Cold Opening – Republican Midterms Ads
GOP figures record desperate ads
- After all the hype about a potential Jack Smith cold open, we get this somewhat low-key open. Not sure how I feel. I admire the show not going the predictable route and all, but it feels like a lazy choice to do such a cold open to me.
- Marcello has decent energy as Marco Rubio, and while I chuckled at his “Little Marco” line at the start, the rest of his part did nothing for me. Although, his delivery was pretty impressive.
- Hmm, Marcello getting no reaction and Jeremy getting cheers. Interesting.
- Jeremy’s brief part as Vance cracked me up.
- Speaking of cracking me up, while a typical Mikey Day face, I will admit he got me good in his creepy Mitch McConnell appearance. Nice LFNY mention.
- I am not sure how to react to the whole laughing at JD Vance wanting to be president. We saw how that did with Trump…
- This whole Colin-as-Hegseth part is doing absolutely nothing for me and the audience seems to agree with me, judging by their frequent silence. It doesn’t help the real Pete Hegseth is do damn hateful and a cartoon villain that this satire-free take is boring me out.
- Yikes, the audience is almost completely dead here, especially during the whole African drums part….
- JAJ is always solid as Trump, though this whole cold open being so certain the GOP will lose badly in the midterms (and Vance never being president too), feels like typical SNL hubris to me. It doesn’t help I feel the writing isn’t that great. I know I am usually more positive than some fans with these, but this is giving me nothing, outside of some bright spots.
Rating: **1/2
Monologue
Taylor Swift [real] crashes host’s monologue
- I really like Dakota’s deadpan and likable presence. I know some feel she is a poor host, outside of pretapes, but I dunno. I felt she was good the last time. And, probably because I have grown to appreciate Jane Wickline and what she brings to the show, I became more appreciative of low-key hosts.
- What was with the Jeb Bush-esque “please clap” moment after Dakota mentions breaking with “two awesome musicians”? That was awkward as hell. And, I do not follow celebrities’ love lives, so I have no clue whom she meant.
- A cute use of Leon Pendarvis.
- A Taylor Swift cameo. Cue the applause and screaming break for her.
- I actually like Taylor Swift on SNL. She was a very good one-time host and I enjoyed most of her appearances afterwards.
- Awkward timing between Dakota and Taylor, as this monologue feels more and more inside. Also, I get both are friends in real-life, but this is going over my head. Taylor at least came off likable and with presence.
- I did not care for Dakota’s ending PSA about dating musicians.
Rating: **
Press Your Luck
contestant (ASP) is too lucky
- Is this a real gameshow? Dakota playing Elizabeth Banks feels too specific for me.
- I cracked up at Ashley’s first “press your luck!” delivery, even when it feels they have her scream way too often. She is not Will Ferrell when it comes to that, talented as she is.
- Yeah, I am not getting into this sketch. This feels like a typical Melissa McCarthy sketch where they just throw her out there without seemingly any script to work with.
- Kenan Thompson playing Kenan Thompson, I see. And, the fact that I am hearing some are trying to baby a 24 seasons vet whenever he pops up giving these tired, overfamiliar performances, complete with tics and all, says all you need to know about his status nowadays.
- Ashley Padilla is a talented performer, one of their best hires in quite some time, but this type of a sketch, and I have no idea if she wrote this, is the wrong way to use her talents.
- The more Ashley Padilla hams it up, screeches and goes up and down to get as many laughs from the dead audience, a part of me just dies. This is not a leadoff sketch material nor a way to use one of your best current cast members.
- A rough, rough show so far.
Rating: *1/2
Mean Scary Girlfriend
Mean Scary Girlfriend (host) will tell you the hard truths
- Ben and Tommy are a very underrated duo that I always enjoy.
- A solid spokesman performance from Ben and Tommy.
- Dakota is freakin’ fantastic in this role as the mean, honest, sinister girlfriend who keeps it 100% true with her boyfriend. A pitch perfect use of her deadpan delivery.
- I love the catchphrases part with Dakota’s girlfriend. Very sharp lines and delivery to help them.
- The Dakota/Ben “emotional” part ending with them having sex had me howling.
- Marcello is also pretty fun in this, although his parts aren’t standing out as much as Tommy and Ben.
- Grace briefly steals yet another sketch as the supportive best friend to the mean girlfriend. She is having me in stitches.
- Great ending with Tommy getting the light of God. Fantastic “pussy” delivery from Dakota in response.
- All-in-all: Another strong contender for a “Best Of” commercial from this era.
Rating: *****
Hospital Gossip
co-worker (JEC) doesn’t know how to gossip
- Nice to see Jeremy getting another lead sketch role. Three in two episodes!
- I admit cracking up at Jeremy sliding into the sketch. He is also, so far, not overplaying his character’s awkward nature.
- Fun sliding off the sketch from Jeremy.
- This is a pretty simple, straightforward sketch concept and thank goodness this didn’t turn into the whole socially awkward shtick improv comics do that usually do not work for me.
- Ugh, did we need this Kenan walk-on? And, for the second episode in a row doing a “funny” voice? Why are we suddenly relying too hard on this guy? And I am sure Mikey will have his time later in the night. We have so many strong talents in this cast, why stick with the dead weight?
- This sketch does a great job using Jeremy’s inherent sweetness, as you want to root for Eric here as he tries to socialize.
- I liked the ending with Eric actually figuring out how to gossip. A fun character piece from Jeremy.
Rating: ***1/2
Guns for Women
female-centric gun has problems
- Two fake ads so close to one another? Considering I absolutely loved the first one, I cannot really complain then.
- Love the blurred out visual of the gun and this is a good concept for a fake ad.
- A big laugh from the admission that the gun is basically a vagina.
- Another very strong use of Dakota’s deadpan, as I love her line deliveries in this, especially how to pull the trigger.
- Ashley’s admission to Dakota she never liked her cracked me up. Her “dammit” as she sits back again, realizing this is her house she almost stormed out of, is pretty funny.
- Solid “a bunch of guys” line from Dakota. Her defensiveness towards the “V-Gun” is very funny.
- A very solid fake ad, overall. Season 52 is so far on a killer run with pretapes.
Rating: ****
Throne of the Dragonborn
dragon is ruining potential sex between knight (BEM) & his queen (host)
- This SNL writing staff seem to be big House of the Dragon fans. It feels we had spoofs of it every season since it aired.
- Why was Andrew cast in this very small role when Tommy or Jeremy would be more fitting, with how new they are? Does the show just not know how to use this man anymore?
- Dakota sounds inaudible in this. I know she is trying to play this role of a sultry queen, but I cannot hear her well.
- I cracked up at Ben’s delivery being weirded out by the dragon. Great puppetry there.
- This sketch is not working for me, despite a good performance from Ben and his fun straight man reactions to the dragon.
- I got another laugh from the dragon speaking. Who is that doing the voice?
- This reminds me of a really bad sketch Beck Bennett did with Natalie Portman which quickly focused on his ass cheeks. This has yet to happen here with Ben, but I am getting the same bored feeling from this.
- Another bad Kenan walk-on, and did we need Dakota and Ben smirking at him? And now, we are going on about him having a penis or not? Did we need that?
- I feel bad not caring for this, as I do root for the newer cast members and Ben is clearly capable of great work. Dunno, maybe another can enjoy this more than I did.
Rating: **
Musical Performance – “BIRDS”
Weekend Update
Link (MID) & Jason (MAH) talk The Legend of Zelda/GTA rivalry
KAP pretends to care for the Glee reboot
matchmaker Debbie Mush (SAS) gives MIC dating advice
- Ugh at the Mike Myers joke, even when it is nice to see the SNL legend mentioned by the show.
- Jesus at these jokes so far. What the hell with that racism joke especially?
- Ugh at that Talarico joke. And, really? We are now questioning others’ masculinity? Colin Jost is not what I think of when I think of masculinity.
- Oh, fuck off SNL with that Cornell rape gang joke turning into a “hilarious” Colin Jost roasting. I am not one of those outraged by comedy, but just fuck off from here, man.
- Oh, spare me. A potentially lengthy Mikey/Marcello “duo” that will most likely turn into a horrifyingly laughless trainwreck.
- Feels very, very sad seeing Mikey Day dressed up as Link, complete with the “cute” visual of his chair being lowered. Just retire, man. Relive your childhood memories away from my TV screen.
- You can tell the 50 years-olds who wrote this did not play a console since Atari. Not expecting fact-checking from an SNL bit, but this shows you how old and out of touch many of the show’s writers are nowadays.
- This commentary, which is at least not as horrid as that God-awful dolphins one, is not making me laugh or entertaining me. The GTA/Zelda rivalry this commentary is revolving around does not exist. Also, WTF is it with Mikey? Is he stable? I know Link well and he does not move or act that way. Are we THIS desperate for laughs? Sigh…
- Very predictable, but that Hitler joke cracked me up, hate to say it.
- Kam talking about Glee is inherently funny, although I am worried they could go lazy gay jokes.
- OK, at least Kam seems excited here. Likable, as usual and with nice energy, but I am really not into this. It feels like they are throwing him out there to give him airtime.
- Was that fourth wall breaking meant to help this? Kam is good here and Che works well with him. Kam at least performed this part where he is defeated quite well. Still, part of this feels like a pep talk, especially Che’s whole spiel about wanting to see the real him, that’s why they hired him, etc. This feels a bit desperate on SNL’s side to treat Kam that way. I truly want him, like all the newbies, to do well and succeed.
- Sigh. This whole Sarah Sherman commentary is example A why she should leave the hell out of this show. open mouthed, tired New Yorker voice and jokes. After a strong first edition with the commentaries, we are back to the usual I see.
Rating: *1/2
Get Ready with Me
TikToker (host) is disturbing
- Why is Sarah Sherman, who already got tons of airtime tonight, is paired with Veronika and Jane instead of having a newbie in Grace or Saidah in such a role? I do not want to single her out here, but it feels wrong having two promising newbies in nothing roles so far (even when Grace gave me big laughs in almost all her appearances impressively). I understand it is only two episodes into the season and all, but still.
- JAJ is absolutely great as the cheesy, awkward dad. I love how much more often he’s been playing such a role.
- Like the past episode, Sarah is coming off very out of place in this. At least, she is giving a decent performance.
- Dakota’s dark messaging in contrast to the cheerful ones before her is funny.
- Loved the moment with JAJ’s smile immediately dying out as soon as he about to leave the room.
- JAJ is the best thing in this sketch in general. I love his awkward, sad character and he is giving me pretty much all my enjoyment here. The rest of the sketch is just OK.
- A decent ending and hey, JAJ’s poor dad got a happy ending!
Rating: ***
Musical Performance – “I CARE” & “DULL”
Amazing Tales of Truth
tender song from daughter (VES) could not bring dad (JAJ) back
- Sigh, why is Andrew just now making his first appearance since way back before Update? And even there, his role was featured player/extra-levels. Breaks my heart seeing such a genius so poorly used and underused by the show. But, truth be told, this sadly has been the case with him since last season. The show clearly doesn’t know what to do with him nowadays.
- Oh, I love this Twilight Zone-esque sketch concept. I understand this was trimmed down a lot before going on air (maybe if they cut a desk piece or some of the endless lame jokes from Update, we could have seen it in full….), but I am into this already.
- Heh, JAJ is so damn good that I am cracking up at him playing a comatose dad. I understand he did more in the complete dress version of this.
- Another sketch where I barely could hear Dakota.
- Veronika has such a fantastic singing voice, but are we going to have her singing in every episode by now? Sweet rendition of “Over the Rainbow”, at least.
- I howled at Andrew’s “it did not!” Good ol’ Dismukes. He is having me on the floor with his perfect delivery here. He is truly the show’s Secret Weapon, which they do not seem to get.
- I love Andrew’s ending message to the camera. A short-and-sweet sketch, with a classic blackout gag to boot!
Rating: **** or ****1/2 – gonna make up my mind later
Goodnights
- A sweet goodnights moment with the celebration of Dakota’s birthday. Huge still having Taylor Swift in the studio to give the cake to her, too.
Segments Ranked From Worst to Best
Mean Scary Girlfriend
Amazing Tales of Truth
Guns for Women
Hospital Gossip
Get Ready with Me
Republican Midterms Ads
Throne of the Dragonborn
Monologue
Press Your Luck
Weekend Update
Final Thoughts:
- A bit of a step down of an episode after the good-and-consistent premiere. This was not a bad episode at all for me, but a bit on the forgettable/average side, and certainly I enjoyed it more than about 50% of the last two seasons (same with the aforementioned premiere). But, with all that said, the first half was filled with some really lousy, poor sketches alongside a dreadful, endless edition of the desk that brought the whole show WAY down, despite some very strong highlights. With that said, the highs are worth bragging about and Turnstile were an outstanding musical guest, and their two performances were amazing to watch, especially the first one.
- As for our host, Dakota Johnson excelled in the pretapes, but was used sparingly in the live portions, much like her last hosting stint. Still, overall, I have a good feeling about season 52, especially considering who is hosting next week…
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
I weirdly don’t have a strong opinion towards this episode, positive or negative. For now, I’ll just leave a couple observations:
1. I predicted that Dakota would mention her birthday, and I was right. What I didn’t predict was a) that Taylor Swift would show up (should’ve brought Anne Hathaway), and b) they would give her a cake during the goodnights (though I probably should’ve).
2. I feel bad for Tommy. We’re two episodes into the season, and he has yet to appear in any live sketches. It honestly makes me worry that he won’t come back next year.
I think this overall episode was probably the best usage of Dakota out of all her hosting stints. Her deadpan low energy delivery worked very well in stuff like the Mean Scary Girlfriend pretape (fully agree that’s a best of candidate), she brought a nice unsettling vibe to the Get Ready With Me sketch, and even the otherwise awful Press Your Luck sketch had her giving a decent straight man performance.
What has struck me with these first two episodes of the season is that the show seems to be in a tug of war with itself. Caught between relying on the newbies and the old guard. I suppose one could argue that it’s been doing that for the last several years, but I’m feeling it more this season in particular. Not sure why. Maybe because the old guard are so, well, old that they stick out like a sore thumb whenever they’re paired with the newbies. You can even see this with Ashley, with the show seemingly caught between having her be in trashy Wiig knockoffs (Press Your Luck) and solidly acted and well performed straight man roles (Guns For Women).
Speaking of the old guard, I must apologize to Marcello Hernandez. He is no longer the bane of this show’s existence. That title now belongs to Mr. Mikey Day, who now seems determined to churn out second rate “Riley” ripoffs over and over. Watching this man’s range shrink to just “screeching and trying to get people to break” is pathetic beyond words. We saw glimpses of it last season, especially in the back half, but even I’m surprised at just how low this man has sunk. Exhibit A as to why no one should stay beyond 8 seasons. If anything, this is making me appreciate Kate, Aidy, and Cecily’s last couple of seasons much more. As iffy as they sometimes were, they still at least had SOME dignity and still made some good stuff to prove they still had some value. This guy, on the other hand, is actively ruining his legacy on the show on a weekly basis. Pure unwatchable dogshit.
Update as a whole is showing its age more than ever, both literally and figuratively. Colin and Che’s delivery tonight felt even more half-assed and low energy than usual. It sucks to see this once reliable and dependable portion of the show become a black hole sucking out all the momentum of each episode. Any change behind the desk would be welcome by now. Hell, I’ve seen people advocate for Sarah going behind the desk, and, while I’m not on board with that idea and don’t see what people are seeing with her, I’d be cool with that. At least it’d be something different and fresh, even if it proved to be a poor fit.
On the flip side, I’m glad to see Jeremy slowly rise and prove his worth this year. While that Hospital Gossip sketch was nothing special on paper (certainly not helped by our billionth tired Kenan cameo to “save” it), he made it work thanks to bringing a genuine pitiful pathos to the role that made you want to route for him.
JAJ did something similar in the Get Ready With Me sketch. That turn from cheery-eyed dad to dead-eyed depressed guy was so phenomenally well done. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of his best performances so far.
I too am saddened by the lack of Andrew so far, but his performance in the 10-to-1 more than made up for his otherwise lackluster airtime. He had me in hysterics with his delivery, especially at the end. I really really hope he’ll get more moments like this and his airtime will improve.
Fingers crossed for Shane’s episode!
Great review as always, Blood.
This was a bit better than the premiere, but it REALLY wasn’t the step up that I was hoping it would be that would make me feel reassured that this season will be alright.
This episode wasn’t bad, it was just mixed. But I really didn’t feel anything entirely stood out here, and the lows were ROUGH.
I will say that both of the pre-tapes (Mean Scary Girlfriend, Guns for Women) in this episode were pretty good and both were solid showcases for Dakota. I also thought both of the post Update sketches were okay.
I know we’re only two episodes into the season, but man, if the rest of the season is going to be like how these past two episodes were, I am NOT looking forward to it whatsoever. What makes this particularly frustrating is it feels like the main thing holding this season back from fully taking off is ALL of the veterans (Sarah to a lesser extent, but still). Kenan, Mikey, and Sarah are bringing NOTHING new to the table, and they’re performances are honestly just annoying at this point. Colin and Che have been consistently forgettable for 3 seasons (I still feel that they should’ve left in Season 47).
Another issue is the dullness. Even with good sketches, there are SOOO many moments of just quiet, dead air (not helped by the severely dead audiences). Stuff like this is why I really enjoy the “fun, party” episodes that most other hardcore fans seem to not like (Ryan Gosling’s S49 episode, and Ayo Edebiri’s episode are good examples).
I want the show to do well this season, but it feels like they are just NOT doing things right at all.
Fix the cast usage, stop giving Kenan and Mikey free reign to hog up airtime, and find some audience members who actually wanna be there, and I will be able to say that I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.
I will continue to stay optimistic though, since Shane Gillis has brought out the best in the show for both of this episodes. His 2nd episode in particular is one of my favorites of this whole era so far. See you all then.
One last thing, I hate to be that guy Blood, but it’s Leon Pendarvis, not Leon Redbone.
I did not enjoy this episode at all while watching it live and a big reason is the energy was so off the entire time! Dakota is fantastic in pre-tapes but her delivery just doesn’t work in the live setting and I feel like of sucks the energy out of the room. It didn’t help that the writing for the Press Your Luck and the Dragon sketch was abysmal and thin. Also as mentioned the veterans (Jost, Che, Day, Thompson) need to go. Day is especially bad. His desperate mugging is awful. I’ve liked Mikey in the past more than some may have but oooof why is he still here? The worst part it’s not like he’s contributing as a writer in a positive way over these past two episodes either.
That said I enjoyed a lot of these sketches on the rewatch. The pre-tapes were fun, and anytime they let Andrew loose is a good thing. Turnstile was a fun act too.
I also wanna shout out Jeremy and James for elevating the material in a big way with their performances.
Overall I have not enjoyed these two episodes so far and they really need to trim the fat.
“Also, WTF is it with Mikey? Is he stable?”
Reports indicate that Mikey is indeed stable. Though I wonder if he needed all that makeup to play Mitch McConnell. Are they not roughly the same age?
I thought this was a slightly more spirited, though no less banal, episode than the premiere. Perhaps kicking off the season with two deadpan hosts is not using the best foresight, though the pre-tapes used Dakota to good effect.
The cold open was a funny thing because the formatting of it generally worked for me, but aside from the McConnell and Vance appearances, it all felt a little more typical of the modern SNL experience. Rubio and Hegseth were probably unavoidable targets for the piece, but the whole thing should have moved at a brisker pace and included maybe a couple other wrinkles and impressions. I wish JAJ’s Trump didn’t feel so inevitable because he wasn’t needed at all. I think this is FAR closer to a good cold opening to last week’s dirge, but it also feels like an opportunity lost.
The Press Your Luck sketch (actual old game show, don’t know if it has returned, also don’t care) was more of the enWiigification of Ashley Padilla. And basically we’re just straight up doing Secret Word now, which is not a good sign at all. That said, I still enjoy what Ashley can do in these roles. I just that what she does REALLY well can be found in other, more thoughtful sketches.
I have this thing where I immediately tune out the second a Game of Thrones-type sketch comes on. Somebody loves that world, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been compelled by these cumbersome, costume-heavy sketches. Throw in a Ben lead and a wacky Kenan cameo and, yeah, I don’t have reason to care.
Update was looooooong. Far longer than we need of Che and Jost in 2026. I found the Mikey/Marcello thing to waffle back and forth between agreeable and aggravating, but the longer it went the less I could forgive it. Mikey is putting some elbow grease into these performances. He should take a cue from his own appearance in the cold open and realize that with Mikey, less is often more.
The Sherman commentary was highly cuttable and only really ensured that large chunks had to be cut out of the night’s only truly great live piece.
Kam’s commentary was a winner for me. There’s this funny thing where it seems like there’s an audience who doesn’t want Kam to either play against “type” nor play into his “type.” I think the kid is pure charisma and charm. I think this was the best approximation of his winsome voice that he’s had on the show.
I’ll give Get Ready With Me credit for sticking its landing, but for much of the sketch it just felt like two separate pieces going at once. One was a great JAJ performance and one was a negligible piece with the host.
The 10-to-one was a perfect sketch. I wouldn’t say five stars because it felt truncated and slight, but it was just a perfect little blackout that used Andrew’s comedic tone perfectly. Andrew is an established winner, why the show leaves him on the bench is beyond me.
Quick hits:
– Turnstile! Funniest thing is seeing IG comments going “this isn’t hardcore.” The fucking corniest dorks always jumping in with this cornball takes.
– Another nice win for Jeremy. He’s got some wind in his sails, I’m just ready for one of these sketches to fully deliver. It reminds me of the early Ashley sketches. We’re so close to the fireworks factory, just keep pushing.
– Taylor Swift knows Turnstile. That’s certainly something.
– Tommy isn’t getting great airtime, but he continues to show up in the night’s biggest winners. I don’t know if I can ever share Blood’s enthusiasm for the pre-tapes, but the scary girlfriend piece used Dakota perfectly and that’s a big win for the episode.
– Shane is next week. Will Dennis Perkins survive????
Thanks as always, Blood Meridian.
From Saturday Night Network, the cut sketch material:
The Andrew sketch was cut to pieces. In dress, there was a 3-part runner featuring Trump ads. JAJ walking down a hallway rambling. This sketch was going into a Trump ad. As the Trump ad pre-tape was going on, the audience could see Dakota running from one set to another. She runs to a scene cut from the live show – a porch set, with Tommy as a son who is talking to Dakota and Mikey, mourning his dead dog. The dog returns to life and has a leash. We learn from Andrew that it was just a dog who looked like a dead dog and stole the dead dog’s collar. This would then go to the second part of the sketch, which made it to air.
(I don’t think the material directly tied into the Trump pre-tapes)
CPR TRAINING: Andrew runs a CPR class. Dakota and Jane are a married couple who choke 50-70 times a month since they don’t chew properly and eat everything from cashews to marbles. JAJ, Sarah and Kenan were also in the sketch.
RAVIOLO – Dakota, Saidah, Jane, Sarah eating a singular ravioli at a restaurant. Mikey was a waiter.
DATING GAME SHOW – An extra zero in studio construction results in over 200 feet between JAJ and Dakota and the three male contestants (Andrew, Kenan, Mikey). The audience clapped along as JAJ went back and forth to each side. Grace was a construction worker.
Five Random Thoughts
1. I thought a lot of the *premises* in this episode were better than last week’s (maybe not Press Your Luck, but even then, there was a kernel of surrealism there I enjoyed)…but the execution and performances were in general worse. The Instagram, nurses gossip, and even the House of Dragons parody had a good degree of potential, and to whatever extent, never fully clicked.
2. A lot of the problems I’ll attribute to the host, who, unlike Jalen Brunson is a professional actor and veteran SNL host. Dakota was not the worst part of the episode by far, but was just constantly misused and too monotone in the live sketches (her work in the pretapes was very good). She was trying, but I thought she was a poor straight woman in Press Your Luck and didn’t have the insane energy enough for Instagram (and was horribly miscast in the House of Dragons thing).
3. Two episodes in, and Mikey Day is apparently vying to have an all-timer bad season. Like if he was a desperate new cast member, I could excuse the overacting and trying to make people break. As a veteran who is played out, this is unprofessional and cringe-inducing. I appreciate Day’s manic energy at the right moment, but giving him free range to do this every week? Please. I remember once labeling Kate McKinnon unprofessional for corpsing and half-assing her way through a Daniel Craig sketch. I apologize to her, as she wasn’t even a third as bad as Mikey has *repeatedly* been.
4. Two of the worst stretches in this episode involved Colin Jost. The show has not realized that Jost’s Hegseth is not particularly funny and really only worked as a one-time gag. The actual person Hegseth is such a cartoonishly awful person that no parody can come close, and lately Jost is *literally just saying the same things the real Hegseth has said*. Jost is also so bad on Update now–Che’s tired, but I sometimes get laughs of him still, while I’m sick of the Jost Rost stuff, Colin laughing at his own jokes, and how a lot of Jost jokes have this kind of mean “punching down” style (the Talarico one, which was just repeating the negative ad, felt that way).
5. I really liked the ten-to-one sketch, which was brisk, funny, and had a great Dismukes performance. I’m somewhat baffled by all the hand-wringing posts I saw about Veronika singing a lot. She’s a good singer, has mostly sung in sketches featuring other people singing, and her singing in this sketch was to set up the joke (which only would have worked if the singing was done by someone very good). Maybe I’ll regret this, but I’ll take Veronika singing every week over many things some cast members get to do every week.
I honestly didn’t realize she was hosting on her birthday. What are the odds of that?
Forgot to add:
If the CO ranks higher than UPDATE, then there REALLY needs to be some heavy changes made.