Cold Open: Fox and Friends
The team discusses Dominion’s lawsuit against FOX News.
• Why are they still doing these? They’ll never recapture the magic of the early 2010s ones.
• Horrendous joke about “da Minions”. This is then followed by Bowen doing a bad Minion impression.
• The Alex Murdaugh/Rupert Murdoch mixup was lame.
• JAJ’s Mike Lindell impression is back, and it’s still spot on.
• I actually got a cheap laugh from his “wife” turning out to be a pillow with a face on it.
Monologue
Travis talks about facing his brother in the Super Bowl, and his old reality dating show.
• For a non-actor, he’s coming off pretty well.
• I noticed a couple of whoops in the audience after he says he got kicked off his team in college for using marijuana. What in the world were those guys cheering for? Is Pete Davidson one of them? Or did Woody Harrelson somehow sneak back into the studio?
• Funny awkward clip from Travis’s reality show.
• Overall, I’m impressed at how good he is for an athlete host. Will the rest of the episode be better than I remember?
Sketch: American Girl Café
A man talks to his dolls at the American Girl store, confusing other customers.
• Yay, product placement!
• I got an unintentional twinge of nostalgia from one of Travis’s dolls being Isabelle. My little sister used to have that one when she was young.
• I like Mikey asking Travis if there are any “other names” he uses, or if he’s on any government lists.
• Travis: “But the only list you’ll find me on is the hungriest customer list.” The brief silence after he says this is what makes it for me.
• Heidi asking Travis to keep both of his hands on the table is great.
• Travis is really funny in this, by the way. If it was any other host, this sketch might not have worked so well. But seeing Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce playing with dolls is an inherently funny idea.
• Great scene with Travis slowly turning the dolls’ heads towards a young girl and her doll.
• Not even Kenan’s explaining portions of this sketch are enough to ruin it for me.
• Great ending where Sarah gets yelled at for being a potential predator instead of Travis.
Please Don’t Destroy: Self-Defense
The boys are tired of getting insulted by interns, so they take a self-defense class.
• Good concept, and it’s great to see them out of the office for the second week in a row.
• Travis is doing a good job yet again.
• The scene of John getting abruptly punched was well timed.
• Nice subtle character moment when Ben says he doesn’t want to talk about his father.
• Even though I was expecting Ben to get punched while his eyes were closed, I still laughed.
• Thankfully, they switch things up a bit with Martin getting beaten up by an old woman instead of Travis.
• I love the randomness of a gun falling out of Martin’s pocket when he lands on the floor.
• Ben attacking the old woman and standing up for himself was well-earned.
• Nice callback to the interns from earlier. We end on a funny twist where they beat the PDD guys up and burn them with coffee.
• Overall, this was a lot better than the PDD short from last week.
Sketch: Mama’s Funeral
Strange things happen at a woman’s funeral when her lover gets involved.
• Uh-oh, it’s time for more reacting and explaining.
• Funny reveal of Ego as a dead body. That pose she’s in and the whole concept of this sketch kind of reminds me of a viral image of a young black man being embalmed in his favorite gaming chair.
• Bizarre error just now where Devon and Kenan’s voices aren’t heard. This was not fixed for the online upload.
• Ego’s recorded voice: “Don’t you embarrass me in front of these white people!”
• Amazing scene with Ego’s voice stuttering and Travis having to fix it.
• Hilarious bizarre ending where Ego suddenly launches out of the funeral home like a rocket.
• What is it about sketches set at funerals that makes them so good? This is the second season in a row that I’ve covered a really funny funeral sketch.
Fake Ad: Straight Male Friend
A commercial for gay guys who need a male friend that isn’t gay.
• Promising concept, which I can totally understand. Have you ever seen a gay guy with a male friend that isn’t also gay before?
• Travis, as expected, is perfect in this role.
• A sign for “Wing Pit” can be seen in the background throughout this sketch, a nice callback to the fake ad in the Pedro Pascal episode.
• Funny disclaimer: “Three or more straight male friends may result in a trip to Atlantic City”.
• I love the awkward silence after Travis reveals his father died last week.
• This is the kind of stuff I like to see from Bowen, where he’s just being his honest self and not acting like a stereotype.
Sketch: Tears
Graham’s ex-girlfriend Abby can’t stop crying.
• This was cut from the Jack Harlow episode all the way back in October.
• Funny initial line from Heidi about her confusing Cocaine Bear for Paddington 3.
• I forgot all about the turn this sketch takes with Heidi’s eyes overflowing like a waterfall. I wonder how they made that effect anyway.
• This is not as bad as I remembered it being. In a season where Heidi has played a lot of annoying characters, this one is actually coming off as endearing, especially when you consider the fact that Heidi is a Chiefs fan, and was likely starstruck upon meeting Travis.
• Nice twist where Heidi’s new boyfriend is played by Travis’s brother Jason.
Musical Performance: “Blindsided”
Weekend Update (featuring Dilbert, Punkie Johnson, Mikey Day, and Sarah Sherman)
• Oh fuck, now we’re starting to get a bunch of Scott Adams jokes, as this was right after he made bizarre statements urging white people not to interact with black people.
• Speaking of Scott Adams, Michael Longfellow appears at the desk yet again, this time as Dilbert.
• Dear lord, that Dilbert makeup is terrifying.
• I can’t think of any standout lines (except maybe the joke about his hair being made of skin), but this Dilbert commentary is another example of how good Longfellow has been at the desk this year.
• Punkie and Mikey get their own commentary where they talk about their Oscar picks. This is such an unusual pairing.
• I wonder if the conceit of this (Punkie not knowing who certain celebrities are) is based in reality? Punkie seems genuinely embarrassed by calling Tony Hawk “Tony Hawking” (I assume this was when he made a cameo on the show a few episodes ago), so embarrassed that she covers her face in shame. Aww, and Mikey just put his arm around her to cheer her up. That is so sweet.
• Punkie referring to Bruce Springsteen as “Rick Bernstein” also sounds like a genuine story. Man, I feel sorry for the poor girl!
• I like the sudden twist where this turns into a segment called “Who Does Punkie Mean?”
• The mangled celebrity names in this segment don’t sound as genuine as the first two, but I still find this funny and charming.
• I like how “Zoey Dechanaise” turns out to actually be Zöe Kravitz.
• Aw yeah! The return of Sarah’s news segment! This was supposed to be in last week’s show but got cut after dress.
• It turns out the reason they’re doing this again is because it’s Sarah’s birthday. That was nice of them.
• I love Colin’s edited eyebrows on the headline about him allegedly refusing to celebrate Hispanic culture.
• I keep expecting to get tired of Sarah’s Colin jokes, but I never do. She always manages to make them work.
• Really funny part with her lusting over Columbo, which requires a Flash Flood Warning.
• That is one delicious looking cake. It even comes with a card that warns Sarah not to eat it since she failed weigh-in that morning.
• I really hope they keep doing these Sarah News bits in the future. They’re such a breath of fresh air compared to the staleness of Jost and Che.
• Also, I just noticed that I liked every single one of those commentaries. This is the best Weekend Update in a long time!
Note: A dedication to former editor John Head appears after Update.
Sketch: Family Meeting
A mother and father have some important news to share with their children…in song!
• This was cut from the Pedro Pascal episode.
• To the shock of nobody, JAJ’s singing voice is really good.
• Funny reveal during the song that JAJ is getting cucked. There seems to be a lot of that on SNL as of late.
• Yet another great performance by Travis. I can’t imagine Pedro playing this same role to perfection.
• I like the randomness of Travis’s character name being “Sucre”.
• JAJ: “I think you guys should apologize to Sucre about the mohawk guy.”
• I love Ego’s explanation for why the kids are all different races.
• For a musical sketch, this wasn’t bad at all. And it goes without saying that Travis impressed me once again.
Sketch: Garrett From Hinge
A rejected Hinge match randomly appears at his date’s house.
• Ugh at Bowen entering the sketch as another “WACKY” character.
• Second sketch in a row to mention a “throuple”.
• Two minutes in, and I haven’t laughed once. What is even the point of this sketch?
• Bowen’s constant repetition of “I’m Garrett…from Hinge” gets more and more irritating the more times he says it.
• In short, no, just…no.
Musical Performance: “Penthouse”
Sketch: Too Hot To Handle
Contestants of a popular dating show keep breaking the rules.
• Devon seems to be doing the same voice as that British rapper he played a couple episodes ago.
• I groaned at the reveal of Chloe’s character, yet another irritating and one note character that we’ve been seeing her do way too much lately.
• No comment on Chloe blowing raspberries.
• Would it surprise you at all to know that this is another Jimmy Fowlie “masterpiece”?
Cut for Time: NFL Gives Back
NFL players use their skills to help lift their wives up.
• This looks promising.
• Hey, there’s Andrew! If this made it into the final episode, it would have been his only appearance in it.
• This commercial reminds me of an old commercial from The Amanda Show where this guy called “The Boost” helps children get their belongings back from hard to reach places.
• Speaking of Nickelodeon shows, I liked the Doug Funnie reference.
• This was an okay film, but I think I prefer the Amanda version.
Final thoughts: After last week’s shaky episode, here’s a really really good one, probably one of the best of the entire season. Travis Kelce was an amazing host who elevated everything he appeared in.
Best sketches: American Girl Cafe, Self-Defense, Mama’s Funeral, Sarah News, Family Meeting
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Garrett from Hinge, Too Hot To Handle
Next review: Jenna Ortega/The 1975
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