SNL Cast News

 Just because I’m done reviewing the show doesn’t mean I’m not done talking about it, and just as well, because they just revealed some cast departures for Season 51.

First off, Heidi is out. This wasn’t a surprise, to be honest. I’ve been hearing those rumors all year.

A bigger shock to me is the departure of Michael Longfellow. If you know me, I’ve been complaining forever that they never give him any screentime. But then, I started hearing rumors a few weeks ago that he was being tried out for a potential run as an Update anchor. Wow, that sounds great! I’ve always wanted to see him anchor Update! But nope! Just a few days ago, he suddenly announced that he wouldn’t be coming back. I don’t know if he was fired or if this is a decision he made for himself, but it still sucks.

Devon Walker is also not returning to the show. I was actually expecting this to happen given how little they used him, but it turns out he actually decided to leave on his own. In his Instagram post where he broke the news, he implies that things were a little “toxic” for him backstage. I don’t know what he’s implying, but there might have been some personal reason for him deciding to go.

Lastly, Emil Wakim is also not coming back. This one makes me angry the most. Just when it seemed like things were finally turning around for him after his great performance in the Shane Gillis episode, they quickly went back to underusing him. And this wasn’t a personal decision, either. He implies in his farewell statement that he got a call from somebody telling him he was off the show. If that’s the case, that really sucks. He seemed like a really likable guy.

Of course, none of the people who left were people that I wanted to see gone. As far as I know, Bowen and Chloe are staying. I was hoping Jane Wickline would be going too, but she’s a nepo baby, so that’s not gonna happen.

UPDATE: As soon as I posted this, I saw an article talking about this year’s new cast members. I haven’t heard of any of them, except for one: Ben Marshall, from Please Don’t Destroy, has graduated from the writing staff to a featured player. Unfortunately, this means that the trio has effectively broken up. Martin Herlihy is still a writer, while John Higgins has left entirely.

UPDATE 2: Like clockwork, I’ve already started to see people claim that the show is sexist because only one of the new hires is a woman. I saw one particularly autistic tweet call them a “whole lot of dudes”, as if their gender somehow makes them inferior. But at least they actually hired a new black guy to replace Devon, or else we’d get another one of those Kerry Washington as Michelle Obama situations.

Farewell to SNL (Part 2)

 So, now that I’ve gotten my history with the show out of the way, let’s talk about the highs and lows of my reviews.

Worst Episodes I’ve Ever Reviewed

Martin Short/Hozier (Season 50): Ugh, talk about a major disappointment. I was looking forward to this one because Martin Short is one of my idols and every other time he’s hosted has been awesome. Instead, what I got was a never ending parade of memberberries, rehashed sketches, and, worst of all, Melissa McCarthy’s fat ugly face.

Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (Season 46): The first episode back in the studio after the pandemic hit…and it’s a giant load of ass. You know it’s bad when the only thing that raised so much as a smile from me was when Kate McKinnon got hit in the face in one sketch.

Will Ferrell/King Princess (Season 45): 2019 will forever be marked as the death of Will Ferrell’s career. Not only did his awful film Holmes and Watson win four Razzies, but he also starred in this Godawful piece of shit episode. It could have been just the thing people needed to wash the taste of Holmes and Watson out of our mouths, but instead, Will played second fiddle to a bunch of unnecessary cameos, cameos which actively took up too much time from the show, forcing them to cut out the best sketch of the night. As for the stuff that remained…well, I never want to see that Thanksgiving sketch ever again.

Ariana DeBose/Bleachers (Season 47): The only reason I’m putting this one here is because of one single moment that almost made me want to break the TV. I’m talking about that hideous Elmo commentary that Chloe Fineman did on Update. To this day, it remains the single worst thing I have ever seen at the desk. Yep, even worse than Baby Yoda and The Movie Guy.

Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (Season 49): They should have called this one “Gigglefest 2024”, because that’s all everyone did for 75% of the episode. It all culminated with that stupid, unfunny, overrated Beavis and Butt-head sketch which lasted way longer than it needed to because of all the laughing and caused the highly-anticipated Papyrus II sketch to get cut. 

Amy Schumer/Steve Lacey (Season 48): Nepotism sure is fun, isn’t it? Without it, there’s no way this unfunny, plagiaristic fatass would ever have a career. Normally, the episodes she’s hosted have been fairly unremarkable. But this one reaches a whole new level of crap. In particular, there’s a “joke” she does in her monologue where she insults people with Asperger’s syndrome like myself. That moment right there set a bad tone for the rest of the episode, which was full of some atrocious material.

What’s the worst episode I’ve ever reviewed, you ask? You probably knew this was coming…

Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (Season 46): Without a doubt, this remains one of the lowest points in SNL history. When you’re making the Paul Reiser episode from Season 20 look like a masterpiece, you know it’s bad. Musk himself was a bland, uncharismatic host, but it didn’t help that he had to star in shit like “Gen Z Hospital”, or…*sigh*…that downright hideous Wario sketch…which is one of the worst things I have ever seen on television.

Now let’s look at some of the worst sketches I’ve ever reviewed. I’ll be going through these in seasonal order…

Season 43

Aer Lingus (from Saiorse Ronan): Five minutes of bad Irish stereotypes.

Season 44

Kavanaugh Hearings (from Adam Driver): Taking up airtime with pointless celebrity cameos sure is fun!!!

Bayou Benny’s Liberal Lagniappe (from Seth Meyers): Did you know that people from Louisiana talk funny? That’s the joke! 

Cuban Vacation (from Seth Meyers): Heidi and Seth keep saying “Cooba” over and over and that’s pretty much it.

Season 45

Stargazing (from Kristin Stewart): The only joke here is “durr, the constellations look like they’re having sex!!!” NBC must have thought this sketch was awful too, because it isn’t on YouTube.

The First Thanksgiving (from Will Ferrell): I already briefly mentioned this one earlier, but this has to be one of SNL’s worst attempts at satire ever. I’m still baffled by it all these years later.

White Male Rage commentary (from Adam Driver): Melissa’s Update commentaries were never her strong suit, but the negative reaction this one got from certain sides of the political spectrum is what I believe to be the start of her downfall on the show. She never had the best airtime before this, but in her remaining two seasons, she was lucky enough to even appear in an episode.

Season 46

Vice-Presidential Debate (from Bill Burr): This was the absolute low point of SNL’s election coverage that year. When a fly landed on Mike Pence’s head during the actual debate, there was no way SNL could have avoided talking about that. So, what did they do? They had Fire Marshal Biden inexplicably teleport himself to the debate and it turns into a parody of The Fly for no reason. That is an actual idea that someone came up with for the show. I cannot think of any other debate sketch that comes close to this one in terms of suckage.

Headless Horseman (from John Mulaney): SNL wastes an elaborate set for an extremely juvenile premise…does the Headless Horseman ever use his head to suck his own dick??? Yeah. That’s the joke.

Mario Moments (from Dave Chappelle): Ball jokes are so funny, right guys? Let’s keep doing them for an entire sketch so nobody notices how blatant our product placement is!!!

A Kamala Harris Unity Seder (from Maya Rudolph): All of the Kamala simping this show did was embarrassing as fuck. Until the cameo she made this past season, this was the worst example of the trend, in which she and her husband (Martin Short wasted yet again) host some kind of TV special at their house, and is treated in the most kiss-ass way.

Wario Trial (from Elon Musk): No comment.

Season 47

Squid Game (from Rami Malek): Hey, guys! Squid Game is getting popular, right? Let’s do a shitty song cashing in on it without bothering to understand the show’s message!

Goober the Clown commentary (from Kieran Culkin): Cecily dresses up as a clown and repeatedly dodges the subject of abortion while doing clown things.

Cruz Street (from Jonathan Majors): A right-leaning version of Sesame Street where the joke is that Republicans are KUH-RAYZEE!!!!!

Elmo commentary (from Ariana DeBose): Chloe Fineman is unfunny.

MacGruber (from Will Forte): SNL ruins MacGruber by turning him into a crazy right-wing conspiracy theorist who rejects vaccination and drinks bleach.

Roe vs Wade (from Benedict Cumberbatch): The point they’re trying to make here is that we’d be stuck in medieval times without abortion…or something.

Johnny Depp Trial (from Selena Gomez): Once again, SNL tries and fails to take on a popular news story. In this case, they spend the whole time making juvenile poopy jokes.

Season 48

Grimace (from Miles Teller): Aren’t bisexuals funny, guys???

Joker (from Jack Harlow): Five minutes of the cast constantly saying “Joker” over and over in annoying accents.

Tammy the Trucker commentary (from Amy Schumer): Cecily does a pointless sequel to the clown commentary, but this time she’s a trucker!!!!!

Avatar (from Aubrey Plaza): Boy, those lesbians sure are funny!

Garrett From Hinge (from Travis Kelce): Probably the worst character Bowen has ever done, and this is the same guy who created “Bottle Boi”.

Season 49

Wired Autocomplete Interview (from Pete Davidson): Pete is humiliated for pooping his pants on the airplane. Was this a rejected Jonah Hill sketch?

George Santos cold open (from Emma Stone): I really fucking hate Bowen Yang.

Antisemitism Hearings (from Adam Driver): SNL tries to comment on the bungled response to antisemitism on college campuses, but instead makes the sketch about how WACKY Elise Stefanik is.

ABBA Christmas (from Kate McKinnon): Four of my least favorite cast members take a dump all over classic ABBA songs.

Dune Popcorn Bucket (from Ayo Edebiri): The sketch that marked the beginning of Marcello’s downfall, a pointless meme-referencing song that literally nobody liked.

Hypnotist (from Ayo Edebiri): Some kid who dresses like Julia Sweeney is hypnotized into revealing that he is bisexual. Once again, what does this show have against bisexuals????

Moulin Rouge (from Josh Brolin): More annoying Bowen shenanigans, this time in a parody of a movie that came out 25 years ago!

Beavis and Butt-Head (from Ryan Gosling): The media just went crazy for this sketch for some reason, even though it was just an inferior rewrite of a sketch from six seasons prior.

Doctors (from Ryan Gosling): Bowen and Ryan Gosling waste time by cracking each other up.

Good Morning Greenville (from Dua Lipa): SNL tries to get media attention by doing a sketch about Drake vs. Kendrick. It fails.

British Cavemen (from Maya Rudolph): In which Maya and several others make noises that sound like they have special needs.

Coffee Commercial (from Maya Rudolph): Maya keeps farting. That’s it.

Season 50

Moo Deng commentary (from Jean Smart): Bowen dresses up as a hippo and gets water squirted on him. No further comment needed.

Talk Talk (from Jean Smart): Bowen dresses up in drag and hosts a talk show. No further comment needed.

Both Sàbado Gigante sketches (from Nate Bargatze and Martin Short): Marcello parodies a long-cancelled show because his fangirls will eat up anything he does.

All three Domingo sketches (from Ariana Grande, Charli XCX, and the 50th Anniversary Special): Another annoying Marcello character, except this one randomly blew up on TikTok, to the point that he was getting harassed in real life to do the routine.

Family Bonds (from John Mulaney): A pointless sequel to one of my favorite sketches ever, made even worse when Kenan hijacks it with his overused mugging routine.

Spotify Wrapped (from Paul Mescal): Some ugly fat woman named Trisha Paytas makes an appearance in this Jimmy Fowlie “masterpiece”.

Five-Timer’s Club (from Martin Short): Nine minutes of circle-jerking over how awesome it is to take screentime away from the cast.

Parking Lot (from Martin Short): A perfectly serviceable sketch from Season 48 is rehashed, except this time we have Melissa McCarthy rubbing her fugly face against the window.

Drone commentary (from Martin Short): Bowen acts like an annoying queen while dressed up as a fucking drone.

Nosferatu commentary (from Dave Chappelle): I can’t believe I used to like Sarah Sherman. 

AI Software (from Timothee Chalamet): Timothee and Bowen do annoying things while everyone keeps explaining the “jokes”.

New York Musical (from the 50th Anniversary Special): I’ve hated every single one of these Mulaney Musical sketches, but this one is the absolute worst. It was way too long and had several extremely annoying moments, such as TWO women in drag!

Both Movie Guy commentaries (from Shane Gillis and Walter Goggins): Yet another character from Marcello where the joke is that Hispanic people talk funny.

Mother’s Day (from Walter Goggins): A heartwarming Mother’s Day message is ruined by Trump interrupting it with his unfunny rambling routine again.

Tiny Baby Shoe (from Walter Goggins): Jane Wickline attempts to recreate the success of “The Wishin’ Boot”, but fails because she is a horrible singer and the song isn’t funny.

Service Dogs (from Walter Goggins): PLEASE LAUGH AT THE CUTE DOGS!!!!!

Elevator (from Scarlett Johansson): What if Mike Myers and Kanye West had an awkward conversation with each other??? Too bad SNL already did this premise 20 years ago!!!!

Victorian Ladies At Lunch (from Scarlett Johansson): The final sketch I ever reviewed…and it’s about Victorian women eating disgusting shit.

Farewell to SNL (Part 1)

 My History with SNL

The Beginning

When I was young, the only exposure I had to sketch comedy was via children’s shows such as The Amanda Show and All That. Looking back at them, a lot of the humor has aged poorly (and is downright pedophilic in some places), but they were a great launching point.

I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about Saturday Night Live, but I do remember the first episode I ever saw. From what I remember, my mom and dad were watching clips from the Taylor Swift episode a day after it aired. My brother and I noticed Kenan in some of the clips, and we marveled at the fact that someone we grew up with on Nickelodeon had made it to the big leagues. I can also remember watching clips from the Jennifer Lopez episode around that time as well, and I remember the hoopla surrounding Betty White’s hosting appearance, but that was about it.

Becoming a Fan

Several years passed before I ever thought about SNL again. My true first steps towards becoming a fan of the show came when we all watched the 40th anniversary special when it first aired. I also taped a rerun of the first episode that aired the night before. 

Then, in 2017, I discovered Stooge and Bronwyn Douwsma’s excellent blogs. These were the final catalyst towards my becoming a huge fan of SNL. I started watching regularly beginning with the Saiorse Ronan episode, and I’ve never looked back. By that time, the show was balls-deep in the Trumpwin era with all of the gratuitous cameos and shit. This was a very different show from what I had witnessed just a couple years earlier, but that didn’t matter. I was able to find copies of older episodes to watch.

This brings us to the matter of my own blog. When I started it back in 2016, I just posted whatever the fuck I thought was interesting. But I thought it needed something of more substance, so, after getting inspired by all of the SNL review blogs I was by now very familiar with, I decided to write my own! 

History of My Reviews

Looking back at my oldest reviews, all I can do is cringe. They were written at a time when I had just graduated from high school, and it shows. While I’ve gone back and touched up some of my reviews after posting them to fix things, I’ve mostly left those ones alone to show how far I’ve come.

As the Trump era continued to get worse, so did my sanity while watching it. A lot of my reviews from Season 45 (the first one I watched in full) are full of me getting overdramatic for little to no reason. Example: the J.J. Watt episode, where I spent a large amount of time whining about the numerous sex jokes. This was also when COVID hit, and that also put a damper on my ability to focus on the show.

I nearly contemplated ending my reviews after Season 46, because it was just so awful. I had reached my breaking point with Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant, who still rank among my least favorite cast members of all time. But then, something happened to the show that made me want to stick around…

When I first read about the new additions to the cast for Season 47, I didn’t think much of it initially. We had just come off of Lauren Holt getting fired after a single season of underuse, so what was stopping the show from doing that again with these guys? And then I saw the season premiere…and a certain big-nosed impressionist from Tennessee started to win me over with his solid performances. You know who I’m talking about, right? The one, the only, James Austin Johnson. 

Thanks to him and fellow newbie Sarah Sherman, as well as the new shorts from Please Don’t Destroy, this season had a much fresher atmosphere than the previous few. I can honestly say that Season 47 was the most fun I’ve had reviewing a season.

Alas, it didn’t stay that way for long. Season 48 was looking promising with the arrival of FOUR newbies. Unfortunately, a lot of the material came off as half-assed, and formerly reliable cast members like Kenan and Heidi started getting on my nerves. We’ll never know for sure if it could have gotten better as it went along, because it ended early due to a writer’s strike.

In Season 49, things only got worse. After the Christmas break, it just…fell apart for whatever reason. We saw an increase in the amount of rehashed sketches, pointless cameos, and an odd focus on trashy Internet culture (courtesy of everyone’s “favorite” writer Jimmy Fowlie). It was during this season that I began having thoughts about ending my reviews, but I wanted to give the show another chance for its fiftieth anniversary…boy, was I stupid…

Season 50

I made the decision before starting Season 50 that it would be the end for me, but that my opinion might change if the season turned out to be good. These hopes were quickly dashed when I saw the endless parade of cameos in the first few episodes, all culminating in a pathetic, last-minute appearance from Kamala Harris in the John Mulaney episode that may have cost her the election. 

The actual sketches didn't help much, either. We've gone back to the Season 29/30 route of basing a lot of them on trashy pop culture. I'm talking about shit like the Charli XCX talk show sketch in the premiere or that one where Trisha Paytas showed up for no reason. Oh, and I can't forget about all of the pathetic simping towards the TikTok audience when they brought back Domingo only FOUR episodes after he first debuted.

The Martin Short episode was when it truly set in for me that this season was never going to get better. So many baffling decisions here, including the decision to sideline most of the cast in favor of pointless cameos. 

There was a brief rise in quality around the time of the anniversary special, but this was short lived, and we quickly went back to everything sucking. That’s when I decided once and for all that this season would be my last.

Season 50 overview

 I gotta be honest, that was one of the worst seasons I’ve ever reviewed. We started off on an awful note with some of the worst election coverage ever, featuring a shitload of unnecessary cameos. This all culminated in probably the worst Christmas episode I’ve ever seen.

There was a stretch in the middle where we got some okay episodes like Chappelle and Gillis, but then everything got really bad again. I don’t know if it’s the supervisors to blame, but there is a serious lack of cohesion in the writing staff. I’m not surprised if they end up firing a bunch of people before the next season.

Oh, and I have to bring up the cameos. Every single episode had some sort of cameo in it. We’ve gone back to the hellscape of the Trumpwin years where cast members get shut out all the time due to all of the cameos taking away their scenes, as we saw this year when Mikey lost the Biden impression in favor of Dana Carvey’s corpse.

One last major thing that bugged me about this season was how it didn’t feel like an anniversary season to me. Sure, we got the awesome anniversary special, but other than that, you could put any of these sketches in another season and nobody could tell the difference.

Repertory Players

Mikey Day: Mikey’s time is clearly up. After getting the Biden impression taken away from him, there were a lot of times this year where we barely saw him. Add to that his unenthusiastic performances in most episodes, and you’ve got a cast member who’s just riding out the clock. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though, because we did get some amazing Update commentaries from him near the end of the season. (Best moment: My Best Friend’s House)

Andrew Dismukes: Oh man, Andrew. Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. Once again, he gets my pick for the season’s MVP. In this season of member berries and lame rehashes, it’s good to see someone who always gave 100%. Amazingly, he also appeared in more sketches than anyone else!!! (Best moment: Bald man commentary)

Chloe Fineman: Was Chloe even in this season? Not that I’m complaining, but it seems like all of the roles she would usually have were given to other people. There were even some episodes that she didn’t appear in at all. If this is her last season, then thank the Lord! What a horrible cast member she was!!! (Best moment: NONE!)

Heidi Gardner: I’ve heard so many rumors about this being Heidi’s last season, and if it was, she sure didn’t act like it. This was probably one of her best seasons in a while, getting cast in so many “glue” type roles in sketches. Her Update commentaries are still a problem, but she didn’t appear there as much as she usually does. (Best moment: Office Christmas Party Extravaganza)

Marcello Hernandez: There were a lot of really stupid things he did this year (Domingo, Sàbado Gigante, The Movie Guy), but he also had some surprises here and there, like that sketch he did with Lady Gaga. I’d definitely be happy if he came back again, just as long as he doesn’t bring back Domingo. (Best moment: A Long Goodbye)

James Austin Johnson: JAJ continues to prove how essential he is to the cast. I wish the show would understand that, because there were a lot of episodes in the first half of the season where he barely appeared. There’s also the matter of his Trump impression…dare I say that it’s actually kind of growing on me? (Best moment: The Best of Snake Skin)

Michael Longfellow: I still don’t understand why SNL continues to misuse this wonderful performer. Instead, I’ve noticed that they would much rather make “jokes” about how little he gets used, like the one we got in the finale. (Best moment: TikTok commentary)

Ego Nwodim: Ego is just as good as she’s always been. The lack of Lisa from Temecula certainly helped, as well as her appearances on Update, which were consistently a highlight. (Best moment: Two Bitches vs. A Gorilla)

Sarah Sherman: I’ve run out of things to say about her. While she did a lot less annoying things this season, the edge that she used to have is completely gone now. I miss the bizarre, creepy shit she used to put on the air, but now we have awful audience-pandering moments like her “impression” of Matt Gaetz, and the less said about that fart CPR thing, the better. (Best moment: Friendly’s)

Kenan Thompson: Our eternal cast member was barely a factor this season. At some points, it got depressing how little he was used. On the bright side, I think he did a pretty good job when they actually did use him. Almost like he knows that his time on the show is up, so he’s giving more of a shit. (Best moment: Police Station)

Devon Walker: Poor Devon Walker. Once again, he has the least amount of screentime in the entire cast. What does the show have against this guy? I think he’s really funny whenever we do get to see him, and the Dave Chappelle episode was a great showcase for his talents. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they end up firing him. (Best moment: Evacuation Alert)

Bowen Yang: There were actually quite a few moments this year where Bowen genuinely surprised me. That being said, he also gave us some absolutely wretched material, such as that Charli XCX shit and his drone commentary in the Christmas episode. (Best moment: Trauma Support Group)

Featured Players

Ashley Padilla: As the season went on, Ashley gradually proved herself to be the most talented of the three newbies. By the end, she came off like a series veteran! I can’t wait to see what she does in Season 51!!! (Best moment: Joann commentary)

Emil Wakim: Generally, they only used this guy if they needed Muslim/foreign roles. That sucks, because I see potential for him. (Best moment: Doctor’s Visit)

Jane Wickline: Nepotism sure gets you far, huh? Not a single thing this woman did impressed me. She was barely a factor at all, and most of her lead roles were horrible musical numbers, which just makes me even sadder that they got rid of Chloe Troast. (Best moment: NONE!!!)

Michael Che and Colin Jost: I’ve lost all patience with them. While not official yet, this is most likely their final year behind the desk. If it is, it’s about time, because Update has been on auto-pilot for way too long now. I’m sick of their constant unprofessional giggling and inside jokes. There needs to be a change, and fast.

As for the best and worst episodes of this season, it was really hard for me to pick the best, because so much of it was just awful. But I’ve tried…

Best episodes: Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks, Bill Burr/Mk.gee, Dave Chappelle/GloRilla, Shane Gillis/Tate McRae

Worst episodes: Jean Smart/Jelly Roll, Charli XCX, Martin Short/Hozier, Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire, Scarlett Johansson/Bad Bunny

Best sketches: A Father’s Promise (Cut), My Best Friend’s House (from Grande), Charades With Mom (from Grande), Monica commentary (from Grande), The Hotel Detective (from Grande), Skydiving (from Keaton), Beppo (from Mulaney), Harvey Epstein (from Mulaney), Monologue (from Burr), The Best of Snake Skin (from Burr), Bald Men (from Burr), Thanksgiving Baking Championship (from Charli XCX), Paul Mescal is Daddy (from Mescal), Brilliant Lawyer (from Mescal), Bald Guy commentary (from Rock), Monologue (from Chappelle), Evacuation Alert (from Chappelle), Police Station (from Chappelle), Pop The Balloon (from Chappelle), Medcast (from Chalamet), New Barista Training (from Chalamet), Andrew’s Puppet Dad commentary (from Chalamet), Black Jeopardy (from 50th Anniversary), Anxiety (from 50th Anniversary),  Bill Murray commentary (from 50th Anniversary), Scared Straight (from 50th Anniversary), Monologue (from Gillis), CouplaBeers (from Gillis), Dad’s House (from Gillis), The Sound (from Gillis), Doctor’s Visit (from Gillis), A Long Goodbye (from Gaga), Pip (from Gaga), Lord Gaga (from Gaga), Friendly’s (from Gaga), Jury Duty (from Madison), Joann commentary (from Madison), Mikey Madison Is Squidward (from Madison), Love Match (from Black), One Uppers (from Black), both “Miss Eggy” commentaries (from Black and Johansson), Herpastopper (from Hamm), Icebreaker (from Hamm), Two Bitches vs. A Gorilla (from Brunson), The Greats (from Brunson), Spiderweb commentary (from Goggins), Boss’s Bathroom (from Goggins), Local News Stories (from Johansson)

Worst sketches: Cold Open (from Smart), The $100,000 Pyramid (from Smart), Moo Deng commentary (from Smart), Talk Talk (from Smart), Cold Open (from Bargatze), both Sabado Gigante sketches (from Bargatze and Short), Mile High Burger Challenge (from Bargatze), Bridesmaids (from Grande), Maybelline (from Grande),  The Kamala Interview (from Keaton), ShopTV (from Keaton), TikTok (from Keaton), Cold Open (from Mulaney), Port Authority Duane Reade (from Mulaney), Family Bonds (from Mulaney), Cold Open (from Burr), Rorshach Test (from Burr), Cold Open (from Charli XCX), Babymoon (from Charli XCX), Wicked Auditions (from Charli XCX), It Girl Thanksgiving Special (from Charli XCX), All Male Revue (from Mescal), Spotify Wrapped (from Mescal), Grandpa’s Magic Car (from Rock), Gallbladder Surgery (from Rock), Five-Timer’s Club (from Short), Parking Lot (from Short), Airport Parade (from Short), Weekend Update (from Short), Cold Open (from Chappelle), Immigrant Dad Talk Show (from Chappelle), Nosferatu commentary (from Chappelle), AI Software (from Chalamet), Dog Run (from Chalamet), The Lawrence Welk Show (from 50th Anniversary), Two Best Friends From Who Gives A Fuck commentary (from 50th Anniversary), New York Musical (from 50th Anniversary), both Movie Guy commentaries (from Gillis and Goggins), No More Slay (from Gaga), Big Dumb Line (from Madison), Midwife (from Madison), Planning New York (from Madison), The First Play (from Black), Times Square (from Black), The Cleansing of the Temple (from Hamm), New Parents (from Hamm), Leadership Summit (from Brunson), Ferry Altercation (from Brunson), Barflies commentary (from Brunson), Mother’s Day (from Goggins), Tiny Baby Shoe (from Goggins), Service Dogs (from Goggins), Deathly Diner (from Goggins), Monologue (from Johansson), Couple at the Bar (from Johansson), Elevator (from Johansson), Weekend Update (from Johansson), Intimacy Coordinator (from Johansson), Victorian Ladies At Lunch (from Johansson)

Stay tuned for one last megapost where I look back at my history covering SNL!!!!!

SNL Reviews: Scarlett Johansson/Bad Bunny (5/17/25)

 My final Retro Decimator Quote is…

“Since these seem to be so popular on the internet, I thought I’d try my own. Now, SNL needs no introduction. It was once the greatest comedy in history. Nowadays, it’s no different from the other late-night shows. Is it really as bad as everyone says it is? Let’s start with the first episode I watched all the way through, the one with Saoirse Ronan that aired in December 2017. Each sketch will be rated on a scale of 1 to 5. So, what are we waiting for? As Bob the Builder used to say, ‘Let’s get started!’” (from Saiorse Ronan/U2, 2017)

It’s only fair that I start my final review with the introduction of my first review. Well, let’s get to it…

Cold Open

Trump discusses the Middle East and the end of the season.

• Whew, the last time I ever have to talk about this impression…

• It’s great to see Emil in a lead role right at the beginning of the show. 

• Unfortunately, SNL doesn’t seem to know which country Mohammad Bin Salman is actually the leader of. He’s supposed to be the ruler of Saudi Arabia, but the set designers put up the UAE flag!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!

• Then Trump starts breaking the fourth wall for some reason, as if to mock all of those people who complain about this impression taking up so much screentime.

• I actually really like the part where he goes into the audience and starts flirting with the women seated next to him. That’s a neat way to spice things up. 

• At least this cold open ended on a pretty positive note for me. Why is it positive? Because it’s the last one I ever have to cover!!!

Monologue

Scarlett and the cast perform a song about how special SNL is to them.

• One last musical monologue…yippee…

• The fact that Bowen, Heidi, Chloe, Ego, and Mikey are all front and center here makes me think that this might be their final episode. Pretty sure the line about Sarah leaving is just a joke, though.

• Nice fakeout with Scarlett announcing “Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Joel…wrote this song.” I like Mikey’s disappointed reaction to this.

• They even work in a Q&A bit with Kenan as an old man. This monologue has everything I hate and more!

• Longfellow gets in a nice jab about his lack of airtime, claiming he’s only been in 4 sketches. And just to prove his point, he doesn’t appear again for the rest of the show!

• UGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! There goes another “joke” about how expendable the new cast members are. Why do they keep doing this??!???

• Aside from a couple things I mentioned above, this was an absolutely wretched monologue. The sad thing is that there are people out there who eat this shit up, like all of those lobotomy patients in the YouTube comments.

Sketch: Local News Stories

Anchors of a morning news show use lame puns while reporting stories.

• What is the deal with that intro where Emil sings a parody of a Chappell Roan song? Why is Chappell Roan constantly on the show’s mind this year?!?? 

• I like Kenan saying that his co-anchor gave birth to “something”, which has a number of implications that all unnerve me…

• Okay, this is really strange. This is the third lead role Ashley has gotten this year that involves telling bad jokes.  Is someone in the writer’s room playing a prank on her?

• It takes a little while, but the horrible puns Scarlett makes are gradually getting funnier.

• I especially like the one about the cannibal. 

• Hilarious scene with Devon making a bad pun about a mother whose daughter has been kidnapped.

• Kenan’s line at the end comparing his job to having sex with his wife was probably my favorite part.

• An excellent way to start the episode.

Please Don’t Destroy: First Class

A first class trip with Scarlett is interrupted by Newark news.

• My last Please Don’t Destroy film. They’ve been really hit or miss lately, but I hope I can get one last surprise from them.

• Aaaaaand it’s another musical one. I think I’ve been pretty open about how much I’ve hated most of their musical attempts.

• So far, this isn’t doing much to change my opinion.

• I think this might be better if they got rid of all the music portions and they just focused on the dialogue scenes.

• That being said, I did like the part with Martin sings about having the Lost pilot on his phone.

• Ugh, pointless appearance from Bad Bunny as an air traffic controller.

• Overall, this was a pathetic way for me to end my coverage of these guys. When they first popped up, they were such a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the show, but now, they’re just as stale as everything else.

Sketch: Couple at the Bar

Two couples confront each other at the bar.

• *sigh* Marcello’s doing that accent yet again…

• Great, now we have another Bad Bunny appearance. Get this smug little bastard off of my screen!

• This sketch suddenly turns into a Spanish argument between Bad Bunny and Marcello. Why is fucking Bad Bunny slowly taking over this episode????

• It goes without saying by this point that I am beyond tired of Marcello’s goofy accent shtick. He was doing pretty well for a while, but then he brought back the Movie Guy for no reason last week, and he hasn’t recovered from that.

• God bless JAJ and Andrew for trying to liven things up with their characters. JAJ also ends the sketch on a positive note with an impressive knowledge of Spanish.

Film: Bowen’s Still Straight

Scarlett flirts with Bowen.

• I take issue with Ego referring to Longfellow as “creepy”.

• You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Now we have an unnecessary sequel to that film about Bowen being straight from last season?!?? Must this show ruin every sketch I like????

• Scarlett is nowhere near as good as Sydney Sweeney was in the first one.

• Because this show hates us, there are two cameo appearances in this sketch, making this the first season since 43 to have a cameo in every single episode. Jesus Christ. I thought they’d learned their lesson, but apparently not.

• Unsurprisingly, they throw in a cameo from Colin. That’s three episodes in a row that he’s appeared outside of Update.

Sketch: Elevator

Mike Myers has an awkward elevator ride with Kanye West.

• Mike Myers again? Don’t worry, he’s only playing himself this time. Why? You’ll see…

• After about a minute, Kenan suddenly enters as…*sigh*…Kanye West. WHYYYYYYYY?????????

• First of all, Kenan looks and sounds absolutely nothing like Kanye. Why couldn’t they let Devon play him?

• Second, why are they doing this now, in 2025? The incident with Mike and Kanye happened almost 20 years ago (Christ, I’m old…). And you wanna know something else??? They already DID a parody of it right after it happened when Kanye was a musical guest in the Season 31 premiere!!! So not only is this extremely out of date, it’s something that they already did better when it was still current! Who is this even for????

Musical Performance: “NUEVAYoL”

Weekend Update (featuring Ego Nwodim)

• I really, really, really hope this is the last episode for Colin Jost and Michael Che. If it’s not, then at least this is the last time I have to cover them.

• Enough with the Trump loves McDonald’s jokes!!!!

• I am so tired of these bozos cracking up at their own jokes. The extended laugh breaks often cause Update to last even longer than it should.

• Another stand-up commentary from Ego, because her last one was such a hit.

• While this is somewhat of a rewrite of the last one, Ego is still giving this her all.

• I’m amazed they let her (and Colin) get away with saying “Shut your gay ass up!”

• If this ends up being Ego’s final episode, at least she went out on a high note.

• Hideous joke about Stephen Hawking.

• The ONLY joke I laughed at from the anchors was Colin’s joke about some Amazon driver taking a shit on someone’s porch.

• Well, it’s the end of the season, and you know what that means…time for another joke swap. After the horrors of the last one, I’m sensing that this one won’t be any better.

• I noticed that Colin stumbles a bit when he says “season finale”. Hmmm, was he about to say something else???? Like, maybe this is his final episode as well? I hope!!!

• Shock of shocks, Colin just told a racist joke about black people…yay…

• Che just made an anti-white joke…double yay…

• We get our obligatory Scarlett appearance. 

• Stooge, if you’re out there, and by some miracle happen to come across this review, just be glad you don’t have to watch this. 

• IT’S FINALLY OVER!!!!!! I NEVER HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THESE TWO CHUCKLEUCKS AGAIN!!!!!!

Sketch: Intimacy Coordinators

Two intimacy coordinators have no idea how lesbians make love.

• What in the world is an intimacy coordinator anyway? The only other place I’ve ever heard of one was in that one sketch when Rege-Jean Page hosted a few years ago.

• I don’t know why Mikey keeps saying “sowwy”, but it’s kind of funny. I’m really gonna miss talking about him.

• Sarah’s character is non-binary for no apparent reason. Hey, remember when you guys hired a non-binary cast member to be on your show, only to treat them like shit and fire them after you got all the press you wanted???? That was awesome.

• What am I even watching here? Kenan doesn’t know how lesbians have sex??? What are they trying to imply?

• All of these penis euphemisms are so juvenile and unfunny. I was shocked to discover that the Please Don’t Destroy guys wrote this.

Sketch: TV Takes

TV stars are forced to answer uncomfortable questions about themselves.

• A sequel to a sketch from the Anya Taylor-Joy episode…which was FOUR seasons ago. What is with this season and bringing back old-ass sketches???? And, once again, it’s a sketch that I didn’t even like before!

• “Danny Cheeks”??? I see Sublette has gone back to his old dirty name routine.

• Said character is played by Marcello, who is being treated like some kind of mega-popular star that everyone loves. Ugh…

• I feel kind of sorry for Sarah being cast as someone who is “ugly”. This may sound kinda weird, but I’ve always found her much more attractive than any of the male cast.

• Jane Wickline sounds so bored. What a diverse cast member.

• I just want to punch Bowen here. He sounds so smug and unlikeable.

• In a season full of unnecessary rehashed sketches, that had to have been one of the worst.

Musical Performance: “Perfumito Nuevo”

Sketch: Victorian Ladies at Lunch

Proper ladies dine on repulsive food.

• Well, this is it…my final sketch as a reviewer…aaaaaaaand it’s a pointless piece of shit where Victorian women eat disgusting garbage.

• Let me take one final moment to say how much I hate Kent Sublette (and his buttbuddy James Anderson for that matter). As soon as I heard the accents and saw the premise, I knew this had to be his work. Sure enough, it was.

• Not even Andrew and his hilarious voice are enough to salvage this.

• It’s kind of sad, really. My final episode as a reviewer ends, not on a high note, but on a wet fart. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Final thoughts: The nightmare is finally over! With the exception of that news sketch early on, I hated every single thing about this episode. So many rehashes and awful premises, you name it, this episode had it. I didn’t even mention Scarlett Johansson, because she was just kind of there. How did this woman even make it to the Five-Timers Club when a good chunk of her episodes are absolute shit?

Best sketches: Local News Stories, Ego’s commentary

Worst sketches: Monologue, Couple at the Bar, Elevator, Weekend Update (except Ego), Intimacy Coordinator, Victorian Ladies at Lunch

Coming up will be my Season 50 overview, and after that, a special farewell post!!!!

SNL Reviews: Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire (5/10/25)

 Today’s Retro Decimator Quote is…

“Before any of the candidates show up, we get a gratuitous cameo from some guy named Billy Porter. I had no idea who he was when I first saw this, but then I found out that he’s a guy who likes wearing dresses. Yeah....” (from David Harbour/Camila Cabello, 2019)

Cold Open: Mother’s Day

A heartwarming Mother’s Day message from the cast…or is it???

• I love when they do these Mother’s Day messages. It’s fun seeing the cast’s parents.

• What the fuck???? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Why did they have to have Trump interrupt this?!!???? Fuck you, SNL! I was actually enjoying where this was going!!!!! But you just had to throw him in for the hell of it!!!! I hate it! I HATE IT!!! I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• And, just to mock me even more, they throw in Cecily as Jeanine Pirro for no apparent reason other than “look, member Cecily???? Ooooooh, I member!!!!” 

• TLDR: SNL sucks and I’m glad there’s only one more cold open left for me to review.

Monologue

Goggins talks about Mother’s Day and his being a sex symbol.

• Who the fuck names their kid “Walton”? That sound like an old prospector’s name or something.

• I kinda liked his blunt admission that his character in The White Lotus dies.

• I really hope that Cosmopolitan article (“Are We All Horny for Walton Goggins’ Receding Hairline?”) is fake, because I can’t imagine anybody genuinely finding this guy hot. He looks like the creepy guy you see at the back of the subway.

• Oh, okay, that Yahoo! headline is definitely fake, so I’m assuming the Cosmopolitan one is as well.

• I like the soft-shoe number he performs with his mom.

Sketch: Second Amendment

A look back at the writing of the Second Amendment.

• Uh-oh, a historical sketch. I have no idea why these are so popular with everyone else.

• JAJ is perfectly cast as a Founding Father.

• Looks like we’re in for some anti-gun commentary here…

• No, we don’t get that, but we do get a lot of really dumb shit, along with portraying the Founding Fathers as dudebros.

• It’s hard for me to pin down exactly why I’m not a fan of this sketch. Nothing about the performances is particularly bad (in fact, Walton’s doing a great job), but I find it all…boring. Surely the next sketch can’t be any worse…

Film: Tiny Baby Shoe

I love nepotism!

• This should be titled “Please like Jane Wickline, you guys!!!!”

• WTF even is this song so far??? Singing about a tiny shoe in a heavily Auto-Tuned voice, with “wacky” props and all that? Who comes up with this shit?!?

• This feels like a rip off of the classic “Wishin’ Boot” song with Blake Shelton. The difference is that Shelton can actually sing, and the song was actually…you know, heartwarming.

• Goggins appears as a man with tiny Dooneese-esque feet…which is honestly kind of disturbing.

• Now we’re getting into jokes about tiny penises.

• I kinda liked Sam Rockwell’s random appearance as a balloon vendor with even tinier feet.

• I’m sure Jane Wickline is a nice person behind the scenes and all that, but she just doesn’t fit on SNL at all. Send her back to TikTok or wherever the Hell she originally came from, because she’s clearly not working, and this lame Wishin’ Boot knockoff is further proof of that.

Sketch: Mother’s Day Brunch

A waiter gets flirty during brunch.

• Kind of ironic how both this sketch and the preceding film take place in Central Park. 

• There’s a dude in the background who kinda looks like Beetlejuice from The Howard Stern Show.

• Are most of the sketches just going to be people fawning over Walton? I hate these kinds of episodes.

• Throw in some Mikey Reacts, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for blandness.

Sketch: Service Dogs

Canines are bored by a dramatic play.

• NOOOOO!!!! Not another dog sketch!!!! Why do they keep doing this?!???

• The Southern accents are a dead giveaway that Kent Sublette wrote this. 

• Walton: “Sorry to break character, but I do notice that the dogs keep leaving.” No fucking shit!!!! We can see that with our eyes!!!

• What a criminal waste of Longfellow’s talents.

• Bowen certainly isn’t helping matters with his usual shtick.

• You gotta be kidding me with the dog checking his watch. This feels like a rejected Carol Burnett sketch.

• No comment on the ending where Walton’s character kisses his own sister (which Jane “helpfully” points out in case we’re blind).

• How did this even make it on the air? Was this a slow week in the writer’s room?

Musical Performance: “Pink Elephant”

Weekend Update (featuring The Movie Guy, A Guy Who Just Walked Into A Spiderweb, and Dianne)

• Since this was the first episode after the election of the new Pope, we’ve got a lot of anti-Catholic jokes here.

• I laughed at the Harry and Meghan joke.

• Oh, fuck you, Che! You just had to sneak in a pedophile priest joke, didn’t you?!??? I hate you so much!!!

• Fuck, not “The Movie Guy” again!!!

• He’s going through the same jokes as before, and his accent is even more cartoonishly offensive.

• This part about “Carly Sohandsome” (Scarlett Johansson) is hacky as fuck, but I did get a genuine laugh from Marcello joking that he’s married to Rihanna.

• Ugh, they even recycle his obsession with cartoon characters, except this time he’s talking about “Gary Fields” (Garfield).

• Marcello hasn’t been doing too bad these last few episodes, but this is a huge step back for him.

• The Rosa Parks joke was actually pretty great.

• There’s not one, not two, but THREE jokes about airplanes in this!!!!

• Mikey’s brief spiderweb commentary is so stupid, but really funny and committed. You can tell this is something he’s been trying to get on for a while.

• This Heidi commentary was cut from last week’s show, and after seeing it, I can understand why. It’s more of the same bootleg Kristen Wiig garbage she’s been doing on Update for the past three seasons.

Sketch: The Deathly Diner

A couple takes their kids to a horror-themed restaurant.

• Well, here’s yet another restaurant sketch for this season!!!

• Some nice set design here.

• I like that Ashley has another big role!

• It seems like they’re trying to recreate the success of that Friendly’s sketch from the Lady Gaga episode. 

• Unlike the Friendly’s sketch, this is NOT the right way to use Bowen. He’s gone back to his unfunny camp antics.

• Something about this sketch felt off to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I saw someone in the comments claim that this sketch might have been meant to promote some “spooky” restaurant at Universal’s new Epic Universe park in Florida. 

• We end on a pointless appearance from Kenan’s overused old man shtick.

• This was just a sorry attempt at replicating the Friendly’s sketch. Not only was it not disturbing at all, they forgot to add actual jokes to it. When am I going to find a sketch in this episode that’s actually good???

Musical Performance: “Year of the Snake”

Saturday Night Live Midnight Matinee: Boss’s Bathroom

A man makes an uncomfortable discovery in his boss’s bathroom.

• Please save this episode, Dan Bulla!!!!!!

• Great to see Andrew as a lead in this one.

• Not sure if it’s intentional, but I love the Shining vibe of the scene where Andrew enters the bathroom.

• I love the random closeups of the foot stool.

• Things are gradually getting more disturbing each time we cut to the bathroom. That shot of Sarah screaming on the toilet is honestly pretty creepy.

• The random caveman part was great, especially Sarah pleasuring her private areas with water.

• I like how they kind of keep it ambiguous at first as to whether or not Andrew is hallucinating all of this, but then he finds a creepy worm that we saw in the caveman scene and he jumps out of the window!

• It’s great to see that Dan Bulla has still got it! I’m sad that this is the last one of these I’ll be covering (assuming they keep doing these in Season 51).

• The card at the end has been changed again, with Pip being added.

Cut for Time: Amazing Anna

Toy company employees come up with ideas for a talking doll.

• This sketch was apparently written for the Travis Kelce episode. I’m guessing that the line about tariffs was not in that version.

• Chloe has barely been on lately. It’s safe to say that her time on the show is up…to which I say, YAY!

• The premise and general “zoomer” vibe I’m getting from this makes me think that Jimmy Fowlie has something to do with it.

• Walton is getting some laughs from his voice for the doll, but this sketch is just so damn repetitive.

• Oh, and we randomly end on a joke about some gay kid being a fan of the doll. Now I know for sure that Jimmy Fowlie wrote this!

Final thoughts: *sigh* That episode was brutal as fuck. I didn’t like a single thing in the first half of the episode. While we had Mikey’s commentary on Update, and Dan Bulla shined as usual, most of this was completely forgettable and occasionally frustrating. What a poor waste of Walton Goggins, who was trying his best to save this episode. But, do you know what the best thing is??? I have only one more episode to review!!!!

Best sketches: Spiderweb commentary, Boss’s Bathroom

Worst sketches: Cold Open, Tiny Baby Shoe, Service Dogs, The Movie Guy commentary, Deathly Diner

Next review: Scarlett Johansson/Bad Bunny. Just one more to go!!!!

SNL Reviews: Quinta Brunson/Benson Boone (5/3/25)

 Today’s Retro Decimator Quote is…

“The Trump parallels are so embarrassingly obvious. As soon as Will’s character said that he hopes the chief ‘builds that wall’, I immediately knew where the rest of this was headed. Then it gets even more embarrassing when he reveals that he gets his news from...a fox. GET IT? ‘CAUSE TRUMP GETS ALL HIS NEWS FROM FOX NEWS!!! DUH-HUH, WE’RE SO FUNNY!!!! And in case you didn’t get it, he says that the rest of the family gets their news from a peacock. LIKE NBC!!!! GET IT??!!!???” (from Will Ferrell/King Princess, 2019)

This is, without a doubt, one of the worst sketches I’ve ever reviewed. I still have no idea what they were going for with this one. 

Cold Open: Executive Orders

President Trump signs many executive orders.

• Opening up with a text crawl…this is gonna suck.

• I actually got a genuine laugh from Trump talking about how Elmo has been apprehended by ICE, and that it was brought to us by the letter “L”, for “El Salvador”.

• We get “spooky” music when Mikey enters as Stephen Miller? How scathing! At least it’s better than portraying him as a snake like they did that one time.

• Trump just mentioned Kylo Ren! It’s funny because he would have never seen those movies!!!

• Another surprise laugh from me when Trump mentions Childish Gambino as an example of an Italian-American.

• Nice slam at Bill Belichick.

• Again with the Marco Rubio shit? Please stop it!!!

• Overall, your usual Trump shit, even though I laughed a frighteningly large number of times.

Monologue

Quinta sings about being short.

• Our 1,000th musical monologue of the season. Sheesh, is it Season 36 again? 

• At least there’s some hot gals as backup dancers instead of using the cast.

• What the fuck is with all of the Sabrina Carpenter shilling lately? I hate it!!! Can we go at least one episode without a pointless cameo????

• Make that TWO pointless cameos, because now we have Dwayne Wade for some reason.

• Pointless Marcello appearance to make the TikTok fan girls in the audience happy.

Sketch: Will & Todd’s Radical Experience

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman refuse to go back in time.

• A Bill and Ted parody in 2025? I fail to see the point. I also don’t understand why they couldn’t use the actual names.

• Andrew and Marcello are at least perfect in these roles.

• I agree with Jesse Nathan’s opinion that Chloe’s Queen Elizabeth voice is terrifying.

• What is Mikey going for with that Italian accent? Guess we can add that to the list of accents he can’t do!

• As soon as I saw Douglass and Tubman, I knew what the joke of this sketch was going to be.

• I certainly understand the point they’re trying to make here, but is a Bill and Ted parody really the best outlet for racial commentary?

• I feel like we’ve barely seen Devon lately. 

• Epic special effect failure at the end where the smoke from the time machine gets cut off by the background layer.

Fake Ad: OnlySeniors

An elderly couple tells their children about their new life insurance policy…a seniors’ version of OnlyFans.

• Uh…what a concept…

• Quinta’s performance is really good.

• The scenes of old people getting freaky with each other are honestly kind of disgusting.

• I thought I would like this more than I did, but it was a little too bland and focused way too much on the shock value.

Sketch: Leadership Summit

Product pitches go haywire. 

• Emil with a lead role!!!

• The way some of the characters are dressed is giving me bad vibes…

• I don’t get all of this sandwich talk.

• Kenan’s horrible wig made me think that this was Jimmy Fowlie’s work, but, apparently, the Please Don’t Destroy guys wrote it.

• Stop trying to make Marcello and Kenan a duo, SNL. It ain’t funny!

• Bowen brings back that horrible doctor character he played in that cookie sketch with Ryan Gosling. All you need to know is that this character still isn’t funny.

• Definitely a contender for one of the worst sketches of the season.

Sketch: Ferry Altercation

I love rehashes! Do you love rehashes?

• Yep, that’s right! We’ve got yet another installment of this sketch that only worked the first time!

• Maybe this would have worked better if we didn’t already get an unnecessary reprisal of this sketch in the Martin Short episode?

• The dialogue is basically all rewritten from the original version, with Chloe’s “You suck!” line being changed to “You’re nuts!”, which isn’t nearly as funny.

• Random appearance from Colin at the end as himself. You see, the joke is that he has a ferry in real life, so let’s put him on this ferry! LOL XD!!!!!!!

• Man, this episode is just killing me so far.

Fake Ad: Forever 31

The clothing line that keeps you at 31 years old,

• Guys, you do realize that Forever 21 is gone now, right?

• Nothing too special so far, but I am getting some eye candy, so at least there’s that.

• Nice shot of Ashley in a giant David Byrne-esque suit.

• Heidi: “I make Diane Keaton…look like a prostitute.”

• The Jeff Probst line from Ashley was pretty funny.

• So far, this is the most tolerable thing I’ve seen in this episode.

Sketch: Two Bitches vs. A Gorilla

Two “bitches” attempt to ward off a gorilla.

• Not another text crawl opening…

• This is different. A sketch shot entirely from someone’s POV? You don’t see that every day.

• This ghetto humor is kind of old hat by this point, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh at the GloRilla line, and there is a certain uniqueness to this premise.

• LOL at James’ zookeeper character and his Ronald Reagan wig.

• Did some of that fake poop land in Ego’s mouth? Ewwwww…..

• Ego: “Imma bout to beat the Gorilla Glue outta you!”

• Nice gravestone at the end: “Two Bitches: They Ain’t Even Do Nothin”

• For some reason, this stupid sketch actually made me laugh harder than anything else so far. 

Musical Performance: “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else”

Weekend Update (featuring Michael Longfellow and Two Applebee’s Barflies)

• I love the fake photo of Colin as Queen Elizabeth.

• That Kanye joke was so lame.

• Ah, another Longfellow commentary to provide us some relief.

• He gets in a jab about how little he’s been used this year.

• While not his best material, his interplay with Colin is good as always. Too bad this is the last Longfellow commentary I’ll get to cover.

• We’ll be getting a lot of Diddy jokes for the rest of the season. The one Che just told was very funny.

• Jesus Christ, what is with all of these “jokes” about killing animals??? 

• *groan* Bowen and Sarah again?!!??? Didn’t we just have them on last time? I am not looking forward to this pairing at all.

• You’ve gotta be kidding me with this shit. The annoying voices, the muggy performances, the corpsing, this is everything I complain about with these two rolled into a single commentary.

Sketch: Addicts Anonymous

A man freaks out during his AA meeting. 

• Hmmm, I’m liking this performance from Kenan. It’s a subtler, more emotional performance that we’re not used to.

• Why is Mikey so perfect as a drug addict?

• I like Kenan referring to cocaine as “booger sugar”. 

• The ending was a little abrupt, but, overall, this is one of Kenan’s best performances in a long time.

Musical Performance: “Mystical Magical”

Sketch: The Greats

An overlooked boxer named Jerry “Jackrabbit” Tulane is profiled on a sports documentary program.

• My first laugh came from JAJ’s ridiculous glasses.

• Seeing Quinta in drag as a boxer makes me weary, but let’s give it a chance.

• Turns out my fears about her being in drag were unfounded, because as soon as she started talking, I was on board.

• Longfellow has the perfect voice for this old-timey setting.

• This reminds me of that sketch from the episode Conan hosted in Season 26 where he played a boxer who kept getting beaten up.

• Quinta: “He’s so ugly that he went to the zoo and they charged him rent!”

• I like the casual mention of Quinta’s character getting busted for pedophilia.

• Great bit of realism with how Quinta is so battered by the end of the sketch that she can barely speak coherently.

• While not as iconic as the aforementioned Conan sketch, this is definitely a highlight of this weak episode.

Final thoughts: Man, these last few episodes have been killing me. And from what I remember of the next two, it looks like my tenure isn’t going to end on the best note.

Best sketches: Two Bitches vs. A Gorilla, The Greats

Worst sketches: Monologue, Leadership Summit, Ferry Altercation, Barflies commentary

Next review: Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire