Cold Open: NFL Press Conference
Raiders coach Jon Gruden (JAJ) holds a press conference to address the email scandal he’s been involved in.
• Wow, this aired only a few months ago and it’s already dated. Does anyone else remember this? I didn’t even know about it when it originally aired because I hate football.
• For a rookie, James Austin Johnson has been getting tons of screentime! Here, he’s playing Jon Gruden, who I’ve never heard of, so I can’t judge the impression.
• A rare non-Update appearance from Colin Jost, playing Roger Goodell.
• The “satire” in this sketch is too obvious and on the nose. Gruden tries to explain his offensive emails by saying that they got auto-corrected by mistake, so, instead of “faggot”, he meant to write “frigate”, because he’s apparently a Navy buff. Um…funny????
• Kind of ironic how in a sketch that decries racism, they feature a blatantly offensive character named “Giuseppe The Stinky Italian”. What’s with all of the bad Italian stereotypes on this show as of late?
• As much as I’ve grown to love Chris Redd, I still think he’s pretty hit-and-miss as an impressionist. This is definitely the case here, where he plays traitorous rabble rouser Colin Kapernick. Oh, and the audience cheers when he shows up, because of course they do.
• While we’re on the subject of bad impressions, Kenan plays LeVar Burton, but sounds and looks nothing like him. I would have liked it if he brought back that “Levar B. Burton” character from the season premiere instead.
Monologue
Rami talks about his sheltered childhood and his ability to play the villain.
• Hearing his natural voice was such a big shock to me when this first aired, because it seems like he’s always playing foreigners.
• Something about his face really creeps me out. I guess it’s a good thing that he usually does villain characters.
• Other than that, I don’t really have much to say about this one.
Sketch; The Bug Assembly
Students present facts about their favorite bugs.
• Dear Lord, I remember this sketch being extremely painful. It was so bad that even my dad (who sometimes laughs at the dumbest sketches) thought it was a piece of shit.
• Right away, we get Kenan doing my favorite voice. Please try out some other dialects.
• I will admit to getting a slight chuckle from seeing Rami dressed as a stinkbug.
• Asian Terry Sweeney’s character is, unsurprisingly, very flamboyant. He also does this terrible dance after introducing himself, which makes the crowd go wild for some reason.
• As soon as Rami mentioned that his bug eats weeds and grass, I knew there was going to be a pot joke. Sure enough, he clarifies that it’s “not the one you’re thinking of”. It’s gotten really sad that I can now predict jokes before they happen.
• Let me just make something clear: I have nothing against Bowen Yang as a person, nor am I mocking him for being gay. The reason I call him Asian Terry Sweeney is because the way Yang has been treated on this show reminds me of Sweeney. I really want to like him, but they keep making it hard for me to do so with dumb characters like this, “Bottle Boi”, and that Iceberg thing from last season.
• Overall, this is one of the worst sketches I have ever seen.
Film: Squid Game
Pete Davidson and some other people rap about the Netflix show Squid Game.
• HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS?!!???
• Just when I thought Pete’s songs couldn’t get any worse, he shits out this one. Accompanying him are Rami and some fat guy with a beard that I honestly thought was Aidy Bryant in drag again. Apparently this guy’s name is “Big Wet”, and I assume he’s some rapper that I don’t care about.
• Not only is this a bad attempt at staying relevant, they also manage to miss the point of this show. Having never seen it, I asked my sister (who watches these episodes with me) if she could make sense of what was going on. She instead questioned why they were even making “jokes” about the show in the first place, because it’s meant to be a serious look at poverty in Korea. Now that I have that bit of information, I hate this song even more! I’m pretty sure they just made this song to capitalize on all the memes, without bothering to look at what the show is really all about.
Sketch: Prince Auditions
Rami and Kenan try to audition for a movie about Prince by seeing who has the better impression of him.
• I thought for sure that this wouldn’t be uploaded online because of the use of Prince’s music, but it was.
• Chris Redd plays Jordan Peele in this. I keep forgetting that he’s a director now.
• I found it somewhat amusing when Rami entered in that Prince costume. Unfortunately, it also means we get to see his disturbing hairy chest. Yechhh!
• Kenan, PLEASE STOP DOING THAT VOICE!!!! I used to think it was funny, but now it’s like the only voice you ever do!
• It took only a minute for them to make a bad sex joke. While still definitely present, I feel that Season 47 has been starting to go lighter on the sex jokes, which definitely contributes to the fresher feel this season has.
• This sketch, however, is NOT coming off as particularly fresh. Once I saw that Michael Che is the credited writer, it all made sense.
• As much as I love the song they use here, I got tired of it after the first few times it’s played. And it’s always the exact same part.
• Rather random reveal that Kenan is playing himself in this sketch.
• Second episode in a row to have a gratuitous celebrity cameo, but this time, it’s one that I genuinely wasn’t expecting. None other than Daniel Craig!!! I know he had just been in a movie with Rami, but I still found it surprising. Despite that, not even Craig can save this sketch from being a piece of shit.
Sketch: Celeb School
A classroom-style game show where the contestants have to rely on celebrities for answers.
• Kenan’s host character in this is named “Bert Simpson”, which he has to say twice so people don’t get him confused with someone else. Somebody explained the joke? Yep, this is a Seidell/Day sketch!
• Speaking of Mikey Day, his John Oliver impression is fucking terrible.
• A surprisingly good Jennifer Coolidge impression from Chloe Fineman of all people. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll go back to her usual annoying self in the next episode.
• JAJ is downright amazing as Adam Driver.
• Freaking SPOT-ON impression of Kristen Wiig by Melissa! She perfectly captures those dumb mugging faces that Kristen usually does.
• An SNL tradition comes to an end as George Takei is not played by Akira Yoshimura in this sketch. Instead, it’s Asian Terry Sweeney, because of course it is. But, to his credit, his impression isn’t that bad.
• I genuinely laughed out loud when Redd showed up as Lil Wayne.
• Pete manages to redeem himself from that awful Squid Game shit with his Rami Malek impression. Accompanying him is Rami as Pete. Thankfully, they don’t do the usual “celebrity confronts someone impersonating them, and then proceeds to act exactly like that impression” cliche here.
• This was a lot better than I remembered.
Musical Performance: “Tick Tock”
Weekend Update (featuring A Proud Gay Oompa-Loompa, Chris Redd, and Linus Minus)
• I love the brief glimpse of the threatening letter sent to Michael Che: “LISTEN UP HONKY! Wish they got you instead of Harambe!”
• After a few stories that are so boring I won’t bring them up, Asian Terry Sweeney enters as…*sigh*…“A Proud Gay Oompa-Loompa”. Uggghhhh! This easily dethrones the Iceberg commentary as the worst he’s ever done.
• Chris Redd drops by to talk about things that are really important, such as blimp pilots and Superman’s bisexual son. I usually like Redd’s commentaries, but this one is a little too unfocused. He still gives it his all, though.
• Really crass vagina joke from Che. I guess Amy Schumer is ghostwriting for this show now.
• Lastly, Mikey does a commentary as a hypnotist named Linus Minus. His assistant is played by Kenan, once again doing that voice I “love” so much. As much as I like Mikey, his Update characters have been hit-or-miss for me. This, unfortunately, falls into the “miss” category.
Sketch: Sleepy Town USA
A couple keeps getting distracted while shopping for a new mattress.
• Somehow this is the only appearance Aidy makes in this entire episode. Considering how out of place she is on the show now, that’s actually not such a bad thing.
• Asian Terry Sweeney has been all over this episode. In this sketch, however, he shows some surprising restraint and plays his character normally. I appreciate that.
• I don’t know what it is, but I’m finding this a lot better than I did the first time around. Rami and Aidy both give great performances, and the fact that this is taking place at mattress store makes it funnier.
• I also appreciate the restraint they had in not making the two of them have sex. Is this even SNL I’m watching?
Musical Performance: “Love You More”
Sketch: Angelo
A couple on a date is witness to a “sensational” performance from the improv singer Angelo.
• Daniel Craig makes another appearance as the male lead of this sketch. Why? I dunno. There certainly aren’t any members of the cast who need more airtime (hint hint Alex Moffat). To be fair to Mr. Craig, though, he was the best part of this horrible sketch.
• Aristotle Athari gets his first major showcase as a cast member. Unfortunately, it has to be this character, an improv performer who babbles in an unintelligible Italian accent. Again, what is with all of the bad Italian stereotypes lately?
• The “joke” where Angelo keeps asking “Say for me?” whenever he gets a song request quickly gets old after only a minute.
• You know, I usually like sketches where people talk in gibberish (face it, gibberish can be funny). Chris Kattan’s Suel Forrester character was a great example of this. It also helps that he wasn’t an offensive stereotype. Angelo, on the other hand, is an offensive stereotype.
• The only laugh I got from this sketch was Craig’s date (played by Cecily) trying to excuse his concerns about not understanding Angelo’s songs by saying that he’s from another country. Craig responds, “Well, I’m not from this country, and you understand me.” Cecily replies with a perfectly delivered, “No, I don’t.”, implying that their relationship may not be as perfect as it seems.
• Rami then shows up as Angelo’s partner, Todd, whose accent is even more unintelligible. At this point, I’m just waiting for it to end.
• As is usual with most of the sketches I really hate, people went nuts for this when it aired. I don’t fucking get it. Are their comedy standards really so low that they laugh at anything? I bet if a puppy got beaten up by the Devil they would give it a perfect rating.
Now, I’d like to introduce a new part of my reviews called “Cut For Time”, in which I review a sketch that was cut from the episode.
Cut For Time: Rami Wants A Treat
Rami expects to be rewarded for behaving well on the show.
• Like I said last time, the Please Don’t Destroy sketches, while often being better than the rest of the episode, usually get cut out. This one sounded interesting, so I decided to make it my first Cut For Time review.
• Ben Marshall offers Rami a mouse pad as a “treat”. But that’s not enough for him, so he starts acting like a spoiled brat and trashes the writers’ room. I like that these shorts don’t make the joke obvious at first. It takes a while to get to them, which makes the payoff more satisfying when it does happen.
• There’s just something that’s so funny about seeing famous actor Rami Malek acting like a baby when he doesn’t get his way. All of the “rude” things he does to the PDD guys are funny, too. He knocks over a soda can, messes up the ceiling, throws away their lunch, and takes their coats off the coat rack, among other things.
• My favorite part is when Martin Herlihy pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot Rami.
• I can’t understand why they would cut this sketch out of the episode. Just replace the Angelo shit with this, and you’d get a perfect ending!
Final thoughts: Another mixed bag. You know it’s bad when the best sketch wasn’t even in the final show. Rami himself was a great host who made a lot of the bad stuff more tolerable. He’s more than welcome to come back again.
Best sketches: Celeb School, Sleepy Town USA, Rami Wants A Treat (Cut)
Worst sketches: The Bug Assembly, Squid Game, Oompa-Loompa commentary, Angelo
Next review: Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlisle
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