Cold Open: American Households
Households around the country react to the impeachment of Donald Trump.
• Aidy Bryant is following in McKinnon’s footsteps by playing Sam the Snowman. Hey, SNL! There’s a whole bunch of guys in your cast who need screen time, why not give this role to them?
• The only scene I laughed at was the one at Kenan’s house, where he is talking about Bad Boys 3 instead of impeachment. I’m rather surprised that they brought up Martin Lawrence in this scene. I thought they were forbidden from ever mentioning him on the show after his “pillypacker” incident in Season 19?
• It seems like the cold opens that don’t have Baldwin’s Trump in them are even worse than the ones that do. That’s quite an accomplishment.
• And we end with the worst Greta Thunberg impression ever, courtesy of Kate “Hillary’s Girlfriend” McKinnon. Is it sad that I prefer the real deal over this impression?
1/5
Monologue
Things start to go haywire when all the cast members start turning to dust.
• This was a surprise. Even though this is another “HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS?” sketch, I was impressed by the ambitiousness of this monologue. The special effects were amazing, considering this is live television, though I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the scenes were pre-taped.
• I liked the scene where Alex Moffat turns to dust, but Ego and Chris are confused as to whether it was him or Mikey Day. Wow, a reference to how underused Mikey is? They don’t do that kind of thing that much anymore.
• A funny reference from Cecily about how she thinks “this is one of those weeks where Pete doesn’t show up”. And there’s another sighting of the backstage llama while she’s talking, this time joined by the Abe Lincoln guy as well. The llama ends up turning to dust.
• And then it becomes clear that the only reason they got Scarlett to host was because she and Colin Jost are dating.
• Kenan shows up as Nick Fury, and this is the worst Samuel L. Jackson impression I’ve ever heard. If only they hadn’t gotten rid of Jay Pharoah.
• Random twist where it turns out that Pete Davidson stole Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet.
4/5
Sketch: Singing Elves
Two elves at a department store sing a strange Christmas song.
• Another stupid rap song. I’ve lost count of how many of these they’ve done in Season 45.
• Kenan’s wig was kind of funny, though.
1/5
Fake Commercial: Children’s Clothing
A Macy’s ad showcasing new children’s clothes.
• I may be looking too far into this, but I found this ad to be somewhat disturbing. The shots of children struggling to get out of their clothes was more than a little creepy, at least in my eyes. I feel sorry for the child actors for having to suffer through this shit.
0/5
Sketch: Sexual Harassment Charlie
Two office workers apologize to their employees about previous sexual misconduct.
• Are you fucking kidding me, SNL?!? Why the hell are you bringing this shit back? For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, this sketch first appeared in the James Franco episode from Season 43. It got a lot of backlash from viewers that it was making a mockery of sexual harassment survivors, and essentially saying that if you’re an old, friendly black guy, you can get away with it. Based on that reaction, I was pretty sure that they would never bring it back. Imagine my reaction when I watched this episode live and saw this sketch come back. It was not pretty.
• This is exactly like the first one, except Franco’s character is replaced by Scarlett as a different office worker.
• Asian Terry Sweeney plays gay character #58,555. No comment, because I’ve already said enough about it.
• Not even Kenan’s performance made me smile this time around. They’d better not bring this back.
-5/5
Short Film: A Conway Marriage Story
Kellyanne Conway and her husband George are asked about why they love each other.
• SNL’s never ending vendetta against Kellyanne Conway continues. Why the hell do they hate this woman so much?
• This was the usual McKinnon as Conway nonsense that never makes me laugh. And they end it with a twist where it’s revealed that they are actually at a therapy session. It’s funny because she’s insane, right, guys?!!?? Guys? Why are you all turning the channel????
-2,000/5
Musical Performance: “Nice To Meet Ya”
Weekend Update (featuring Chen Biao and Baby Yoda)
• Nothing but dumbass impeachment jokes. Didn’t we get our fill of those in the cold open already?
• No comment on the return of Chen Biao, except for the fact that I’m tired of the gay shtick.
• What follows is probably the WORST example of SNL trying to be hip; Kyle Mooney appears as, ugh, Baby Yoda. I seriously thought about throwing my remote at the TV when this came on.
• Adding to the cringe factor is how disturbing Kyle’s makeup job is. I’ve never been frightened by anything on SNL, but this Baby Yoda commentary certainly comes close.
0/5
Sketch: Hot Tub Ghosts
Three ghostly strippers who inhabit a hot tub tell the story of how they died.
• What an....interesting concept for a sketch.
• The green screen effects in this are extremely obvious. I was wondering if they would fix it for reruns, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
• Other than those observations, not much I can say about this one, except that the inclusion of the slightly racist joke about black people having diarrhea surprised me.
2/5
Sketch: Hallmark Dating Show
A dating show created by the algorithm that makes Hallmark holiday movies.
• This was obviously a response to the controversy over Hallmark not allowing LGBT ads on their channel. That being said, there’s lots of jokes you can make about that sort of thing. So, what jokes do we get about it in this sketch? Just one, at the very end, where Aidy as the host reminds us to “stay straight”.
• Even the contestants being stock Hallmark movie stereotypes (i.e. the prince, the guy who looks like Santa because he actually is Santa, and the ghost) fell flat. Like I said, these types of movies are easy to make fun of, but they don’t even bother trying.
1/5
Short Film: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Cecily Strong puts her own spin on this classic Christmas song.
• Pretty nice graphics and set design here, and I like how the first shot was framed to look exactly like the classic Norman Rockwell image of Santa kissing a woman.
• This wasn’t too bad for a musical sketch. I got several laughs from it, such as the father (played by Mikey Day) just sitting there watching his wife get lucky with Santa Claus, and the creepy implications at the end with the singer wondering why she sat there watching them as long as she did.
4/5
Musical Performance: “Put A Little Love On Me”
Sketch: Celebrity Sighting
The guy from those choking posters appears at a restaurant.
• Another really odd premise for a sketch. Is it me, or does Streeter Seidell love doing sketches relating to posters? We have this sketch, and those ones with Pete Davidson’s dorm room posters coming to life.
• Unsurprisingly, being a Bowen Yang sketch, it completely sucked.
1/5
Sketch: Dog Translator
Three scientists give their dog translator another try.
• This sketch from Season 42 becomes recurring.
• I was surprised that they brought this back, especially since the last one was a rare case of them mocking liberal reactions to Trump. While it isn’t as refreshing in this second installment, there were still a couple of good lines here, mainly the dig at Rachel Maddow.
3/5
Final thoughts: A slight step up over the Lopez episode. Scarlett was somewhat bland of a host, and, like I said earlier, it’s obvious that the only reason she hosted is because she’s dating Colin Jost.
And with that, I’ve officially reviewed every regular episode of Season 45 on this blog. But, beware....I’ve still got the At Home episodes to tackle, so stay tuned!
Best sketches: Monologue, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Dog Translator
Worst sketches: Children’s Clothing, Sexual Harassment Charlie, A Conway Marriage Story, Baby Yoda commentary
Next review: SNL At Home 1
No comments:
Post a Comment