Cold Opening – A Message from the Easter Bunny
Donald Trump (JAJ) crashes Easter Bunny’s (BOY) curated celebrity tidings
- Bowen looks hilarious at the beginning of this.
- The usual reliable and funny line deliveries from Bowen.
- OH NO, Kate’s Fauci.
- I’ve been surprisingly enjoying Kate this season, outside from politics and several sketches, while I never disliked her in her later years, as she’s still very valuable, material like this has been done to death by her already.
- I’m not caring for Fauci’s lines, yet Kate’s performing them well.
- Did NOT need to see Cecily’s MTG. A horrible impression of a ghoul of a person.
- Great to see the return of Chris’ Eric Adams after his killer debut sketch.
- Eric Adams’ part will easily be the best in this entire opening, I could tell that.
- I don’t need to see Mikey’s Elon Musk, as I don’t need to be reminded of that wretched episode.
- Not caring for Chloe’s part in this, another checklist moment regarding Britney.
- They are overusing the HELL out of James’ Trump impression; we don’t need to be reminded of that ghoul every single week.
- A step down overall from the last decent cold open, too much checklist, mad libs, and clickbait moments. Although, not as bad as I feared it would be, so this is why it will get the rating that I’m giving it right now.
Rating: **1/2
Monologue
host promises to say “bitch” a lot on SNL, addresses social media rumors
- Already, I’m loving Lizzo’s energy. She’s going to be an interesting host.
- A good laugh from Lizzo’s line about her wearing clothes.
- Funny part with Lizzo breaking down the word “bitch”, while it might come off hacky, yet Lizzo’s charm and likability is helping make it seem fun.
- Funny lines from Lizzo addressing rumors about her.
- Lovely to see Lizzo’s mom here.
- A pretty good host-only monologue, and Lizzo is already showing signs of being a fun host.
Rating: ***1/2
Guess That!
contestant (host) refuses to abide by game show protocols
- Funny entrance from Kenan.
- By the way, our FOURTH game show sketch in a row?? Why? This has to be a record or something.
- Lizzo is perfect as one of the contestant.
- Oh, I’m absolutely LOVING the part where Lizzo turns the table against Kenan’s game show host and starts to question him and the rules of the game, an excellent twist to the usual by-the-numbers SNL game show sketches.
- Solid bit about gametown, and Lizzo’s delivery is great here.
- Hilarious part with Kenan losing $100.
- Solid sketch overall, particularly for Lizzo’s performance and that great twist on the typical game show sketches.
Rating: ****
TikTok
TikTok feed is a means of procrastinating dad’s (JAJ) LSAT study request
- Oh, I recall enjoying the first installment of this.
- No comment about Kyle’s scene, he looked good in it at least.
- James’ very funny in his scene.
- Chloe’s silent acting & dramatic turn are hilarious.
- It feels like AGES since we’ve last seen Aristotle in something.
- Huge laugh from Kate’s scene & her reaction absolutely slayed me.
- Great bleep-filled rant from Lizzo.
- Sarah’s absolutely spot-on and funny as a typical podcast host.
- Punkie’s scene is solid here.
- My god at Andrew’s bizarre look in this.
- Kate’s absolutely stealing this entire short with her priceless terrified reactions throughout this.
- Fun dancing from Lizzo.
- Great ending.
Rating: ****
Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas (KET), (CES), (CRR), (BOY) devise lame lyrics in-studio
- Oh, boy. I know NOTHING about this band, and yes call me old-fashioned or something, but I hope this goes well for me.
- This sketch feels kinda off so far. I don’t know, something about it seems dead. It’s not bad so far or anything, but I don’t know.
- I figured out the problem with this sketch for me, the execution is dull so far, and the material feels pretty dated for 2022.
- Ok, this is getting better as it goes along.
- Chris & Bowen are absolutely elevating the material here with their energetic performance.
- An alright sketch overall, pretty average although not terrible. Again, the energy here helped elevate the material and it turned out better than I anticipated as it was beginning.
Rating: **1/2
Six Flags Guys
(MID) learns his date’s (host) grandpa (SRS) & peers are Six Flags Guys
- Hmm, Mikey looks quite pleasing here. Oh, yes, back to the sketch.
- A huge laugh from the entrance of Sarah as the Six Flags guy. Great makeup job on her by the way.
- Sarah’s slaying me here and is absolutely killing it with the audience with her spot-on impression of that old guy. This has been a pretty hot, energetic crowd tonight.
- My god at Ego’s makeup in this. It feels so rare to see her being so physical & silly.
- Surprisingly, Mikey Reacts! isn’t ruining this sketch for me, it builds more to the silliness of the premise if nothing else, or maybe because he looks very good in this, I don’t know.
- I’m enjoying the buildup with Kate, and shockingly Aristotle in an actual live sketch!
- Kate’s hilarious in this role, and the cast is impressively doing a great job imitating the Six Flags Guy.
- Wow, the audience went wild when Lizzo unveiled her suit.
- A very fun ending with Mikey joining Lizzo to dance with her relatives. A fun ending to such a silly, solid, and harmless sketch.
Rating: ****1/2
Please Don’t Destroy – Lizzo Has Writer’s Block
host needs lyrics from Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, Ben Marshall [real]
- Always happy to see this back.
- Happy to see that this short seems to utilize the host well, instead of having him/her react and barely do anything.
- Love the turn with Lizzo requesting a new song from the guys.
- Lizzo’s solid straight man here.
- Love Lizzo’s laugh.
- Andrew’s great here, and I LOVE the sudden dark turn with his scene.
- So much fun with the music video, and such great, fun visuals. This episode is such a BLAST to far.
- Solid ending.
Rating: ****
Musical Performance – “About Damn Time”
Weekend Update
Cesar Perez (MEV) feels guilty after making nephew the butt of his jokes
- Kinda hypocritical from SNL to attack Musk after having him on and kissing his ass by his episode’s end.
- Good Giuliani dig.
- Solid self-deprecating bit from Colin.
- Loved the OnlyFans joke from Michael.
- Some brutal jokes tonight, that Grimace one is particularly hilarious.
- I feel bad for laughing at that Ken Doll joke.
- It feels like AGES since we saw Melissa last on Update.
- Great to see Melissa get her FIRST on-air Update commentary this season, it’s insane how barely featured she is behind the desk, considering how generally strong & memorable her commentaries are.
- An interesting characterization from Melissa here, hopefully this will live up to her other high quality Update commentaries.
- Good laugh from Melissa’s character message to his nephew.
- This commentary is taking rather a weird turn for me, with Melissa’s character getting depressed.
- Ok, this bit is starting to lose me as it goes along, but Melissa is performing this well as usual.
- An ok commentary from Melissa to conclude a good Update. If it was stronger like her usual stuff, than this Update would’ve been bumped up half-a-star more.
Rating: ***1/2
In Memoriam – a photo of Gilbert Gottfried marks his passing
Throne Room
in 2000 B.C., orgy planners (CES) & (BOY) preview extreme entertainment
- It feels rare to see an ancient history sketch, especially a one obviously set in the Middle East.
- Fantastic set design & costumes by the way.
- Great to see so many cast members in this, aside from Che & Jost, and Pete (thankfully), I think the majority of the cast is in this.
- Kenan looks funny with that snake.
- Aidy’s look is absolutely hilarious here.
- By the way, this is Andrew’s 100th sketch appearance in his tenure, congrats.
- I see that Andrew’s twink image is being utilized in full-force in this sketch.
- This is a blast to watch so far.
- Hugh laugh from Aidy’s, well crazy laugh.
- Sarah’s looking great in this.
- Fun brief scene with Alex, Sarah, and Ego.
- Chris’s stealing this sketch with his brief scene.
- Kate looks fantastic in that getup, and is perfect for this time period.
- My goodness at Kate making out with the freaking goat!
- Guilty laugh from the king being just a kid.
- A fun sketch overall that utilized a large section of the cast.
- I’ve been enjoying how fun-feeling this episode has been so far, so many unique concepts, with fun, harmless, silly vibes all around.
Rating: ***1/2
Musical Performance – “Special”
Symphony Orchestra
substitute flautist’s (host) twerking saves performance of “Ode To Joy”
- Already a good laugh from Chris’ look here.
- A good use of Lizzo’s real-life flute skills.
- Kenan’s brief moment is funny.
- Huge laugh from Kate’s “Don’t be racist” with that intense harp playing.
- Good laughs from Lizzo’s twerking in front of Alex.
- Kenan’s stealing this whole scene with the quick cutaway to him; he looks JUST LIKE he did back in the 90s.
- Kate’s getting some quick laughs from me with the quick cutaways to her.
- Love the part with Aidy’s playing the violin to Lizzo’s dramatic speech.
- Boy that’s one hot audience tonight.
- Aidy’s hilarious yet again tonight with her brief dramatic speech.
- This is turning to be lots of fun so far.
- A great ending with everyone twerking in support of Lizzo’s character.
- What a blast of a sketch, fun-feeling, feel good, well-written, well-paced, and energetic. Lizzo was fantastic in this. My rating might come as a shock to a minority of you, but I have to go all the way with this blast of sketch that I could watch a billion times and never get bored.
Rating: *****
Beanie Babies
(AND)’s plan to live off the value of Beanie Baby collection is misguided
- It feels so good to review an Andrew Dismukes-starring sketch, these are always great.
- Good reveal of Andrew’s Beanie Babies.
- Solid turn with Andrew’s realization that Beanie Babies are worthless, mostly.
- Great angry outburst from Andrew.
- Andrew’s fantastic in selling how deluded he is with his future plans.
- Lizzo’s face when trying not to break is slaying me hard.
- Huge laugh from Mario’s drawing looking like Luigi.
- I’m loving the turn with Lizzo delivering a dramatic speech to her husband, played by Andrew.
- Lizzo’s laughing is hilarious, and like a total pro, Andrew is perfectly stone-faced throughout it.
- Hilarious text crawl ending which works perfectly with this total lunacy of a sketch. A fantastic way to conclude such a total blast of an episode.
Rating: *****
Goodnights:-
- Sweet and funny speech from Lizzo.
- Ah, I LOVE the turn with Bowen having Sarah on his back and running towards Lizzo and standing in the centre of the stage.
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
Beanie Babies
Symphony Orchestra
Six Flags Guys
Guess That!
Please Don’t Destroy – Lizzo Has Writer’s Block
TikTok
Weekend Update
Monologue
Throne Room
Black Eyed Peas
A Message From the Easter Bunny
Final Thoughts:-
- Man what an episode tonight! This was SO MUCH FUN that I cannot begin to describe how much of a blast I had while both watching and reviewing this episode. This episode consisted of fun, silly, solid, creative, one-off sketch concepts that made this episode the blast that it was and made it free from some of the dullness that plagued episodes from this second half. When you have an episode in which the worst sketches are just below-average, then you know you had a great time watching it.
- Also, contributing to the very fun vibes was our host Lizzo who was, as anticipated, a lot of fun to watch throughout this night. Coming off game, lovable, charming, and very funny in her appearances. And, I enjoyed how well-utilized she was tonight, much like how Jake Gyllenhaal was used in last week’s episode. It feels so good to FINALLY have a strong, fun episode to review after a string of good-to-average episodes in the second half since Mulaney’s entrance to the Five-Timers Club. Just great, great, great. I cannot praise this episode enough honestly.
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
Up Next:-
- On May 7th, Benedict Cumberbatch returns to host for the second time with musical guest Arcade Fire for the fifth time. But first, my season 40 reviews will return soon with the doomed James Franco episode & musical guest Nicki Minaj.
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here.
Cold Open was ok nothing really stood out to me
Monologue was awesome Lizzo was likeable and had several funny lines liked the part when the audience sung along to her song
Funny sketch loved how Chris and Ego joined her the video at the end was good to and yeah this has to be a record
Like the first one better but still solid JAJ was great loved the reveal of him being the Dad Lizzo singing her cursing bit was great to and I surprisingly enjoyed Kate’s two scenes as well as her bit in the first one
Ehh not sure about this. This was fine nothing really noteworthy for me
Yet another awesome showcase for Sarah Sherman I dont think I needed Ego there but loved the ending this well probably be a sketch that I’ll forget in a couple of years then randomly watch it again and love it just as much
This was great though for Please Don’t Destroy standards this could’ve been better but I will say lol at Lizzo having a crush on Martin and Andrew gonna kill her if she doesn’t right a song.
Update was not at its core some good jokes here and there but didn’t care for Melissa’s commentary more cute than funny imo R.I.P. Gilbert Gottfried
Not surprised you enjoyed this. For me I was left bored though most of it the one and only major laugh I got was with Kyle’s character. Andrew and Lizzo scene was ok and kinda ended abruptly but that might be just me
Great sketch wasn’t really on board at first but the more it went on the better it got Kenan was my favorite part of this. Kate was annoying and made me groan
Mulaney
Sudeikis
DaFoe
Culkin
Malek
Forte
Liu
Lizzo
Wilson
Carmichael
Isaac
Rudd
Gyllenhaal
Kravitz
Eilish
DeBose
Majors
Kardashian
Crap forgot the last sketch good way to end the episode always enjoy a Dismukes sketch
Wow. Just wow. This may be the most we’ve EVER disagreed on an episode, right up there with the preceding season’s Anya Taylor-Joy episode. I’m surprised that a lot of the sketches you loved are sketches that I found weak or merely okay. That SixFlags sketch is fine, but it isn’t really one of Sarah’s better showcases. I prefer the ones where she gets into really absurd territory.
It’s kinda surprising you know nothing about the Black Eyed Peas when I’ve known about them for at least 13 years.
And as always, the averages:
Wilson – 7.1
Kardashian – 5.0
Malek – 7.6
Sudeikis – 7.7
Culkin – 6.5
Majors – 5.8
Liu – 6.3
Eilish – 6.3
Rudd – 6.0
DeBose – 7.9
Forte – 5.7
Dafoe – 6.8
Mulaney – 8.0
Isaac – 6.1
Kravitz – 5.8
Carmichael – 5.9
Gyllenhaal – 6.5
Lizzo – 7.6
Overall average (so far): 6.6
That technically means you feel this is one of the best double-duty episodes in SNL history, whereas I find it to be one of the worst (5.6).
Jesse, stop equating Stooge’s rating with mine as I want my reviews and ratings to stand on their own. I find it incredibly disrespectful to me and my reviews for you to constantly compare me to his work and use his ratings.
According to the SNL Network, the Cold Open was supposed to have two more segments, which were unfortunately cut for time: Kenan as Herschel Walker and Aristotle as Mehmet Oz. As much as I would like to see the Trump bit trimmed or the MTG bit cut, the Cold Open was co-written by JAJ so I can see why it was kept in.
Also cut for time was:
A pretape called “Food and YouTube”
The sketches cut at Dress were:
“Kitchen Staff”, a retread of the Longhorn Steakhouse sketch from the Ariana DeBose episode
“Costco Meeting”, the second attempt at this sketch that was cut from the Kim Kardashian episode (but performed better)
Kyle and Lizzo on Update as Baby Yoda and Baby Groot respectfully.
Great to see you commenting here Chris. I would’ve loved to see another sketch around the kitchen staff, considering that I loved the first sketch, and pretty much everything in the Ariana DeBose episode. I would’ve replaced it with the Black Eyed Peas sketch, though that wasn’t bad as I feared. Mercifully, they cut Baby Yoda from Update, so my prayers were answered! Lizzo would’ve been fun as Baby Groot I’m sure, they could’ve had her all by herself and not have that nightmare fuel of a character on. It’s morbidly fascinating how much Kyle sunk this season, after such strong & creative tenure these past eight seasons.
I’m happy that you enjoyed this review of such a blast of an episode, nothing but silliness and dumb charm all night long. I’m still smiling think of all of the sketches that night, a great way to go to break with a feel-good, fun show.
This review may be just a bit enthusiastic. Good collection, but stuff like Flautist and the game show just breezed right by me. And a (rare) point of agreement for me with AV Club’s blah review – do we really need to TAKE DOWN the Black Eyed Peas in 2022? Next week they should really stick it to Linkin Park.
Beanie Babies was outstanding, though, a great star turn for Andrew. I loved Six Flags – that’s a crazy piece of 2000ish lore that’s been mined successfully for laughs by a few shows over the past few years. Unlike the Black Eyed Peas, though, it’s obscure and subversive enough to poke fun at 20 years later. Something like this takes an all-in comedian like Sarah to work, and she shined the brightest by a mile throughout the sketch.
Great PDD, too.
For what it’s worth, Jason Sudeikis episode is the best of the season. It had the best cold open of the season. It had t JT e best musical guest if the season. It had some of the best sketches of the season, and the Devil (running rings around Colin) in the update. But I can be quite easily convinced that this is the second best episode of the season.
I didn’t mind the cold open. Don’t get me wrong, not minding us a pretty low bar to get over.
My sketch if the night was the Six Flags sketch. It felt it had PDD/Sherman energy. The absurdity of the bid with with the slapstick of Sarah. I’m glad PDD are back to writing good sketches after a recent run of duds. (Tombstone, Oscar night, that HR sketch)
Speaking of PDD, thus could my third fave if the season behind 3SV, and future selves. As noted elsewhere, I think they do better when they’re reacting to others, rather than trying to be independently whacky.
I really liked the game show sketch too. I know my heart dropped mid commercials when I saw the set. However, when I realized isn’t wasn’t the premise of the game show that held the funnies, but Lizzo’s character, I was hooked. She did so well, we didn’t need to pull the Chord on the emergency Chris Redd.
1. Six Flags
2. PDD
3. Game show
4. Beanie Babies
The rest.
And because Everyone Else is doing it, here’s my list from best to least best
Sudeikis
Lizzo
Mulaney
Isaac
Malek
Wilson
Dafoe
Eilish
Gyllenhaal
Culkin
Carmichael
Majors
Liu
DeBose
Kravitz
Forte
Rudd
Kardashian
Solid review, Blood! While I may disagree with your takes on the game show sketch (despite Ego and Chris pulling through at the end, it didn’t go anywhere for me but maybe I’m just as burnt out as we all are on this seasons’ recent trend of post monologue game show sketches) as well as flautist (they were just having more fun with it than I was) and throne room (somewhere in the top three of this seasons’ worst sketches for me) I agree with your overall take of this being one of this seasons’ stronger episodes with a host that bought a lot of fun vibes and energy. Keep up the good work!
Great to see you commenting here! Thanks for the kind words too! I would say that the game show sketch seems to be a bit divisive, but I greatly enjoyed it as a deconstruction of the typical SNL game show sketch. It shook up the format, and it paid off well for me and others. I did enjoy the Throne Room sketch for its silly nature, and ensemble feel, it was dumb fun, yet I might rate it *** now. Glad we generally agree on the episode overall, and Lizzo brought great deal of energy and fun.
Kind of funny to see both the Black Eyed Peas AND the Six Flags Guy being parodied in a 2022 episode (but both of those were fine). The Black Eyed Peas did feel more to me like picking on low hanging fruit, like just noting that yeah the lyrics are nonsensical.
The Tik-Tok sketch here isn’t as good as the first one, but having JAJ turn out to be the dad was really funny and probably my favorite joke in both of those sketches.