Cold Open
Donald Trump invades the Last Supper to ramble on about unimportant shit.
• Nice recreation of the iconic Last Supper painting.
• I’m fairly certain that Jesus had no Chinese followers, so I don’t know why Bowen is here.
• The casting of Molly as Judas is yet another example of their unfortunate typecasting as fat guys, but Judas’ nonverbal reaction to being dissed by Jesus is hilarious.
• All of a sudden, this is interrupted by yet another fucking appearance from Trump. UGGGHHHHH!!!! Why’d they have to do that? I kinda liked where this was heading before the interruption.
• Yawn, more of the same old tired shtick from JAJ as Trump. I don’t care how dead on the voice is. If they never switch things up, then why are we still doing these?
Monologue
Molly Shannon talks about her new book and shares advice she learned from her dad.
• Feels weird to see Molly Shannon on the show in 2023, for some reason.
• This suddenly becomes a musical number about a minute in. Normally, I’d complain about this overused cliche, but we honestly haven’t had that many this season, so I’ll allow it.
• Ah, the two Mollys meet. I was hoping they would.
• Molly K: “Well, I’m not really in the show much tonight, so, I’m interrupting your song to get more camera time.”
• Funny brief appearance from Lorne, along with a random Martin Short cameo, because why the hell not?
• Nice touch at the end of the song with Molly shouting “Superstar!” like Mary Katherine Gallagher, who we are thankfully not getting an appearance from later.
Sketch: Vincent’s Valets
A valet expert trains a group of beginners.
• Andrew has surprisingly gotten quite a bit of airtime so far.
• Sarah plays yet another old lady.
• James is pulling his character off flawlessly! His amazing season continues to get better.
• Kenan’s yelling antics are extremely out of place here. He really really needs to leave soon.
• Shannon’s character is very Kristen Wiig-esque. At least I think so, anyway. Her random “I’m kidding” interjections remind me of that awful Judy Grimes character Kristen plays.
• And because Kenan’s first outburst was apparently so funny, he does it again! Ugh.
Film: Selective Startage
Hack comedienne Jeannie Darcy has a new Netflix special.
• This character from Molly’s final season returns.
• Good, corny joke about TikTok. I love the shot of the bored audience immediately after that.
• WTF?!!?? Ego is playing Arsenio Hall? Why couldn’t they let Devon Walker do it? It doesn’t help that Ego is just speaking in her normal voice without even trying to sound masculine.
• The scene with Punkie as Wanda Sykes being informed that Darcy isn’t a lesbian is pretty funny.
• Horrible Sarah Silverman “impression” from Chloe.
• While it was good to see this character again, I could have done without all the cutaways to other comedians.
Sketch: Fart Baby
A pregnant woman keeps farting.
• Bowen’s brief Marlon Brando impression was surprisingly good.
• Aaaand there goes the first fart of the sketch. I see James Anderson’s old scripts are still occasionally being used.
• Twenty minutes later, the only joke in this sketch is farting. That’s hilarious, right, guys? Guys??? Why are you all changing the channel?
Please Don’t Destroy: Molly Shannon 2K23
The guys show Molly a video game based on her life.
• Fifth episode in a row with one of these? Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys, but I wish they’d get a break.
• I absolutely love this concept.
• Funny “side quest” where Molly is on The Tonight Show making Jimmy Fallon crack up.
• I like how choosing the option to go on a tirade about cancel culture causes you to lose all of your points.
• Nice use of Molly’s Season 20 picture for the cover of “Shannon ‘95”.
• Even the brief glimpse of “Super Mario Batali” made me laugh.
• Just the fact that they have a level where she has to give her daughter the “birds and bees” talk is hilarious.
• Molly, in the game: “I’m gonna kill you, bitch!”
• They also get in some nice jabs at EA, when they say that the game has a few glitches, but they’ve heard that the next game is supposed to be flawless.
• I like the Mary Katherine Gallagher references in Molly’s rap, which once again makes me happy that she’s not going to be appearing tonight.
• Despite being overused, these PDD shorts are still reliably funny.
Sketch: The Play
A man watches a play that his girlfriend wrote.
• Nice to see Devon with a big role, but I wish it wasn’t a typical reacting role.
• Making me even more worried is that Jimmy Fowlie is credited as a writer here.
• *Bowen shows up as an annoying character* Yep, this is Fowlie, alright.
• We get our obligatory Nick Jonas sketch appearance.
• I have not laughed at a single thing in this sketch so far.
• And there goes Kenan overacting yet again. Kenan, please get the fuck off of the show.
• Overall, blecch.
Musical Performance: “Waffle House”
• I ain’t goin’ to no house made of no waffles! BEEEEEF JELLY!
Weekend Update (featuring Jafar, Angel Reese, and Co-Worker Who’s Extremely Busy Doing Seemingly Nothing)
• Wow, I have never heard a joke where they imply that Clarence Thomas is a rapist before! Have you????
• Bowen debuts his latest gay stereotype character, this time playing Jafar from Aladdin. All I will tell you is that it sucks like every other commentary of his.
• Thank goodness Punkie is here to liven things up. She plays LSU basketball star Angel Reese, who I’ve never heard of.
• While I have no knowledge of what Punkie is talking about in this commentary, she’s giving it her all as usual.
• Punkie, plugging a sponsor: “Garden Gnomes: Man, get yo little ass out my face!”
• Heidi introduces yet another annoying character, continuing the godawful season she’s been having. The long, overly-specific name this character has makes me worried that she’s going to become recurring.
• This character is no different than any other character Heidi has debuted on Update over the last season and a half. Is there any wonder why her detractors often call her “Vocal Fry: The Person”?
Sketch: Drug Commercial
Shenanigans are afoot on the set of a menopause commercial.
• Andrew’s great night continues!
• Another sketch that has both of the Mollys in it!
• The cast is pulling off these dance moves pretty well, but I’m not exactly laughing so far.
• All of a sudden, this sketch is interrupted by Kenan doing his tired old shtick for the millionth time. Have I made it clear this season that I absolutely hate Kenan now?
• No comment on him mispronouncing the product’s name as “Vegeta”.
• Yet ANOTHER sketch that ends with a random dance number.
• Unfortunately, the writers’ guide on Reddit that I use for reference doesn’t say who is behind this awful sketch. The use of Kenan and the silly word substitutions make me think that Kent Sublette had something to do with it.
Musical Performance: “Walls”
Sketch: New Choreographer
The Jonas Brothers decide to switch things up by hiring an old familiar face as their new choreographer.
• I knew I was in for a rough sketch as soon as Kenan started talking in that dopey voice.
• They’re talking about a choreographer. Uh-oh, I know exactly which dreaded character is about to show up…
• Ugh, there she is. Sally O’Malley has returned.
• Is Kenan able to go through a sketch anymore without looking like he’s about to die laughing?
• I’m glad the audience is enjoying this, because I’m not.
• The Jonas Brothers then appear, and LOL!!! They’ve got the same outfit as Sally O’Malley!!!! Ugh…
• As if this couldn’t get any worse, we have a hacky, overused newspaper headline ending.
• Overall, not a single laugh from me. I guess I should be counting my blessings, though, because it could’ve been worse. At least there was no Helen Madden in this episode.
Fake Ad: CNZen
An ASMR version of CNN that lulls liberals to sleep with details of Trump’s arrest.
• I liked Ego’s line about liberals basing their entire personalities on hating Donald Trump.
• Ummm, I don’t really buy Longfellow as Anderson Cooper. Alex Moffat was much better in that role.
• Sarah in drag yet again?!!?? This time as Wolf Blitzer??? Why couldn’t they let JAJ do it?
• Oh, that’s why, he’s playing Lindsay Graham.
• This was kind of boring, but I liked what it was going for.
Final thoughts: A bit of a hard episode to figure out. There was some good stuff, some average stuff, and a lot of really awful stuff. Molly Shannon, to her credit, fit right back into the cast, but there’s not a lot she could’ve done to save shit like that awful fart sketch.
Best sketches: Monologue, Molly Shannon 2K23
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Fart Baby, The Play, Heidi’s commentary, Drug Commercial, New Choreographer
Next review: The season comes to a premature end with Ana de Armas/Karol G
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