Cold Open: Justice with Judge Jeanine
Jeanine Pirro interviews Aaron Rodgers, Glenn Youngkin, and Donald Trump.
• *sigh* The return of Cecily’s baffling Jeanine Pirro impression. Her previous appearance in the Season 46 finale seemed to be a farewell to it, but then they had to slap us in the face with this shit.
• Pete’s Aaron Rodgers scene is just a lame reenactment of the actual interview.
• Forget about Rodgers and Youngkin, the thing I really want to talk about here is Trump. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a brand new Trump impersonator! JAJ takes over from here on out, and his version of Trump is freaking dead on. It’s a breath of fresh air after 5 long years of Alec Baldwin’s cartoonish portrayal.
• As good as it is to see somebody else playing Trump, the actual material they give him hasn’t changed. We still gets the same old jokes about how he only cares about himself, and is also racist.
Monologue
The host talks about appearing on the show when he was nine, and about his new show Succession.
• Damn, he looks just like his older brother.
• The first half was kind of boring, then it gets better when he reminisces about the time Macaulay hosted back in 1991. He was there that night as well, appearing in three sketches. Then we get to see a clip of the show’s ending, in which he appears off on the side of the screen as Phil Hartman lifts up Macaulay onto his back, leading to a heartwarming moment where he asks Kevin Nealon to lift him up too. It’s a sweet moment, and it’s always nice to see the eternally unappreciated Nealon get some recognition.
Sketch: Cancelling Cable
A man (Culkin) trying to cancel his cable subscription gets nothing but trouble from the unhelpful representatives.
• My dad thought this one was really funny, mostly because he’s actually been through this situation before. Me, on the other hand, I thought it was kinda boring.
• Random ending with Asian Terry Sweeney as a giant floating head named “Cable”.
Film; The Heist
A car thief (Chris Redd) can’t get the car to start.
• This looks promising. I’m glad Chris Redd got the lead role.
• Mikey’s wig is funny.
• Heidi looks kinda hot in that tight black leather outfit. Combined with the Russian accent, it’s like she’s trying to play Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• Unexpected twist where the car fails to start.
• Redd’s character says he can drive any kind of car, but this happens to be one of the few that he doesn’t know how to drive.
• Even Kenan gets some laughs as an elderly security guard that laughs at Redd’s failed attempts to start up the car.
• Random (but funny) joke about Redd’s inability to pronounce Fred Flintstone’s name.
• Even when he does manage to get it started, he can only get it to move for a couple seconds at a time. And then he tries the nitrous boosters, only to get crushed by the exit doors.
• I thought this was a lame one-joke film the first time I saw it, but I appreciate it a lot better now.
Sketch: The Dionne Warwick Talk Show
Warwick is back again with more celebrity interviews, including one with herself.
• Not too excited to see this back again. But this one ends up being very special…
• Ego’s got a pretty singing voice.
• Our latest bad Fineman impression is of Miley Cyrus, where she talks like a coked-up hillbilly. Barf.
• Warwick’s questions are funnier than usual. I like the one she asks about why Cardi B needs a “B” in her name. “Were there any other Cardis in the class?”
• They’re still doing the baffling Wendy Williams running gag, but this time they switch it up a little by having Warwick ask Miley to team up together so they can take out Williams and Hannah Montana.
• Andrew Dismukes makes another useless cameo, this time as a doctor who gets left hanging as he’s about to administer the COVID booster.
• Warwick’s introduction of Jason Mraz (played by Culkin) is rather blunt and hilarious: “This man is not famous anymore. He does not have any new songs out right now.”
• Culkin’s impression isn’t that bad.
• I like how the only question she asks that’s actually related to him is about whether or not we’ll see his brain if he takes his hat off.
• Random appearance by the musical guest as himself. As an interesting side note, Sheeran was diagnosed with COVID earlier in the week, so it was assumed by many (including the show itself) that his appearance would have to be cancelled. Not only did he show up anyway, but he also appeared in this sketch. That’s one impressive recovery! My mom is a huge fan of him, and I feel sad that she was asleep while this episode was on.
• Probably my favorite Warwick question is the one she has about Sheeran’s “South Of The Border” song: “Are you nasty?” Do I even want to know what she was thinking of?
• Another funny moment when she asks how to get Apple TV on a Dell computer.
• Sheeran’s deadpan reactions to these ridiculous questions he’s being asked are well delivered. In response to a bizarre statement Warwick makes about how Ed Sheeran spelled backwards is Dionne Warwick, he simply says, “No, I don’t think it is.”
• Unlike the previous two installments, Machine Gun Kelly does not make an appearance, as Warwick has realized that he is “too scary” for her. Instead, Pete plays Post Malone, but the joke where he is sent away immediately after arriving is still the same. It’s also still not funny.
• The grand finale? The REAL Dionne Warwick shows up! Now that I’ve heard her natural speaking voice, I can appreciate how accurate Ego sounds.
• The two Warwicks then sing a duet together, a perfect way to end this sketch. I hope the real Warwick showing up means that this is the last time we’ll ever see this.
Sketch: Men’s Room
The social dynamics of a bathroom force several men to get introspective.
• This was a very confusing sketch for me to follow. I had no idea what the joke was supposed to be.
• Tracy Morgan is wasted with a pointless cameo at the end.
Film: The Jockey
A skateboarder (Culkin) looks back at the time he replaced a horse jockey in the Kentucky Derby.
• I question the decision to do a sketch about the Kentucky Derby in November. Wouldn’t this be more appropriate in May?
• Who is the African-American actor playing the injured jockey? SNL Archives doesn’t credit him, so I’m assuming he’s not a writer.
• The music in this has a “ska punk” feel to it, which I’m sure my brother would love.
• This film is very…bizarre. Combined with the clearly greenscreened visuals of Culkin on top of his horse, and the music that’s playing, it feels like I’m watching a corny 90s comedy movie.
• I want to like the bizarre nature of this, but it’s a little too weird even for me.
Musical Performance: “Shiver”
Weekend Update (featuring Ice Cube and Goober)
• The return of Kenan’s baffling Ice Cube impression. It still sounds nothing like him. He should really think about letting someone else do it.
• Honestly, how in the world does Michael Che get away with all of his misogynistic jokes about women? It’s frankly disgusting.
• Speaking of disgusting, what follows is possibly the worst Update commentary I have ever seen. Cecily Strong shows up as “Goober, The Clown Who Got An Abortion When She Was 23”. No, seriously. Cecily is dressed as a clown who tries to dodge the subject of abortion by doing clown things.
• Cecily’s outfit reminds me of the main character of this creepy show called The Big Comfy Couch that I used to watch as a kid.
• Please stop adding “clown” to the beginning of words, Cecily. That won’t make this any better. What also won’t make this any better is Colin asking her this same question. Guys, pointing out your problems doesn’t make them funny.
• It feels like even the audience doesn’t know what to make of this shit. About halfway through, their laughter becomes less and less frequent.
• Overall, this is one of the worst Updates I’ve ever sat through.
Sketch: Wake Up Rhode Island
A weatherman’s lighthearted rap gets interrupted by an emergency weather alert.
• Oh boy, I’ve been waiting to review this sketch.
• Andrew Dismukes has had a pretty active episode by his standards. Meanwhile, Aidy Bryant only appears in one sketch. Do we need anymore proof that she needs to leave?
• OMG at the sight of Kieran Culkin in a turkey costume.
• The weatherman (Culkin) starts singing a rap about the Fall season, complete with dancing CGI leaves in the background. His voice is then cut off by an emergency weather alert about an approaching nor’easter, all while we still see him dancing, and the anchors try to get him to stop.
• I wonder whose voice that is as the emergency alert. It’s hard to tell because it has a robotic filter.
• Why didn’t he warn anybody about the approaching storm? Because he was too busy coming up with the rap! Also, the CGI leaves are still dancing behind him as he says this, which makes for a hilarious contrast.
• When he finally does get the weather map up and running, and we see a cyclonic storm rotating at the bottom, dancing CGI turkeys with Culkin’s face on them show up and cover the screen. The longer the turkeys stayed on screen, the harder I laughed.
• Punkie plays a reporter out on location at the beach where she’s interviewing some Boy Scouts that are picking up garbage. As you can imagine, the storm hits right after that, and when we cut back to her later, all of the scouts have been washed away by the storm surge.
• I like how Kenan’s character is more interested in the rap than the storm, even as his co-anchor (Cecily) remains serious.
• A good ending where Kenan plugs an upcoming interview with the aforementioned Boy Scouts, and Cecily just stares at him.
• Unlike that horse thing from earlier, this was a good example of a bizarre sketch.
Musical Performance: “Overpass Graffiti”
Please Don’t Destroy: Calling Angie
A call with a girlfriend goes off the rails.
• The PDD guys finally get another sketch on the air! It took them long enough.
• John Higgins is sad that his girlfriend dumped him. His friends convince him to call her up and tell her how he feels, so he does, and only manages to infuriate her even further by telling her to go fuck herself.
• Now John wants his friends to get him out of this mess, so he lets them handle the phone for a bit. Unfortunately for him, they just tell her the same awful things. This might be the largest amount of F-bombs I’ve heard in an SNL episode.
• After Angie finally hangs up, Ben Marshall tries to offer his condolences to John by bringing up a failed relationship of his own…which broke up because he wouldn’t stop saying “Ay, chihuahua!” during sex. If I ever get a girlfriend I’m going to say that as many times as I can and see what happens.
• The film ends when Angie herself arrives, and she bashes John’s head on the desk!
• These PDD films continue to get better and better. I just wish SNL didn’t keep cutting them out before the live show!
Cut For Time: “Let’s Go Brandon” commentary
A guy named Brandon (Kyle Mooney) talks about the “Let’s Go Brandon!” meme, and the effect it’s had on his life.
• For those who don’t know where this meme came from, back in October, a guy named Brandon Brown won his first ever NASCAR race. While he was being interviewed, the crowd randomly started chanting “Fuck Joe Biden!” The reporter tried to cover this by saying they were chanting “Let’s Go Brandon!” For whatever reason, this took off with the right-wing community, and it has become a euphemism for telling Biden to go fuck himself.
• So, the gist of this commentary is that this guy named Brandon is feeling kind of down, but then his spirits get lifted when he sees all of these memes with his name in them, thinking that they’re referring to him. A rather predictable concept, but Kyle is making it work because he excels at playing awkward characters.
• He thinks that the reason for his sudden popularity is because of his “Cookie Creations”, which are just cookies shaped like squares.
• Brandon’s sudden change in mood once Che tells him what the phrase really means is brilliantly performed, as is his despair when he realizes that his uncle and these random football guys (who he heard using this phrase) weren’t cheering for him.
• Even funnier is when we find out what Brandon’s last name is: “Badnudels”, which is apparently Dutch. Not that this bothers him, as he gets the audience pumped up with a “Let’s Go Badnudels” chant.
• Why couldn’t they have left this in the episode instead of that horrible clown thing? It would have given Kyle some much needed airtime.
Final thoughts: A better episode than I remembered. In fact, I find it to be even better than the previous episode! Apart from Culkin, who did amazing, I also want to give a shout-out to Ed Sheeran for managing to appear on the show after everyone counted him out due to his COVID diagnosis.
Best sketches: Monologue, The Heist, The Dionne Warwick Talk Show, Wake Up Rhode Island, Calling Angie, Let’s Go Brandon (Cut)
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Men’s Room, Goober commentary
Next review: Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift
No comments:
Post a Comment