Cold Open
A group shares how they keep their cool during the holiday season.
• As much as I rag on Cecily for being on the show for too long, I absolutely love her singing. That being said, I’m not sure we need a musical number to open up this episode.
• Despite my misgivings, this song actually isn’t too bad. It’s refreshing to get another non-political cold open. There are some political issues mentioned here, but most of it is about their own personal interests.
• All of the performers here do a great job, but I especially have to congratulate Bowen for his work. His singing voice is really really good!
Monologue
Our hosts talk about their memories on the show and eulogize each other.
• You have no idea how great it is to see these guys host again, something I’ve never been able to experience as a fan before. Both of their last hosting appearances were years before I started watching regularly.
• Amazing montage of every single time Steve has hosted, with clips of his many cameos thrown in for good measure.
• For some reason, Marty’s montage claims that he’s only hosted three times. If we count that one time he hosted with Steve and Chevy, then it should be four. I guess it was just meant to be a joke about how short his montage was compared to Steve’s.
• Amusing photo of Steve with Belushi, Aykroyd, and Mick Jagger.
• Their chemistry is still firmly intact! Just watching these guys work their magic was so mindblowing to me the first time I saw this episode.
• The audience cuts off Marty before he can finish saying the name of their Hulu show. A good sign of how lively tonight’s audience is going to be.
• Marty: “Our show is like Steve at the urinal: it streams for 30 minutes.” Is it wrong for me to admit that I laughed at a wee-wee joke?
• I love the “clip” of them preparing for the show: a brief video of an Asian man getting kicked in the balls.
• Nice sad music and random dog picture when they start reading their eulogies, which I assume is a reference to those ASPCA commercials. As someone who watches a lot of MeTV, I see those commercials CONSTANTLY.
• The various eulogies they read are all pretty funny. My favorite is the one where Marty calls Steve a “bland, overrated, white-haired son of a bitch”.
• Random appearance from Selena Gomez at the end. Not sure I needed to see her again after how awful her hosting gig was.
• Definitely the best monologue of the season, and the best we’ve had in years. It feels so good to laugh at a monologue again.
Sketch: The Science Room
Josh and Lonnie’s new teachers attempt to teach them about science
• Not this sketch again. Hopefully Steve and Marty can give it a boost.
• I groaned at the beginning where Heidi advertises an upcoming episode of Curious George, in which he “be on that same ol’ bulls**t”.
• Marty accidentally begins singing his chemistry song too early.
• The fact that there are two teachers this time around is definitely helping this a bit.
• Mikey, when asked what he wants for Christmas: “To find out what happened to my brother.” The look on Steve’s face after this is said is great.
• Cecily seems to be a bit more muggy this time. I don’t remember her character being like this in the previous installments. She also has braces now, for some reason.
• Mikey, when asked what begins with “C”: “Um, sí, señor?”
• Cecily and Mikey’s incorrect answers are a lot funnier than usual.
• I’m getting pretty damn tired of them referring to penises as “things”.
• I love Marty’s freak out after Mikey doesn’t understand how a knock-knock joke works. He goes over to a skeleton in the room and starts strangling it.
• No comment on the one millionth Mario joke this season.
• This was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. The best installment since the original with Sam Rockwell. And best of all, these guys didn’t even have to say the f-word to make it enjoyable.
Please Don’t Destroy: Chelsea
Ben and Martin find themselves in a tough situation when John reunites with his girlfriend.
• Nice to see these guys again.
• Never thought I’d see Sarah in one of these.
• Sarah’s real father plays the father of her character. Despite not being an actor he does a fine job here.
• Who’s the old lady that Steve says is his wife?
• Amusing appearance from Michael Che.
• Great ending where Sarah’s dad comes to the office and is about to kill Martin Herlihy when it freezes on the caption, “Starring Sarah Sherman’s Real Dad”.
Sketch: The Holiday Train
A group of people on a train get really excited to see snow for the first time.
• This is a variation of a sketch from Amy Adams’ Season 40 episode.
• Why are they all bouncing? Are they in a bouncy house?
• Marty seems a little too glued to the cue cards here. He should be saying his lines to Kenan but he’s looking in the complete opposite direction of where he is.
• Oh no, now they start singing! Yep, this is an Anderlette sketch!
• Kenan randomly started giggling in the middle of his line just now. What is happening to him lately?
• Random ending where Kenan finds himself surrounded by bears. This is a ripoff of that other sketch I mentioned earlier, except in that one, they were raccoons.
• Apparently, two of the bears were played by writers Alex English and Jimmy Fowlie.
Sketch: A Visit With Santa
Things get heated between Santa and his elf when kids come to visit.
• Marty’s “elf” voice is hilarious.
• Unfortunately, we also have Chloe in this doing one of her many high-pitched voices. At least it fits into this sketch because she’s playing a child.
• Oh, hey, Andrew still exists. This is the second episode in a row where he only makes one appearance.
• It feels so weird seeing Ego play a child. Has she ever done this before?
• This sketch is extremely repetitive and broad. I sense Sublette again.
Film: A Christmas Carol
Things take a dark turn for Scrooge.
• Ohohoho, I’ve been waiting to see this sketch again.
• To start with, Marty is absolutely perfect as Scrooge.
• I honestly thought Sarah was Melissa Villaseñor at first, given her love of playing young boys.
• And there goes the hilarious twist of the coin landing in Sarah’s eye. The first time I saw this, I couldn’t stop laughing.
• Mikey’s quest to perfect a British accent continues. He still hasn’t got it.
• I absolutely love Steve as one of the ghosts.
• Molly makes their customary single appearance of the night as a background character.
• Marcello’s British accent is so bad that it’s hilarious. Then he gets impaled by an icicle and it’s even more hilarious.
• Nice twist where Scrooge tries to avoid another disaster by dropping a coin on the ground for Tiny Tim to pick up, only for it to ricochet and end up knocking him into a manhole.
• Absolutely amazing scene of Mikey getting his head kicked off by a horse!
• The ONLY thing about this sketch that I hate is that stupid ending where this turns out to be an ad for Apple Pay. Why do they keep doing these cliche endings??
Musical Performance: “The Story”
Weekend Update (featuring Mary Ann Louise Fischer, and Deb & Kurt)
• I’m getting sick of the “seen here” jokes.
• Hopefully the fact that Herschel Walker lost means that we won’t have to hear about him again, or worse, suffer through Kenan’s awful “impression”.
• Ego debuts a new character.
• I like how she claims she’s responsible for the messy state of every Ross Dress For Less store.
• No offense to Ego, but I just wasn’t feeling this commentary. This season has been pretty hit-or-miss for her.
• Now we get a bizarre pair of new characters from Chloe and Mikey. Chloe’s doing her “deer in headlights” stare yet again.
• Their hick voices make me think that either Sublette or Jimmy Fowlie were behind this.
• Man, Chloe’s character is so annoying, launching into all of those usual Chloe impressions that we’re sick of by now.
• I’m glad Colin finds this so amusing, because I sure as hell don’t!
• Mikey fails at yet ANOTHER British accent, this time as Stewie Griffin (don’t ask). Unlike many of his other attempts, this one isn’t even “so bad, it’s good.” It’s just “so bad, it’s bad”.
Sketch: How To Talk To Your Man
Talk show host Minky Carmichael doles out relationship advice to his audience.
• This was originally written for the Willem Dafoe episode.
• Ugh at Heidi’s awful voice. Also, her name is “Jen Fonger-Bhang”? Gee, I WONDER who wrote this?!!??
• At lease Marty can still do those Ed Grimley dance moves pretty well. Speaking of which, where is Ed Grimley in this episode? Can he not do the role anymore because of age?
• Sarah has been all over these last few episodes! Why the hell has she not been promoted yet?
• Kudos to Marty for pulling them off, but the constant dance breaks are irritating. These dance breaks are another thing that makes me think this sketch is a creation of Kent Sublette.
• One good Marty line: “Girl, the only VCR I care about is a Very Cool Rack!”
• Overall, this sketch was a waste of time. Not even Martin fucking Short can save it.
Musical Performance: “You and Me on the Rock”
Sketch: Father of the Bride Part VIII
The eighth installment of the movie series.
• I’ve never seen these movies, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.
• I got a laugh right away from Steve mouthing “What the fuck?” after learning that his daughter is engaged.
• Chloe’s Diane Keaton is okay.
• I don’t think I’ve ever heard Bowen do that particular voice before.
• The audience goes nuts when Marty starts talking in gibberish. So did I!
• I love the announcer saying that he thinks Marty’s character’s accent is still okay to do.
• Random Kieran Culkin appearance. At least this cameo was welcome, given how much I loved him as a host last year. Apparently, he was supposed to host again later this season, but the writer’s strike cancelled those plans.
• Announcer: “Did you forget Kieran Culkin was in this movie? So did we, and so did he!”
• Another Selena Gomez appearance, except this one is even more pointless because she doesn’t appear in any of these movies.
• Despite having never seen Father of the Bride, I got a lot of laughs from this. It helps that it was kept short and sweet.
Final thoughts: Wow, this was an extremely bipolar episode. On one hand, we got some really great sketches and the return of two iconic hosts. On the other hand, there were quite a few weak sketches (mostly written by Kent Sublette). But, for the most part, I would have to call this a strong episode.
Best sketches: Monologue, The Science Room, Chelsea, A Christmas Carol, Father of the Bride VIII
Worst sketches: The Holiday Train, A Visit With Santa, How To Talk To Your Man
Next review: Austin Butler/Lizzo. We also bid farewell to Cecily Strong.
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