February 13, 2016 – Melissa McCarthy / Kanye West (S41 E13)

Cold Opening – Hillary For President

• A great, funny sudden appearance from Kate’s Hillary Clinton surprising restaurant patrons after their conversation about them deciding not to vote for her.
• Like in previous times, Kate is just excellent as Clinton here, bringing in likability and solid characterization in her portrayal.
• Ah, Darrell’s Bill Clinton absolutely still got it here, as his whole bit with Kate’s Hillary is a lot of fun to watch.
• Very funny pathetic appearance from Beck’s Jeb Bush that pretty much steals this entire cold opening for me.

Rating: ***1/2

Monologue

• A good conceit with Melissa mistaking this hosting stint as her fifth one. It kinda reminds me of another monologue with the host mistaking his hosting stint for something else, I might be thinking of John Goodman’s terrific season 24 monologue where he’s trying to convince the audience that his current-then hosting stint is not a rerun of an older one. Even though this monologue, while ok, is NOWHERE near as strong or memorable as that personal favorite monologue of mine.
• Some really great energy from Melissa, making this musical monologue come off fun and charming; a testament to her talents as a performer.
• Great visual of Melissa’s “4 & One/Sixteenth” glasses, with it counting Melissa’s role in the 40th Anniversary special as a 1/16th of a normal hosting stint.

Rating: ***

The Day Beyoncé Turned Black

• One of the more famous pieces from this season, and a piece that I always loved, even when I think of it as a little bit overrated personally.
• Terrific voice-over work, not only is it very well-delivered, but it’s also an absolutely spot-on parody of these types of voice-over in some movie trailers.
• Great initial reveal of the conceit of this whole trailer, with white people realizing that Beyoncé is in fact black. Excellent shots of terror throughout by the way, a very accurate spoof of these types of movies.
• Some great exaggerated, dramatic acting from the cast, Aidy & Bobby are especially standing out to me here.
• Great moment with Cecily removing the headphones with a terrified reaction.
• Excellent scene with Kate & Kenan, and Kate’s various line deliveries are even more reliable and solid than usual in this pretaped piece.
• Very dark ending with Kate getting ready to smother her own child with the pillow.
• A fantastic piece overall, even when I don’t love it as much as some others. I’d still say that SNL’s The Beygency short is a better parody than this fantastic piece, and this is coming from someone who never ever cared for Beyoncé and her music.

Rating: ****1/2

Test Screening

• Our obligatory Melissa as a wacky character sketch of the night.
• A rather interesting change of pace, with this sketch relying somewhat heavily on pretaped scenes with Melissa during the screening of a movie. A refreshing change from the usual I must say.
• Much like her previous hosting stints, Melissa’s displaying some great physical comedy here, as her various frightened reactions are providing solid laughs, and the various actions she does prevents this sketch from getting stale.
• A huge laugh from Melissa’s character suddenly punching Vanessa.
• An overall pretty good sketch, and a far better showcase of Melissa’s talents than most of what she was stuck with in her previous hosting stints.

Rating: ***1/2

Movie Night

• Oh, I recall liking this sketch a lot back when this episode originally aired. And seeing it as a solid showcase of both Pete & especially that it featured a realistic, low-key sketch concept instead of hammy, over-the-top scenarios.
• I recall being surprised that the whole concept of this sketch is a family awkwardly sitting through a sex scene in the first Terminator movie, because I do not recall that movie having that sort of a scene at all.
• Bobby is both solid & very convincing as a middle-aged dad; a testament to his underrated versatility as a performer.
• A very good usage of a pretaped audio of the characters’ inner thoughts, and it adds well to the situation’s extreme awkwardness.
• The cutaway to a self-satisfied Bobby saying to himself that he nailed it is absolutely hilarious, and a part that has always stuck with me from this episode.
• Great performance & delivery by Pete toward the sketch’s end before storming off. One of Pete’s better performances I must say.
• Solid ending to a refreshing, low-key sketch.

Rating: ****

Musical Performance – “Highlights”

• Jesse Nathan: Cool staging at the start.
• Now, this performance starts off with the track “Low Lights”, which precedes this song on the album. However, if you ask me, this prelude has always been a little too long for me, and back when I was 12, I was wondering why it was taking so long for Kanye to start rapping. Maybe Kanye wanted to start the performance with an attention-grabber before going into the actual song.
• Okay, now the song actually is starting, but unfortunately, the prerecorded audio is the only thing we hear so far, so to me, it feels as if they’re lip-syncing.
• Was it really the best idea to use autotune during the live performance? Then again, this is Kanye, and he’s always sounded great with autotune. Still, though, not really a smooth move.
• Despite my complaints, Kanye and co are performing this well, and are making it somewhat enjoyable.
• El DeBarge’s first line reminds me a bit of the chorus for Dua Lipa’s “Levitating”.
• Did…did Kanye just say the n-word on live TV?
• Didn’t care for the “girl ain’t even religious” line.
• What? He just used the n-word again.
• Is this The Dream? Because he actually sounds pretty good.
• Kelly Price is killing it on the vocals.
• It’s over already? Man, just as it was getting better.

Rating: ***1/2

Weekend Update

• Geez at the real-life footage of the GOP debate between Bush & Trump. Sometimes reality is too hard to parody.
• Great bit from Colin about Hillary Clinton’s various scandals, providing both real ones and some that are made-up, the one about divorcing Anthony Weiner is funny.
• A freaking FANTASTIC Jennifer Aniston impression from Vanessa, to an almost eerie degree of accuracy.
• Vanessa is both excellent and strangely adorable in her portrayal of Rachel from Friends, and the sitcom scenarios & scene transitions here as executed flawlessly. And Vanessa is totally killing it with the studio audience, even moreso than usual. She’s been killing it with these showcases on almost weekly basis this season, which makes my theory that new writers collaborated with her more reasonable with each passing episode, as the sudden increase in airtime she’s been receiving this year points to that.
• I’m not that familiar with Von Miller, as I barely watch any sports, but he’s coming off very likable here and is performing this piece quite well, especially for a non-actor.
• Holy hell at that ad that the Cruz campaign removed, absolutely priceless. How do I not remember this ridiculousness??
• Yet another Leslie Jones commentary, I did enjoy her last one, but these make it clear that SNL does not have performers adapt in character work behind the desk, aside from Bobby, Kate, and Vanessa. I’m still FLOORED that Beck still didn’t make his debut behind the desk, as I generally enjoy his work on Weekend Update.
• A good, refreshing change of pace with this Leslie commentary from her usual ones, and the addition of Kenan is adding to this commentary quite well.

Rating: ***1/2

Pick-Up Artist

• Oh, I don’t think I like where this sketch is going, as it seems to be our wackytown sketch of the night.
• Yup, this sketch seems to be quite similar, but certainly not as bad so far as those dreadful wacky Melissa character pieces from her earlier hosting stints.
• The more and more this sketch is going on, the more it is starting to really lose me after I was open about it early on.
• (*groan*) We now have our obligatory character break from Leslie to make this sketch even more insufferable to me. Please don’t tell me that Leslie’s breaking here in order to “save” this D.O.A. mess.
• Ah, God bless Beck, as his brief, hammy appearance here gave my ONLY laugh, and a pretty big one, from this entire dull, pointless sketch.

Rating: *1/2

Kyle vs. Kanye

• Great to see a Good Neighbor short, considering the very rough season they’ve been having in general.
• This short is directed in the same style as the upcoming Kyle/Leslie shorts starting with next season.
• I love the old footage of Kyle, those home movies of him are especially adorable. And I’m also enjoying how even more meta this short is, with Kyle doing an interview on Today to talk about his rap aspirations.
• Kanye’s deadpan stare at Kyle while he raps is absolutely hilarious, it never fails to make me lose it and just laugh my way through the rest of the short no matter how many times I see it. A fitting usage of Kanye’s personality too.
• Solid ending.

Rating: ****

Bus

• Yet another sketch tonight that is a bit more low-key than usual, even with this one being another Melissa playing a wacky character sketch. I do, however, enjoy the way this sketch is presented in a manner different and more refreshing than her previous wacky sketch in this half of the episode.
• Some laughs from Melissa’s various lines, as well as Leslie’s various straight man reactions to her. This has been a good night for Both Leslie & Pete.
• Ah, it feels so good seeing Beck get this much airtime tonight, considering that he’s still both under the shadow of Taran as one of the cast leaders, and the rough season that his & Kyle’s shorts have been having in general.
• A big laugh from Leslie’s request to just jump off the bus to escape Melissa’s character.
• A very weak, disappointing end with this turning into a Speed spoof, causing me to lower my initial rating of this sketch.

Rating: ***

Musical Performance – “Ultralight Beam”

• Jesse Nathan: Ooh, I like how this has more people onstage than the last performance.
• Great opening vocalizations, both live and autotune.
• Kanye sounds great here as well.
• Okay, it seems as though the sound engineers don’t seem to know how to fully work with autotune, as there are moments where Kanye’s vocals are a tad bit off-key.
• I LOVE the gospel vocals in this song.
• Just like before, Kelly Price is killing it on the vocals.
• Chance the Rapper!
• Once again, I love Chance’s singing and rapping, and they both serve as a nice contradiction to each other.
• Loved Chance’s Kanye line.
• “You gotta sell it to snatch the Grammy.” Damn!
• Now this performance is getting more fun as the dancers start moving during one of Chance’s verses.
• Great verse from The Dream near the end.
• Who’s this guy rapping right now?
• Wow, I didn’t even notice that Kanye was on the floor until just now.
• Didn’t care for Kanye’s ending plug.
• Overall, a vast improvement over the last performance, and it gives me flashbacks to “Lost in the World”, and I love that.

Rating: ****1/2

Whiskers R’ We

• Yet another installment of this recurring sketch.
• I’ve been surprised of how somewhat lukewarm I’m to these sketches upon a rewatch, I guess the cute kittens were the biggest draw to me back when these sketches originally aired.
• Like always, very solid characterization from Kate, and some cute kittens to look at, and a solid co-anchoring role by our host, but these sketches are so by-the-numbers to me that I can’t enjoy them that much.
• A very funny, out of nowhere OJ is a murderer joke at least.

Rating: **1/2

Cut For Time: Supermarket Spree

• I strangely have no memory of seeing this short AT ALL. It will be interesting to watch and review it for the first time.
• A funny contrast between Melissa’s character and Vanessa in the way they play this game, and another great use of Melissa’s physical comedy skills.
• This short is not only funny & energetic so far, but an absolutely dead-on parody of these types of game shows.
• Great voice-over work from Beck as he comments on the performances of both Melissa & Vanessa, and Taran’s various interjections and performance as the game show host is quite solid as well.
• Jesus Christ, how many times will Vanessa be beaten up this season? I’m assuming this is a running gag of some sorts?
• Great ending with Melissa running away from the camera after ripping the game clock of the wall.

Rating: ****

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

The Day Beyoncé Turned Black

Movie Night

Kyle vs. Kanye

CFT: Supermarket Spree

Weekend Update

Test Screening

Hillary For President

Monologue

Bus

Whiskers R’ We

Pick-Up Artist

Final Thoughts:-

• The long streak of episodes ranging between good to excellent continues, as tonight’s episode was a pretty solid show throughout, with only one single sketch being weak all night long. Melissa McCarthy was also a strong host, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the revered and highly-acclaimed sketch performer she was for many years before ever hosting SNL. I was glad that SNL finally gave Melissa the solid episode that she deserved, I guess 4th time is the charm in this case.

Up Next:-

• Jonah Hill hosts for the fourth time with musical guest Future.