Cold Opening – Family Feud: Election Showdown
Teams Trump (JAJ) & Harris (MAR) compete
- Knowing this is our first delayed episode since the season 46 Dave Chappelle episode already makes this episode different than the prior two, before it even began.
- I see this cold opening is moving into a “new” direction compared to the horrible first two, with us getting the “fresh” setting of a Family Feud sketch, complete with the seemingly-retired Steve Harvey impression from Kenan coming back.
- This sketch is JAJ’s 200th appearance. A great milestone for him, though it upsets me a bit seeing such a number being in a so-far poorly-written cold open filled with cameos that have no place to be on the show in the first place. Like always, JAJ makes the best of what he’s given and he is the best part of this cold opening so far.
- The makeup department has also improved JAJ’s Trump’s signature nussy; looks more accurate than usual tonight.
- I’m surprised we aren’t getting a third cast member besides Mikey and Bowen. Why not debut a new Melania Trump? Is that impression that sacred to not have another have a try with it?
- The matchup between Maya’s Kamala and JAJ’s Trump was rather predictable, but I did like the flattery part. I’m also noticing how these cold opens seem to sideline JAJ’s Trump in favor of the cameos. I assume the show thinks Trump will lose, so they are basically phasing him out of these cold opens.
- The parts with the Kamala/Walz team had me bored to tears, particularly the typical “whoo”-s from the audience in reaction to each of them showing up in wig. But, as soon as we went to JAJ’s Trump, with his typical rants, I’d admit getting a big laugh from his “they’re eating Moo Deng!” line in reference to his infamous “they’re eating the pets!” quote.
- All-in-all, besides a few good lines from JAJ’s Trump, this cold open was a total write-off.
Rating: *1/2
Monologue
host promises not to do what she will clearly do
- Ariana, unsurprisingly, is coming off very solid and comfortable from the get-go. And, while I usually don’t comment on hosts’ fashion choices, I love the dress Ariana is wearing – very fairytale princess vibes.
- Some decent opening lines, especially the 1st woman president line and the theater kid losing their virginity one. Ariana’s delivery is helping sell these for me.
- And now, the monologue turns into a variation of the S36 Timberlake monologue? I loved that monologue (which says a lot, as I usually cannot stand Timberlake on SNL), but not sure a variation is the best use of Ariana, though it does make sense, as she isn’t pulling double duty tonight.
- A great, brief Britney Spears vocal impression from Ariana. This reminds me of the many great celebrity impressions she did the first time she hosted.
- The brief appearance of Bowen as Glenda made me laugh, even when it was a typical Bowen Yang moment.
- I’m usually not that into these types of monologues, but I liked the energy, Ariana was likable and there were enough good moments to make me enjoy this as a whole.
Rating: ***
Bridesmaid Speech
Bridesmaids (host), (HEG), (EGN), (SAS) reveal secrets about bride (CHF)
- I cracked up at the opening interaction with JAJMukes – the former doing a great choked-up bro voice.
- It feels odd seeing Sarah paired with Heidi & Ego alongside Ariana, as she feels in her own island since last season, with those Update pieces and sketches. She is fitting in decently in this.
- As this sketch goes along, with the revelations about Chloe’s character throughout the song, it reminds me of the Maid of Honor sketch from three seasons ago (one I now have much more appreciation for), though this one seems more of a typical musical sketch with a twist than a dialogue-driven one like it.
- A dead-on & funny bad singing from the ladies, and the constant callbacks to Domingo are cracking me up, and Andrew’s, quietly having a strong year, agitated reactions to the song is making me laugh. He’s been proving himself a reliable straight man particularly since last season.
- I could see many dismissing this sketch as a typical “cuck” sketch from recent seasons of the show, but I think the point of it is being one of those unraveling pieces, such as the aforementioned Maid of Honor sketch. Is it a great example of such? No, but I find it decent enough. There are enough good lines, Andrew is giving a strong straight man performance and it being early in the night, with a monologue that put me in a good mood, makes it work fine for me.
- Marcello showing up as Domingo is pretty funny, even when it feels like a typical Marcello role. His usual energy is a fun way to end this sketch on a high note.
Rating: ***
My Best Friend’s House
host’s best friend’s house is a site for serial murders by cheesy dad (MID)
- I love the opening “Midnight Matinee” visual and music for this short. It reminds me of how the Old Hollywood tapes I used to watch opened back when I became a film buff.
- It figures we would be doing a musical short with Ariana hosting. This has an already sweet tone to it both in how it looks and Ariana’s warm presence.
- Thank you SNL for putting Michael Longfellow in a tank top for us.
- I am loving this short, especially that it not only has fun, catchy lyrics, but odd sweetness with the absurd visuals of the furniture all over the house singing alongside Ariana.
- Great tonal twist with us finding out the house is the site of serial murders by Mikey’s cheesy dad character – the turn with us now seeing the prior moments in full is very well-done.
- Mikey is absolutely killing me here! I love his mock-menacing performance as the serial killer dad, especially the visual of him cooking hands and smelling their smell. One of his standout funniest performances in quite some time, in my opinion.
- A hilarious WTF visual of Sarah’s decapitated head singing the chorus with the other food.
- A perfect ending with Mikey saying the singing furniture made him commit his killings, as Ariana looks on.
- Wow, a writer-credited short? And Dan Bulla of all writers? I absolutely love this, especially showing some of his classic shorts of prior seasons (Meatballs, Tiny Horse, Shrimp Tower and Pongo) as part of the title card (great design, BTW). This is huge and so deserved of Bulla to be finally credited for more mainstreams fans to know the brilliant mind behind such pieces and coming ones.
- All-in-all, I think I found a new favorite of mine.
Rating: *****
Charades with Mom
mom (host) gets tense with son’s boyfriend (BOY)
- Immediately, I can tell this sketch is a variation of the usual charades sketches the show did in the past such as Yahtzee with Bill Murray and Molly Shannon, as well as that great film quotes sketch with Heidi Gardner and Daniel Craig. Hell, I am positive this will also include escalation to making out sessions, such as those two did. With that said, I’ll go into this sketch with a clean slate and not compare it to similar sketches.
- Oh, I absolutely love the tense turn with Ariana’s initially-cheesy mom going sinister, especially that great “you got a tiny pecker or something?” delivery of hers. That was awesome.
- Very strong performance by Ariana in particular, especially how she goes back-and-forth in her tease talks – fantastic rapid-fire delivery from her when hurling insults towards Bowen. Bowen himself is giving a strong performance as well; one of his best in years actually.
- Loved the rapid-fire insults towards Bowen from Ariana, especially quick delivery of “pathetic, fat, evil, short….” etc. Her trying to make excuses as she gets more and more tense towards Bowen is hilarious.
- Even the ending with Ariana and Bowen making out, as I expected, is a fitting capper to this sketch, with it being a test Bowen successfully passed.
- While Jane had a rough delivery earlier on in the sketch, I did like her ending line of it. She came off as likable as usual during it.
- Very strong piece and an easy “Best Of” for me of this season.
Rating: ****1/2
Celine Dion for UFC
Celine Dion (host) advertises UFC
- Interesting to see a host-only piece performing a celebrity impression. The last one I could think of was that Jeff Bezos piece with Steve Carell (shudder), so I think we can only go but up with this one.
- Fun, solid Canadian French accent from Ariana as Celine. While Ana Gasteyer will always be my definitive Celine Dion, I’m enjoying Ariana’s take and she is handling this with total ease.
- A good, absurd premise with Celine plugging UFC of all sports. Ariana’s delivery is as solid as usual, and I especially cracked up at the bald men line (so accurate) and the visuals accompanying Ariana’s Celine Dion as she makes her pitch are adding decently to the humor.
Rating: ***
Musical Performance – “The Lighthouse”
Weekend Update
Amazon employee (EGN) is clearly not happy
Noel & Liam Gallagher (JAJ) & (SAS) talk Oasis reunion
- Maybe it is the great mood this episode has got me in, but I’m not finding these jokes so far to be too bad. I did particularly like the Lincoln/Trump joke, which is easily one of my favorite jokes so far this season.
- So far this season, Ego Nwodim has been severely underused and clearly looks on her way out as a cast member. Seeing her do a desk piece seems to be her attempt to contribute, though I know she was cut prior to this episode.
- The typical solid Ego performance, even when this type of a piece feels too familiar by this point: the usual antsy, faking-to-be-well employee, like the ones Heidi used to do earlier in her tenure.
- I’ll admit, I’m enjoying this desk piece, despite its familiar nature. The whole STD/USB drone line is so dumb it made me laugh out loud. Only Ego, in this cast, can deliver such lines and make them come off very funny to me. The remainder of the desk piece is pretty solid as well, with one good line after the other.
- An overall fairly solid desk piece from Ego. An improvement over her prior one from the Sydney Sweeney episode last season.
- Wow, a JAJ/Sarah teamup piece? These two almost never worked together, despite debuting at the same time, making a splash and having vastly different career trajectories these past three seasons.
- Sarah Sherman has built her whole tenure around Colin Jost and roasting him in a degree I haven’t seen any other cast member do. And, just earlier today, I presumed when Colin leaves, it is the end of her relevancy on the show, but seeing Sarah finally branching out this time (and hopefully the next few desk pieces), is hopefully a sign she knows she needs to add variety to her work in order to survive the potential budget cuts post-50.
- A great vocal imitation of Noel Gallagher from JAJ. I really feel, outside of his Trump, JAJ doesn’t get enough credit from fans for being such a strong impressionist in general.
- On a lesser note, JAJ looks…. very good as Noel Gallagher. He should sport that style in real-life – it suits him more.
- I’m enjoying how this desk piece is making fun of the legendary siblings feud between Noel & Liam instead of just doing a desk piece around celebrities with nothing backing it up. The chemistry and rapport between Sarah & JAJ is also charming & fun to watch. I especially enjoy how they go from feuding to answering Colin’s questions.
- All-in-all, some decent jokes and two enjoyable desk pieces in the first time in ages makes this edition of the desk my favorite of the season so far.
Rating: ***1/2
Castrati
boy singer Antonio (host) is castrated
- JAJ has been refreshingly getting strong airtime so far into tonight’s episode, considering how underused he was the prior two episodes (although I know he was all over dress the prior episode, and all those got cut from live). I love his look and performance here. It reminds me of the typical great “Glue” role Dan Aykroyd would routinely play in the original era. I might be thinking of that Catherine the Great sketch from season 2.
- I’m pretty sure seeing Andrew & JAJ in roles the likes of Kenan & Mikey would’ve played a few seasons prior is a sign of trust in them to hopefully lead the show for a few seasons post-50. JAJ already is utilized a lot in utility, and nowadays Andrew is slowly catching up to him. Between his role here and as Ariana’s husband earlier in the night.
- I’m not too mad seeing Andy & Maya in a sketch, as this is a good use of their talents. However, I’m pretty sure I have yet to see Ashley Padilla in anything tonight, unless I blinked and missed her.
- Great look on Ariana as Antonio and her singing is both funny and quietly disturbing. I’m sensing a dark twist coming up with this sketch.
- And there is it: Antonio being castrated before puberty to keep his voice high. This is actually fairly accurate historically to so many cultures.
- A great cutaway to a deadpan, dead-within Ariana. She is doing a very good job in this rather disturbed role, with added humanity to poor Antonio.
- JAJ is getting solid laughs from the audience with that funny Italian accent of his. I love it, as well as his look with that mustache.
- The “tweest” with how Andy & Maya detail castrating Ariana’s character is pretty disturbing, though I’m loving Andy in particular in this sketch – he’s doing a strong job displaying his character’ subtle sinister side.
- I’m pretty positive Andy calling Kenan’s character by his real name was an ad-lib, as Kenan’s look afterwards was of clear surprise at it. Glad it didn’t derail the sketch, at least.
- The ending with the classic “Twist and Shout” was fine, though I wanted the sketch to escalate with its darkness. Still, I enjoyed this, and it had a particularly strong performance by Ariana.
Rating: ***1/2
Musical Performance – “Edge Of Seventeen”
Jennifer Coolidge For Maybelline New York
Jennifer Coolidge (CHF) advertises Maybelline with her doubles (host) & (DAC)
- I always enjoy Chloe’s great Jennifer Coolidge impression. It is probably her most popular impression, and, in my opinion, her best. It manages to nail Jennifer’s unique speech pattern and make a character out of her, unlike a lot of Chloe’s other impressions. (I remember this being a big gripe I also had with Jay Pharaoh and Melissa Villaseñor as impressionists. JAJ, on the other hand, always added character to his impressions.)
- A typical mirror sketch with various impressions/people playing the same person, a la the Jimmy Fallon/Mick Jagger sketch from season 27. Since it’s been a while since we last did one, it is coming off fun and silly here.
- Unsurprisingly, Ariana’s Jennifer Coolidge is very funny. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Ariana also imitate Jennifer for Halloween or something similar?
- The living or dead question between both Jennifers made me laugh out loud. Chloe’s delivery of “living!” was hilarious.
- Dana! Now this is a fun way to include him into sketches. I laughed at loud at the visual of him playing Jennifer Coolidge of all celebrities. At this rate, I’m surprised we didn’t get a Church Chat sketch so far into the season.
- As I’m cracking up during the lip gloss part as well as Dana’s general demeanor in this sketch, I’d admit getting a bit emotional watching him having fun and being as funny as always. I really hope this is testing the waters for a potential hosting stint with him soon. I’ll welcome that with open arms.
Rating: ***1/2
The Hotel Detective
Detective (JAJ) trades fast-paced wordplay with femme fatale (host)
- Who is that doing the opening narration? He is doing a great old-timey voice and a clear, spot-on imitation of the classic announcing on The Untouchables.
- I can tell this sketch is pretaped, as there’s no possible way Ariana could’ve changed into this costume. I believe the last time a pretaped live sketch was aired was during season 35’s Ashton Kutcher episode, with the classic Rahm Emanuel apology sketch from Andy.
- Here’s JAJ & Andrew once again tonight. It feels so good seeing a lot of JAJ tonight especially, and I am loving his voice and performance in this sketch. Ariana is also holding her own and giving an equally-solid performance and a spot-on old-timey voice.
- Excellent turn from JAJ, starting as a typical Midwestern “golly gee!” guy into a stern, authoritative detective with that great old-timey delivery of his. This guy is just so damn good at his job.
- Strong, creative sketch concept with detectives using word-play against each other in a hotel filled with detectives. This is the usual brilliant type of humor I’ve always known JAJ (and Andrew here) is so capable of. He has “it” – the classic Phil Hartman/Dan Aykroyd “Glue” spirit and focus on creative, old-school humor. I could’ve seen both of them doing this role in their respective eras.
- Much like his great Noir Detective sketch from two seasons ago, this is featuring rapid-fire great lines and clever wordplay – loved the whole tab & upstairs/downtown lines in particular.
- I got a huge laugh from the moment with JAJ flipping his detective badge to reveal another badge. Easily the best gag of tonight’s episode for me. I just love, love, love JAJ as a performer and I cannot hide it.
- Adorable brief break from Ariana in reaction to Andrew’s very silly attempt at rapid-fire speech.
- A freakin’ fantastic rapid-fire delivery from JAJ of his lines as he is about to take both Ariana and Andrew with him. This is yet another moment with JAJ that just leaves me in awe watching him.
- The Twilight Zone ending was an OK way to end this sketch.
- An overall very strong piece, and, hopefully a sign of another fantastic season for JAJMukes, as good or even better than how last season was for them.
Rating: ****1/2
Goodnights
- An adorable visual of JAJ lifting up Sarah. Rare to see them interacting during these goodnights, so I love how clearly close they are. They both had such a strong night.
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
My Best Friend’s House
The Hotel Detective
Charades with Mom
Castrati
Jennifer Coolidge for Maybelline New York
Weekend Update
Monologue
Celine Dion for UFC
Bridesmaid Speech
Family Feud: Election Showdown
Final Thoughts:
- Easily the best episode so far this season, as this was a damn solid night. Outside of that dud cold open, the night consisted of good-to-classic pieces and the best pieces of the night were absolutely killer and will easily be in my eventual “Best Of” the season next May. I also admired the episode’s exploration of silly, original sketches instead of pop culture chasing or trying to pander to the host’s fanbase. As for the host, Ariana gave a pretty strong hosting performance, was well-utilized and gave a few standout, great performances, especially in the pretapes, Charades with Mom and the 10-to-1 sketch. And, it goes without saying, I enjoyed the musical performances by Stevie Nicks, particularly the second performance.
- While too early to call, it feels this season is slowly getting better and better, as every episode has been a step up from the prior one, and this one was especially solid. This reminds me of how some seasons in the past start slow, such as recently season 48, so I hope they keep it up for Michael Keaton next week.
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
Up Next:
- Michael Keaton / Billie Eilish.
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
“Meatballs, Tiny Horse, Shrimp Tower”
Don’t forget Pongo in that logo card
Hello there, nice to see you commenting on these. I am glad they’re living up to your standards.
“Don’t forget Pongo in that logo card”
Oops! I’ll add it to the short’s review now. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
Apparently they re-aired the dress rehearsal sketch because the second musical performance was delayed as the sound board went down (live viewers got a long Stevie bumper at first). They were setting up a Cinema Classics sketch but realized they didn’t have time.
I’m so with you on the cold open. The premise was great but it didn’t really go anywhere.
So that explains the long title card. I hope to see the aborted sketch in a later show.
They cut out a Cinema Classics sketch? HALLELUJAH!!!!
As always great review Blood!
Man, what a terrific episode! I admittedly went into this one with low expectations as I assumed we’d be getting a plethora of pop culture clout chasing sketches with Ariana paired up with Bowen all night. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the sketches tonight were mostly all original and creative concepts that utilized a lot of JAJMukes (my two favorite cast members currently).
The predictable dud cold open aside, the only sketches I personally wasn’t feeling were the Bridesmaids and Jennifer Coolidge sketches. And even those weren’t awful, just not my personal cup of tea. Everything else was very strong and a lot of fun.
I’m very happy to see Dan Bulla getting his due and having his shorts credited. He’s written a ton of great stuff for the show (LOVE the callbacks in the end title card) and this Best Friend’s House short was another very strong short from him. The dark and twisted revelations were hilarious and it was great to see a standout Mikey Day performance at this late stage in his tenure.
Charades was my personal favorite sketch of the night. Even though we’ve seen the basic format of this sort of sketch before, I just really love sketches like this that feel like they could have been done in just about any era. Ariana gave easily her best live performance in this and Bowen was fantastic as well. I’m so glad, after how dreadful he was in the premiere, that Bowen is displaying more of the fun and likable qualities that he can pull off at his best as opposed to the cold “sillee and funnee” shit that he’s been leaning into way too much these last few seasons. If they ever made a “best of Bowen” compilation, this would 100% be a shoe-in.
As someone who has become somewhat disappointed and frustrated with Sarah as of late, it was so refreshing to see her finally have a good night! That Oasis bit with JAJ was terrific (kind of wish these two would team up more. They have great chemistry) and I’m so glad she finally did an Update piece that wasn’t just another Jost roast. I’m hoping she’s realized that that stuff has run its course and she needs to branch out more. Dear Sarah, if you happen to read this, more of this stuff please!
The Hotel Detective sketch was a very fun way to end the night and I’m so glad that JAJ had such a strong night. Once again, this is a sketch that I could see working in any era, but particularly the late 80s era, which shows not only how strong JAJ is but also how he seems of another time.
Ariana was a terrific host and gave fun, solid performances all night. I’m, once again, very pleasantly surprised by this episode and I sincerely hope the momentum continues with Keaton’s episode!
Gonna try longer messages, which are gonna basically be mini episode reviews. If they don’t stick, I’ll just go back to what I’ve been doing.
Family Feud Cold Open: *1/2
Monologue: **
Wedding Speeches: **1/2
My Best Friends House: ***1/2
Charades: ***1/2
UFC Celine Dion: ****
Weekend Update: ***
Castrati: ***
Jennifer Coolidge for Maybelline: ****
The Hotel Detective: ****1/2
Great review as always Blood.
With the 5 minute delay and the whole 2nd performance fiasco and the back to back seemingly live sketches at the end, this was a weird episode. But I thought it was pretty good overall.
Charades and UFC were carried by fantastic performances by Ariana, who was a great host as expected. Also Emil had more than one line in a sketch for the first time!
The Jennifer Coolidge sketch was already really fun, but FUCKING DANA CARVEY as Jennifer Coolidge made me laugh out loud. It was my favorite moment of the episode, hell it might even be my favorite moment of the season so far.
The Hotel Detective was fucking great man. I loved it, not a classic but the fast paced line deliveries were FANTASTIC. I could easily picture this being done in the late 80s era, except without the unnecessary Twilight Zone twist at the end.
My Best Friends House had a VERY LONG buildup but it thankfully payed off.
Ok now my issues with this episode…
The cold open is where I think these Kamala opens start to bottom out for me. After last week’s was an improvement, this one was easily my least favorite of the season so far. I got some okay laughs, but it felt endless and it lacked jokes that we didn’t hear over the last 2 weeks. I feel like SNL said to themselves that they NEEDED to use their election guest stars somehow so they threw this together on Friday. AND IT WAS 8 MINUTES. It also doesn’t help that the beginning with Chloe was the most unnecessary thing I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be surprised if my “Written on Friday” theory is true as this was NOT GOOD.
The monologue, I liked it better the first time, when Justin Timberlake did it in 2011. Ariana was charismatic as expected but it wasn’t an original monologue, and it wasn’t the funniest the first time. I also think this is another thing they probably wrote on Friday, because Ariana sang in almost EVERY sketch and it takes away from the main joke of the monologue.
The Bridesmaids Speech sketch wasn’t bad, it just didn’t have the funniest conceit to be in the lead off spot. Andrew was a good straight man as expected, I just didn’t find the main joke to this one that funny. I think I would’ve liked this one more if it was in the post-Update half.
I do also wanna say that I didn’t care for both Update commentaries. Ego’s commentary felt like it was written by Jimmy Fowlie for Heidi. The Oasis commentary was just a big pile of meh. But the JAJ and Sarah pairing was an unexpected surprise.
Overall, pretty good but some of this seasons issues are still noticeable. I’m hoping next week is at least adequate (but it’s the 4th week in a row, so we’ll never know)
6.3/10
To be honest, while I wasn’t as high on this episode as others were, I feel like this will be one that’ll really grow on me if I give it a re-watch later into the season (maybe during Christmas break?).
I don’t have high expectations for the Michael Keaton episode, the main reason being it’s the 4th week in a row. I also get the feeling that the current writers won’t know how to utilize Michael and will end up either underutilizing him, or not giving him material that plays to his strengths. But again, you never know.
WHERE THE HELL WAS ASHLEY ALL NIGHT???
Loved: Ego on Update (Thank God it wasn’t Heidi), Maybelline (I think Ariana did Jennifer better than Chloe), Best Friends House, and Hotel Detective
Liked: Charades (I like seeing Bowen get mocked)
Meh: Bridesmaids, Oasis
Hated: Cold Open, Castration (I refuse to believe it wasn’t improvised). Seriously SNL, You couldn’t get Heidi as MTG?
It’s funny how, when reading your reviews, there are a lot of times where I think you’re more harsh on the show than I am, but in this case, it was the opposite.
You’re entitled to your opinion, of course. I personally didn’t like the Oasis bit. I wish they did a better job with the accents. Especially because JAJ is so good at impressions but this might be his worst, and I can’t think of the last time JAJ didn’t work for me.
But overall, I thought this episode used the cast really well, except Ashley. Always happy to see JAJ and Dismukes dominate and Ego have a funny Update piece.
Great work as always. I’m sorry I missed this one live, but maybe it was better to have something to look forward to. SNL works in strange ways so I had a sneaking feeling this might be one of the better episodes of this early run. As it turns out it was better than a fair amount of 49 and 48 as well.
I wasn’t as high on some of the sketches, but none were bad, and I was very impressed with Ariana’s work in them, especially the castrato sketch. Any episode that finally has a decent Update and pre-tapes is such a rarity these days I have to give some praise. Having an episode that is so host-dependent is a double-edged sword, but unlike the Timberlake vampfests, Ariana was a big presence through the night without mugging away of being feted. She just wanted to work. And she certainly did. It helps that the show actually wrote for her properly…much more than the first two hosts this season.
I could rant and rave all day about that cold open, which nobody needs to hear, so thank you for getting the point across so perfectly.
I am hoping the Bulla pre-tape might start an era of more coherent, and confident, digital shorts. The ending was really what made that stand out for me – being willing to wade into the darkness.
I liked the JAJ ’40s sketch with Aubrey Plaza, but I appreciated this return to that world more because this time didn’t feel as cut up. I never thought we’d get a ’40s double act (or trio) with JAJ and Andrew. I was reminded of late ’80s SNL’s fascination with this period of time. JAJ is the closest we’ll get to that era of the show so it was a nice surprise to see him truly in his element. I enjoyed Andrew doing his slow burn in the otherwise iffy Domingo sketch but this piece was more of a break from his norm and it’s always good to see a cast member stretching themselves.
I saw someone who compared the Charades sketch to the Mother in Law sketch with Jan, Phil, and John Laroquette. What do you think of the comparison?
“I saw someone who compared the Charades sketch to the Mother in Law sketch with Jan, Phil, and John Laroquette. What do you think of the comparison?”
That’s a fascinating comparison, especially the dark escalation, though the aforementioned S14 sketch goes even darker with gunshots and all. I can see why it was compared to it, especially the unraveling of both throughout, though Charades with Mom felt more in line with stuff like Deep Film Quotes and Yahtzee to me. However, in my opinion, a stronger version of both sketches in treading said grounds.
Thank you for replying. I agree the sketches you mentioned are closer to Charades, with the main comparison with Mother in Law being some of the fighting. I’m still impressed at how well they did the fight choreography in that sketch. By modern SNL standards Charades managed a decent job of it though.
Happy to see that I was not the only one who didn’t get completely annoyed by the Bridesmaid sketch. Yes the cuck jokes that modern SNL does is overdone, but Dismukes sells an exasperated and shocked man on the receiving end better than Mooney or Day in terms of reaction action to the scenario. And the concept itself “a Bridesmaids Cringe Song” is unique in that it wasn’t just a bridesmaids speech
Great review Blood. I dig your enthusiasm. I certainly wasn’t there for the first part of the episode, but by the end I was more than content with the episode that transpired, thanks in large part to Grande, who exhibited composure and versatility without any of that Timberlakian obsequiousness.
I’ll start at the start. Although I will cop that the cold opens thus far this season have all been guilty of that standard low grade cameofest shittiness that we have come to expect from the show over the last decade, I thought tonight was the first true dud. I thought the premiere’s open had the energy of newness and a certain “OK, you get one free pass” quality, while last week’s was at least a structural improvement. This week’s was just a big punt and when Gaffigan called Kenan “Cedric” I knew we were in hell. As always, some jokes landed and I remain tickled by Carvey’s ability to find a hook in his impressions, but this was structural zero that could not justify itself. I know the rule of thumb is to write these sketches on Friday, but I just wonder if they’ve considered, uh, NOT doing that.
I think the charmalogues were a sort of fatigued end game for the show and its writers, so it’s actually sort of encouraging to see the show reverting back to songologues. They’re not much of an improvement in terms of quality, but I admire the effort. Maybe it’ll continue to regress and we’ll be back to good monologues sometime in, say…2040.
Ah the Bridesmaids sketch. This was a fascinating mixture of the Maid of Honor sketch from the (great) Zoe Kravitz episode combined with the inscrutability of story-singing (did we learn nothing from having to struggle to parse through Jane Wickline’s commentary last week?) combined with SNL’s ever-off-putting cuck fetish. As always in these low and high-key hostile sketches, the joke is always on the poor schlub being cucked. Cool! I thought this stunk.
Finally we come to the turning point of the episode with My Best Friend’s House, but it doesn’t come without some consternation. After a singing monologue and a singing sketch, I felt a wave of absolute dread when the pre-tape came on and it was more singing. Compounding that fear is the completely protracted turn. I’d been having a largely miserable time thus far in the episode and it felt even worse to spend time thinking “Wait, is THIS all this sketch is going to be?” I could see, in a vacuum, that this sketch was everything Blood is saying it is, but in the context of the episode, I was so desperate for a laugh that the sketch’s slow roll was draining the blood (no pun) from my face. But the turn hit and it wasn’t just nominally dark, it was legitimately quite nasty and I have to say I was impressed. I didn’t laugh, necessarily, but I could at least acknowledge, “OK, this is closer to what I like.”
But it wasn’t until Charades that I actually felt like I was having fun. One thing that this era of SNL is doing particularly well is extracting the most invigorating sketches out of the most mundane settings. There were about six Dismukes sketches last year that reached delirious levels of madness in standard “dinner party” settings and it’s nice to see Bowen getting in on the fun here too with, what is his best live sketch in quite some time. It was at this point when I started to feel like Grande was actually showing her true value to the episode. That would continue through the rest of the night.
I think the Dion and Coolidge sketches sort of come from the same family of sketches, little, low stakes talent showcases for Grande. The Dion piece was a fun, simple premise that didn’t try to be more than it was. The Coolidge piece was loose and silly (if mostly pointless) and hit a crescendo with inclusion of Carvey who has been on a season long mission to prove that he is more than capable to return as host. Even at an advanced age, he still has energy and sense of play. Just book him already.
The Castrati sketch was another fine use of Grande. I think the inclusion of Samberg and Rudolph was means of ensuring a little applause coverage for another dark – maybe too dark – premise. But honestly, JAJ and Dismukes more than had things covered with their own performances. It’s really interesting to see the show’s balance of power tip over to those two, as they seem to exhibit the requisite range and utility of the great performers, but also an ability to work with more compelling concepts than, say, the Seidday model. Honestly, there are a thousand way this sketch could have failed, but each performer kept this one more than afloat.
Even better was the Hotel Detective sketch which, once again, saw JAJ, Dismukes and Grande showing what precise performers they could be. Like so many of those noir throwbacks of the 80s, this one relied on execution and inter-performer dynamics than any hard jokes, but it all worked fabulously. Thank God for the technical SNAFU that left another Cinema Classics in the cupboard in favor of this technical marvel. Bring tone pieces back to SNL!
Update was a good bit of fun. That coat hanger joke had me going full Ken Griffey Jr. at the 98 ESPYs. The commentaries were solid, if unspectacular. Ego is always reliable, punctuating OK material with A+ professionalism. The Oasis bit was more fun, but you’d kinda wish that the writers knew like, anything, about Oasis. I’m not even a fan, per se, but even I know that Liam is the singer and they weren’t out hobnobbing with the Spice Girls in 1993. hat shit is petty, but it annoys me so much.
Anyway, I don’t know if this tops the Bargatze episode. That show had a better front end and Waterslide remains my top sketch so far, but in terms of expectations, this one leaves a better taste. It’s a minor miracle that SNL was able to pull off the “look at how talented the host is” without coming off cloying.
I agree that the nicest aspect of the show was that most of the sketches were silly or conceptual pieces or kind of dark material–Grande is the type of host you could understandably accept an overload of “safe,” pop culture based material, but she’s generally refrained from doing that in her previous episodes and especially so here. Even stuff that would have come off as overly cute for other hosts (the Celine Dion sketch, for example) worked well as a silly palate cleanser (I agree Grande isn’t as good as Gasteyer, but I thought she was actually better than Melissa Villasenor’s take a couple seasons ago).
My Best Friend’s House is really a quiet masterpiece. I know people said the build was too long, but I’m glad it was long. It’s also great that when you re-watch the short, you can clearly see some of the details missed the first time, like the severed head in the fridge and the bottle of lye. The song is actually pretty catchy and charming too.
Wow, I’m surprised you liked this one. This isn’t a bad episode by any means, but it’s definitely plagued with predictive premises (a common theme of the past few seasons). Ariana is the kind of host that elevates not only the writing, but the performers around her, which is why I think the episode gets a pass.
It’s weird watching an episode where Andrew has a lot to do but doesn’t have his own sketch in the show (The Hotel Detective is more James than pure Andrew or Jajmukes). He’s grown into a solid utility player over the past year, but I’ve grown accustomed to (especially in the second half of S49) having the traditional Dismukes/White piece and see him pop up everywhere else. Felt a little empty.