Cold Open: Oscars Red Carpet
Celebrities are interviewed at the Oscars
• Yay, a non-political cold open!
• Amazing to see Marcello with such a big role in the cold open. I’m not sure how accurate his Mario Lopez impression is, but he seems to be having a good time.
• Kenan’s Mike Tyson is awful, which is strange because I remember it being spot-on in the past.
• Stop forcing Chloe down our throats! Her Jamie Lee Curtis impression is extremely bad.
• The “Oscar Odds” bit is so hacky and predictable.
• Not only can Mikey not do British accents, but he’s bad at Irish ones too!
• Molly continues to be typecast as fat men with this bizarre Brendan Gleeson impression.
• Speaking of typecasting, Sarah plays yet another Jewish person.
• No comment on the unnecessary return of Bowen as George Santos.
• Overall, this was an awful cold open.
Monologue
Jenna talks about starting in horror movies and her time as a child actress.
• I groaned at Jenna’s joke about Facebook being TikTok for racists.
• I actually remember that Colgate commercial she was in!
• A big laugh from the edited “scary” version of said commercial.
• UGGGHHHH, Fred Armisen out of fucking nowhere!!!! I had no idea he was in that Wednesday show, so I wasn’t expecting to see him here like many others were, but still, Fred needs to fucking cut his ties with SNL once and for all. Is he surgically connected to the show or something?
• Blech, it’s bad enough that Fred is here, but do we really need Jenna bringing up how her favorite sketch is The Californians?!? She has really shit taste in comedy!
• LOL, I actually got a laugh from Jenna cutting off Fred when he starts telling the story of how the sketch came to be! Thank goodness for that!
• This monologue started out okay, but then Fred came along and ruined it.
Sketch: School vs. School
X-Men knockoffs compete on a game show.
• Nice outdated PBS logo at the beginning.
• Kenan’s intro is going on way too long, but at least they gave him a normal name instead of the typical Anderlette “funny pun” name.
• I love Punkie’s lame “A-plus” joke.
• Bizarre twist where one of the competing schools turns out to be an X-Men knockoff school.
• Molly is almost unrecognizable as “Knockout”, while Mikey’s look as “Chandless Zander” is amusing.
• Mikey is surprisingly trying pretty hard to imitate Patrick Stewart’s trademark shouting. You can see Molly smirking after the first time he does this.
• Interesting use of a vocal modifier on Molly’s character, but as expected, there’s a minor glitch with it continuing into Mikey’s next line for a brief second.
• Kenan is actually coming off as a decent straight man in this sketch.
• Amusing reveal of Punkie’s character having a bloody nose as a result of Jenna’s psychic attack.
• Molly has another great moment by destroying their podium.
• I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed that sketch. It’s unquestionably one-note, but the performances made it work for me.
Please Don’t Destroy: Road Trip
The boys go out on the road with Jenna to help her relax.
• Third episode in a row with one of these? I’m not complaining, but I wish they’d space them out.
• Sudden musical number, but I think I like where this is going.
• The lyric about seeing billboards that say you’re going to Hell is a particularly funny one, as those are very common to see on the side of the road when you’re traveling through the South.
• Some laughs from the occasional interruptions of the song.
• The part with Jenna slurping on her Slurpee and annoying everyone else is another part I find relatable. Ben even says that he thinks she’s gotten it all, which is something my parents often say to me when I have a Slurpee.
• These shorts really love using awkward silence as a punchline. In this case, there’s a really funny instance of it when Martin casually tells everyone that his dad had a stroke.
• Oh, but there’s a funny twist where it turns out his dad didn’t have a stroke after all.
• The part where they run a guy over caught me off guard. And we end on a nice callback to the religious billboard from earlier with Jesus (played by JAJ) saying “I saw what you did!”
• This was a lot better than the last musical short they did (the Three Sad Virgins one with Pete Davidson).
Sketch: The Parent Trap
A crew member steps in a a body double for a remake of The Parent Trap.
• Uh-oh, Fred is back again! This doesn’t look good.
• So far, this is not working for me at all. This is exactly the type of sketch that he usually appeared in during the dying years of his tenure.
• Bowen: “Sir, I don’t think the script said ‘bitch’”. No, really?!? Thanks for explaining that to us!
• Jenna is at least extremely likable here.
• Why is this still going on?
• Bad ending where the poster shows both twins played by Fred. An awful end to an awful sketch.
Sketch: Ridiculousness
Just a typical episode of Ridiculousness, except it’s the SNL cast doing it.
• I can’t believe it’s taken this long for SNL to make fun of Ridiculousness, given how ubiquitous it is on MTV these days.
• I’m pretty sure MTV has never had “coming up next” screens (which is a problem I have with a lot of SNL TV show sketches in general), but it’s worth it just for the “Three straight days of Ridiculousness” joke.
• Mikey looks nothing like Rob Dyrdek.
• Kenan’s mic isn’t working when he comments on the “Falling Off” video.
• Funny disturbing story from Jenna about a friend’s head getting cut off.
• I love how every video they show involves someone falling.
• Great unsettled reaction from Chloe after Jenna’s terrifying cat story.
• The last video being a guy riding a laundry basket down the stairs kinda hits home for me, as I did that once when I was a kid and got hurt.
• An abrupt ending, but this sketch was okay for what it was.
Film: Waffle House
A dramatic scene in a teen drama is interrupted by chaos at a nearby Waffle House.
• Marcello has gotten a lot of airtime tonight.
• All of the wacky shit going on in the background at Waffle House is great.
• Great to see almost all of the featured players in this sketch! With the exception of Sarah, for some strange reason.
• I love that some of Jenna and Marcello’s dialogue relates to the chaos behind them.
• Excellent twist ending where it turns out that Jenna’s boyfriend was one of the people inside Waffle House.
Musical Performance: “I’m In Love With You”
Random observation: The lead singer reminds me of Martin Herlihy from Please Don’t Destroy.
Weekend Update (featuring Randy McNally and James Austin Johnson)
• Really? A joke about John Travolta mispronouncing someone’s name? How timely!
• What was the point of Che’s “Take that, Rihanna!”
• Wow, another “seen here” joke! Never seen THAT before!
• Molly finally gets an Update commentary. Unfortunately, it’s one where they’re buried under a shit ton of makeup to play a man, Tennessee’s Lt. Governor Randy McNally.
• Unfunny joke about Mapquest. Get it, because his last name is McNally!!!
• Just taking a look at that writer’s guide on Reddit, I see that this commentary was written by Jimmy Fowlie. Ugh, now I hate this even more.
• No offense to Molly, because I really like them, but I’m getting bad Aidy Bryant vibes from this commentary.
• A hundred minutes later, I still haven’t laughed. This was Molly’s first ever Update appearance, and this is what they’re stuck with? They should’ve gotten an introductory commentary like the other three newbies did.
• I laughed at the angry audience response to Che’s tasteless New Orleans joke.
• Super lame and hacky joke about how Che likes his women fat. Get it? Cuz black dudes love fat white women!
• OMG, Michael Che just made a “joke” where he insults women! Never seen THAT before!
• Ah, at least James Austin Johnson is here to save this Update. This time, he’s going to show off some of his many impressions.
• Great Adam Driver impression, which we saw before in that one sketch from the Rami Malek episode.
• I love his Jay-Z impression! Even better is the fact that he says he wants to play him on the show, but we won’t see him because he’ll be downstairs.
• Not even the obligatory appearance of his Trump impression was enough to ruin the mood.
• We end on the best one of all: Bob Dylan’s cellphone vibrating.
• Overall, a great showcase from James. Even though he’s proven himself to be more than just an impressionist, I’m glad he got to show them all off.
Sketch: Exorcist
A sassy black woman helps to exorcise a young girl.
• Second sketch of the night to use a vocal modifier, this time for Jenna as a possessed girl.
• JAJ is perfectly cast as the priest. And, hey, there’s Andrew! Good to know he’s still around.
• Uh-oh, here comes Ego as a sassy black woman yet again. Her up-and-down season continues to get worse.
• Now this is getting even more tepid with the arrival of Kenan as yet another loud, obnoxious character. I’ve said this a million times this season, but, please get off the show, Kenan.
• Please stop doing the “Shawdn’t they be asleep?” joke!
• An actually somewhat amusing ending where a Kenan dummy’s head spins around.
Musical Performance: “Oh Caroline”
Sketch: Jingle Pitch
Lawyers enlist help from a local band in coming up with a new jingle for their law firm.
• Bowen’s shtick is a little out of place in this sketch.
• Thankfully, Andrew and James enter with 80s hair and sunglasses. I like how Andrew’s getting a second lead role!
• Great name for their band: “Soul Booth”
• Is it weird that I actually want them to release this jingle as a song? It’s genuinely catchy and well done.
• I assume the background music is being done live by the SNL Band.
• Andrew and James are absolutely killing it with their performances! It’s just a shame that Bowen keeps trying to overshadow them with his one-note character.
• I think the best song of theirs is the last one. And clearly the characters agree, as it’s the one they choose to be their jingle.
• Even the cliche dance party ending was a lot of fun, which just goes to show how much I enjoyed this.
Note: A dedication is shown for former SNL assistant Erin Maroney Fraser.
Final thoughts: A much better episode than I was expecting. While there were some hiccups here and there (the awful Fred appearances), most of the sketches were funny and well-written. Jenna completely won me over with her adorable and charming performances. I’d love to see her host again.
Best sketches: School vs. School, Road Trip, Waffle House, JAJ’s commentary, Jingle Pitch
Worst sketches: Cold Open, The Parent Trap, Exorcist
Next review: Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty
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