Cold Open
Unfunny shenanigans happen during the Super Bowl pre-game show.
• Refreshing to see a non-political cold open for once. Too bad it has to be about something I have no interest in.
• I am familiar enough with James Brown to know that Kenan looks and sounds nothing like him. Also, they make a predictable joke where he has to clarify that he’s not the singer of the same name.
• Chris Redd’s wig as Nate Burleson made me chuckle when I first saw it.
• The Nickelodeon slime joke fell totally flat.
• The BLM commercial turning into an ad for Cheez-It made me laugh.
• A Pizzagate joke in 2021? Lame.
• Good lord, I hated that Budweiser Frogs scene.
• Aidy Bryant shows up as Chiefs coach Andy Reid, and then again as the Buccaneers’ coach Bruce Arlens. Jesus, they really are trying to turn her into the next Kate McKinnon.
• The live airing of this sketch had a few problems with the on-screen graphics. This seems to have been fixed for the online version.
Monologue
Dan Levy gives a tour of SNL’s COVID-friendly backstage area.
• Levy looks psyched to be hosting.
• He’s telling some really groanworthy COVID jokes.
• I was actually enjoying this somewhat until we get some lame prop comedy with a “security officer” keeping Dan away from the audience.
• When he walks backstage there’s a cute moment when he points at a portrait of Catherine O’Hara (who plays his mom on Schitt’s Creek) and says, “I think I know this lady.” But then that gets ruined by that annoying safety officer hitting him again.
• We get our traditional backstage llama sighting in the scene with Kenan.
• And now, the moment I was waiting for, Eugene Levy returns to the show for the first time since a brief cameo in 1985. He was supposed to host that year before a writer’s strike cancelled those plans.
• Unfortunately, Eugene is stuck saying his lines inside of a glass box. This is only the second time he’s appeared on the show, and he’s not even allowed to interact with his son? That’s just downright evil! Despite that, however, it’s great to see him here again.
• I really wanted to like this monologue, but it got ruined by all of the retarded COVID jokes.
Sketch: Universal Studios Tram Tour
Corporate synergy to the max!
• A big groan from me when I saw that this takes place on the Universal lot. Can we go at least one episode without shilling for the boss?
• The fact that Mikey plays the lead role in this sketch is an obvious indication that he wrote it. Uh oh, I guess that means we can expect a lot of explaining the jokes.
• Ego is wasted with a role where we can only see the back of her head.
• Very random how Dan’s character is named “Thoby”.
• Blatant research failure where they claim that the live-action Flintstones movie came out in 1993 (it was 1994). Also, I thought for sure that the online upload would remove the B-52s’ song playing during this part, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
• Some tasteless child molesting jokes about Back To The Future (don’t ask).
• I find it unintentionally funny how the background footage doesn’t match up with what the tour guides are describing. For example, Mikey starts talking about Jurassic Park, but they appear to be going through the Jaws area of the tour. Trust me, I’m a big movie backlot nerd, so I know what I’m talking about.
• It’s really dumb, but I laughed at Dan’s “lesbian dinosaur” joke.
• Not gonna lie, that’s a pretty damn good Gru impression from Asian Terry Sweeney. I also got a laugh from the ridiculous prosthetic nose he’s wearing.
• Another funny background mismatch when Mikey points out the King Kong attraction, but they are clearly going through the Colonial Street part of the backlot (the area where The Munsters’ house is). This is then followed by a horrible joke about Dan losing his virginity.
• While not as terrible as I remembered, this was still pretty bad. I don’t think it belongs on my Worst Sketches list anymore.
Film: Zillow
The only website to fulfill your sexiest desires: Zillow.com!
• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I hate how SNL has slowly transitioned from creative ads for fake products to lame ads for real products. I’m not too familiar with Zillow, but is it really this “sexy”?
Sketch: Super Bowl Pod
A group of friends tell each other the many ways they’ve been staying safe from COVID-19.
• Nice to see Chris Redd in another big role. Usually he’s lucky to just get one appearance.
• This sketch is devolving into a bunch of lame gay jokes. We’re still resorting to this type of humor in 2021?
• It’s rather surprising that this is only the first time Kate McKinnon has appeared in the episode. Unfortunately, it’s another appearance from her creepy Fauci impression. Ugh.
• Pointless appearance from Asian Terry Sweeney as Psy. Maybe that joke would have worked in 2012, but not here.
Sketch: Lifting Our Voices
A BET show that highlights some of the Black community’s “white allies”.
• Good Lord, Kenan’s doing that one voice yet again.
• I like the randomness of TNT’s Ernie Johnson being an example of a “white ally”.
• Some surprising restraint from this sketch not directly coming out and saying that all white people are bad. I guess one reason for that would be that Michael Che is not credited as one of the writers.
• I like Punkie Johnson’s character in this, especially the line about her white classmates wearing cornrows looking like they just got back from a Jamaican cruise.
• Second sketch in a row with a big role for Chris Redd! I love his performance in this.
• That photoshopped picture of Dan with Tupac is hilarious.
• Another laugh from the brief joke about Dan’s John Lewis tattoo actually being a tattoo of Al Roker.
• Kyle Mooney is killing it as his ally character. The creepy ways he refers to his wife’s skin color are great, and so is the disturbing painting he made of the two of them.
• I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed this sketch the second time around. It was kept at the right length, and didn’t get too political.
Musical Performance: “Kyoto”
Weekend Update (featuring Janet Noonan and Lowell Fitzroy, and TwinsTheNewTrend)
• Christ, YET ANOTHER GODDAMN JOKE ABOUT MITCH MCCONNELL HATING KIDS!!!! Please stop it!
• Tasteless joke about Stevie Wonder “pretending” to be blind, followed by a tasteless 9/11 joke.
• Mikey and Heidi debut these new characters who “cancel” children. I want to like this concept, but the fact that it centers around insulting children makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
• Yet another big role for Chris Redd, this time as part of a commentary where he and Kenan play these two teenagers who react to songs they’ve never heard of before. This could be promising…
• I’m surprised they left this commentary in for the online upload, since it’s about them reacting to popular songs.
• This actually isn’t too bad. I love the voice Redd is using for his character.
• The line where he confuses NBC for STDs (it makes sense in context) was funny.
• I cringed when they started playing “Baby Shark”, but their reactions to it afterwards more than made up for that.
• I like the random choice of the Meow Mix jingle being one of the songs they react to.
• An even more hilarious part where they react to the Alphabet Song, and say that every kid should hear it.
• We end on a funny meta reference with them listening to the SNL theme song.
Sketch: Hot Damn
When the TV breaks at a bar, two bartenders try to entertain everyone else by singing a popular football song.
• This is Cecily’s only live sketch all night (she was also in that pre-taped Zillow commercial from earlier).
• This is another installment of those awful Anderson/Sublette sketches where characters try to get their friends to sing a non-existent song. All of these sketches suck, and this one is no exception.
• Kenan has a good line after saying that he doesn’t remember the song: “I remember what you just did, and I will remember dat for a while!”
• Levy’s singing voice is nice, I have to admit.
• And there’s the usual ending to these, where it turns out that “OMGZ WE ACTUALLY DO KNOW THIS SONG!!!” One minor difference this time is that it takes Kenan longer than the others to realize that he knows it, even looking it up on Google and finding results for a song by Clipse.
Sketch: Wedding Friends
Two friends (Levy, McKinnon) try to stop a bride (Ego Nwodim) from making a big mistake.
• This is only McKinnon’s second appearance in the episode, and she spends all of it mugging for the camera.
• Wow, Mikey’s been all over this episode! In this one, he plays the groom, whose only role is to react to all of the CRAZY characters around him.
• A boring sketch, and Kate just made this unbearable for me to watch.
Musical Performance: “I Know The End”
Film: It Gets Better
A campaign video for LGBT people shows how its participants’ lives improved as they got older.
• Figures that they’d put Asian Terry Sweeney, Kate McKinnon, Punkie, and Dan in this sketch.
• Funny line from Asian Terry Sweeney about how straight people don’t bully him anymore. Now it’s just gay people.
• I don’t know what the running joke with Kate and her pet iguana is all about.
• Are those photos they’re showing actually of them when they were younger?
• I wanted to like this sketch, but the whole iguana thing ruined it for me.
Final thoughts: Another bland episode. While we did get that surprisingly good BET sketch, everything else was bad as usual. Dan Levy was a great host, though, and I’d like to see him come back again.
Best sketches: Eugene Levy’s cameo, Lifting Our Voices, TwinsTheNewTrend commentary
Worst sketches: Universal Studios Tram Tour, Super Bowl Pod, Hot Damn, Wedding Friends
Next Review: Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff, an episode so boring that I nearly gave up reviewing because of it.
Seriously, though, what is the deal with that fucking iguana sketch?
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