Cold Open
“Funny” things happen during the final hearing about the January 6th riots.
• Aw shit, we’re back to political cold opens again.
• A huge groan from that intro line about C-SPAN standing for “cocker spaniel”.
• I don’t know who Kenan is supposed to be, but I’m sure he sounds nothing like that in real life.
• Longfellow debuts an impression of Adam Schiff. I absolutely love the creepy smile he’s doing as him.
• I fucking hate the type of humor where they try to make politicians come off as relatable, as seen here when Andrew (playing Adam Kinzinger) begs to have a cupcake before the hearing.
• Heidi takes over as Liz Cheney, the third different person to play her. They’re trying to characterize her as some sort of “brave freedom fighter” who’s taking on the rest of her party, which is all sorts of cringe.
• Chloe Fineman takes over from Kate McKinnon as Nancy Pelosi. Unsurprisingly, she looks and sounds nothing like Pelosi.
• Sarah Sherman joins the SNL Drag Club by taking over as Chuck Schumer. I was hoping that the drag roles would cease once Kate and Aidy left, but I’m sad to see that this isn’t the case. Alex Moffat’s Schumer wasn’t perfect, but at least it was a guy playing him. I’m guessing they just gave the role to Sarah because she happens to be Jewish.
• The “Trump conversation excerpts” are terrible and go on for way too long.
• Speaking of Trump, JAJ’s Trump makes his first appearance of the season. In case you were wondering if they decided to do something new with him…they did not.
• After two decidedly different cold opens, we’re back to basics with this one. It also doesn’t help that this one was 9 minutes long.
Monologue
Megan talks about her many names and her love of acting.
• This episode came out around the time she appeared in Disney Plus’s She-Hulk show, in which she taught everyone…how to twerk. So I can’t exactly say I’m excited to see what she brings to the table.
• I’m all for enthusiastic hosts, but Megan here is a little too overexcited.
• It also doesn’t help that I can barely understand what she’s saying.
• At least this was pretty short, only about three minutes.
Sketch: Hot Girl Hospital
A preview for a new medical drama starring “hot girls”.
• I groaned as soon as I saw the title, as it brought back unwanted memories of the Elon Musk episode and its horrid “Gen Z Hospital” sketch. Coincidentally, that sketch was also right after the monologue.
• Am I supposed to know what “The Shade Room” is and why it’s allegedly funny that their Instagram page helped create this series?
• Punkie is stuck in a thankless role as one of the “hot girls”.
• The critic “reviews” are all falling flat for me.
• While not quite as wretched as the Gen Z Hospital sketch, this is still pretty bad. At least this one doesn’t have Elon Musk in it.
Film: We Got Brought
Three strangers sing about being brought to the club by mutual friends.
• Punkie and Devon have gotten some significant airtime in this episode so far. Obviously it’s because a black woman is hosting, so we can expect them to go back to being underused in the next show.
• It’s hard for me to detect any jokes in this. The set design and effects are okay, and they’re performing it well, but it’s a little too bland to me.
Sketch: Deer
A father can’t spot a deer outside his window.
• I have a distinct memory of absolutely hating this sketch.
• Molly gets their first speaking role in a live sketch. Too bad this is their only appearance all night.
• Kenan’s horrible season continues as his character in this sketch is extremely annoying and stupid as fuck. How the hell does he not see a fucking deer out in the meadow right in front of him? I’d understand it if he was blind, but that’s never established.
• You can see someone moving around in the bushes just before the deer puppet is supposed to pop up.
• When the deer shows up at the window, I totally predicted that it was going to vanish as soon as Kenan turns around to look.
• Would it surprise you at all if I said that Kent Sublette wrote this?
• I finally got a laugh when Kenan notices the deer threatening him with a knife and then punches it in the face.
• Overall, an extremely long and pointless sketch filled with predictable jokes and an overdose of Kenan yelling.
Sketch: Girl Talk
A talk show host gives out advice to her guests.
“Mo’nique Money Mo’nique Problems”? Who comes up with these awful names?
• Kind of odd how Kenan plays a character named Willie here, as he already has a recurring character with that name.
• The main joke of this sketch (Ego and her guests constantly saying “girl” to each other) got old extremely fast.
• Yet another appearance from Punkie. This has to be her largest amount of air time ever!
• Not even the subtitles routine is making me laugh.
• Now we get a twist where Andrew randomly appears as a guest.
• The live airing had this weird gaffe where Kenan’s voice could be heard talking over part of Andrew and Ego’s conversation. It has been fixed in the online upload.
• My only laugh from this sketch came from Andrew saying “girl” in a stereotypical black girl voice and then getting blowback from the other guests.
Please Don’t Destroy: Wellness
The guys talk about what they do to stay healthy.
• Thank God these guys are here to save this episode.
• I can identify with Ben Marshall spending an average of 23 hours a day on his cell phone.
• Funny part with Martin hallucinating his therapist. I wonder who that is playing her.
• A good laugh from Ben’s disgusting teeth.
• While it is kind of odd that this turns out to be a commercial for Oral-B at the end, it was worth it just to see that image of Ben’s teeth again.
• Overall, a slight step up from last week’s installment.
Musical Performance: “Anxiety”
• Since Megan is the musical guest as well, Bowen (who’s had a pretty quiet night so far) does the intro.
Weekend Update (featuring Debbie Hole and Stacey Bussy, and Devon Walker)
• Yet another Mitch McConnell “seen here” joke. Can we please stop doing these stupid jokes already?
• Our first of many Kanye jokes within these next few episodes.
• “Debbie Hole and Stacey Bussy”? These names just keep getting worse. Incidentally, Kent Sublette had nothing to do with this one. It was his new partner in crime, Jimmy Fowlie, a writer who has a lot of the same annoying quirks as him.
• The commentary itself is absolutely terrible. Chloe and Heidi play these characters with annoying Southern accents that are here to complain about Hocus Pocus 2. Chloe’s character, in particular, won’t stop staring at the camera, which is a problem I’ve noticed that Chloe has in general.
• After that abortion is done with, we get a commentary from a newbie for the third episode in a row. This time, it’s Devon Walker’s turn, continuing the great episode he’s been having.
• A funny story about how people always apologize to him when they find out he’s from Texas.
• I love the part where he asks the audience if he looks like a cat caller. You can hear some people saying that he does.
• Another great audience reaction when he asks “Where all my straight boys at?”
• Great ending to this commentary as he announces he’s going to kiss Che. It would have been funny if Update faded out on the two of them kissing each other.
• Overall, a nice way for Devon to introduce himself. Too bad this is the last of these introductory commentaries. Molly has to wait until halfway through the season to get one.
Sketch: Workout Class
A workout class is led by three different teachers, each with their own unique style.
• Ugh, another sketch where Chloe and Heidi play characters with gimmicky names (“Kaley” and “Keeley”, in case you’re wondering). Jimmy Fowlie strikes again!
• For some reason, there were a lot of camera slip-ups in the live airing, all of which seem to have been fixed in the online upload.
• Remember what I said earlier about twerking? Well, we get that from Megan in this sketch, complete with a wild crowd reaction.
• The scenes of Ego, Bowen, and Sarah (who looks kind of hot in this sketch, by the way) reacting to everything are straight out of a “Mikey Explains” type of sketch.
• Overall, what a terrible, terrible sketch. It’s almost as bad as that She-Hulk scene I mentioned before.
Musical Performance: “NDA”, “Plan B”
• Kenan has the honor of introducing the performance this time.
Film: St. Andrew’s Center for Shivering Girls
An ad about the hardships women must face during chilly weather.
• The scenes of Kenan singing “Hallelujah” are giving me bad memories of the infamous Hillary sketch from Season 42.
• So far, I’m not entirely sure what the joke is here. This film is extremely boring.
• My only laugh came from Kenan randomly singing “Gangsta’s Paradise”.
Sketch: Classroom
Things don’t go quite as expected when a substitute teacher takes over.
• After a long and boring speech, we suddenly get some actual jokes when the students start picking it apart.
• I love when Ego calls Megan’s character “La’quantisha”.
• A funny gag with Ego giving kids detention for pointing out the flaws in her second speech.
• The ending where Ego dismisses everyone by activating the fire alarm was a nice capper.
Final thoughts: As I expected given the host, this episode was a whole lot of blah. When she wasn’t showboating for her audience, Megan was trying to work her way through extremely repetitive material that even Kristen Wiig would have rejected. The only bright spot of this episode was the Please Don’t Destroy bit, as well as the increased airtime that Punkie and Devon received.
Best sketches: Wellness, Devon’s commentary
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Hot Girl Hospital, Deer, Debbie Hole and Stacey Bussy commentary, Workout Class
Next review: Jack Harlow
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