Cold Open: Michigan Election Hearing
Rudy Giuliani tries to prove to the Michigan court that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
• No further comment on the return of Giuliani.
• This is the first episode of the entire season that Cecily Strong appears in. She missed the previous six as she was in Vancouver filming her new show, “Schmigadoon!”, which, with a title like that, I’m sure it’s going to fail.
• Unfortunately, I can’t say I’ve missed her presence, because her voice in this sketch is very annoying.
• Speaking of annoying voices, Heidi Gardner’s redneck character is a pain to listen to.
• Now we get the debut of Beck Bennett’s horrible Mike Lindell impression. It’s terrible and it isn’t impressing anyone.
• Lauren Holt is wasted yet again with a mostly silent role, but at least she gets to do her first “Live From New York” at the end.
• A horrible cold open. Probably one of the worst of the season.
Monologue
Jason Bateman remembers getting attacked by a monkey in his previous appearance on the show.
• An interesting variation of what some fans call the “Carlin Line”, where a returning host says something along the line of “I did such a good job (X) years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back!” This time, after telling us his last appearance was 15 years ago, Jason says, “Obviously I made quite an impression.” I find this particular variation funny because of how awful that episode was, so it’s like he’s implying that they never invited him back because of that.
• The real meat of the monologue comes when he remembers the story of a sketch he was in called “Monkeys Throwing Poop At Celebrities”, which, despite the stupid sounding title, was actually one of the better sketches from that night. The monkey in that sketch was a real adult male chimpanzee. At the end of the show, during the goodnights, he tried to bite Jason’s face off. Jason proves that he’s not making this up by showing footage of it. It’s hilarious to see it again, and it’s also nice to see all of the old cast members (and a younger Kenan) in it as well, particularly Rachel Dratch and her reaction to the monkey’s antics.
• Funny twist at the end where Jason says the monkey was “destroyed” later that night.
• My second review in a row with a surprisingly good monologue. I always like it when a returning host talks about their past experiences on the show.
Sketch: Sleepover
A dad (Bateman) tries to find out who stained the couch during his daughter’s sleepover.
• This sketch from last season’s Adam Driver episode becomes recurring, with Jason taking over as the father.
• I honestly don’t know why they brought this back, as the first one wasn’t even that good.
• This is exactly the same as the last one, except this time there are some gross jokes about women having periods. Did Amy Schumer write this?
Film: Stu
In a parody of “Stan” by Eminem, Santa (Bateman) receives letters from an insistent fan.
• Not another self-indulgent rap song from Pete Davidson. I hate these!
• This one has the added “bonus” of being a parody of an Eminem song, an artist that I really do not like.
• Oh, and in case we didn’t get the joke, Eminem himself shows up!
• Kate McKinnon makes an appearance in this as the British singer Dido, whose song “Thank You” was sampled in “Stan”. Apart from “White Flag”, I’m not too familiar with Dido, but I can tell that it sounds nothing like her.
• Asian Terry Sweeney is in this as Elton John, because of fucking course he is.
Sketch: Outdoor Cabaret
Note: This is another sketch that isn’t available online due to music rights. Once again, it’s no big loss, because I remember it being really bad, and it has Asian Terry Sweeney playing a gay guy for the second sketch in a row.
Film: The Christmas Conversation
Three girls call up their moms to tell them they won’t be home for Christmas.
• Nice to see them use the entire female cast in this, with the exception of Aidy Bryant, who isn’t in this episode for some reason.
• Lauren Holt gets a bunch of lines here. This must be the largest amount of airtime she ever gets in a sketch.
• This is the only time we see Kenan in this episode. I feel like I haven’t been talking about him that much in my last few reviews.
• I wanted this to be more of a heartwarming sketch, but it went on a little too long, and it was too jokey for my liking.
Sketch: Morgan Wallen Party
Morgan Wallen (himself) gets a message from his future selves.
• Nice to see the musical guest in an actual sketch.
• This is making fun of how Wallen got taken off of the second episode of the season for not following COVID protocols. I’m surprised he allowed them to do this.
• This sketch has an added irony to it a year later. Not long after this aired, Wallen’s career was ruined after a video of him saying racial slurs while drunk appeared online. Maybe they should have had another future version show up and warn him about that!
• While Wallen is talking to Bateman, a black extra in the background is getting too committed to his role, making funny faces while pretending to eat his food.
• Asian Terry Sweeney plays another future version of Wallen. Hearing him attempt to speak in a Southern accent is painful, but at least it isn’t another gay role.
• I really wanted to like this sketch, as I like it when SNL does meta premises. Sadly, I don’t think the writers are that talented to pull it off anymore.
Musical Performance: “7 Summers”
Weekend Update (featuring Pete Davidson and Bailey Gismert)
• A genuine laugh from Colin’s joke about Bill Clinton buying the vaccine on Brazzers.
• Davidson’s commentary received some criticism from right-wing media for the part where he derided lockdown protesters and called them “babies”. While I can’t say I agree with what they were protesting, I think that his insult was extremely lame.
• Absolutely disgusting joke from Che about him running over an old lady who survived COVID twice. This man has no shame.
• No further comment on the return of Bailey Gismert, except that this is thankfully her final appearance as of December 2021.
Sketch: Santa’s Village
Social distancing rules interfere with a Mall Santa’s attempts to interact with a family.
• Rather unique concept for a sketch.
• I like how Santa’s elf is just a robot with a screen showing someone’s face on it. This leads to some funny antics later where you can see Kyle Mooney making faces on it while the others are talking.
• Despite being an old, tired cliche, the pratfalls in this sketch from Jason and Cecily are really impressive, especially considering they have to do them while inside of these plastic bubbles.
• Nice ending where Santa and Mrs. Claus fall on Mikey and Melissa’s characters as they get their picture taken.
• Despite being really dumb on the surface, I liked this sketch for having some nice physical work that you don’t really see on the show anymore.
Musical Performance: “Still Goin’ Down”
Film: Bits
A man (Mooney) struggles to come up with funny jokes for his friends.
• I’d comment on the irony of this sketch being about a guy who ruins jokes for everyone, but I’ve already made my point that the writers are hacks numerous times before.
• The brief bit of stop-motion in Kyle’s song was nice, at least.
Final thoughts: Another weak episode. Bateman didn’t stand out much as a host, but his performances were okay. On the saw bright side, though, we did get two surprisingly strong things in this episode, so, yay, I guess?
Best sketches: Monologue, Santa’s Village
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Sleepover, Stu, Weekend Update
Next review: Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen
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