Cold Open: The Ghost Of Biden Past
President Biden gets a visit from his past self.
• JAJ’s impression of Biden becomes recurring. He seems to have a better handle on the voice this time than he did in the premiere.
• Also in this is Chloe Fineman as Press Secretary Jen Psaki. This is surprisingly the first (and so far only) time they’ve ever featured an impression of her, which is baffling, because there’s a lot to make fun of this woman for.
• After a boring beginning, things get interesting when Biden wonders where he went wrong in his life. That’s when our host shows up as a 2013-era Biden! Fuck yeah!!!
• Sudeikis hasn’t lost his touch at all. After having to suffer through Jim Carrey and Alex Moffat’s awful takes on Biden, it feels great to see somebody who actually knows how to mock him again.
• Sudeikis really sells the uncomfortableness when he starts molesting JAJ’s shoulder. I thought I was going to die laughing at that part.
• I love Past Biden’s response when Present Biden tells him of all the bad things Trump did in office: “Wow! Hillary got awesome!”
• “Aw, screw Joe Manchin! The only Manchin I care about is the Playboy Mansion!”
• Then, Moffat’s Biden reappears for some reason. Apparently, he’s supposed to be Biden from March, 2021. Nice attention to accuracy there, because that is indeed the last time Moffat played him.
• Our first strong cold open of the season. And I am extremely thankful that we didn’t get an appearance by Carrey.
Monologue
Sudeikis talks about SNL’s history, and his new show, Ted Lasso.
• Funny jab at the show’s history of drug abuse when he says the first 25 years were fueled by cocaine and adrenaline.
• I like his surprise at Ted Lasso’s success, considering that it’s about two things that Americans really hate: soccer and kindness.
• What was his advice for the show’s current cast and writers? “Win an Emmy.” Classic deadpan Sudeikis humor.
• I kind of cringed a bit when he mentioned Gilly among such classic sketches as Wayne’s World and the Festrunk Brothers
• Overall, a nice nostalgic monologue.
Sketch: The Science Room
Mr. Teacher (Sudeikis) tries to educate his students about the Solar System.
• Third appearance of this sketch. And, if you know how much I detested the previous installment, then you can tell I hated this one too.
• My only laugh came from Jason’s intentionally lame periodic table pun at the beginning. That’s pretty sad when the only thing I’m able to laugh at is supposed to be lame.
• The joke where his students keep clapping at everything got old very fast.
• We got a nice break from them for a while, but we’re back to making bad jokes about testicles. The students keep calling the planets on a model of the solar system “balls”. Did a twelve year old write this sketch?
• And that’s all I have to say about this one. Jason really tried his best, but not even he can rise above ball jokes.
Sketch: Mellen
It’s Ellen DeGeneres, but she’s a MAN!!!!
• This had a promising idea, but instead they decide to go for the most basic satire possible. “Hey, guys, I’m writing a sketch where Ellen is a man. What are some things men do?” “They’re gross drunk assholes who beat people up.” “Brilliant! We are SO going to win an Emmy for this!”
• Another silent role for Aristotle Athari. What was the point of hiring this guy if you’re not going to give him any lines?
• I cringed when I saw Pete Davidson as Jake Paul. Thankfully, this is Pete’s only appearance of the episode.
• Despite how shitty everything around him is, Jason is totally believable as this type of character. If only there was a stronger sketch for him to play it in.
Sketch: Annie
Little Orphan Annie is intrigued by a mysterious servant at the Warbucks Mansion.
• Rule of thumb for the future: Whenever a sketch starts with an announcer saying “We now return to…”, it’s gonna suck.
• Stooge should be counting his blessings that he no longer does reviews of the show, because I’d hate to see his reaction to a sketch about his “favorite” musical.
• Thank goodness Kate is still absent. I’m certain she would’ve gotten to play Annie if she was here, and that would mean listening to her awful singing.
• There was some brief promise when Jason showed up as a shady looking character with a mustache and glasses (roles that he usually excels at). Unfortunately, the rest of the sketch became entirely about this character. They should have kept him as a background joke and moved on to something else.
Sketch: Parent-Teacher Conference
The Wilkerson family meets with their son’s teacher (Sudeikis) to talk about his academic performance.
• Fuck, I have to review this one now. Oh well, here goes…
• This sketch is one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever had to witness on this show. Almost every single line of dialogue in here is some kind of sexual innuendo. While I know that’s nothing new, for some reason it made me really squeamish here.
• All of the sex “jokes” suck, but “I’m not used to chalk this big” made me particularly angry.
• Worst of all, the climax (no pun intended) is Jason fucking Ego on top of the teacher’s desk. And Ego’s husband just stands there watching them instead of going to tell somebody. This is like something out of a depraved cuckold porn film.
• Apparently, the sketch as originally written and rehearsed featured an ending where another family arrives for their meeting with the teacher, but they leave as soon as they see what he is doing to Ego.
Fake Ad: Jake’s Non-Stick Underwear For Men
A new kind of underwear that’s suited for a REAL man’s needs.
• One of the most boring commercials in recent memory.
Musical Performance: “Broken Horses”
Weekend Update (featuring The Devil)
• One of the biggest stories leading up to this episode was former Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin getting in trouble for shooting someone on the set of his latest film. There’s a lot of possible jokes you could make about that, so what do Che and Jost do? Nothing! Yep, they don’t bring it up at all!
• I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I am absolutely tired of these two as anchors. We need some fresh blood in the anchor position. Make it happen, Lorne!
• Ah, but things get better when Jason shows up as The Devil, an old Update character of his! Pardon the pun, but, HELL YEAH!
• This character is just as funny as ever. It’s like he never left.
• Something I missed the first time was a mention of Instagram for Kids being one of his recent accomplishments.
• Even some of his lamer jokes (like the one about Florida being “pre-Hell”) are still working for me because of his delivery.
• Another laugh from the portrait he keeps Tom Brady’s soul locked in, which is a picture of Brady altered to look demonic.
• The phone call from Prince Andrew was a little too on the nose, but I still chuckled. It helps that they follow it with a fake image of The Devil posing with him and Jeffrey Epstein.
• I find the joke about him being responsible for annoying pop-up ads very relatable. Who else but Satan would be behind those things?
• I like his offense at Colin asking if he’s involved with qAnon. He then follows that with a dig at Colin and Scarlett Johansson’s relationship, implying that he’s behind that too.
• Dress rehearsal also had a couple of other commentaries, one from Alex Moffat as that stupid Boat guy, and another from Melissa about Hispanic Heritage Month (more on that one later…).
• The news parts of this Update were shit as usual, but the commentary helps raise it from a 1 to a 3.
Sketch: What Up With That?
A special Halloween Edition, guest starring Oscar Isaac, Emily Ratajkowski, and Nicholas Braun.
• YES!!!! Now here’s a Kenan sketch I’m actually excited to see! This is our first true WUWT sketch since 2012 (the At Home edition doesn’t count), and boy, does it feel great to see it again. It also feels great to see some energy pumped back into the show!
• It’s very strange that Kenan hasn’t been in the episode until now.
• Surprisingly, this is the first we’ve seen of Fred Armisen on the show since Season 45. See what happens when you space your cameos out more, Fred? Unfortunately, Bill Hader is absent as Lindsey Buckingham once again.
• Our special guests this time include Oscar Isaac (the guy who played Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequel trilogy), Emily Ratajkowski (don’t know who this is), and Nicholas Braun (don’t know who this is either). What an odd bunch of people to choose.
• I find it really funny for some reason that Oscar is dressed as a pirate.
• Words cannot express how happy I am to see Jason doing his traditional dances in this sketch.
• Some mild amusement from how Diondre Cole thinks that Braun is just Buckingham in a costume.
• Oscar’s reactions to the theme music starting up while he’s trying to talk about his characters are great.
• This is thankfully the only appearance of Asian Terry Sweeney in this entire episode. To his credit, though, he does a good job in his one scene.
• While I still enjoyed this, it felt kind of empty without Bill Hader’s presence.
Sketch: Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers discuss what they should put in the Declaration of Independence.
• A nice way to use most of the male cast (thankfully, Pete is not one of them).
• I’m glad Kate isn’t here, because she totally would have been put in drag in this sketch.
• JAJ looks frighteningly accurate as Ben Franklin. They don’t specifically say that’s who he’s playing, but I can tell it’s supposed to be him.
• Not a big fan of the pacing of this.
• Random ending where these two time travelers show up (another waste of Athari). This leads to some fun-time shenanigans where you can accidentally see them exit the room, even though they’re supposed to be disappearing into smoke. Thankfully, this error was not taken out of the online version, because it saves what would otherwise be a totally boring sketch.
Musical Performance: “Right on Time”
Sketch: Casino Proposal
After a couple loses big time at a Vegas casino, a wealthy man offers to help them.
• Jason: “I’m not a man, I’m just a little fat girl!” Best quote of the entire episode!
• The way Kenan silently enters the sketch is just genius. Why can’t he show us more of this, instead of relying on the same voice over and over again?
• Maybe I’m just in a good mood, but I actually don’t mind Kenan’s shtick here. I think it’s because he’s doing it in a sketch where it would actually make sense.
• I’m glad I came around on this sketch. It’s a lot better than I thought, helped by an unusually strong Kenan performance.
Cut For Time: Hispanic Heritage Month commentary
Melissa Villaseñor embraces her heritage.
• Despite being Hispanic, Melissa surprisingly hasn’t played many of such characters, at least from what I can remember. One part of me finds that bizarre, while the other part is glad that she hasn’t been pigeonholed into playing ethnic roles.
• It turns out that this doesn’t even matter, however, as she then reveals that she’s actually here to talk about a recent breakup she had.
• I like the story she tells about trying to make the moves on Rami Malek during the previous week’s episode.
• Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to notice how different her singing voice is to her natural voice.
• Even though I liked this, I’m kind of glad it got cut from the live show, because there was no way it was going to stand up to Jason’s commentary.
Final thoughts: While still far from perfect, this is probably the best one we’ve had this season. This is mostly because of the presence of Jason Sudeikis. He completely nailed his first hosting gig, and I hope he has more in the future.
Best sketches: Cold Open, Monologue, The Devil’s commentary, What Up With That?, Casino Proposal
Worst sketches: The Science Room, Mellen, Parent Teacher Conference
Next review: Kieran Culkin/Ed Sheeran
No comments:
Post a Comment