October 6, 2018 – Awkwafina / Travis Scott (S44 E2)

Cold Opening – Brett Kavanaugh Post-Game

victorious GOP locker room celebrates Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation

• Hmm, an actual fun & loose concept for a cold open, with SNL treating the aftermath of Kavanaugh’s confirmation in the same vein as post-game celebrations? Am I watching an SNL from a different dimension?
• Very funny Mitch McConnell impression from Beck, complete with a great makeup job on him as well. As good as his voice is here, it’ll eventually get more spot-on by the homestretch of this season.
• While it annoyed me last episode, I am actually laughing at Kate-as-Lindsey-Graham’s lines here; maybe it’s the combination of the loose, silly concept of the cold open as well as how well it’s been going that’s causing that.
• Great Susan Collins impression from Cecily, especially nailing how she constantly sounds like she’s about to break into either tears or laughter. While I’ve had my issues with Cecily, I’ve always felt she’s a very underrated impressionist.
• The #MeToo line from Kate’s Graham was hilarious.
• An overall fun & silly cold open. Perfect length too.

Rating: ***1/2

Monologue

Asian but not-rich host thanks Lucy Liu for inspiring her

• Right out of the gate, Awkwafina’s genuine happiness to be on the SNL host stage is so damn infectious and endearing to me, as is her big smile all throughout her monologue.
• Awkwafina is doing a very good job both introducing herself to us and handling the usual monologue jokes; her talk about not being a Crazy Rich Asian and instead being Rebuilding My Credit Card Asian is much funnier due to her solid delivery of it.
• Ha, Awkwafina’s Trump voice is actually pretty funny, as was her ad-lib afterwards.
• Awkwafina’s whole story about waiting outside of 30 Rock when Lucy Liu was about to host the Christmas episode of the year 2000 is so endearing, especially when you can tell, by how her voice is beginning to change, how emotional seeing her idol hosting such a cultural institution such as SNL.
• An overall lovely monologue. I remember some fans oddly hating on this monologue and how it “wasted” Awkwafina’s talents. I never got that back then and still don’t to this day. Awkwafina came off great & very likable here, so the monologue more than did its job, in my view.

Rating: ****

Late Night Battle

(host)’s squad wins dance battle by busting moves to game show themes

• Awkwafina’s look in this sketch is already making me laugh.
• After said initial laugh, the sketch’s premise revolving around a dance battle between two gangs to gameshow theme music is lame as all hell and yet another example of this season doing weak, uninspired sketch premises and placing them so damn early in the night.
• Where are the laughs supposed to be coming from here? Is it that the two gangs are dancing to gameshow theme songs, because that sure ain’t funny to me. Or maybe the dancing portions throughout the sketch? Those are both not comedic and are actually pretty impressive, especially Chris’ moves and Travis Scott’s appearance.
• Overall, I can see why some would enjoy this sketch, but it did absolutely nothing for me, beside the aforementioned laugh and the impressive dancing from especially Chris & Travis Scott.

Rating: *1/2

Cricket Wireless

Cricket Wireless customers are spared from Presidential alert messages

• Good to see our first traditional fake ad of the season.
• While I am more than fed up with the Trump Fatigue in this SNL era, the premise of an emergency alert consisting of the typical stupid shit Trump would tweet is priceless, especially as the voice-over narrator (voiced by Beck) compares it to FDR’s fireside chats, amongst other ridiculous comparisons to how former great presidents reached out to the people.
• The Magic Mike premiere line killed me, as did Kate’s reaction by destroying her cup afterwards.
• Solid twist ending with Heidi not getting Amber Alert nor other alerts due to her being subscribed to Cricket Wireless.

Rating: ****

The Hidden Tales Of Egypt

(host) molds Cleopatra’s (CES) trademark look

• More and more evidence this SNL season is focusing on the type of humor I dislike the most; what a shame this mostly-solid first half has to suffer from the weakness of its live sketches (minus the fun cold opening).
• The Egyptian puns & modern-day comments about them thrown around by the performers aren’t remotely funny. The only one that was close to amusing here was Awkwafina’s name being Isis, and that’s due to her solid delivery of it being a totally normal name in Egyptian times.
• Awkwafina and Cecily are quite solid and likable executing this sketch, but I cannot enjoy such a premise like I know some others can; it’s just too silly and not the type of silly that I enjoy from SNL and this era especially. (I do recall the Halsey & Sandra Oh episodes later in this season having quite the number of silly sketch concepts that were executed very well and certainly better than this sketch.)
• The very impressive & quick makeup appliance on Cecily is well-done and probably gives this sketch a little boost from me.

Rating: **

Ted Cruz Rally

at a rally, uncharismatic Ted Cruz (BEB) is a walking disaster

• Oh, I forgot that Beck once played Ted Cruz two seasons before Aidy regularly played him on the show.
• Good makeup work on Beck as wall as a decent vocal impression of Cruz from him. Beck is also nailing that smarmy smile of his much better than Taran Killam and certainly Aidy after him.
• The failed attempts by Awkwafina and Kenan to hype up the dead Cruz rally are getting more and more chuckles for me, as are Beck’s Cruz reactions, but something here feels lacking.
• Wait, we are now done? This has to be one of those rare SNL pieces that are shorter than they needed to be. A good piece overall, but could’ve had more things happening in it.

Rating: ***

Musical Performance – “Skeletons”

Weekend Update

truncated Law & Order clip simulates cursory FBI probe of Brett Kavanaugh

text scroll lists words the GOP can use to fire up its base

Donald Jr. (MID) & Eric (ALM) are stumping for pa Trump before midterms

after his post-SNL rant, PED recommends Kanye West change his behavior

• The random Law & Order was dumb, yet the funny kind.
• As expected, we are starting this Update edition with a string of jokes & commentary about Kavanaugh’s confirmation; Che’s whole bit about women who voted to confirm him is my favorite highlight here.
• Mikey and Alex’s Donald Jr. and Eric Trump make their first appearance of the season. Glad to see Alex getting some actual comedic roles tonight, considering how much his talents were squandered in the previous week’s premiere.
• While these commentaries are always featuring the same beats, they are always fun & funny, and that’s partly due to how well Mikey and Alex play off each other in them.
• Eric screaming in panic after his fist bump with Don Jr. had me laughing out loud. These commentaries really show how fun Alex can be when being actually utilized.
• Eric’s whole bit about his dad doing risky jokes about minorities, complete with stereotypical voices is priceless; Don Jr’s “he does a very respectful gay voice” afterwards makes it even funnier.
• Colin’s LA party goats/studying math and science in China joke always stuck with me for some reason.
• Loved the Starbucks/7-Eleven joke from Che; probably one my favorites of this whole season.
• While I am beyond sick of him by this point in his tenure, I remember enjoying this desk piece of Pete’s, especially how it is actually more than his usual rambling about himself.
• Hilarious & memorable part with clips highlighting Pete during Kanye’s whole rant, especially him leaving due to wanting to still have a career.
• While I am also tired of hearing Pete constantly mentioning his personal life on the show, I admire how he is always very open about his mental health issues and how it is not a shame to admit them and seek treatment for them. This also begins a string of solid jokes and comments about Kanye’s behavior last week.
• Love the ending with the Make Kanye 2006 Again hat.

Rating: ****

So You’re Willing To Date A Magician

contestant (host) dislikes options

• A dull, uninteresting concept for a traditional SNL gameshow sketch.
• SNL, just stop it with trying to use Leslie in these utility roles; it’s not working. She’s been flubbing her lines left and right throughout this sketch. It always feels like she’s been in a coma or something and woke up just before air.
• And speaking of flubbing lines, we now get Pete giggling and flubbing his way through his already-unfunny lines.
• Oh, we are now getting desperate with an unnecessary incestuous magician duo with Alex & Heidi.
• Leslie is now laughing very predictably at Kenan’s bug-eyed mugging as well as continuously tripping over her lines. This is probably the only interesting thing happening in this snoozefest.
• The taken-aback, muggy reactions from Leslie are way overdone and unfunny.
• Awkwafina’s very solid here, especially her delivery of her lines regarding her dates with the four magicians, but this sketch as a whole is not working for me. Well, beside how good Alex looks in that getup.
• Showing the jackass that he is, Pete already leaves the set before the show even cuts to commercial. Ugh.

Rating: **

Baby Shower

at a baby shower, (host) is protective of oversensitive & childless (CES)

• This is the sketch that I remember thinking of while reviewing the season 41 Amy Schumer episode.
• Awkwafina is fun as this oddball character; her characterization, especially how she changes moods, is very solid.
• Can Leslie Jones go through a single fucking episode without breaking character or messing up?
• That’s it? This is how the sketch ends? I thought they would go a little darker or into more of an absurdist route. Still a decent sketch, though.

Rating: ***

The Pumpkin Patch

workers (KYM), (host), (BEB) had sex with inventory

• A cheap laugh from Mikey asking his employees (Awkwafina, Beck, Kyle) if they basically fucked the ruined pumpkins in the dumpster.
• Ha, funny how all three employees immediately admit having sex with the pumpkins.
• The cutaway to Chris as the farmer who saw the entire thing is a great example of how much Chris can steal sketches with the simplest of facial reactions and one-liners. I remember this season sadly barely featuring Chris in contrast to his great rookie year, so I better appreciate what little moments he’s going to have throughout the season.
• I am enjoying this short, even with the very cheap premise, but Kyle’s performance here is not working for me, especially that his characterization feels like something he did a billion times before.
• Love Beck’s dirty look to the pumpkin with huge holes behind Mikey as he reprimands them for what they did.
• The ending didn’t work for me, but the Happy Halloween message from SNL gave me a laugh due to it appearing at the end of such an inappropriate short.

Rating: ***1/2

Musical Performance – “Sicko Mode”

Women’s Round Table

Debette Goldry compares her film indignities to those of the #MeToo era

• Always good to see this solid character of Kate’s, especially considering how hit-or-miss she has been by this point in her tenure.
• Fun seeing Awkwafina play Sandra Oh, considering that she’ll end up hosting later in the season and that reminds me of how much I liked her episode.
• Not really much to say about this character of Kate’s, but that she remains solid as always. If you seen one of her sketches, you’ve seen them all. Also, this ends up being her final appearance despite Kate staying on for three more seasons after this one. I remember how, back when this season was coming to close, seeing Kate reprising her biggest characters throughout the season had me convinced she’s leaving the show, especially that she was getting even more airtime than usual. Needless to say, I turned out wrong, but I won’t be surprised if she did almost leave and stayed on for S45 before the pandemic happened.

Rating: ***1/2

Goodnights

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Monologue

Cricket Wireless

Weekend Update

The Pumpkin Patch

Brett Kavanaugh Post-Game

Women’s Round Table

Ted Cruz Rally

Baby Shower

The Hidden Tales Of Egypt

So You’re Willing To Date A Magician

Late Night Battle

Final Thoughts:

• A big improvement over the disappointing season premiere. I enjoyed the majority of the sketches in tonight’s episode, with lots of high ratings being given throughout the night. Still, what didn’t work for me in this episode was a bit painful, but those lowlights were mercifully kept to a minimum. Awkwafina was a very likable & charming host, though I would’ve loved if she could’ve gotten that one great solo showcase, but she was as solid as usual throughout the night.

My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:

Up Next:

• Seth Meyers / Paul Simon

My full set of screencaps from this episode is here