Cold Opening – Jail Cell
Julian Assange (Michael Keaton) & other celebrities share a cell
- A promising start to this cold opening, though I know its direction. When this originally aired, I thought it would be non-topical, though I feel now like a fool thinking that.
- Kate’s “impression” of Lori Loughlin is Kate being Kate, complete with her usual vocal tics, movements, etc. Guess they wanted a “star” cast member to do this impression, now that it was big in the news at the time, instead of having a cast member who is more natural for it, such as Heidi Gardner.
- This cold open is dying for me as it now focuses on Kate with her doing her usual antics, especially her typical whispery deliveries. Meh.
- Pete got me good with how half-assed his Michael Avenatti impression. His Avenatti/Baldwin 2020 line aged…. interestingly.
- Michael Keaton is one of my personal favorite actors of all-time, and his season 40 is in my personal top 10 of all-time as well, but I feel conflicted seeing him in a random cameo in this SNL era, instead of hosting.
- Solid performance by Keaton as usual, though his lines are nothing special. I did like, however, his Wiki-leak line, as lame as it was.
- Melissa is a solid impressionist, but her Takashi/6ix9ine impression is…. odd.
- All-in-all, this is as flat as I remember. I can see why some would enjoy this one, as it wasn’t really too political, but meh.
Rating: **
Monologue
castmembers scramble to make host feel special during her 4th SNL gig
- Wow at the audience’s extended reaction to Emma saying BTS is here. I still remember some fans being worried when the band was booked, due to how big a fanbase it has that it could derail the episode’s pacing. As we now know, that didn’t happen.
- Sweet mention of Emma’s history of SNL, especially the mention of the legendary Gilda Radner, who also happens to be my personal favorite female cast member in SNL history.
- I am enjoying the premise with Emma wondering what will happen for her fourth hosting stint, considering how special the fifth episode is. This is somewhat similar to a Melissa McCarthy monologue; I believe the season 41 one.
- Now this briefly turns into a musical monologue. I don’t dislike those really, especially that this SNL era actually rotates between different types of monologues. Kate is a bit muggy with the typical bug-eyed expression of hers, though.
- Aidy is very funny giving her own silver bracelet to Emma for her fourth episode. She always nails that look of pain through a smile.
- Interesting use of Melissa in the monologue, particularly using her knack of impressions. This continues how the show seemingly is using Melissa a bit more in the back half of this season.
- The whole turn with Emma fangirling over Kyle is more cute than outright funny, but Emma & Kyle made it work for me.
Rating: ***
Posters 2
Krissy Knox & other poster models get highschooler interested in history
- Ugh. Not the return of this character. I understand Emma clearly has fun playing a role that is so unlike her, but the vocal fry, intentionally-annoying characteristics of this character are, well, rather annoying.
- Such a great African accent from Ego. She would routinely use this accent in various roles in her tenure.
- Pete is definitely performing this better than the prior time, though Marcello Hernandez I feel was more fitting for this role than Pete ever was.
- OK, I admit laughing (and enjoying) at the last shot of Emma shaking with that beer & burger, though I kinda feel bad about that….
Rating: *1/2
Fashion Coward
Fashion Coward is the clothing store for inhibited, unadventurous women
- A great concept for a fake ad, especially that SNL’s parodies of fashion are routinely almost always excellent.
- Love the Fashion Coward premise, especially the whole navy shirt and black dress. Cecily’s voiceover is very solid per usual, especially her sarcastic delivery, particularly her various “bail”-s
- Solid dark turn with Aidy in the coward-proof fitting room, and the absurd-humored gags in it are very solid, especially the far mirrors and mercy gas – the strong man shopping for you is also excellent.
- Anyways, this SNL era knocks out of the park with another very memorable and fun fake ad.
Rating: ****1/2
The View
anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy (host) rejoins the bellicose panel
- I actually forgot about those View sketches this era did during the homestretch of this season. Needless to say, none of the View parodies the show did post-late ‘90s hold a candle to those, but I’ll give this a fair shot.
- Leslie’s Whoopi impression is a natural for her, as she doesn’t really need to change her voice much. With that said, I still prefer the one-time Ego Nwodim version.
- Cecily is so cute as Abby Huntsman throughout this sketch, especially I love her “human mother” line.
- Kate’s Joy Behar isn’t that good, sounds just like her RBG impression, though her demeanor is actually spot-on.
- Solid “Princess of Arizona” line from Aidy, though I’m not finding myself laughing too much at her & Joy’s interactions.
- The dumb dramatic lighting and music turn is amusing I guess, though I cracked up more at the cutaway to Cecily eating popcorn.
- Melissa’s impression of Ana Navarro isn’t impressing me much. Her voice needs work as I hear too much of her real voice in it.
- Emma is basically a no-brainer for Jenny McCarthy, though I’m not finding myself at her lines, despite solid delivery. Needless to say, her anti-vax talk is odd to look back on, considering a certain global pandemic about to hit the planet less than a year after this episode.
- All-in-all, Cecily gave me a few laughs, with a solid line or two from others, but this needed a good re-write or two, as it fell apart as soon as Emma’s Jenny McCarthy showed up.
Rating: **1/2
Hobbies
after invading host’s dressing room, MEV raps about her many hobbies
- A backstage short with Melissa? Interesting. This also continues the quiet rise of Melissa in the back half of this season in general. Knowing how the rest of her tenure goes (sadly, even worse than ever), makes this short come off as an anomaly.
- Rapping short? Melissa actually sounds so unrecognizable during the singing portions – a talent almost never used in her run. Chloe Troast, in the latest season, seems to be utilized heavily in that aspect.
- These “hobbies” aren’t doing much for me, not in a funny nor cute way. Even as an avid book reader, the “smelling my books” running gag is making me groan.
- OK, as this short goes on and on, I’m checking out of it. Emma is a solid straight man to Melissa, and the latter is as heartfelt and likable as usual, but…. this feels like a parody of the typical SNL musical short. I think Melissa could’ve had a strong tenure had she been given much of a chance, seeing how reliable and solid a utility player Chloe Fineman became in recent years: a performer, much like Melissa, initially hired as an impressionist that branched out after a few seasons of underuse, but I do not think the whole “Rapper Melissa” was a good use of her endearing personality.
- Anyways, this wasn’t terrible, but not my thing.
Rating: **1/2
Ladie’s Room
“Meeting In The Ladies Room” mistakenly convenes in a fitting room
- “Meeting In The Ladies Room” is one of my favorite songs from the ‘80s and while this sketch screams Anderlette, I really enjoy the energy and direction starting this sketch.
- Beck is absolutely adorable & funny as the cute dancing guy from the music video. Love his dancing moves, which is a display of his great & underrated physicality. Although, to be more accurate, he should be shirtless, oiled up and shaking more. Not asking for that for me, but for accuracy’s sake….
- The turn with the bathroom humor with Kenan isn’t too funny and typical of James Anderson, but I cracked up at Kenan’s reactions to the “mess” in the fitting room.
- This is a sketch I can see some absolutely hate, but I found it pretty good, with energy and fun performances.
Rating: ***
Musica Performance – “Boy with Luv”
Weekend Update
Carrie Krum’s Spring Break travel recommendations have narrow appeal
a mercurial relationship pierces the lovey-dovey facade of Nico & Brie
- I feel a little bad for laughing at the Colin commentary regarding Assange’s arrest, especially the train photoshopped photo of him.
- The mention of BTS was clear pandering to their fans in the studio, though I did crack up at Che’s WTF reaction afterwards.
- Loved the Uber/Elmo joke, especially the Trump Tower slam after it.
- Great rant from Colin about how many positions are vacated in the Trump administration.
- Interesting slam from Colin towards Amazon, considering his kissing-up to them in a previous bit or two this season.
- Aidy is more accurate & cute as this character than flat-out funny, though I love her interactions with Michael, especially her eye shadow & party talk.
- I didn’t get the Kim/Kanye joke at all, but the space joke (complete with an Andrew Dismukes sighting) cracked me up more due to the audience’s reaction to it.
- Great SeaWorld/vagina joke from Michael. I’ll say the following McHoof joke by Colin, which bombed, cracked me even more due to said bombing.
- Mikey & Heidi are very solid as usual as these characters, but when you see one commentary of theirs, you’ve seen them all.
- Mikey & Heidi are fantastic in their tense back-and-forth – Heidi’s expressions when being mad are priceless to watch. These desk pieces of hers, especially when she changes mood, are ones that always leave me in awe by her. She’s always been one of the very best pure actors that ever been on SNL to me.
- Yet another BTS mention…..
- I really love how much the audience is getting into this commentary, especially when Heidi’s character says she is pregnant.
- The ending “Our planet is flat!”-s by Heidi fell (ironically) very flat for me. Nothing different than how her Bailey character ends her commentaries with a random, controversial statement.
Rating: ***1/2
Royal Baby Video
Prince Harry (MID) greets guests on video of the royal baby shower
- I love Mikey, but he still cannot do a British accent. I do enjoy his Prince Harry performance at least.
- Beck’s posh accent and simple “Hello!” as Charles made me laugh.
- A typical drag role, but I laughed out loud at the random Aidy-as-Corden revelation, especially that I never liked him nor found him funny.
- Considering how routinely poorly-used he is (including a nothing role at the cold open), Alex is very fun as Prince William and I love his accent & Freddie impression.
- Solid British accent from Cecily, and her leaving the scene sopping Champaign is really funny.
- I’m not sure we needed Aidy’s Corden back, nor the 21 Savage part, with the underused & poorly-used Chris Redd.
- Great drunk performance by Emma, but her part isn’t making me laugh, though she is as committed as always.
- The “What happened? Am I king?” part with Beck’s Charles is hilarious.
- Kate showing “versatility” by doing the exact same voice she uses for Maggie Smith to play the Queen.
- The show not having a Meghan Markle impression in these is a clear evidence they sadly do not have a biracial cast member to play her. I remember reading Halsey played her in a cut desk piece from next season’s Adam Driver episode.
Rating: ***
Musical Performance – “Mic Drop”
The Actress
(host) takes her marginal porno role far too seriously
- Yes! This has always been my favorite thing Julio Torres ever got on the air in his three seasons as a writer on the show. And, IIRC, the last piece he got air, which is quite the way to bow out.
- In an episode that misused her a few times, it is fantastic to finally see a strong, Emma Stone-centric short in it. She is just ideal for the premise of an actress getting too into her character’s psyche.
- Perfect reveal of Emma’s character being simply an extra in a gay porn movie. The subsequent part with Beck as the asshole director is great, in a role I feel he doesn’t get used more in.
- Fantastic montage of Emma’s character building a backstory to her meeting her stepson, especially love how she envisions this with the props around the set – the montage of her character coming in into the scene with various props delivery, in an intentionally-lame way, her one line is hilarious.
- Great ending with the loop all over Emma’s car seat.
Rating: *****
Chalmers Reserve Event Wine
Chalmers’ (KET) & (CES) Reserve Event Wine is low-quality & high-alcohol
- The attempts at random humor at the start are poor, despite the usual good delivery from Cecily & Kenan.
- Patudi? Don’t tell me which certain two writers penned THIS….
- It is so painful to see Cecily & Kenan – the MVP’s of the season by a mile, in this trash. They are so high and above such material.
- Kyle & Emma’s Italian accents are kinda amusing me, but their lines are comedy death, and I’m being reminded of that Wario sketch, which till now I blocked out from my memory.
- The Cecily/Kenan interactions with Kyle/Emma are very dead. The “twist” with the secret ingredient in the wine was awful too.
- The usual lame attempts at absurd humor with Cecily’s hair suddenly catching fire.
- Awful, pointless 10-to-1 sketch as a whole.
Rating: *1/2
Goodnights
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
The Actress
Fashion Coward
Weekend Update
Ladie’s Room
Monologue
Royal Baby Video
The View
Hobbies
Jail Cell
Posters 2
Chalmers Reserve Event Wine
Final Thoughts:
- A very average episode as a whole, and, unlike the prior episode which I liked more on a rewatch, this one kinda became worse to me this time around. There were a few highlights and Emma Stone gave her usual strong hosting performance, but she was mostly let-down and misused, besides the Julio Torres short and some moments here and there. I still think her most recent episode to be better as a whole (and it seemed to age well so far).
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
Up Next:
- After nearly 25 years, Adam Sandler returns home.
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
As always, fantastic review!
Interestingly enough, I had the opposite reaction as you: I found this episode to be a little better on the whole than I had remembered. I’d long considered this episode to be very poor outside of the (absolutely fantastic) Actress short and Fashion Coward. However, upon looking at these sketches again, most of them aren’t too bad, even if they don’t necessarily use Emma as well as they should.
The Actress is simply one of the best pre-tapes SNL has ever done. Fantastic premise, perfect execution, and Emma is just incredible in her role.
Like you, I don’t really mind the Ladies Room sketch. Sure, it’s niche and a little inside/wacky, but it’s got a fun energy to it and you can tell the cast is having a blast performing it. Kenan’s part, as per usual for him, is great and has plenty of laughs, even if the writing isn’t necessarily the best.
That Hobbies short is just…sad honestly. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Melissa and think it’s a damn shame she didn’t get utilized as much as she should have (doubly so when looking at this period where it looked like she was on the verge of being pivoted to, only to see that get yanked away the following year). But I really don’t think this was a great showcase for her. It comes off as desperate and honestly kind of cringe, even though Melissa performs it fine and Emma is a good foil for her. It almost reminds me a bit of the Dune Popcorn Bucket sketch from this past season. While Melissa is obviously a far better singer than Marcello, it has the same air of desperation, cutesiness, and “lol how random” humor that just rubs me the wrong way.
Posters I agree should have been a one off, although I don’t necessarily hate it nor do I find Emma’s character/voice that annoying (although I can certainly see why others find it annoying). She’s at least committed, putting in good energy, and sounds pretty damn unrecognizable. And Ego’s part especially is a lot of fun and a great utility role for her.
That 10-to-1…oof! It’s depressing watching two SNL GOATs and a fantastic committed host be wasted in such a laughless and dumb sketch. I’m sure Anderson and Sublette are both lovely people behind the scenes, but these two were given WAY too much free reign behind the scenes and I hate how they put such talented and versatile cast members like Kristen and Cecily in such lousy sketches (and yes, I know both sometimes had a hand in them and they overall had good tenures despite these sketches, but it’s nonetheless sad to see them wasted with these two).
Emma, as usual was fantastic, but I really wish this episode had been better. The Actress is by far her best sketch, but many of these other sketches just had her kind of being “there”, despite her being committed as per usual. Emma in a way strikes me as similar to Scarlett in that both are clearly fun and game hosts, yet they’ve never truly had an episode that (imho anyway) delivers in a way that they deserve. I hope that day eventually comes for one or both of them should they ever come back, but we shall see.
Thanks again.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Ladie’s Room (I’ve been typing it wrong all these years) sketch as it is a huge guilty pleasure of mine. I just love Kenan’s performance in it. Maybe the best example, along with the torturous St. Kitt’s sketch, of how much Kenan did for Anderlette writing.
I have a soft spot for Hobbies – I don’t think you are wrong in anything you say, but the use of Melissa’s tweeness/sweetness gets it over for me. Still, I didn’t need the rapping as I think the rapping on top of so many other rapping pre-tapes this season makes it feel redundant.
I had forgotten that dud of a Royal Family sketch aired so late in the night.
Neither of the View sketches this season work. Nothing about them. I do remember Whoopi Goldberg saying she was glad to finally see a black woman playing her on SNL (the last time had been Ellen Cleghorne 25 years earlier).
The voice Emma uses in this Posters sketch was excruciating to me. I didn’t love the third iteration either, but the voice was easier on my ears.
I enjoyed this monologue a great deal, especially Kyle’s involvement. To be honest I prefer it to her 5-Timers monologue.
I continue to get second-hand trauma from Fashion Coward. Again I give SNL credit for doing a topical CO. And in part I believe Emma Stone was chosen as the host because she is a K-pop fan and BTS seemed to be the big news coming into this episode. But at least it allowed for another looser episode