Cold Open: CNN Town Hall
Trump’s latest speech is interrupted by Nikki Haley.
• Ugh, it’s Trump again. I can only imagine how many more times we’re going to be seeing him this season.
• Rare appearance of the host in the cold open.
• Now we come to the most infamous part of this cold open. For some inexplicable reason, Nikki Haley makes an appearance. Yes, the REAL Nikki Haley! I was under the impression that they’d never let a Republican on this show again!
• Kind of like the way they’ve portrayed Liz Cheney in the past, Haley is depicted as a brave freedom fighter who’s going to stand up to Trump. I assume their rationale for getting her to appear on the show was, “Hey, she’s a Republican that hates Trump, so she must be cool, right?!?”
• Needless to say, this pathetic attempt at stunt-casting was met with criticism from both sides of the aisle. Democrats were offended by the show giving Haley a platform, some Republicans were offended by Haley’s anti-Trump statements, and I’m offended, because this cold open is a piece of shit! (Give yourself a pat on the back if you know what that’s a reference to)
Monologue
Ayo shares some ideas she wanted to pitch.
• I haven’t laughed so far. Modern standup comedy is extremely bland and inoffensive to me.
• Ayo’s brief mention of the Black Jeopardy sketches made me realize that we haven’t seen it in quite a long time. I’m pretty sure the last one was in the Eddie Murphy episode.
• The aforementioned Black Jeopardy reference leads to a lame and pathetic joke about how she tried to pitch a sketch called White Jeopardy, but failed.
• I did like the suppressed anger in her voice when she orders the crew to burn her rejected ideas.
Sketch: Why’d You Post It?
Contestants are quizzed about why they posted certain things on Instagram.
• Of all the sketches to rehash…why did they choose “Why’d You Like It?” from two seasons ago?
• Even the exaggerated way that Kenan says the title of the show is the same as last time.
• The lack of Chris Redd in this one is a definite strike against it, because he was the only thing I liked about the first installment.
• Kenan at least has some funny lines here.
• Andrew’s series of horny comments about AOC are pretty funny, especially the one about how he accidentally wrote the post because he was sitting on his phone.
• I love Chloe’s disturbing song about how alcohol made her commit arson.
• Nice ending where Ayo comments, “What disease he have?”, on a picture of the host and his son.
• Call me crazy, but I think that was better than the first one.
Film: Dune Popcorn Bucket
People sing about losing their virginity…to a bucket.
• Is it a requirement for each episode to have a musical number now?
• A lot of other fans have noticed how the show seems to be pushing Marcello as the second coming of Pete Davidson, and this horrible sketch right here is a prime example of that.
• First off, let’s talk about that bucket. Around the time of this episode’s premiere, there were a lot of memes about some promotional popcorn bucket for the new Dune movie, and its unfortunate resemblance to a certain part of the female body. I was totally unfamiliar with any of this because I have better things to do with my life (like review shitty SNL sketches), so when I saw the premise of this song, my reaction was “Huh?”
• Yeah, this is definitely not for me. Aside from all the juvenile sex jokes, there’s also Dune references that are going over my head.
• The various shots of people dancing with the bucket are so dumb.
• I was rather surprised to find out that this song was written by Dan Bulla and Steven Castillo, the same guys that gave us Tiny Horse, and, more recently, that hilarious sketch with the bowling pins. They can do so much better than this lame Pete Davidson pastiche.
Sketch: Drugs on Campus
Zack does shrooms for the first time, much to the consternation of his fellow students.
• Mikey looks so out of place here with all of the younger cast members. He also looks waaaay too old to be playing a college kid.
• What is even going on in this sketch? Is the focus supposed to be on Andrew’s character, or is it supposed to be focused on Mikey and Ayo’s characters?
• As if to prove my point from earlier, here comes Marcello in another role that doesn’t really suit him.
• Well, that just came and went.
Sketch: Bad Couples
A news reporter interviews random couples in New York about how they met.
• Do my eyes deceive me? Both Molly and Michael with actual screen time?!?
• Ugh, please stop trying to make Bowen Yang a leading man. It always ends up the same: he derails the sketch with his campy shenanigans.
• Oh, and his name here is “Danny Love”. The writer’s guide I use doesn’t say who wrote this, but I don’t even need it to know that this was likely the work of Sublette or Fowlie.
• This seems to be yet another variation of the red carpet format this show loves doing lately.
• Who’s the guy with Heidi? SNL Archives doesn’t say, so he probably isn’t a crew member. Is it someone from Heidi’s family, maybe?
• Nice dark joke with Mikey confirming that the girl with him is both his sister and his girlfriend.
• Believe it or not, Bowen isn’t doing as bad as I feared, especially considering how terrible his last showcase sketch was.
• Another unidentified extra is seen with Punkie. Is that her dad?
• Extremely random appearance from Martin Herlihy of Please Don’t Destroy as Ego’s partner. He rightfully receives a huge round of applause from the audience. As someone in the comments said, it seems like it should be illegal for the PDD guys to appear in live sketches.
• Kenan’s character (who seems to be a pimp) saying “Pass” when asked how he met his girlfriend was pretty funny.
• Another very Pete-esque role for Marcello. It’s shocking how fast he has declined in the last few episodes.
• That was honestly better than I remembered. Probably the best of this type of sketch since, I don’t know, the one with the Halloween costumes?
Musical Performance: “Can’t Get Enough”
Weekend Update (featuring CJ Rossitano)
• Yawn, more bland Trump jokes, including one that tries to implicate him as being involved with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Fun fact: none of the girls on the island have ever claimed that they saw Trump partake in any of the “activities”.
• I liked the joke about Joe Biden’s only black supporter being Obama’s white half.
• It’s kind of an easy joke, but I still laughed at the joke about police shooting a Jackie Robinson statue.
• I’ve been going on all season about how bad Sarah has gotten, and we’ve now arrived at her absolute low point. In this commentary, she plays a fan named CJ Rossitano who has gotten tickets to the show. Even when I saw this episode live, I knew exactly where this commentary was headed once she started talking to Colin.
• The running “gag” where they keep showing closeups of Sarah mugging the camera while the song “Cat’s in the Cradle” plays is so bizarre. Like, I don’t even know what the point of it is.
• Is that James singing the song? What a huge waste of his talents. Ever since he was in the cold open, he’s been mostly underutilized in this episode.
• I’ve run out of things to say about this commentary. Were there no other ones during dress that they could have used?
Sketch: Trivia Quest
A game show host purposely gives away all the answers to a contestant.
• Two game show sketches in one night?
• Oh, wow, I forgot all about this truly awful gaffe. Ego gets the names of Sarah and Ayo’s characters mixed up when interviewing them, and she has to ad-lib to get her way out of it. What the fuck is happening to Ego?!? This is her first lead role in a while and this is what she has to show for it?!?
• Mikey’s mention of Ithaca College gave me a nice feeling inside, as I have a cousin who went there.
• Hoo boy, I am not liking Ego’s character at all.
• She flubs another line near the end, but I can’t even tell what she was trying to say. Some kind of insult, maybe?
Film: The Elevator
Stuck elevator passengers seize the opportunity to create a new society.
• This is such a blandly-shot film. Not only is it not funny in the slightest, but it has that same ugly orange-blue color scheme that most movies have these days.
• “Why are you guys so obsessed with hooking up?” I’m with you, Kenan. That gag is so stupid. Also, is it just me, or have we gotten variations of that line in a lot of sketches lately?
• I have little else to say about this horrible sketch, so here’s a hilarious comment from Jesse Nathan’s review, which I hope he forgives me for borrowing: “Y’know, I know I shouldn’t take this seriously, but honestly, I can’t help but tell everyone here ‘get out of the elevator, you morons! I mean, come on, the firefighters are right there!’”.
Sketch: Hypnotist
A boy is accidentally hypnotized into revealing that he is bisexual.
• The heavy amount of Andrew in this episode pleases me.
• Was it intentional to make Ayo look like Julia Sweeney as Pat?
• Another similarity this character has to Pat is that they both have extremely annoying voices. To quote Jesse Nathan once again, “Will someone tell this kid to SHUT UP already?”
• I have no idea what to say about this bisexual routine. Like that awful Grimace sketch from last year, I guess the “joke” is just supposed to be that he’s bisexual, because that’s apparently funny.
• Kenan’s janitor character is completely unnecessary. It’s a role he’s played way too many times by now.
• Predictable ending where Ayo reveals she was making this all up.
Musical Performance: “This Is Me…Now”
Sketch: The People’s Court
A lady sues her former hairdresser for exposing her brain.
• According to Blood’s review of this episode, this sketch is apparently based on some viral video I’ve never seen. I know I’ve said this a million times in the past, but SNL really needs to stop doing sketches based on viral videos that people will forget about in two months.
• Nice ghastly visual of Ayo’s exposed brain. Aside from that, there’s not much to laugh at here.
• Kenan’s mispronunciation of “Marge Simpsone” is all needed to know that this is a Jimmy Fowlie sketch.
• No comment on Ego blowing on the back of Punkie’s exposed brain.
Final thoughts: Yet another rough episode. These last few episodes since Christmas break have been absolutely terrible. I also didn’t really care for Ayo Edebiri as a host. There was something about her that kind of came off as, I don’t know, tryhard? Maybe that’s just how she is in her standup act.
Best sketches: Why’d You Post It, Bad Couples
Worst sketches: Nikki Haley’s appearance, Dune Popcorn Bucket, CJ Rossitano commentary, Trivia Quest, Hypnotist
Next review: Shane Gillis/21 Savage
