Cold Opening – Post-Midterms
President Trump (JAJ) crashes Democrats victory party
- Figure they would do a Democrats cold open after the Blue Tsunami we had.
- I am not caring for these lines at all, nor the audience’s wild applause in what is supposed to be, last I checked, a sketch comedy show. SNL lost most of its reputation as a satirical enterprise anyways in recent years with having Golden Boy as host and all the political cameos and pandering, but this isn’t exactly anything I would call sharp nor clever.
- Kenan looks nothing at all like Hakeem Jeffries. See, that’s a problem when the show clearly has no use for black talent besides this guy and no interest in hiring any of the amazing black performers around who would kill to get this gig.
- And we get yet another freeze. Sigh. I know I am usually a defender of these Trump cold opens, as I truly think they have better writing than most of the show’s political writing the past 15 seasons or so, but they are so overdone. I especially cannot stand having performers standing in the background getting airtime doing jack shit.
- A decent, quick appearance from Jeremy as VP Vance.
- Another appearance from Colin as Hegseth. Hey, I liked his last appearance, but this is clearly in part because Hegseth’s days are numbered, thankfully.
- James Talarico cameo to a wild applause.
- Talarico is coming off as likable as usual, but what’s with that lengthy, non-comedic speech he is giving about what to do right by the American people? I mean, I agree and all politically with the man, but this ain’t a soapbox last I checked.
- OK, Talarico mentioning too many of these freezing cold opens is true, though I doubt the show will let go of these, even when they should be phasing out the President from these cold opens very soon, in preparation for the next two seasons of political coverage.
- For various reasons, I thought this cold open was a real letdown. This will only be remembered as the one where Talarico showed up in and most likely forgotten in a week. In earlier decades of this show, I could have seen such a unique, fun spin in the vein of Dukakis After Dark or Clinton At McDonald’s, but not for modern SNL. Just rinse and repeat the same templates over and over and over….
Rating: **
Monologue
host can’t promise what he won’t do
- I am loving Druski’s energy and presence, especially how is hyping up the audience at the start.
- Nice ad-lib from Druski towards the audience during his faux emotional speech about wanting to host SNL.
- Druski’s grandma briefly steals the monologue with her funny delivery.
- While I am liking this, the monologue is taking the odd personal tone way too many monologues in this era take.
- Good Emma Stone cameo. Her and Druski’s interaction was decent, though I wished it went on a little longer.
Rating: ***
Washington in Focus
white panelist (AND) is laughed at by name mixup
- While the show has done these to death, I admit cracking up at Young Sheldon being show on BET of all networks.
- This premise of a lame white guy being on a black network I find to be lame and overdone, not also helping is the clapter from the audience.
- Saidah is, yet again. coming off so solid for a new cast member.
- Sherrod Brown being the focus of this sketch is odd. I understand this sketch is supposed to be in the vein of Mid-Day News when it comes to commentary on race, but it doesn’t work for this era in particular. Not helping that the show is in one of its most regressive eras when it comes to using people of color.
- Sherrod Brown does sound like a black man’s name, but that’s not a premise to sustain a full sketch upon.
- I admit getting a laugh from the visual of Carl Tart in that getup.
- Carl is so solid that even the ending moment with him gave me another good laugh. Why the hell is this man not in the cast, by the way?
Rating: **1/2
Dru Can See Everything
host is involved in Elizabeth Holmes (JAW) documentary
- We are just now parodying the Holmes documentary??? Really? I know SNL has the reputation of being far behind on the joke, but still….
- Jane is killing it as Elizabeth Holmes. Her voice and expression are having me in stitches.
- Who is that doing the voiceover? I do not recognize that voice but he is great in this.
- Druski’s whole interaction with Jane’s Holmes ending up with her wanting to sleep with him is hilarious, especially as he tries to close her eyes.
- The turn with Ben I am not sure is working for me so far, as the half with Holmes was stronger and fit more. This is also giving me an Almost Friday TV vibes with the twists and turns.
- OK, Ben being stopped as he was about to say the word during his rapping gave me a solid laugh.
- The whiteface visual of Druski had me in stitches, reminding me of his hilarious Erika Kirk take.
- This really grew on me after a rewatch, as I liked it at first but felt the back half was weaker. While I still feel that’s the case now, it did not harm this piece as much as I feared.
Rating: ****
Bubu Mobile
Dominicans (host) & (MAH) offend customers (MID) & (JEC)
- (Blood sees Marcello as a broad Hispanic stereotype as he dances around and suggestively humps the air to a dead studio audience and decides to throw his laptop and then himself from his apartment building window…)
- Obviously, given both the title and setup, I am being given very unwarranted memories of that fucking horrible mechanics sketch from that dreadful finale last season.
- Feels sad seeing such a talent in Jeremy Culhane being relegated to playing a boring straight man to a Marcello character. But, much like many in this cast, they do not seem to realize what they have with this man.
- The audience is dead during what is clearly meant to be laugh lines and moments, as often in these sketches by Marcello. I have no clue how these get on the air given how they almost always die a death with the crowds. Does Lorne really think he has a new Eddie Murphy or something? Time to retire, man.
- Druski is bringing nice energy to the sketch, but not even he can save this, as solid a host as he has been so far tonight. These Marcello “character” pieces are just D.O.A. from the get-go.
- Was that gay joke towards Jeremy really necessary? Man, just end this sketch already.
Rating: *
Birthday Girl
a woman (host) is offended by friend’s (VES) order
- While I should be worried seeing Druski in drag in a Mexican restaurant (giving me war flashbacks to a wretched, obscure John C. Reilly sketch from decades back), I know he can make this work and this seems to have an actual premise instead of having Druski in drag crying and stuffing his face with food, with zero funny lines to be had.
- Why is Andrew Dismukes, a freakin’ 7 season veteran, being given this featured player-type role? Does this show simply has no place for him at this point? As someone who loves this man, words cannot really describe how sad it is to see his role at the show languish by the passing episode.
- I always love Veronika’s WTF expressions in these straight man roles. She is very solid in this despite playing a non-comedic role.
- The premise of Druski’s character losing at Veronika’s for eating fajitas is thin as hell, but the performances are fine and helping this.
- Sarah Sherman sitting around in a nice wig with almost zero lines. How in the world is this performer still on the show?
- Druski has some funny lines in this, though as usual with this era, the crowd seems a bit dead.
- An OK twist at the end.
Rating: ***
mycornerguy
health tracker (host) both insults and compliments your looks
- Not to be that guy, but Ashley looks great at the start of this.
- A good concept for a fake commercial and nice to see the underrated Tommy as the spokesman. Given both how great he was in Mean Scary Girlfriend and how minimal his airtime has been this season so far, nice to see him in such a prominent role.
- I got a big laugh from the first cutaway to Druski in that getup.
- Druski is so good in this ad in general. Tons of energy and charisma from him.
- The twist on the features is solid and feels fresh for this type of SNL commercial
- Druski’s comment to Ashley’s character reminds me of a YouTube video that went viral a decade ago of a woman being complimented as she walks around New York working out by random people while she feels annoyed.
- Tommy is as solid here as he was in the aforementioned commercial.
- The testimonials are pretty funny, especially getting another solid moment with a disturbed Veronika.
- The Marcello moment totally bombed with the audience (and me).
- A decent ending.
Rating: ****
Musical Performance – “Lonely in the Future”
Weekend Update
Elon Musk (JEC) on Texas going blue
Couple Who Just Hooked Up (AND) & (ASP) on the midterms
- A solid opening rant from Colin about the midterms, especially liking the Trump slams.
- Every time I see the Mississippi senate election, I remember that hilarious Colom ad with that “shieee!!!” guy (who reminds me of Mikey, funny enough).
- Oof at that Epstein joke. I will admit it got me really good.
- I cannot stand the audience during these Updates, as they interrupt the flow of the jokes.
- Been ages since we got a “seen here” joke. I admit laughing good at this one.
- Man, not to complain during this otherwise solid string of jokes (the best in a while), but the audience is really annoying me in this.
- Jeremy’s Elon Musk debuts after being cut last week.
- A good Elon impression from Jeremy, even when he is really overdoing the vocal tics too much.
- Jeremy is solid in this, despite how wandering this desk piece is in general. I will say that this isn’t as good as that dress description made it out to be.
- The roasting of Musk through AI is pretty funny, at least. Good use of JAJ’s voiceover skills.
- I loved that childhood obesity joke, though for some reason, the audience barely reacted.
- The jokes are really solid this week in general. Helped by Colin and Michael not ad-libbing and laughing at them.
- This couple characters are a good showcase of how good Ashley and Andrew are together. However, if you seen one, you saw all of them.
- The best edition of the desk so far this season. Wish we had better desk pieces, but both were still OK.
Rating: **** (particularly for the jokes)
Proposal
musical number mistakenly sees proposed to (SAS) said yes to boyfriend (JEC)
- It feels like half of Sarah’s roles in this time of her tenure sitting around tables.
- That cheesecake is making yours truly distracted. It’s been ages since I eat one…
- I love the cutaway to Ben in that getup. He looks freakin’ hilarious especially with his facial expression.
- Oh, I am already absolutely loving this sketch’s style and pacing, especially the soft keyboard in the background.
- Solid turn with Sarah turning Jeremy down (for now), before we get an epic musical number with Druski.
- The visual of Druski with the exaggerated chest hair is killing me.
- Even the interactions between Jeremy and Sarah are solid and filled with funny lines, helped by their acting and delivery.
- I almost wanted to write that this feels like Mikey’s first appearance, before I remembered he made an appearance earlier tonight playing a dull straight man.
- Phoebe Bridgers mention, which is interesting as she is the musical guest next week.
- Andrew is very funny as the rapping dad.
- Druski’s energy is incredible in this sketch in general. This is such a great example of how damn fun a host he has been tonight.
- Nice continuation from earlier tonight with Carl Tart showing up as the sax guy.
- Overall, I loved this. Maybe a little low energy considering the premise, but great tune, very fun concept, tons of funny lines and great work by the cast (especially Jeremy and Sarah), as well as our host.
Rating: *****
Wedding Photographers
photographers (host) & (GRR) cause havoc
- This has been a fascinating season for James Austin Johnson so far. While thus far a little better for him than the fantastic year he had last season, the show has been heavily using him in “Glue” roles, such as this one. He easily been averaging the most airtime per episode in his entire tenure so far this season. Feels odd, however, seeing him, Mikey and Ben being all over the show in these roles while most of the other men being barely used much. In fact, it feels that we barely see Andrew/Jeremy/Tommy/Kam at all this season.
- Druski and Grace are pretty funny as the photographers and are helping this sketch go over, harmless as the idea still is.
- That war/whore photographer joke initially almost made me groan, before an absolutely hilarious cutaway to Jeremy thanking Druski for his service.
- Speaking of Jeremy, tons of airtime for him tonight, even when I feel some of his roles were a waste. Still happy for him, though.
- While playing straight roles, JAJ/Saidah/Marcello are pretty good in this. While I was tough on him earlier tonight, I do appreciate how very professional Marcello generally is as a cast member.
- Not a bad sketch in general, with competent performances, but the energy is just not there, as has been the case with the show of late.
- The ending felt timed off.
Rating: ***
Musical Performance “Going Shopping”
Golden Age of Hip-Hop
trials of failing socially conscious Hip-Hop act
- Tons of airtime for JAJ in the back half of the episode.
- Nice to see another usage of Tommy & JAJ’S fantastic singing voices tonight. I also really like Ben as a singer. He had a strong night this week in general, keeping up a solid year for him.
- Odd to see Kam just now in his first and only appearance of the night.
- Tommy is such a natural for these ’90s sketches (and may I say, looking even better than usual with that costume in the first clip).
- I am really enjoying this sketch and its catchy tunes. It reminds me of the fun band/musical sketches SNL UK been doing this season. It feels right to see SNL doing live musical sketches, as I personally believe this cast is one of the best, if not the definitive best ever, in terms of musical abilities.
- The socially conscious songs failing as the sketch keeps doing is very funny, being helped even more by Andrew’s solid delivery. Unlike most his use of late, this is a good use of his talents.
- The band being homophobic despite singing about unity feels like it was done by the show previously, but it was still really funny here. Ben especially looked hilarious in the third clip.
- Wish this went a little longer, but a fun way to end the night.
Rating: ***1/2
Goodnights
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
Proposal
mycornerguy
Dru Can See Everything
Weekend Update
Golden Age of Hip-Hop
Wedding Photographers
Monologue
Birthday Girl
Washington in Focus
Post-Midterms
Bubu Mobile
Final Thoughts:
- A pretty fun episode as expected, especially as it went along. Outside of minimal lowlights, this show had a few really strong highlights and nice flow, helped easily by Druski as the host, as he brought the expected high energy and likability you would expect. Outside of Kam being almost shut out, most of the cast had consistent airtime. Sarah and Jeremy probably had the biggest nights (the former partly by pointlessly freezing in the cold open), but we also had solid showings for Ben, JAJ and Andrew. Tommy was solid as well, and we got the best edition of the desk, in my eyes, in quite a good while.
- Druski excelled as host, and as previously mentioned, had such amazing energy and presence that helped the low energy feeling the show is at in recent years. He fit effortlessly in all of his appearances and even felt like a cast member in a few sketches (especially the 10-to-1), which gave the episode a refreshing feeling.
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
Agree with you on She Said Yes being the best sketch of the season so far
A pretty good episode overall, especially the back half. It feels weird saying that this late into the year (feels like the first good episode this season honestly), but I’m happy the show seems to be back in a groove. I think a lot of it has to be attributed to Druski himself as host, who was excellent. I’d been watching out for him since most comedy people are inherently more game as hosts, and he added a natural charisma and a great physicality that injected so much energy into the show. Would love to see him again if possible.
Also, I think the fact we saw Mikey and Kenan pull back in terms of usage was a huge boon to this episode. The previous shows this season had them to almost oppressive levels doing their same tired shtick, and the fact we saw less of them coupled with this episode being legitimately good makes me think the two are related. The show seems more fresh and on top of things when they’re relying on the newer cast members, tons of whom had good nights. Tommy had easily his most exposure yet, Andrew had a few great and solid bits, Saidah is pulling forward in momentum while Grace is keeping hers from the Shane episode, and love to see all the consistent Jeremy usage.
That proposal sketch is easily a new favorite of mine. It’s exactly my kind of bit, where tons of cast members get to flex their muscles and pop in for quick gags. Andrew’s rap was amazing, as was Ben’s ASL gag and Jane on the bagpipes. Druski had a great anchoring performance as the sort of Barry White-esque singer too, easily his best performance all night. The only complaint I have is that seeing Sarah as just the straight man to this stuff is just sad at this point.
There are tons of other good bits to this episode too, though. That You Can See Everything parody was very solid, mostly because of Ben and Jane’s pretty good impressions. Very glad the latter has shaken off a lot of her early rough edges since she’s been pretty consistently good this year. The corner guy commercial was a pretty good use for Tommy, too – I would not mind if he’s the default commercial pitch man going forward. I saw some comparisons of him to Alex Moffat, and I think it’s apt, especially with how underused he is. That wedding photographer sketch, while nothing great (Marcello and Saidah could’ve had more intensity in their reactions) was another good spotlight for Grace. That 10-to-1 went a bit quick but it very much landed for me, it’s like a better version of the Snakeskin sketch from Bill Burr’s s50 episode.
There were some unfortunate lowlights to the episode though. Firstly, I really did not care for the Marcello sketch. It had the vibes of a bad Fred Armisen sketch from this latter era as a cast member, just a bunch of vamping coupled with an extremely annoying character voice. I think this kind of shtick is holding Marcello back at this point, I like when he does more varied roles and this just felt like a backslide for him. Disappointing.
The cold open was unfortunately one I didn’t feel as well. I don’t even mind the actual Trump impression or seeing him in episodes that much, it’s just we seriously need to see the impression in different scenarios instead of just flatly talking to the camera. Plus that Talarico cameo, while receiving a big audience reaction, is one I’m wary of, since there is a whole ton of room for it to age poorly, as do a ton of politicians on SNL. At least they waited until he actually won for this.
Overall, still a good episode. Mulaney’s episode next week will probably be at least decent, though very much hoping they don’t lean on the formula his previous episodes had (did his last episode have all the live sketches be recurring bits?)
“did his last episode have all the live sketches be recurring bits?”
Sadly, yes. Which was a real shame, as everything original that week I thought was absolutely great. I am sure John will be solid this time as well, but besides the musical (which you know they’ll 95% do with how musically able this cast is), I hope we get more interesting, original premises.
Thanks for the great comment, too.
I think with Marcello, you’re missing a lot of little cultural things with him. Every time he plays a Hispanic character, there’s always some stuff there that I think only Hispanics get, and it’s what makes his stuff work for me so well. I mean, even today, he did great work poking fun at Dominican men (not broadly Hispanic guys) and their tendency to dance all the time and act homoerotic with everyone they meet despite being quite bigoted themselves.
This was a few seasons back, but Sabado Gigande (from a Nate Bargatze episode) I remember being a sketch you hated, but a sketch I loved because it so perfectly played into how fucking weird that specific game show is. Obviously I’m not saying he’s the next great comedy legend who’ll be remembered for the rest of time, but Marcello is doing more than just “funny accent” that i appreciate.
And more related to the actual episode, I thought this episode was fantastic! Only stinkers to me really were the Cold Open (obviously), Washington Focus and Wedding Photographers sketch, and even those has little saving graces. The You Can See Everything parody is exactly why I think its fine if SNL sometimes takes a bit to get to something in the zeitgeist: it WORKED. It WORKED so well (and Jane did a great job as Elizabeth Holmes). Seeing Andrew actually on the show made me remember what it felt like to be happy, just good stuff all around.
I feel bad about not liking these types of sketches, and it is probably partly me not getting what Marcello is going for them. I know some enjoy these, and honestly, more power to them. It is just I am not a fan of sketches where a cast member acts erratic as others look at him in boring straight man roles. Fred Armisen did some of these, as did Kristen and before them Kattan, and I never liked any of those sketches. Maybe just a me thing, I dunno.
I do remember loving Age of Discovery and Spanish Class, which had Marcello speaking Spanish the whole time. So, I can get behind these. As for that first Sabado Gigante sketch, truth be told, that whole Nate Bargatze episode I feel I really underrated, and that sketch probably one as well. With that said, it really did not need to have a sequel at all.
Jane has been a wonderful surprise, in spite of somewhat minimal airtime so far into the season. She absolutely killed in almost all of her roles so far into the year. I feel proud of her and appreciative, especially that I was one of the many fans who were dismissive at the start (though, IIRC, I was not as harsh as some openly were early on). I now have much more appreciation of her talents and what she is going for with them. I might feel the same about some of the Marcello sketches I am hating on in recent seasons. That’s the fun thing with SNL, how very much in hindsight it is viewed eventually.
Another great review, as always, Blood.
I liked this one! Which makes it the 3rd episode in a row that worked for me. If Mulaney’s show next week is good, I think it’s safe to say we have finally found our groove.
Druski was fun as expected, and this episode continues my hope that SNL will actually utilize their hosts this season (my biggest issue with the last season was the lack thereof).
The Proposal sketch is definitely my favorite sketch of the season so far. The escalation with the musical number and tons of people coming out was great. This sketch sorta reminded me of the Lawyers sketch from the Amy Poehler episode last season, with a lot of the cast getting involved, and the sketch in general having an infectious energy.
I also enjoyed the other two post-Update sketches. The wedding photographers sketch was a fun physical comedy showcase for Grace, and the rap group sketch was a fun ensemble piece.
I also loved the Dru Can See Everything pre-tape. Wow, I didn’t really put it together in my brain how uncanny Jane would be as Elizabeth Holmes. Druski was great here, and it was nice to see him get a chance to do something up his alley with his Elizabeth Homes impression.
The first half of the episode was a bit shakier than the second half though. The monologue didn’t fully click for me (it was too short, what a surprise). The Fajitas sketch was pretty lame but I really liked the ending. The Marcello phone store sketch was my least favorite sketch in the episode.
I usually like Marcello as a cast member, but this just did NOT work this time around. Thank god Druski was fun in it. It wasn’t out right bad to me, I just felt nothing watching it. My only real laugh was the dumb line with Marcello quickly revealing they didn’t have the phone Jeremy was looking for, then moving on.
I wish I could’ve shared the high feelings you had about Update. Jeremy’s Elon Musk impression was fun (I honestly thought it was sort of all over the place on purpose?), and Ashley and Dismukes were great, once again, as two people who just hooked up. Though I agree that there’s nothing new they can really do with these characters. The jokes were just kind of meh for me this time around. All of the “dark” jokes about Epstein or whatever else just leave me with no feeling at this point. The shock is gone.
Quick observations (Carson-style):
Jane (despite her small amount of appearances in the season so far) seems WAY more comfortable in live sketches this year. That’s really nice to see, since I feel that Jane was the quiet MVP of last season. I like to think that she knew she needed to step it up a bit since this is her first season as a repertory player.
Where is Tommy. Where is he. It’s really sad that this was his best episode of the season so far, and the only thing he sort of carried was being the spokesman in the mycornerguy pre-tape.
Nice to see WAY less Mikey this week. Knock on wood, but I’m hoping it’s like this for the rest of the season (I’d rather him have a Chloe Fineman esque nothing season than a flat out bad one).
Nice to see Saidah have her best night of her tenure so far. Hoping she gets a solo showcase, or an Update commentary before Christmas.
Looking forward to Mulaney next week, as one of the few who really liked his last episode. See ya’ll then!