February 25, 2023 – Woody Harrelson / Jack White (S48 E13)

Cold Opening – Trump in Ohio

• I guess it had to happen sooner or later: the return of James’ Donald Trump. Although, I should’ve known a cold open spoofing Trump’s infamous Ohio visit is a given. I don’t want to be salty here, but James has constantly proven that he’s MUCH more than just being Trump or Biden. Seeing him back in this box, after four consecutive strong shows, makes it harder for me to take.
• James’ Trump remains as strong as always, vocally & physically, but the writing is still white noise to me in this cold open in particular. I’m still not caring at all for this dialogue as it is basically a variation of the usual stupid shit Trump would say on a regular basis. Why it worked fine for me in his latest appearance and not now, I don’t know.
• Well, they are most certainly taking their sweet time before revealing the supposed comedic through line of this cold open.
• Chloe’s mugging a storm playing that wacky viral lady, though she seems like perfect casting for this role. Her over-vocalization of her lines feels a bit too much and comes off as her apparent attempt at being as “funnee” with the material as possible.
• Aside from a bit or two, this cold open is a complete snoozefest. There’s doing subtle, clever satire, and there’s doing one that’s SO on-the-nose that you cannot find the joke in it. Guess which category this open fell into?

Rating: *1/2

Monologue

• Woody always has such a warm, likable presence that makes me immediately feel comfortable as soon as he appears at the start of each of his monologues. This one is no exception.
• This monologue’s first few lines is giving me flashbacks to Woody’s previous monologue; a monologue I like more than some it seems. Woody’s executing this one as solid as he did his last one so far.
• I’m enjoying Woody’s self-deprecation; his talk about high-as-a-kite image and him being a vegan is providing me with good laughs. Woody’s talk about being sober is oddly touching in a way he’s always great in showcasing effortlessly.
• Yep, the more and more this monologue continues, the more it is basically a variation of his previous monologue where he intentionally rambles his way and dig himself into a bigger and bigger hole. Woody’s executing the intentionally rambling vibe of this much better than any other host could in my view.

Rating: ***1/2

Jail Scene

• Only three segments into tonight’s episode and Chloe feels very dominant so far.
• Why is Ego cast in this role? It seems to be a mostly silent background role.
• Ok, I spoke too soon, as Ego seems to be the comedic focus of this sketch, with her constant commenting on Woody’s lines. I *get* that this seems to be making fun of the usually silent officers behind the prisoners in movies. Kenan seems to be playing a gender-flipped version of the same role.
• I’m not caring AT ALL for this sketch. The constant reacting and explaining by both Ego and especially Kenan feel way too redundant and is absolutely killing the energy of a piece I initially thought would be a slice-of-life one. This being placed as our leadoff sketch of the night is already a red flag for me.
• The supposedly sweet turn at the end of the sketch between Ego & Kenan feels like a knockoff of the great Hailstorm sketch with Kenan & Kate. All I’ll tell you is that it didn’t work for me here at all.

Rating: *1/2

Please Don’t Destroy – The Stakeout

• It feels like it’s been a longer gap than usual for a PDD short.
• Very fun sudden stalking turn with Woody & Ben making this short already feel more different than the usual PDD shorts.
• Blah at that desperate man-on-man kiss between Martin & John. I sure hope this ain’t the comedic conceit of this.
• Woody is lots of fun in this role and is making for a good duo with Ben, though the typical PDD escalations feel more and more tired by each passing instalment.
• A decent ending with Woody. I’m beginning to be lost for words with these shorts, so I sure hope they shake their formula a bit or just… retire them before they get really stale.

Rating: ***

Slingshot

• Kenan AGAIN?! This episode has been having a bit of a hollow feel so far, where the hell are the rest of the cast? This sketch already feels oddly directed, giving me unwanted flashbacks to those high-school production-esque sketches that dominated season 46.
• And now Woody is apparently out of the sketch, not even more than a minute or so into it. Not a good sign.
• Oh, I see. Kenan seems to be the “comedic” conceit of this sketch, especially his overdone All That-esque mugging/vamping/yelling reactions to the ride. Only a few segments into this episode and I’m already dreading it being wall-to-wall “star” sketches instead of ensemble pieces and Woody being actually used.
• This time, the laziness of these by-the-numbers, one-note “star” sketches this season has reached a new low. This is an extremely thin, underwritten, jokeless dreck of a sketch that’s basically a reason for Kenan Thompson to hammily overact and self-amuse for four minutes straight. Like if I needed another reason to call him out on being the absolute bane of this season.
• Overall, not a single redeeming factor to be found here.

Rating: *

Submarine Launch

• Perfect casting of Woody as a marine officer. Let’s hope this sketch actually uses him.
• Woody’s doing a very solid job as expected in this role and it feels good to see him actually being used so far into tonight’s episode.
• Decent laughs from the overly complex name of the submarine, and the cast (minus Kenan) are fun in their performances.
• A good, silly escalation with Woody’s wife dumping him while he’s still speaking in his military voice.
• This is the first sketch all night that I enjoyed, and even with that, it’s still no great shakes. The night seems rough so far.

Rating: ***

Cologuard

• Great to see SNL utilizing James more and more as their go-to voice-over narrator. The amount of solid support/utility roles he’s been consistently getting this season, as well as more and more showcases of other sides of his talents makes me hope he’ll eventually be seen as such a vital backbone to the show in the coming years.
• The sudden, bizarre horny turn between Woody and the Cologuard is funny and is making this initially cheap premise fun. Although, I’m more than positive that I didn’t need Kenan in this piece for no reason.
• The use of Chloe and Sarah’s voices as other suddenly emerging Cologuards being ready to take a stool sample of Woody’s is well-done.
• Great reveal of Woody turning out to be playing himself in the short.
• The ending with Andrew (getting his weekly ten seconds mercy bit role) staying to watch what happens with Woody is solid.

Rating: ***1/2

Musical Guest Intro

• Very fun mid-intro interruption by Woody asking if Jack should get a jacket for his fifth time as musical guest. I always love and appreciate it when SNL does fun, unique things during the musical guest intro in particular.

Weekend Update

• The audience seems a bit hesitant to laugh at Colin & Che’s jokes so far. To be honest, these jokes are no great shakes so far, especially the China one.
• Good Oscars rant by Colin, and probably the funniest part so far of this Update.
• James’ strong second half of the season continues as he now gets his first solo Update showcase, and his second desk piece for the second week in a row.
• Not familiar with Bill Walton, but considering the fantastic impressionist James is in general, I’m sure his impression is dead-on. While I’m not a sports person at all, I’m getting some laughs here and there from James’ manic delivery and performance.
• Loved the insanely brief “What Did They Even Do Wrong?” segment with Che.
• Considering the rough and flat-out sad season Heidi’s been having, I’m already worried about what kind of an Update piece I’m about to sit through.
• Heidi’s Characterization, particularly her delivery here is very Kristen Wiig-esque, which reminds me of the Wiig comparisons I’ve seen fellow reliable fans make about her, especially as she’s trying to establish herself as a “star” on the show this season.
• I can see the slice-of-life factor some could see in this commentary, but this is not only a thing I saw this performer do a billion times before but is a piece so thinly written, cheap for desperate laughs, and pointless that it’s having me checked out (for the third or fourth time in tonight’s episode alone).
• This is fucking terrible so far; the constant, endless, seemingly lightly scripted “My son!” utterances from Heidi are flat-out sad and unfunny, and, ONCE AGAIN, another very rough Heidi showcase this season. It’s becoming difficult for me, a person that adored her for much of her run to see her sink to this level.

Rating: ***

In Memoriam

• Nice of SNL to acknowledge the passing of its long-time set designer Eugene Lee; probably will be a major highlight of this so far rough night by its end.

The Hippo

• Great seeing James in another big role after we just got one the segment before. His characterization as the actor who grew his beard for the role is funny.
• Great makeup on Woody as the “The Hippo,” and this sketch seems to be making fun of The Whale and performers that commit to extreme changes for roles.
• This sadly feels like the very first role all night that’s allowing Woody to be funny in a sketch, even when this sketch is no great shakes as a whole, it is decent enough; the line about Woody being the new friend of Mikey’s was especially funny.

Rating: ***

Beautiful Gym

• I wondered where Bowen was all night, and now we get a full-on campfest sketch with him. I bet you can imagine my facial reaction right now…
• I want to truly appreciate the interesting way this sketch is presented, with the filter usage and oddball lines, but this is giving me nothing but sighs and groans so far. I assume the campy vibes here are supposedly the comedic conceit, that or the “kooky” lines and props all throughout the sketch.
• This is another sketch tonight with a strangely odd, quiet feel to it. This episode in general has been very barren-feeling and this sketch and that fucking dreadful one with Kenan in a ride early on are the biggest examples.
• Not even a random cutaway to Sarah as a decrepit old guy is giving me a smirk, and she usually gets huge laughs from me without barely doing anything.
• Boy, this sketch is absolutely flat and a dud; nothing here is working for me, not the lines, performances, the “kooky” vibes, absolutely nothing at all. This sketch feels like all of Bowen’s worst tendencies being all jammed into one sketch.
• This has been a bizarre season for Bowen so far. While he’s gotten much more airtime than before, he’s been A LOT more hit or miss than usual (I’ve noticed his hit or miss route since season 47, but he is even more down that path this season), and while he’s done some solid stuff here and there this season, those feel more and more far in between, and his work at its worst, is mostly nothing outright horrible or anything, just very… dull. This is much worse to me than being outright bad, as with bad sketches I can have fun looking at them in a car crash way and riff on them for my enjoyment, but with dull, suffocating sketches, on the other hand, there’s NOTHING for me to say.

Rating: *

Cut For Time: Musical Promo

• I’m already getting the feeling that this seems to be a variation of the great Divided We Stand & Gospel Play pieces.
• A relatable premise with a musical about the little things we sing to ourselves alone. There’s some charm here, especially the scene with Molly cutting the Amazon Box.
• This is another piece in this episode that feels barren and hollow, why only three cast members next to the host? Two of which (Kenan & Bowen) are killing this otherwise fun short’s energy when they get their “turns” to sing.
• The Woody “Hello” variation with him saying goodbye to the forgotten-and-now-expired bread (now talk about being relatable), alongside Molly’s talk about people talking from their asses on Zoom while being unmuted are the best highlights here.
• An overall pretty fun, relatable piece, despite my issues with some of the padding and the use of certain overused cast members instead of an ensemble feel. I would’ve definitely put this one over four pieces that we eventually got on the air.

Rating: ***1/2

Goodnights

• Nice of SNL to pay tribute to Richard Belzer just before the goodnights.
• A decent fakeout with Jack White being given the Five-Timers jacket instead of Woody, who is then given one by Scarlett Johansson in a surprise cameo appearance.

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

CFT: Musical Promo

Monologue

Cologuard

Submarine Launch

The Hippo

Please Don’t Destroy – The Stakeout

Weekend Update

Trump in Ohio

Jail Scene

Beautiful Gym

Slingshot

Final Thoughts:

• Oof. OOF. Where to begin here? This episode is the one I dreaded ever since that rough premiere, with the worst elements of the season being all ramped up to eleven: ”star” showcases, hollow sketches, caste system use of the cast, and worst of all, the very hollow, odd, quiet feel that was all over that premiere being back even more than before. Hell, this one is easily worse than that episode; decisively becoming my least-favorite of the season so far. Some of the worst sketches and moments of the entire season were in this episode alone. And Woody… wow. I thought he was wasted in his last episode, but it is NOTHING compared to tonight’s episode. The roles he was given for most of the night were not only generic, but ones that should be reserved for featured players or extras, not a freakin’ host in his coveted FIFTH time hosting. All-in-all, definitely one of the roughest episodes I’ve reviewed in quite some time.

Up Next:

• For the first time since season 45, we get an athlete host with Travis Kelce, being joined by musical guest Kelsea Ballerini.