SNL Reviews: Adam Driver/Halsey (1/25/20)

Warning: This review is gonna get ugly...


Cold Open: Dershowitz in Hell

Trump’s attorney, Alan Dershowitz (Jon Lovitz) gives his defense statements...in Hell!!!

• Jon Lovitz makes his first cameo appearance on the show since 2011. But did it really have to be in this sketch? This is one of the worst cold openings of the season. The fact that it literally takes place in Hell is a perfect omen for the rest of the episode.

• I just want to say that Beck Bennett is one of the worst impressionists the show has ever had. His Mitch McConnell is no exception, constantly making these dopey faces in order to get the audience to laugh (kind of like what Baldwin does with his Trump).

• It’s a real big shame seeing Lovitz reduced to performing in this trash, especially when you realize that he’s a Trump supporter. Was this sketch intended to punish him for his beliefs? It wouldn’t surprise me.

1/5


Monologue

Driver tries to prove he isn’t like the characters he plays by sharing some cool facts about himself.

• Definitely an unusual monologue. While still not very funny, Driver is pretty charming here.

• I got a brief chuckle when he said he was dragging this out so he doesn’t have to perform a sketch he doesn’t like near the end of the show.

2/5


Sketch: Sleepover

A dad (Driver) questions who clogged the toilet during his daughter’s sleepover party.

• Blah. More lame potty humor. Throw in some lame jokes about feminine products and you have the recipe for an awful sketch. If I wanted an SNL sketch with good jokes about feminine products, I’d watch those ESPN Classic guys.

• McKinnon’s wig in this sketch disgusts me for some odd reason. She wore a different wig in dress rehearsal, from what I’ve heard. I wonder why they changed it.

1/5


Sketch: Undercover Boss: Where Are They Now?

Undercover Boss checks up on Kylo Ren to see if he kept his promise for a better company.

• The sequel to an extremely popular sketch from Driver’s first hosting appearance. I still haven’t seen that one, but I heard it was pretty funny, so I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, this one does not live up to its predecessor.

• Maybe I’d like this one more if I’d ever seen an episode of the show it’s parodying, but, I haven’t, so the jokes are all lost on me.

• One last observation: they have a Stormtrooper make a “Deez Nuts” joke. What year is this?

1/5


Sketch: Del Taco Commercial Shoot

An actor (Kyle Mooney) gets notes on his performance in a commercial. Or, in other words, “AW MAN, I’M ALL OUT OF CASH!!!”

• Do you like hearing the same phrase repeated over and over? Well, don’t watch this sketch! This is one of the worst SNL sketches I’ve ever seen. The only joke in this one is the constant repetition of “AW MAN, I’M ALL OUT OF CASH!!!”, and it gets worse every time they say it.

• Apparently, the part where they keep repeating “AW MAN, I’M ALL OUT OF CASH!!!” was even longer in dress rehearsal! Too bad shortening it didn’t make it any less annoying.

• As usual, the sub-mental losers on the SNL Reddit were crazy for this shit. They kept spamming the phrase (you know the one) for the rest of this episode’s discussion thread, and well into the next week’s. I haven’t visited that subreddit since then.

-5/5


Sketch: The Science Room

A professor (Driver) struggles to educate two students about how balloons work.

• This sketch from Season 43's Sam Rockwell episode becomes recurring.

• The best example of this type of sketch is one that Phil Hartman did back in the late 80s. That sketch is automatically funny because it involves Hartman yelling at children. This one, on the other hand, is a total snooze. It also could have benefitted from Sam Rockwell dropping the f-bomb again.

1/5


Film: Slow

An R&B song about lovers taking things real slow.

• Ugh, why does EVERY short film this season have to be a song?!? It’s not even a good song, either.

• I don’t know what the audience is laughing at, because I certainly don’t find anything about this sketch funny.

0/5


Musical Performance: “You Should Be Sad”

• Yeah, I am pretty sad right about now. This episode is horrendous!


Weekend Update (featuring Carrie Krum and Melissa Villaseñor)

• After starting off with a pretty good Adam Schiff joke, it’s immediately back to basics with these morons.

• There’s an absolutely horrific joke about Mitch McConnell “watching an orphanage burn”. We get it, you guys think Republicans are evil! Tell some more jokes!

• They make a fidget spinner joke. Again, what year is this?

• Weekend Update travel correspondent Carrie Krum makes a return appearance. Once you’ve seen all of this shitty character’s appearances, you’ve seen them all.

• Melissa Villaseñor also has a commentary here, where she sings some songs she wrote for each of the Oscar nominees. All of the songs are the exact same, and she mentions, UGH, “white male rage” at the end of each one. Bleccch!!!!

• Halsey had a commentary of her own in this episode’s dress rehearsal, where she played Meghan Markle. I don’t know why they cut it (time, perhaps?), but it sounds really interesting.

• At the end, a memorial card is shown for Buck Henry, who died the week before this episode aired. If only he could see what this show has become...

0.5/5


Sketch: Medieval Times

An actor at Medieval Times goes off-script.

• SNL takes on Medieval Times! Too bad SpongeBob did it better in an episode that aired nearly 15 years ago. That’s pretty much all I have to say about this one.

1/5


Sketch: Cheerleading

A group of cheerleaders is determined to continue on despite major injuries.

• This is supposed to be a parody of a Netflix show that my mom watches about cheerleaders. A good parody is supposed to make sense even without you seeing the original. This, unfortunately, is NOT a good parody.

1/5


Sketch: Marrying Ketchup

Two bottles of ketchup argue on their wedding day.

• The initial visual of Driver and Strong dressed up as ketchup bottles was slightly amusing. If only a good sketch followed it.

• Then it suddenly turns into a metaphor for inter-racial relationships. Just the thing I want to see in an SNL episode!

2/5


Final thoughts: WHAT. A. FUCKING. JOKE. I thought Driver’s last episode was pretty bad, but this is easily worse. Now, to be fair, he tried his best, but not even he can save such horrid material.

Best sketches: NONE

Worst sketches: They all sucked, but Del Taco Shoot, Slow, and Villaseñor’s Update commentary were particularly bad.

Next review: JJ Watt/Luke Combs. Good lord, do I have a lot to say about this one...







AW MAN, I’M ALL OUT OF CASH!!!!!

SNL Reviews: Eddie Murphy/Lizzo (12/21/19)

Cold Open: Democratic Debate

The remaining candidates face off in a debate.

• The debate sketches just keep getting worse. At least this one wasn’t as long as the last one.

• Jason Sudeikis returns as Joe Biden in this one, I guess because it was getting hard for them to keep bringing Woody Harrelson back every time they wanted to do a debate sketch. Biden makes fun of this sudden change by asking us if he looks different. And, as usual, Biden gets the biggest laughs in this, with his story about “Old Black Charlie” and flirting with the female candidates.

• Since this aired after Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, I was rather relieved in knowing that I wouldn’t have to see Maya Rudolph’s annoying mugging anymore. You can imagine how angry I got when they brought her back anyway.

• Near the end, Baldwin returns as Trump for the 8 millionth time, and he’s wearing hoop earrings for some strange reason. Nothing he says is funny.

1.5/5


Monologue (featuring Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle)

Eddie talks about what he’s been doing in the 35 years since his last hosting gig.

• Best monologue of the season, hands down. Eddie was such a natural here, it’s like he never even left.

• Not even the gratuitous cameos bothered me. Tracy’s appearance was a nice rebound from his awful cameo in the Will Ferrell episode, and it was really nice to see Chris Rock on the show again. I’m not too sure about Chappelle, though, considering his last time on the show was the infamous “Hallelujah” episode in Season 42. But, I can’t be too mad at him, because he was pretty funny here.

• The best part is when Chris asks who Beck Bennett is, and Tracy replies that it’s Joe Piscopo. Man, poor Piscopo just can’t catch a break.

5/5


Sketch: Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood

Mister Robinson returns to explain how much has changed since our last visit to his neighborhood.

• HELL YEAH! Mister Robinson returns, and he’s just as funny as ever. It was a great idea to center this around the fact that it’s been such a long time since he’s appeared.

• There’s so many great bits in this one; the word of the day being “squatter’s rights”, yelling at his neighbors for assuming he took their TV because he’s black, and the twist at the end where we see that he DID take their TV.

• My review can not do this sketch justice, you should check it out for yourself.

5/5


Sketch: Holiday Baking Championship

Contestants present their holiday-themed confections.

• Cecily’s awful Elsa cake was pretty funny, but then it gets even better when we see Eddie’s creepy Sonic the Hedgehog cake.

• I assume this is parodying some kind of TV show, but even without that context, this sketch is still funny.

• Eddie accidentally said “shit” near the end during the live airing. The expletive has predictably been muted in reruns.

4/5


Short Film: Home For The Holidays

A family takes time to reflect on the holidays.

• Finally, a short film that isn’t musical! And what a short film it is. At first, I thought it was going to be a schmaltzy Hallmark kind of thing, but then we cut to Eddie’s character verbally abusing the rest of his family. The rest of the film cuts between this, and the family having a normal celebration. Not much to say here, except for the fact that it made me laugh my ass off.

4/5


Sketch: The Masked Singer

A familiar face appears as an ear of corn on The Masked Singer.

• I hate The Masked Singer with a fiery passion, so I wasn’t sure what to think of this sketch. Thankfully, my fears were extinguished when the ear of corn started speaking in a very familiar voice, and it turned out to be motherfucking Buckwheat!!!! HELL YEAH!!!!

• The sketch then turns into a sequel to “Buh-Weet Sings”, where he sings a number of Christmas songs, my favorite being his Feliz Navidad cover, “Aneese Nameena”.

• Out of all the recurring characters for Eddie to bring back tonight, I was never expecting to see Buckwheat again, because modern society considers him “problematic”. But I’m glad they did.

5/5 (wow, look at all these perfect ratings!)


Musical Performance: “Truth Hurts”


Weekend Update (featuring Gumby, Pete Davidson, and Jeanine Pirro)

• More bland Trump jokes, and more taking clips out of context. In other words, a typical Jost/Che Update.

• Ah, but here’s where things get interesting. None other than motherfucking Gumby makes his appearance! DOUBLE HELL YEAH!!!!

• This Gumby segment is exactly what I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. Over the course of four minutes, he proceeds to unload on the two anchors, calling Jost a “trailer boy” and insulting Che for his race. Best of all is when Che calls him out on this, and Gumby flat out says that he doesn’t care. Why is that? Because he’s Gumby, dammit!

• Once that’s over with, we sadly sink back to familiar territory. We get a shitty Pete Davidson commentary and a shitty Jeanine Pirro commentary. Neither of these gave me any laughs whatsoever.

3/5 (this is solely for the Gumby bit)


Sketch: Black Jeopardy

Velvet Jones appears on Black Jeopardy to promote his book, “I Wanna Be A Ho”.

• I’m not a big fan of these Black Jeopardy sketches, but they quickly gained my interest when they showed Velvet Jones! TRIPLE HELL YEAH!!!!!

• This was an interesting deconstruction of how Velvet Jones as a character hasn’t really aged that well for some people.

• One unfortunate thing that sets this sketch back from the other return appearances is the large number of lines that Eddie flubs. He is clearly having a hard time keeping up with the pacing of this.

3.5/5


Musical Performance: “Good as Hell”


Sketch: North Pole News Report

A news report covers a serious accident at the North Pole.

• An amusing way to end the night. Once again, Eddie gives a great performance, and I love that the name of his character is “Kiddie Diddles”. How did they get away with that one?

3/5


Final Thoughts: Definitely the best episode of Season 45. With the exception of a couple sketches, almost everything here worked for me. Part of the main reason for this episode’s success is Eddie Murphy himself. It truly felt like he had picked up right where he had left off in his last hosting stint.

Best Sketches: Monologue, Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood, Holiday Baking Championship, Home for the Holidays, The Masked Singer, Gumby on Weekend Update

Worst Sketches: Debate, The rest of Weekend Update, Eddie’s line flubs in Black Jeopardy


Next review: Adam Driver. Hoo boy, do I have a lot to say about that one...

SNL Reviews: Will Ferrell/King Princess (11/23/19)

Cold Open

Donald Trump holds a press conference outside near a noisy helicopter.

• Blah. Please give this impression a rest.

1/5


Monologue

Will Ferrell’s monologue is interrupted when he notices Ryan Reynolds in the audience.

• This actually started off on a somewhat heartwarming note with Will reminiscing about his time on the show, but everything came to a screeching halt when they cut to Reynolds in the audience. Yet another celebrity wankfest, ladies and gentlemen.

• Tracy Morgan also shows up, muttering some shit about “the prophecy” or whatever. Who cares, this monologue sucks.

1/5


Fake Commercial: Heinz Relax

A father (Ferrell) deals with a noisy ketchup bottle at Thanksgiving dinner.

• When the very first joke in this sketch turned out to be a fart joke, I immediately knew I was in for a rough ride. Then the fart jokes continued, and I wanted to kill myself.

• Ferrell tries his damndest, but not even he can save this one-joke garbage.

1/5


Sketch: Democratic Debate

• Looks like Season 30 has some competition for the worst political season ever.

• I haven’t given you my thoughts on most of the candidate impressions before, so, take a look below...

• The Warren stuff was McKinnon’s usual unfunny shtick, so, not much to say there.

• Ugggh, Maya Rudolph continues to get on my nerves with her awful Kamala Harris impression. The mugging and social media jokes were ramped up to a horrid degree in this one. At least she didn’t sing, though.

• I’ll be perfectly honest here. I can’t stand Larry David at all. Sure, he helped create Seinfeld, and he was great on Fridays, but he is one of the most annoying people in the whole world. I don’t care how much he looks and sounds like Bernie, the material sucks, and they’re not even poking fun at him here.

• Colin’s Buttigieg is tolerable because he isn’t trying to sound like the real thing.

• It saddens me that the only recognition Rachel Dratch gets these days are these awful Amy Klobuchar bits. She doesn’t really look or sound like the real thing, but she tries her best.

• Usually, the only good thing about these debate sketches is Joe Biden (played here for the last time by Woody Harrelson). He did not disappoint here, especially the part about Neil Patrick Harris.

• Chris Redd’s Cory Booker is kinda bland. But that may be because Booker himself is kind of a bland candidate.

• Bowen Yang’s impression of Andrew Yang (no relation) is the same as all of his other roles: gay.

• Ferrell debuts an impression of Tom Steyer. He has the voice and look down, the only problem is that they forgot to make him say anything funny.

• Fred Armisen returns as Michael Bloomberg. Back when Fred was on the show, they used to make him up to look more like the real deal. Here, he just looks like Fred Armisen in a wig. What the hell happened?

• Cecily Strong as Tulsi Gabbard is yet another impression that looks nothing like who they’re trying to portray. And what’s the deal with them portraying her as some sort of supervillain?

• TLDR: This sketch sucked. What’s next?

1.5/5


Sketch: The First Thanksgiving

John Smith comes over for dinner with Pocahontas’ family.

• Oh, no. I’ve gotta review this one now? Might as well...

• Make no mistake. I fucking hated this sketch. I hate everything about it. The writers try to say something about prejudice, but fail miserably, in one of the worst sketches I’ve ever seen.

• The worst offense it commits is trying to connect everything to the Trump administration, because ORANGE MAN BAD!!! What’s that? He didn’t exist in 1609? Fuck you, we’re doing it anyway!

• 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??!!!???

• Oh, and the way this resolves itself is beyond atrocious. John Smith becomes friendly with them after they talk about the similarities between their poop. I am not even kidding.

• To put the capper on a truly wretched sketch, Will ends the sketch by delivering an awful, awful speech. He even takes the time to point out how they had white actors playing Indians in the sketch. Sorry, Will, but that still won’t save you from the PC Squad.

-5/5


Sketch: Party Song

Two teenagers (Cecily Strong and Mikey Day) rap about how their teacher (Ferrell) came to their house party.

•Why do all of the short films this season have to be musical? Even worse, why are they all rap?!!??

• I liked Mikey Day’s performance, but this was another complete waste of time.

1.5/5


Sketch: Bertucci’s Pizza

An ad for pizza doesn’t go as planned

• They did a sketch like this the last time Will hosted. That one was okay, but did they really need to bring it back?

• Unsurprisingly, this was nowhere near as good as the first one.

2/5


Musical Performance: “1950”


Weekend Update (featuring The Guy Who Just Bought A Boat and The Guy Who Knows The Owner)

• One of the very first jokes is a random SpongeBob reference. HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS?

• For whatever reason, Colin Jost found that joke so funny that he started laughing. Is it sad that I miss Jimmy Fallon?

• Right after this, we get a joke about Mike Pence’s fear of “being tied to other men”. Get it? ‘Cause he hates gays!!! Yawn.

• Awful montage of Trump asking reporters to speak up, edited together to make it look like he has hearing problems. The Democrats love going after Trump for sharing “edited videos”, but it’s perfectly fine when they do it, apparently.

• I really hate this Guy Who Just Bought A Boat character. I don’t get what the joke is with him at all. This time, they make it even more tedious by bringing out Ryan Reynolds as “The Guy Who Knows The Owner”, because, you know, having one Ryan Reynolds cameo wasn’t enough! Now we gotta bring him out again to keep our audience from falling asleep!

0/5 (not a single laugh in this one)


Sketch: Cinema Classics

Reese De’What presents an alternate ending from The Wizard of Oz.

• As I explained in my second John Mulaney review, I really hate this recurring sketch. Imagine my annoyed reaction when I saw it pop up again in this episode.

• It’s shocking how bad the celebrity impersonations are in this sketch. Kate McKinnon uses her stock “Southern belle” accent for Dorothy (Judy Garland wasn’t even from the South), and Beck Bennett’s Bert Lahr is particularly horrendous. One of my biggest problems with the current cast is how awful their impressions are, and it was on full display in this sketch.

• The sketch itself was even worse than usual. It’s just a bunch of midget jokes about the Munchkins, ending with a reference to that annoying rumor about the Munchkin who hung himself.

• I will give them credit for not making any “gay people love Judy Garland” jokes, but that’s just faint praise at this point. Hopefully this is the last we’ll see of this sketch.

0/5


Musical Performance: “Hit the Back”


Sketch: Ventriloquist

Wally Culpepper (Ferrell) and his dummy Chippy perform at a club.

• I thought this sketch had a lot of potential (let’s face it, ventriloquist dummies are funny). Unfortunately for me, this sketch was nothing but a bunch of lame jokes about how the dummy has a hand up his ass, one of the HACKIEST and most overused jokes in all of comedy, and something that causes me extra infuriation as a big Muppet fan.

• I tried to find something to like here. I really did. But every time it seems like they’re going in a different direction, they keep going back to the “hand up his ass” jokes. Gag me with a fucking spoon.

-5/5


Final thoughts: Jeez, this episode was a big letdown. When not even a usually reliable host such as Will Ferrell can deliver a good episode, you know that the show has huge problems. One of the biggest disappointments was that they didn’t have him perform any of his famous recurring characters. Where’s The Culps? Bill Brasky? Harry Caray? Why didn’t they do any of that? Oh, I know why. Because they needed more time for that “hilarious” debate sketch! Speaking of which, the post-Update part of the show seemed a little rushed. I’d like to think that it was because of the debate sketch running too long, which proves that they really need to stop making those so long. The SNL website has a lot more cut sketches from the episode than usual, which proves that SOMETHING must have happened to the schedule.


Best sketches: None, but King Princess’s performances were pretty good.

Worst sketches: All of them sucked, but The First Thanksgiving and Ventriloquist were particularly horrible.


Next review: Eddie Murphy/Lizzo

SNL Reviews: Kristen Stewart/Coldplay (11/2/19)

Cold Open: Warren Rally

Elizabeth Warren attends an Iowa town hall where she is asked questions about her healthcare plan.

• Sigh, another dull cold open. Kate McKinnon’s Warren impression is one of the worst impressions that’s ever been on the show. It baffles me how the real Warren can find it so funny.

1/5

Monologue

Kristen Stewart takes questions from the audience to get to know them better.

• Blah. I hate these questions from the audience monologues. At least this one tried something different by having her actually go into the audience.

• Future cast member Andrew Dismukes can be seen in the audience.

2/5

Sketch: Rosie the Riveter

Three women (Stewart, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon) in a factory during the war compete against a riveter named Rosie (Chloe Fineman) and a shell shiner named Donna (Heidi Gardner) to be the face of a propaganda poster.

• I’ll admit I found it nice that they did a sketch showcasing their female cast, but couldn’t they have bothered to make it, you know, funny?

• As I mentioned last time, after the apple farm sketch in the season premiere, we’ve suddenly gotten a whole bunch of Aidy Bryant/Kate McKinnon team ups. This is another one of them, in which they spend the whole sketch speaking in annoying voices. I like to call these types of sketches “funny accent sketches”, where the only joke is how WACKY the characters’ voices are!

1/5


Fake Commercial: Duolingo for Talking to Children

A new Duolingo app for childless parents who want to relate to kids.

• This had a pretty good concept, but, like most good ideas on the show as of late, they do nothing creative with it.

• A big problem with this sketch is how talky it is. There’s too much explanation about how the app works, so, when they finally get to the demonstration, there’s only 15 seconds left in the commercial.

1/5


Sketch: New Paint

Things escalate when a woman (Aidy Bryant) is asked about the cost of her Farrow and Ball paint.

• Alternate title: PLEASE BUY FARROW AND BALL, YOU GUYS!!!

• That’s right, this is another sketch that only exists to serve as an advertisement for someone else’s product, in this case, Farrow and Ball.

• Aside from that, the only joke in this is that Bryant keeps pronouncing the word “color” as “colour”. Get it? Because Farrow and Ball is a British company, they spell it differently!!!! I don’t know what’s sadder; the fact that the writers thought this would be a good idea for a sketch, or the fact that there are people out there (looking at you, Reddit!) who thought this would be funny?

0/5 (yeesh, look at all these poor ratings)


Sketch: Hero Dog Press Conference

Kellyanne Conway holds a press conference to celebrate Conan, the heroic service dog who helped take down an ISIS leader.

• Another thing SNL has been doing a lot this season are live animal sketches. The first one they did (I forget what it was) featured Cecily Strong getting attacked, so I guess they thought, “Hey, we gotta do more of these! Live animals are so unpredictable!!!” So, they did, and, they’ve quickly lost their novelty.

• To make matters worse, this one also has McKinnon’s awful Kellyanne Conway in it, reappearing after a long absence since Season 43. I didn’t miss her at all.

• To make matters EVEN WORSE, instead of treating the dog with respect (even though it isn’t the real one in the sketch, for obvious reasons), they spend the whole time mocking him with cliche dog jokes, ending with another swipe at Trump because ORANGE MAN BAD!!!

1/5


Short Film: Corporate Nightmare

Some punk employees rebel against their workplace...in song!!!

• It seems like half of the short films this season have been musical. This one has the added bonus of being confusingly unfunny as well.

1/5


Musical Performance: “Orphans”


Weekend Update (Featuring Riley Jenson, and Vaneta and Wylene Starkie)

• Let’s see, Trump, Giuliani, Trump, more Trump, comparing Trump to a convicted rapist, same old Weekend Update.

• Melissa Villaseñor debuts a new character named Riley Jenson, who claims to be a genius. It eventually transpires that she doesn’t really know all that much...or something. This was a total snooze fest, and I guess the writers thought so too, because Riley has yet to return to the show (as of the writing of this post).

• Che’s Harvey Weinstein joke was actually pretty funny. That is the first positive thing I have said in this entire review.

• Are you fucking kidding me, SNL? Another Bryant/McKinnon team up?!!?? Good lord! This time, they’re playing those Smokery Farms ladies from Season 44’s John Mulaney episode again. I don’t see why they did, because this was just as unfunny as their last appearance.

1/5


Sketch: Hungry Jury

A jury tries to deliberate on empty stomachs.

• What a fucking joke. If I wasn’t already convinced that this episode was a total waste, this sketch confirmed it. I won’t even give it the dignity of a proper review, because this shit doesn’t deserve one.

• Bowen Yang’s role as the gay bailiff did absolutely nothing for me. Come on, give this guy something to do that isn’t gay, SNL!

0/5


Sketch: Proposition

A woman (Stewart) tries to make a kinky proposition to an elderly couple (Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim)

• An extremely boring sketch that didn’t need to exist. That’s all I will say here because I didn’t understand it at all.

• The second sketch in a row that features Yang playing a gay character. At this point, I swear they keep doing this to annoy me.

1/5


Musical Performance: “Everyday Life”

• At least Coldplay’s performances have put me in a good mood. Too bad they’re not enough to save this awful episode.


Sketch: Stargazing

A family looks for constellations in the sky, but they can only find sexual ones.

• The episode ends on an awful note with this trash. This is yet another sketch that is entirely based on sex jokes. “Duh-huh, the constellations look like they’re having sex! Aren’t we clever and funny?!!??” No, you’re not. You’re embarrassing and juvenile.

• I can’t even find this sketch online. Perhaps the writers (or NBC) thought it was a piece of shit, too?

0/5


Final thoughts: Oh my fucking God. I was already expecting this episode to be terrible based on the host, but I wasn’t expecting it to be THIS bad. While Stewart wasn’t the worst thing about this, she certainly didn’t help, either, as all of her performances were extremely bland (as usual).

Best sketches: Coldplay’s performances, the Weinstein joke in Weekend Update
Worst sketches: EVERYTHING ELSE

Final grade: 0.5/5


My next review will be the Will Ferrell/King Princess episode, one of the most disappointing episodes ever.

SNL Reviews: Chance the Rapper (10/26/19)

My SNL reviews are back! Today, I’m tackling Season 45 for the first time on this blog. So, get ready...


Cold Open: Trump Rally

In which Donald Trump returns to make bad jokes about Republicans.

• How many times do we have to bring this crap back? Alec Baldwin’s impression continues to get worse and worse, and he’s clearly lost all interest in it.

• Darrell Hammond makes his first non-announcer appearance on the show since Season 42, playing Bill Clinton once again. Too bad they didn’t give him anything funny to say.

1/5


Monologue

Chance sings about Chicago, the second-best city, and other things that are the second-best.

• I’m surprised how much I liked this. While it is another “song-and-dance” monologue that we’re all getting tired of by now, at least Chance is an actual musician. He pulled it off really well, and, thankfully, there’s no pro-Obama shilling like in his last two episodes.

3/5


Sketch: League of Legends

An MSG reporter (Chance) is forced to cover a League of Legends tournament. In other words, HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS???

• One thing that Season 45 has been doing way too often are these Internet focused sketches. It started with the Fortnite shit in the Adam Driver episode last year, but this season is where it’s really become a problem.

• Despite my initial apprehension, this was actually kind of funny. It helps that, unlike the Fortnite sketch, they actually took the time to mock the game in this one.

3.5/5


Sketch: First Impressions Court

Judge Barry (Chance) presides over First Impressions Court, where he doles out punishments based on first impressions.

• As soon as Kenan walked out in that ridiculous pimp outfit, I knew I was in for a treat. This was definitely one of the best sketches SNL has put out in a long time.

• The best part was when he punished a guy because his name was “LaDenzel”.

• Not even Bowen Yang as Gay Character #972 could ruin it for me.

• Epic cameo from Jason Momoa as one of the defendants, wearing a tacky leopard skin shirt. Then he rips the shirt off to reveal that he pierced his nipples!

5/5


Commercial: Tasty Toaster Tarts

A boy (Chance) looks through the cupboard for a snack while his friends point out obvious signs that he killed his parents.

• This sketch may not sound like much based on my description, but the execution was perfect. I was confused about where they were going with this until Chance’s character mentions that his parents “used to be” strict. And then his friends notice all the signs around the house that point to their absence, such as mail piled up on the table, a sloppily cleaned up blood stain, and duct tape on the fridge, along with a very suspicious smell.

• There wasn’t even any indication that this was supposed to be a commercial until the very end when he pulls out some Tasty Toaster Tarts, which, to top the hilarity all off, instantly makes the others forget about what happened to his parents.

5/5


Sketch: Spooky Songs

Ghosts in a graveyard sing about how they died, but one of them doesn’t seem to want to share his story.

• The best sketch of the night, hands down. After the first two ghosts sing their songs, Chance asks them to skip him. For the rest of the sketch, they try to get him to reveal what happened, and, eventually, when he does, it’s all worth it.

• What happened, you ask? Well, he used to shove 9-volt batteries up his ass for fun. Then, one night, he went on his roof with a metal pole up his ass, so he could get struck by lightning. This ends up killing him. The best part is how seriously he is treating this, like it’s something that all people his age did.

• I’ve gotta mention the impressive special effects, too. I’d really like to know how they pulled all of this off for a live broadcast.

5/5 (wow, three perfect scores in a row!)


Musical Performance: “Zanies and Fools”


Weekend Update (featuring Eric and Donald Trump, Jr.)

• And now the show starts to lose steam. Another lifeless and laughless Weekend Update, which is par for the course when it comes to Colin “Nu-Male” Jost and Michael “Kill Whitey” Che.

• Why the fuck do they keep bringing back Eric and Donald Jr.? They’ve never made me laugh, and Eric’s portrayal borders on offensive. Please stop doing these.

1/5


Sketch: Love at First Sight

A couple (Chance and Cecily Strong) experience love for the first time and begin flying.

• An extremely bizarre sketch. Not sure what they were going for here, but it wasn’t really all that funny.

• The biggest laugh I got from this one was how obvious the wires were. Sadly, they later replaced this with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.

2/5


Fake Movie Trailer: Space Mistakes

Astronauts make mistakes...in space.....

• Another bizarre sketch, but this one was actually a good kind of bizarre. A spot on parody of those outer space movies.

• Kyle Mooney’s death was hilarious. And I love how the blood stain remains there for the rest of the sketch.

• Great tagline, too: “What if you messed up at work, but your work was in space?”

• I fucking love the ending where the astronaut’s wife asked where his accident occurred, and the NASA technician’s response is a perfectly-delivered, “In space...”. Funny stuff!

5/5


Fake Commercial: Dazzle Designs

A rental service for choir clothing designs.

• In the Woody Harrelson episode from earlier in the season, Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon did a fake commercial for an apple orchard that, for whatever reason, became very popular. What does SNL do with any sketch that becomes popular? They try to replicate its success, of course. As a result, we now have this commercial for choir clothes.

• As much as I hated the original sketch, at least that one had Woody Harrelson being himself. This one has nothing.

1/5


Musical Performance: “Handsome”


Sketch: Dance Rehearsal

A dance instructor has a dark secret....he’s slowly becoming a werewolf!

• According to fellow SNL reviewer Matt from One SNL A Day 2.0, this was originally written for J Lo’s Season 35 episode.

• I thought this was going to be kind of dumb, but it was okay. Kenan put in a great performance, and the werewolf makeup was pretty good, too.

• Even Bowen Yang (playing yet another gay character) managed not to get on my nerves.

3/5


Final thoughts: I’ll be honest. I was not expecting a quality episode here. But imagine my surprise when, not only did I get that, but I also got one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen! They’d better bring Chance the Rapper back next season, because he certainly earned my approval!

Final score: 4/5

Best sketches: First Impressions Court, Tasty Toaster Tarts, Spooky Songs, the visible wires in Love at First Sight, Space Mistakes

Worst sketches: Trump Rally, Weekend Update, Dazzle Designs


Stay tuned for my next review, when I tackle the Kristen Stewart/Coldplay episode that aired a week after this one. It also happens to be the worst episode I’ve ever seen.