Cold Open: PBS NewsHour
Herschel Walker, Dr. Oz, and Kari Lake are interviewed.
• Nice to see Heidi with a lead role.
• Ugh, Kenan’s Herschel Walker is back. I immediately groaned when he called himself “Herschel Walker Texas Ranger”.
• Are these malapropisms something that Walker is known for doing in real life?
• Mikey plays Dr. Oz here. It’s not very good, but he’s trying his best.
• Cecily makes her “triumphant” return to the show after missing the first three episodes of the season. Rather hilariously, she gets no applause when she shows up, as if the audience is tired of seeing her on the show as well. She’s playing Arizona candidate Kari Lake, who, coincidentally, used to be an anchor at my local NBC affiliate before she got into politics.
• Ha, they actually bring up the fact that she used to be a news anchor!
• All these Arizona jokes are falling flat for me. Did Michael Longfellow have a hand in writing these?
• The only mild chuckle I got was from Dr. Oz trying to shill one of his products.
• Overall, yet another messy, confused cold open.
Monologue
Our host talks about the big year he’s had with his music, his new film, and getting roasted online.
• Has the home base stage ever been decorated like this for Halloween before?
• If Pete was still on the show, you just know that they would have had him play Jack in a sketch.
• Something about his delivery here is really bizarre. Is he feeling okay?
• Wow, that interview with an audience member is awkward as fuck. At least she seems to have a good sense of humor about it, while Harlow is bumbling through his (presumably) scripted questions.
• Not a good sign for the rest of the episode if this is how our host is going to be all night.
Sketch: Joker
The best man shows up in costume at a wedding.
• Oh shit, I’ve been dreading this sketch…
• An immediate red flag when everyone starts speaking in obnoxious Southern accents. Oddly, Sublette had nothing to do with this one. Andrew Dismukes and Celeste Yim were the writers.
• Speaking of Andrew, the initial sight of him in Joker makeup made me chuckle a little.
• Unfortunately, the rest of this sketch is nothing but them saying “Joker” over and over again in annoying voices.
• Still going on…
• No comment on Chloe’s awful accent.
• Sarah is almost unrecognizable as an old lady.
• Then this suddenly turns into a Survivor episode, complete with a pointless Jeff Probst cameo.
• Wow, this was just as painful and obnoxious as I remembered. Definitely a candidate for the worst sketch of the season.
Fake Ad: Skechers
Skechers responds to Kanye West.
• This aired around the time that Adidas dropped Kanye West for his racist statements about Jews. All these months later, when it’s mostly been forgotten, I’m sure this is going to be even less funny.
• Punkie actually gets a few lines here!
• Cecily surprisingly isn’t coming off too badly here. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll go back to being annoying next week.
• Was Cecily’s “Buh-bye” supposed to be a Total Bastard Airlines reference?
• Random appearance from JAJ as Mike Lindell at the end. While his impression is a lot better than Beck Bennett’s, it still isn’t that funny.
Sketch: The Post-Halloween Red Carpet Special
People are interviewed while in their Halloween costumes.
• Geez, another lead role for Cecily? I know she was gone for a while, but this is serious overkill.
• Also, no comment on her name being “Tina Lefaye”.
• Chloe trying to speak in a “drunk” voice is painful to listen to. She’s also doing that staring at the camera thing I mentioned last time.
• I like Devon’s “Chris Rock getting slapped” costume. Too bad this is the only time we see him in this episode.
• Marcello’s “Patriarcky” shirt made me groan, as did Cecily explaining to us that it was misspelled, as if we couldn’t tell.
• It figures that Bowen would dress up as one of the Village People for Halloween. Ironically, the one he’s dressed as (the cop) was the only one of them that wasn’t gay.
• Molly’s brief appearance as a drunk Dora the Explorer was pretty good.
• Even in a small role, Kenan is annoying me. He is so out of place with all of the newer cast members in this sketch.
• Good ending with Longfellow dressed as a pedophile.
• Despite being a little too long, this wasn’t that bad. I especially like how all four newbies made an appearance in it.
Sketch: AA Meeting
An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting suddenly turns into a pitch for an animated film about suitcases.
• OMG at the wig Longfellow is wearing.
• Unexpected twist where Jack suddenly reveals an idea he has about a talking suitcase movie.
• Molly gets a second appearance tonight!
• I like how all of the ideas the fellow AA members are coming up with are ones that Jack has already written down.
• Kenan actually made me laugh with his drawing of a suitcase with boobs.
• Another funny Kenan moment with his response to the fact that one of the characters is French: “I hate that bag.” Then, when he gets involved in a heartwarming moment, his opinion shifts: “I love that bag now!”
• Cecily’s bizarre character was unnecessary. Even worse, this leads to an out-of-nowhere musical number.
• Tom Hanks shows up again. I wish I could be more excited, but I know what this is eventually going to lead to…
• Not sure we actually needed to see the suitcases at the end.
• This sketch was mostly pretty good, with the exception of the musical number.
Film: 2020 Part 2: 2024
A horror movie shows the scariest outcomes for the 2024 election.
• This was cut from the Brendan Gleeson episode. I’m guessing they wanted to air it closer to Halloween because of the horror theme?
• What’s with the random bit of applause after Mikey leaves to go get popcorn. Did someone just show up in the studio while this ad is playing?
• The editing in this is spot on, and just like a typical horror movie trailer.
• Punkie gets another role! Meanwhile, I haven’t seen Ego at all.
• I liked the jump scare with Cory Booker’s face.
• Despite liking how well made this was, I didn’t find it very funny. It was kind of confusing.
Sketch: Bartenders
Things go awry when two bartenders serve a group of businesspeople.
• I love how much airtime the newbies have been getting in this episode.
• Unfortunately the main joke of this sketch is Bowen and Jack doing a very stupid dance that I am going to assume was stolen from TikTok.
• The glass breaking sound effects were hilariously delayed.
• Overall, blah.
Musical Performance: “Li’l Secret”, “First Class”
• Tom Hanks introduces the performance.
Weekend Update (featuring Drunk Uncle)
• Colin gets in a good slam at Peloton for banning Kanye West’s music in their classes, while also trying to distract people from their dangerous bikes.
• Other than that one, it’s more of the same shit as usual with these two.
• Then, out of nowhere, Bobby Moynihan suddenly returns as Drunk Uncle! HELL YEAH!!! What makes this return especially welcome is that Bobby has wisely stayed away from cameos since he left.
• Bobby hasn’t lost his charm as this character at all.
• Despite how good this commentary is, the only part that really sticks out to me is when he randomly starts singing “Take Me Home Tonight”, probably because I love that song.
• Did they really have to do the “That’s not me/That’s not anybody” routine again? That’s the only part of these commentaries that never works. But, in conclusion this commentary was a welcome return for Bobby. If only I knew what it was leading up to…
Sketch: Cellblock 666
A familiar face returns to scare the hell out of park goers once again.
• Ego, where have you been all night? This is only her first appearance in the episode.
• As soon as I saw this sketch being set up, I knew exactly what we were getting here, and I was like, “What are you doing, SNL? Are you even trying anymore?”
• Kenan’s Hell puns are doing nothing for me.
• I liked Ego’s reaction to seeing Annabelle: “I hate that little bitch!”
• Yep, there he is. David S. Pumpkins has returned. I guess I should have seen it coming earlier when both Tom Hanks and Bobby Moynihan made cameos, but I honestly wasn’t thinking about it.
• Rather hilariously, Bobby’s skeleton now has a beard.
• So far, this is just a basic rewrite of the first David Pumpkins sketch. The reason the first one worked so well was because it came out of nowhere. But now, we’ve seen it all before, so the impact is lost.
• Again with the Mario movie shilling? There’s this one part where the skeletons jump and they make the Mario jump noise. Why? I have no idea.
• As if this couldn’t get any worse, they actually have the balls to explain where David Pumpkins came from: apparently, he’s from Spain. You guys do realize that the whole point of the character was that his origin wasn’t important, right?
• JAJ has a pretty good Freddy Krueger voice. Too bad his scene is just a ripoff of Leslie Jones’ scene from the original sketch.
• Wow, I can’t believe it. They actually ruined David S. Pumpkins. What was once a memorable one-off is now a shitty recurring sketch. You just know that SNL is somehow going to bring this back in the future.
Musical Performance: “State Fair”
• Cecily introduces this one.
Sketch: The View
Jack Harlow pays a visit to the set.
• SNL’s latest attempt to recapture the magic of those late 90s The View sketches.
• Ego takes over as Whoopi, despite not even sounding like her. Speaking of Ego, this is the 250th sketch she’s appeared in! Good for her!
• Sarah’s screechy Joy Behar voice isn’t very accurate, but it is making me laugh.
• I’m surprised at how much airtime Punkie has gotten in this episode. There isn’t even a black host, so I don’t know what made them decide to finally use her this week. Whatever the reason, I’m certainly not complaining!
• I like when Ego cuts off Chloe trying to bring up climate change by telling her that they’ve moved on to another topic.
• Most of this is just a whole lot of nothing. My only laughs came from Sarah, proving yet again that she’s got a crazy amount of talent.
Cut for Time: JNCO Longs
A shocking secret is revealed in this pants commercial.
• SNL hasn’t really released a lot of cut sketches from this season.
• I wonder who the announcer is. It doesn’t sound like anyone in the cast.
• We get a sudden twist about halfway through when it’s revealed that Jack got surgery to make himself taller, while all of his friends thought it meant he was getting a sex change.
• Despite how odd this twist was, I actually thought it was pretty good, and they make it clear how awful it was for him to scam people just so he could get new jeans.
• The ending, where Sarah kicks him in the legs and breaks them, was a nice way to wrap it up.
Final thoughts: Another mixed bag. I’m not sure what was up, but Jack Harlow seemed kind of out of it. Cecily’s return went about as well as I expected, as we’re back to her ruining sketches with her out of place antics. Thankfully, we’ve only got five left before she leaves for good.
Best sketches: The Post-Halloween Red Carpet Special, AA Meeting, Drunk Uncle commentary, JNCO Longs (Cut)
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Joker, Bartenders, Cellblock 666, The View
Next review: Amy Schumer/Steve Lacey
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