December 17, 2016 – Casey Affleck / Chance the Rapper (S42 E10)

Cold Opening – Trump Christmas

• Ugh.
• I’m starting to get really annoyed by all of these political opens from SNL ALREADY, which obviously won’t bode well for the opens that I’ll cover in the 2nd half of the season.
• Kinda surprising that Kate just left the open just now, considering how big her Kellyanne impression is in these opens so far into the season.
• Hey at least we get a shirtless Beck Bennett to give me something to enjoy looking at in this open.
• Blah at the very predictable punchline about Trump marrying a foreigner that would compliment him. The portrayal of Trumpwin is now becoming more and more self-aware in contrast to how he was portrayed earlier in the season. This open TRULY marks the beginning of Trumpwin as we know him, and is an answer to those who worship Sarah & Chris as headwriters and claim that the political writing suddenly turned bad after them. This open & the awful one from last episode, as well as the coming ones this season will disapprove that claim.
• Holy hell at John Goodman here. He’s looking great & healthier than ever. I’m so happy for him.
• Sadly, John’s cameo as Rex Tillerson is continuing the pointless stunt-casting that is slowly taking over these opens, which is quite detrimental to the actual cast.
• Didn’t care for the whole interaction between John & Beck’s Putin, although it was well-performed.
• A pretty dull cold open overall.

Rating: **

Monologue

• Oof, right out of the gate, Casey’s energy and delivery are both pretty off-putting to me.
• A decent running gag with Alec & John entering the scene in the background and leaving each time to an unaware Casey.
• Didn’t really care for the fake-out with Casey nearly breaking into a musical monologue. I liked that better when John Cena did it last episode.
• This monologue feels like it’s going on forever, and is a wandering mess so far, yet not bad to me.
• I’m sure that I didn’t need a Kenan walk-on as a black Santa.

Rating: **1/2

Dunkin’ Donuts

• Ah, a very famous piece from this season.
• A good use of Casey’s Boston roots & acting skills, as a pretape is clearly a better showcase for his acting chops than live sketch comedy, as it seems so far into this episode.
• Great & hilarious bit with the whole “smoking outside the store”, and Casey is surprisingly very solid so far into this short.
• Perfect pairing of Casey & Mikey, and the latter is continuing his very impressive & solid first season.
• The whole roughhousing sequence between Casey & Mikey makes this short truly what it is and escalates it very well.
• An overall very strong pretape that is deservedly highly-praised, even when I thought of the variation with Bill Burr in season 46 to be funnier.

Rating: ****1/2

Robot Presentation

• Fred Armisen cameo for no reason strikes again, I see.
• James Anderson strikes again, I also see.
• Aaaaand we now get the “comedic” conceit of this whole sketch, with Beck’s character revealing himself to be gay.
• I’m not really liking how this sketch is trying to make no big deal regarding Beck’s robot character’s homosexuality, YET, the whole sketch revolves around him talking about how gay he is.
• This feels like a cut-after-dress sketch from seasons 30 & 35, two seasons that were notoriously hyperfocused on the hackiest, shittiest, and most stereotypical gay humor. Where the laughs are all from how “hilarious” that the characters are acting “gay”, much like the horrific Gay Frankenstein’s Monster & Gay Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde sketches from seasons 30 & 35, respectively.
• Wow, this already-horrible sketch gets even WORSE as we get a Kyle walk-on as a very broad, hacky, and unnecessary gay stereotype.
• Ugh at the little Latin men comment from Beck.
• And now Kyle’s gay stereotype character is droning on and on about how he loves being dominated by other powerful men, this sketch is fucking AWFUL. (*sigh*) Just please end this sketch already, SNL.
• All in all, this sketch was just 100% unwatchable.

Rating: *

Jingle Barack

• Ah, an obligatory musical short with Chance the Rapper, already giving us a glimpse of how fantastic of a host he’ll go on to be.
• Great & very catchy parody of RUN DMC’s “Christmas In Hollis”.
• So many memorable, funny visuals in this short for me to point out. The breakdancing Jesus one is particularly hilarious & I’m sure will be my biggest laugh in this entire episode.
• Ah, great to see Darryl McDaniels participate in this short, showing us what a great sport he is in being involved in this parody of one of his group’s biggest hits.
• Leslie’s stealing this entire short in her scene, which is probably one of my personal favorite Leslie moments throughout her tenure.
• An overall great musical short, as expected from Chance, even though I recall his very memorable Come Back Barack short being even stronger. I’m really looking forward to reviewing it soon.

Rating: ****

Christmas Miracle

• You all know my reaction as this sketch makes yet another appearance.
• Kate’s performance & delivery are both still very on-point in this installment, yet this sketch is very by-the-numbers for my liking & is wasting precious airtime on stuff that we saw a thousand times before.
• Well, we at least get an interesting change of pace with the ending, with the whole Shart character played by Mikey.

Rating: **

Musical Performance – “Finish Line” / “Drown” ft. Noname

• Jesse Nathan: Great intro.
• As usual, I’m loving Chance’s rapping and his flow.
• Nice instrumental.
• The backing vocalists’ “doo-doo-doo”s weren’t mixed well.
• Now Chance’s rapping is getting more high-energy, which I always love to see.
• I keep thinking that this “all my day, I prayed and prayed” part is from the second song he performed, not this one. That’s probably the way I remember it playing out when I saw this episode live.
• Not loving Noname’s voice, but her flow is decent.
• The gospel vocals are getting more enjoyable as this song progresses.
• I’m enjoying Chance’s moves.
• I love the whole part with Chance telling his backing vocalists what to say, followed by them saying that exact thing.
• And now Chance gives a shoutout to his brother on drums, followed by some great drum work from him.

Rating: ****

Weekend Update

• (*Blood sees Vanessa & Fred appearing as their godforsaken Two Best Friends From Who Gives A Fuck characters and starts to gouge out his own eyes and screams the cries of pleasure that are much more pleasing to him than sitting through THIS commentary*).
• Mercifully, this commentary is now over.
• Wow, a very rare Update that didn’t end with a guest commentary, as we’re still getting more jokes from Colin & Michael.
• Great ad-lib from Michael after his joke about feminists placing white women in the front.
• Ah, we’re now getting to hear the jokes that got cut after dress as our Christmas treat.
• Pretty good jokes from both Colin & Michael here, especially Michael’s Chipotle joke, which I admit laughed at way more than I should. Yet, the best is yet to come from these joke traditions as we all know.

Rating: ***1/2 (the overlong & insufferable Two Best Friends commentary docked a half-a-star)

New York Now

• “Sara Hors” & “Jen Jen Binks”?! Oh, don’t tell me which two writers penned THIS sketch.
• Man, the preview clips of the show are LAUGHABLY bad, I mean, was I supposed to laugh at this?!
• Not even Kate can save the sketch with her usual commitment to the material.
• Boy, this sketch is fucking HORRIBLE so far, completely unwatchable. How did this get even past the table read??!!
• A Chance walk-on to hopefully add a shred of quality to this sketch.
• Sadly, Chance couldn’t help in elevating this D.O.A. sketch, even though he came off likable and charismatic as usual.
• An overall COLOSSAL waste of my time.

Rating: *

Hillary Actually

• A Love Actually parody in 2016? How old is the writer(s) of this short?
• Cecily’s usage seems perfect to me here, as her facial reactions always work for me.
• A decent conceit to this Love Actually parody, with it about the 2016 electoral vote certification.
• A huge laugh from Kate’s Hillary giving Cecily’s character examples of others to vote for instead of Trump, with “The Rock” then followed by “A Rock”.
• A fantastic bit with Kate’s Hillary having saperate cards for her trademark & infectious “HA-HAAHHH!!” laugh.
• An overall pretty solid showcase for both Kate & Cecily, the former of which has been on fire since season 40 on almost weekly basis with her showcases.

Rating: ***1/2

Musical Performance – “Same Drugs”

• Jesse Nathan: Another great intro.
• I love how that big intro now leads to a stripped-down piano song. I’m not usually a fan of those types of songs, but I just know that Chance will make this work.
• Chance surprisingly isn’t all that bad on the piano.
• Good chorus.
• Great harmonies from the backing vocalists.
• Chance’s singing voice is always nice to listen to.
• The strings are a great addition, and unlike Shawn Mendes, these strings actually work to the song’s advantage.
• I love Chance’s genuine smile during a verse.
• One woman’s vocals are standing out more than the others during the third chorus. It makes me wonder if she’s supposed to have her mic on at that point.
• I like how Chance takes a backseat to let some other guy take over the piano at one point during the song. Unfortunately, I don’t know who this guy is.
• The piano and strings sound amazing together.
• Nice lyrics from Chance during the bridge.
• Good usage of fake snow.
• I love one woman’s vocalizations near the end.
• Another strong performance from Chance. Such a shame that this’ll be the last time I get to cover him.

Rating: ****

Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Feast

• OH FUCKING NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
• Jesus Christ, did James Anderson & Kent Sublette write about 80% of this episode??!!
• Man, aside from few highlights here & there, this episode is DIRE.
• This episode is starting to feel like the season 41 Ryan Gosling episode with all of these recurring characters being brought back. Yet, without the charm, strength, and fun presence that Ryan brought to that aforementioned great episode.
• Ugh at Casey’s weird & sloppy delivery, he’s been annoying me the whole night.
• Man, just like the last two times, this sketch is just BRUTAL. Zero laughs from me like always, and I continue to be baffled at how this sketch made it three times on the air.
• Overall, wow, this installment was even worse than the first two, which I never thought was possible. What a horrible recurring sketch. How did stuff like this make it on the air in the very first place??!!

Rating: *

Christmas Bar

• Kyle Mooney to save the episode!
• This sketch always reminded me of the one from Ryan Gosling’s episode, even though it is entirely different. I guess the similar-looking set is the one to blame.
• Ah, Kyle & Vanessa always make for a perfect pairing in sketches.
• Solid voice & characterization from Kyle here, again reminding of the solid sketch he had with Ryan Gosling last season.
• Casey’s lethargic presence, which I never noticed throughout tonight’s episode is really dragging this otherwise-solid piece. He still has to give me more laughs than the ones he gave me in the pretapes, and in them ALONE so far tonight.
• A laugh from Kyle pulling out his knife while still acting in a shy, jolly manner.
• Very fun that the other people in the bar act & sound like Kyle’s character; a solid progression being pulled off well.
• A solid sketch overall that gave what was a dying episode a nice boost before it ended.

Rating: ***1/2

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Dunkin’ Donuts

Jingle Barack

Christmas Bar

Hillary Actually

Weekend Update

Monologue

Christmas Miracle

Trump Christmas

Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Feast

Robot Presentation / New York Now (tie)

Final Thoughts:-

• Oof. Yep, the episode was just as bad as I remember it being, with several flops throughout the night, almost half of the segments were downright unwatchable, and some of which (Robot Presentation, New York Now, Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Feast) were not only bad, but are amongst the absolute WORST of the entire season. This episode was also not helped by our host Casey Affleck, who had a pretty baffling presence and gave off-putting, low-energy performances and delivery all night long. And not to mention how disgraceful it was, on SNL’s part, to have this accused sexual assaulter on & have him try out and be funny and endearing all night long. Well, I guess Ben took all the funny genes in the family…
• What makes this episode even more frustrating to me is that it was a terrible way for this fantastic first half to conclude, as this season was on fire since the Emily Blunt episode, and for it to end with this weak episode is tragic (it reminds me of how angered I was, during next season’s original airing, after the wretched Kevin Hart episode that ended a very strong first half poorly).

Up Next:-

• We enter the year 2017, with host Felicity Jones and musical guest Sturgill Simpson.