Cold Open: Fox and Friends
The hosts interview various candidates about the midterm elections.
• Not this again. These sketches just aren’t as funny as the ones from the early 2010s.
• Bizarre casting of Bowen as Brian Kilmeade. Mikey played him the last time they did this, but now he’s playing Steve Doocy.
• To be fair, I did get a chuckle from Ainsley Earhardt and Doocy saying “Wakanda Forever”, and Kilmeade warning them that he doesn’t think they’re allowed to say it.
• It feels so wrong hearing them mention Eric Trump without Alex Moffat being there.
• Cecily returns as Kari Lake, and we get more “jokes” about how she uses camera filters.
• Trump returns for the second episode in a row. Ugh!!! Just give him a break already, SNL!
• Random and unfunny twist at the end where Lake suddenly appears in the studio. Just another tick on a checklist at this point.
Monologue
Our host does stand-up about Kanye, Trump, and the midterms.
• There was a lot of controversy from idiots on Twitter about Chappelle being asked to host, thanks to his “offensive” statements about trans people. SNL did not listen to any of these complaints and let Chappelle go on the show.
• Funny slam at Kanye at the beginning.
• He’s launched into a series of great Jew jokes, such as asking them about why they dress like Run-DMC and calling one of their holidays “Sha Na Na”.
• He drops an n-bomb when talking about Adidas. This then leads to a comment about how Adidas was founded by Nazis. I was very surprised to discover that this was not a joke, and that Adidas actually was founded by a member of the Nazi Party.
• I’m surprised they let him get away with his “Jews run Hollywood” jokes. Unsurprisingly, Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League complained about them.
• His non-verbal impression of Herschel Walker is miles better than Kenan’s impression that actually has dialogue. That just shows you how awful Kenan has gotten this year.
• Even the Trump material is making me laugh.
• Overall, despite lasting over 15 minutes, this was a killer monologue.
Sketch: Potato Hole
Morning show hosts try to figure out the meaning of a musician’s new album title.
• Andrew’s great season continues as he gets a lead role in this sketch.
• Ugh, another sketch where the only joke is the repetition of “hole” over and over again?!? Wasn’t that awful “momhole” sketch enough?
• Chappelle single-handedly saves this sketch from being a total waste with his long and disturbing explanation of what a “potato hole” actually is. Thank God for Dave Chappelle!
Film: House of the Dragon
The Game of Thrones spin-off suddenly gets invaded by Chappelle’s Show characters.
• As with the awful Aunt Jemima sketch from his last appearance, this sketch starts with a Chappelle’s Show-style intro where Dave tells the audience what the next sketch is going to be about.
• Mikey STILL can’t do a British accent.
• Kenan looks like he’s got a mop on his head.
• Some amazing makeup on James’ character, complete with decaying skin.
• This suddenly turns into a sequel to that Walking Dead Chappelle’s Show sketch from his first episode, with characters from the show randomly appearing here. I’ve still never seen an episode, so all of these appearances are kind of confusing to me.
• Oh, hey, look! It’s Ice-T, everybody! No idea why he’s here.
• No comment on the scene where JAJ’s dick falls off.
• I like the brief shot of Tyrone Biggums using a dragon to light his cigarette.
• Even Rick James makes an appearance!
• The best part is the ending, where the three Chappelles fly away, only for the police to somehow pull them over.
• Overall, despite not understanding all of the specific show-related jokes, I enjoyed this quite a lot.
Sketch: Barber Shop
A group of barbers discuss current events.
• The setting of this reminds me of Coming to America. Maybe that was intentional?
• Nice to see all of our black cast members in this, including Punkie and Devon!
• I like the sudden reveal of Longfellow as one of the barbers in this shop, which we had previously only seen occupied by black people. Even better is when it turns out that he isn’t even cutting anyone’s hair.
• Who’s the guy getting his hair cut by Kenan?
• This sketch has a nice slice of life feel to it that I wish more of this era’s sketches had.
• Every single time they cut to that shot of the empty chair next to Michael, I laugh even harder.
• Great twist ending where they all confirm that Michael’s character was actually a police agent.
Musical Performance: “So Be It”
Weekend Update (featuring Jose Suarez and Sarah Sherman)
• Colin, actually being honest for once: “I don’t know if that’s really official, but, we’re not a real news program…”
• These Herschel Walker jokes are growing tiresome.
• Another great child labor joke from Che.
• Marcello debuts a new character named Jose Suarez, who’s trying to become the first Latino president.
• This character is great! I’m getting a strong Fericito vibe from his voice and mannerisms, even if he doesn’t have a catchphrase that he keeps repeating every few seconds.
• Sarah makes her first Update appearance of the season as the host of “Sarah News”. It comes with a bizarre intro that I can’t even describe here without sounding like a crazy person.
• I agree with Sarah that the current Update set is ugly. They’ve been using that same one since Che joined the desk back in 2014.
• It felt so heartwarming to hear the audience applaud her as she started reading her headlines.
• Sarah’s first joke was about a tunnel, and I immediately knew it was going to be a joke about sex. I still laughed, though.
• Great picture of Sarah in bed with John Fetterman.
• Can we have Sarah do the news every week? This is so refreshing to see after a million years with those two bozos behind the desk!
Sketch: Black Heaven
Mikey fills in for Chappelle in a sketch about Black Heaven.
• Funny initial reveal of Mikey dressed like a pimp and talking in the most bland “black” voice ever.
• Ego: “This is Black Heaven, where your Jordans never have a crease!”
• Punkie’s been having a good night. I like the characterization of her “Auntie” character, who gets mad when Devon says he doesn’t like mac and cheese.
• I got a big laugh from Mikey randomly saying “World Star!”
• Dave’s occasional comments are great, too.
• Mikey gets to show off some range when he freaks out about Dave putting him in this sketch just to torture him. Then he gets even more upset when he has to avoid reading the n-word in his script.
• Great ending, where Dave makes Mikey fill in for him again…in a sketch about the Underground Railroad.
Musical Performance: “The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing”
Please Don’t Destroy: Election Night
Molly needs help preparing a speech after the midterms.
• I honestly didn’t remember this episode having one of these.
• Molly gets their only role of the night in this, where it turns out that they won an election in Ohio.
• MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki makes a cameo in a scene where he shows us how Molly got elected.
• A good joke about the lack of Molly’s screentime.
• Molly, upon being forced to dress like a politician: “I look like a LEGO guy!”
• I love the brief shot of Ben swearing at a little boy.
• The Molly attack ad is hilarious. It somehow has audio of a quote that Molly said literally only a minute ago and describes them as an SNL stagehand.
• The text crawl ending wasn’t necessary.
• I liked this film a lot. The only thing that would’ve made it even better is if Chappelle were involved somehow.
Final thoughts: What a great turnaround from the last episode. With the exception of the cold open and the potato hole thing, almost every sketch here worked for me. Chappelle did a great job as host once again, and I’m glad SNL decided not to cave in to pressure and drop him.
Best sketches: Monologue, House of the Dragon, Barber Shop, Sarah News, Black Heaven, Election Night
Worst sketches: Cold Open
Next review: Keke Palmer/SZA
No comments:
Post a Comment