, stealing this entire sketch with her performance. Much like the legendary Office Costume Contest sketch, this is another early performance from Kate that convinced me that she’ll be an absolute legend in the future.
• A huge laugh from the confrontation between Bobby’s Chris Christie & Kate’s Kaci Hickox.
• An overall good cold open.

Rating: ***

Monologue

• As I said before, I’m no fan of Chris Rock’s supposed “comedy” nor I ever got the hype around him as a comic, but I’ll try to get into this with an open mind.
• Not caring for the shouty, over-the-top delivery from Chris. Knowing a certain notorious sketch that he’ll star in next to another shouty, loud, over-the-top performer is making me shudder thinking of how much my I.Q. will be lowered by it & the headache that I’m going to get from watching it.
• REALLY Rock?! Bringing up the Boston tragedy for some laughs?? This is the type of tasteless, shameful humor that this episode deservedly got teared to shreds by both press and general SNL fans for. I’m docking down a full star for this “joke” alone. And to make it even better, we’re getting a fucking ISIS sketch halfway through this episode.
• Like usual, I’m getting very bored from Chris’ ramblings and seemingly non-stop shouting.
• Ok, just a got a rare laugh from Chris’ talk about gun control, at least here he was able to make fun from a serious problem without being offensive.
• Overall, meh. I’m still not impressed with Rock’s comedy and I still never got the hype around his supposed “brilliant” stand-up comedy.

Rating: **1/2

How 2 Dance With Janelle

• Great to see the very underrated Sasheer front-and-center in a sketch, and even better with it being in the coveted post-monologue spot.
• Look, I appreciate the creative setting, and Sasheer is her usual solid, reliable self here. But MAN, something is off about how this sketch is playing out so far. I’m putting the blame on the direction and particularly Chris Rock’s usual sloppiness.
• Horrible part with Chris blocking Jay during his scene, was it the direction? or Chris’ usual flubs whenever he hosts or guests in an episode? I’m going to say the latter.
• Terrible ending, with the filter and Chris’ vamping.
• An average sketch overall, not helped by the flubs and Chris’ lousy performance.

Rating: **1/2

GoProbe

• A cheap laugh from the product reveal.
• Beck looks hilarious during his colonoscopy scene.
• The “Your Grandpa’s Colonoscopy” scene is particularly hilarious.
• Beck’s delivery of “sick!” when shown the polypus in his colon is funny, as well as Kenan’s response to it.
• Pretty solid commercial overall, and I do recall enjoying the hair one, which also features Beck, in Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming hosting stint even more.

Rating: ***1/2

How’s He Doing

• Does PBS air shows like this?
• Look, I appreciate the setting, and the focus on African-American issues & humor, and Kenan is solid in the anchor role, but this sketch is dragging so far.
• I could see some attempts at sharp satire when it comes to Obama here, but they’re undermined by how ill-paced this sketch seems to be, despite me enjoying Sasheer’s performance and Kenan’s aforementioned role as the anchor.
• A decent part with Obama & his daughters, yet nothing stood out in this middling sketch.

Rating: **1/2

Musical Performance – “Clouds” / “Marz” / “Another Love”

• Blood Meridian: Look, I know I tear into him all the time, but I LOVE how Chris is hyping up the crowd for Prince’s epic performance.
• Jesse Nathan: Oh, thank God, an artist I actually like. This is actually highly regarded as one of SNL’s best performances of the modern era, up there with Kendrick Lamar next episode. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing, because Lord knows I’m in desperate need of a strong performance after how unsurprisingly awful Iggy Azalea’s two performances were.
• I love how Chris hypes the audience up for Prince. You rarely see that these days. Off the top of my head, the only time I can think of in which the host actually hyped up the musical guest (at least in the modern era) was when Dave Chappelle hyped up A Tribe Called Quest in his first episode.
• Already, I love the intro, as we just see clouds while a funky guitar line plays.
• Man, I’m already vibing to this intro, and it’s got a great funk to it. I love that.
• Great opening vocalizations from Prince.
• Prince actually sounds great here.
• Nice to hear the audience cheering during this performance.
• I love the piano.
• The female vocalist singing right now (don’t know her name) sounds freakin’ great.
• Oh, I LOVE the transition to the next song. And I also love the fuzz guitar that opens it. Then again, I’m usually a sucker for that type of guitar.
• Having a hard time coming up with something to say while I find myself headbanging.
• I love the background visuals of purple lightning.
• Wait, does this second song actually have words?
• Wow, we’re already on the third song.
• I love how the background changes with the next song, and how we’re no longer seeing purple.
• I feel like I can barely hear the other women in this portion of the performance.
• I love Prince’s facial expressions during a guitar solo.
• Oh, never mind what I said about that being the third song.
• I like the trippy visuals during this third song.
• I love Prince’s screaming in one portion of the third song.
• Kinda surprising that there wasn’t a second performance, but given how long this performance was, I guess I’m not surprised.
• Overall, this performance definitely lived up to the hype. This truly is what it sounds like when doves cry (sorry for that pun). It’s a shame that this ends up being Prince’s final performance on TV before his death in 2016. So, with that said: rest in peace, Prince. We’ll miss you.

Rating: *****

Weekend Update

• A terrible opening joke from Colin, how did this one pass dress?!
• Yet another Pete Davidson commentary.
• A good laugh from Pete’s comments about his mom’s work as a nurse.
• Like his other commentaries, Pete’s surprisingly coming off likable and relatable here, unlike how obnoxious he was later in his tenure, but the humor is mild at best. I’m more amused than laughing out loud at his story.
• Fantastic recovery from Michael after he flubs his Tim Cook joke HARD, with saying “Prince, ladies and gentlemen!”
• Spot-on Katt Williams from Jay, but his commentary with Kenan-as-Suge-Knight is providing minimal laughs for me.
• The very first below average Update in the Che/Jost era.

Rating: **1/2

Shark Tank

• OH GOD. Here comes the first of two sketches that I mentioned in my review of the monologue.
• According to fellow SNL fan & frequent reader of this blog Chris Whitfield, this sketch aired just a week or so after a terrorist attack in Parliament Hill, Ottawa. That ALONE makes this sketch somehow even worse than it already is.
• (*sigh*) Look, you can do & nail offensive or shocking humor when you put attention well into the concept and heighten it, but this? OOF.
• I would say that the cast is doing a good job playing the judges on Shark Tank, especially Kate.
• Am I supposed to applaud the sketch with it ending with the ISIS members deservedly getting caught? This reminds me of some online SNL fans, and IIRC, a certain fan article which compared & predicted that this season will be a disaster year for SNL on the level of season 20, compared this sketch to a one from Bob Saget’s disastrous episode in that infamous season, a hate videos sketch that ended with the hate group being tricked and getting caught. I will say that they were at least dead-on with comparing this tasteless sketch to a typical season 20 sketch. And knowing that Chris Rock’s upcoming stint (a one even worse than this episode), also contains a sketch that basically calls women “hoes” and “dumb” was also compared to a typical sexist dogshit sketch from season 20. Just keep Chris Rock the hell out of 8H please and thank you.

Rating: *

Swiftamine

• A very creative premise, and a solid commercial spokesman delivery from Beck.
• Some solid laughs from the various overdramatic vertigo symptoms that many people suffer when realizing that Taylor swift is the singer behind a new catchy song.
• I know I’ve been tearing into her so far this season (just wait till the next sketch), but Leslie’s energy is perfect for this ad.
• A very funny ending with Leslie dressed as a ballerina, and solid ending line.

Rating: ****

The Couple

• UH-OH. Here comes a very notorious SNL sketch, which is one of the prime examples of this episode’s poor quality, and is regarded by many online fans as one of the worst sketches in SNL history.
• I recall this sketch, and the terrible Shark Tank one being used to prove how “bad” this season will be and how that we’re getting into another season 20 disaster season. As I said before, these concerns by a vocal minority of fans come off as absurd in hindsight, as we all know how this season will eventually turn out at the end, and the very next episode will bury these concerns by some fans once and for all.
• This sketch was written, IIRC, by Chris’ writers that he brought for his hosting stint. Writers? Why would a supposed comedy “legend” have his own witting staff. Something feels fishy, might be because he’s a hack of a comic? I don’t know.
• Yeah, I’m about a minute or so into this, and it’s fucking painful so far. The lousiness of this sketch has to be seen to be believed.
• There are WAY TOO MANY line flubs between Leslie & Chris in this sketch for me to quote, one of the prime examples of how lousy and green both of them come off at times as live performers.
• Where the hell is the joke in this sketch? Is it trying to be a slice-of-life piece? Then it’s failing. Or is trying to be a slice-of-life piece AND be charming, than it’s doubly failing, oof.
• What’s with Chris and Leslie’s shouty, over-the-top, unfunny delivery?! It’s both abusing my eardrums and giving me a serious headache.
• You can practically hear a pin drop in the studio right now. The audience is fucking DEAD.
• OH, NO. Here comes the most infamous moment of this sketch, and a notorious SNL moment in general. Leslie leaving the set way too early, and then entering, stands in her place, looking confused to TOTAL DEAD SILENCE from the studio audience, looks at someone outside the set (Lorne? Cue card guy?), and then delivers her lines, and immediately, in a classic Leslie Jones fashion FUCKS UP her supposed laugh lines. Ooof yet again. (for those interested in seeing this flop, you can watch the live version of this on archive.org, another sketch, a one somehow even worse with Kenan dressed as Worf, will also have a moment that I’ll point out which was fixed in the YouTube upload much like Leslie’s epic mistake here.)
• Is this fucking amateur hour on SNL?! What’s with all the line flubs? And the general sloppy feel from both Chris & Leslie perform this mess of a sketch?! I want to enjoy this, and find it as a charming, old-school, slice-of-life, but the execution is PURE DEATH. Imagine what Ego Nwodim and Dave Chappelle would’ve done with this sketch.
• Yeah, this sketch definitely lived up to its negative reputation, easily one of the worst sketches in recent SNL history, and near the top of the worst sketches that I ever had the misfortune of watching them live as they aired.

Rating: *

Robbers

• I LOVE Bobby’s both intimidating AND concerned delivery of his lines when Kyle is offering Sasheer some water.
• Some solid laughs from the various things the nice robbers are doing to the various hostages.
• Funny brief musical number toward the sketch’s end, and Beck’s gleeful expressions are particularly hilarious.
• A solid short overall, and better than most of what aired tonight.

Rating: ***1/2

Women in the Workplace

• I recall this being one of the few Anderlette sketches that I enjoyed, even though Hot Tub Christmas & especially Restaurant Complaint are the only Anderlette sketches that stand out to me as being fantastic.
• Some good laughs from the random humor in this sketch, one of the few rimes that the writing duo ever nailed that type of comedy, as I recall an upcoming QVC sketch featuring attempts at random humor this season being particularly terrible.
• Aidy’s funny in her scene with Vanessa, and do we really need Chris in this?
• An ok sketch overall, not as solid as the previous installment, to me at least.

Rating: ***

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Swiftamine

Robbers

GoProbe

The Kelly File

Women in the Workplace

How 2 Dance With Janelle

How’s He Doing

Weekend Update

Monologue

The Couple

Shark Tank

Final Thoughts:-

• A weak episode overall, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering who our host is. While this episode is not as bad as its reputation, it still sucked HARD, with two sketches that I, and quite a number of other fans, consider to be amongst the worst sketches in recent SNL history. And as expected, Chris Rock was an epically lousy host, with tons of line flubs, awkward moments, and shouty, over-the-top, unfunny delivery in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH that featured him tonight. Absolutely unwatchable. Hey, at least we got an epic Prince performance for the ages.

Up Next:-

• (*sighs of relief*) It’s the legendary Woody Harrelson episode with musical guest Kendrick Lamar.