Cold Open: Summer of Trump
Trump discusses various picks for Vice President.
• Great. Another JAJ Trump cold open where he rambles on about stupid shit. No further comment.
Monologue
Jake talks about starring in a movie with Conor McGregor and sings a song about SNL.
• No comment on the 69 joke.
• Ugh, we’re getting a musical monologue to end the season? I guess I should have expected it given his last two monologues.
• Just your typical musical monologue, but with added SNL references.
Sketch: Dad Has a Cookie
A dad turns into a Cookie Monster-esque freak when he’s left alone with cookies.
• Andrew and Jake’s interplay in this sketch is so good.
• Amazing performance from Jake when he’s yelling at Andrew to keep quiet about the cookie.
• Funny twist where it’s revealed that Andrew is allergic to peanut butter after he lies about having eaten a cookie.
• Now this is going all-out crazy!!! I love it!
• Jake delivering the final line of the sketch with cookies in his mouth is the perfect capper.
Film: Scooby-Doo
The gang’s latest capture is not what he seems…
• I must confess that I am not a fan of Scooby-Doo. But I’ll try to go into this with an open mind.
• Never mind, the sketch begins with “We now return to”.
• Mikey’s Shaggy voice is spot-on and hilarious. Perfect casting of Sarah as Velma, too. Jake is Fred, and Sabrina Carpenter is Daphne, because you know they had to get her involved in a sketch somehow.
• Scooby himself is portrayed by some really impressive CGI. This doesn’t look half bad, and they did a great job matching the look of the original show.
• I especially love the use of authentic Hanna-Barbera sound effects.
• Unsurprisingly, James is the villain. The voice he’s doing is really good.
• Call me crazy, but this isn’t too bad so far. I just know they’re going to ruin it in some way, though.
• Yep, there we go. Fred rips off the bad guy’s face and it turns out that it wasn’t a disguise. Wow, never seen that joke before!
• Now we have a total bloodbath going on with Shaggy’s arm getting ripped off and the decapitation of Velma. This honestly feels like a lame variation of that Scrooge sketch from last season.
• I laughed at Fred shooting the moving eyes portrait.
• To make a tepid sketch even worse, we get that overused hacky ending of this being an advertisement for Apple Face ID. PLEASE STOP DOING THAT!!!!!!!
Sketch: Beautiful Boys
A 1940’s singer singing about boys overshadows the showgirls.
• Heidi’s voice is making me worried.
• Some nice eye candy in this sketch.
• Love seeing basically the entire male cast on stage. The only exceptions are Kenan (because he’s in the audience with Heidi) and the Weekend Update morons.
• Funny lyric: “If you could have your pick, choose the one with the biggest heart!” LOL!!!
• The audience goes nuts when Marcello blows a kiss to them.
• I gotta be honest, this wasn’t too bad for a musical sketch. There was some nice choreography and Jake’s vocals were amazing.
Sketch: Bike Trail
A cyclist interrupts serious conversations between couples.
• I cringed so hard when Jake’s character was revealed.
• Twenty minutes later, I haven’t laughed at all.
• At least it was satisfying when he fell down the hill.
• Unfortunately, that didn’t kill him, as he comes back up the hill with an annoying character played by Bowen. UGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
• For some reason, there are people out there who actually like this sketch. What are you smoking???
Fake Ad: XIEMU
This online marketplace is definitely not shady.
• I like the various cast members’ reactions to the oddly specific things that Chloe is saying in her narration, like how there was “no forced labor” used in the making of these clothes.
• Jake, in response to Chloe asserting that no prisoners were involved: “Did there used to be? Why bring that up?”
• I like the suspicious red marks left behind by Chloe’s necklace. Yes, Chloe is the narrator and one of the customers!
• Nice detail of blood coming out of Jake’s nose after sniffing his shirt.
• Great slogan: “Don’t worry about it”
• For a commercial that essentially had only one joke, this was pretty good.
Musical Performance: “Espresso”
Weekend Update (featuring Two Cicadas, and Rabbi Jill Hausman)
• I chuckled at the doctored image of Trump and Biden trying to get out of bean bag chairs.
• They just had to sneak in one last joke about dangerous airplanes!!!!
• Our last commentary of the season, unsurprisingly, is yet another one where Marcello and Kenan wear retarded outfits and mug for the camera. I have no further comment.
• To quote fellow reviewer Blood Meridian, Marcello should just stick a “Love Me” sign on his back next year.
• We end this horrific Update season with another Joke Swap. Remember last time when they had some random black woman reacting to the jokes? I guess they thought lightning would strike twice, so now we’ve got a rabbi reacting to anti-Semitic jokes. Unlike the last one, however, this lady actually is a rabbi.
• Unsurprisingly, this routine didn’t work as well as before because there’s no element of surprise.
• The only thing that remotely gave me a surprise was when Colin brought out a Jew puppet to deliver the punchline to one joke.
• A fitting end to this season of Godawful installments of Update. I’d like to say that this is the last time we’ll be seeing these two losers, but it isn’t. And, believe me, they get even worse in Season 50…
Sketch: Cancelling Flight
Trying to cancel a Southwest flight is a chore for one man.
• This is a variation of that Cancelling Cable sketch with Kieran Culkin. I didn’t like that one at all, so I’m sure I’m going to hate this one too.
• And, of course, this one is about…airplanes. UGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
• Already a big groan from the “Vaginal Cream” mixup at the beginning.
• A genuinely funny line: “We are trained to say no and see if people just accept it.”
• Chloe Troast makes the most (LOL, that rhymes!) out of her voice-only role and does have some good lines here and there, like the one about going to a different airline if they want better customer service. Sadly, this ends up being her final sketch. That’s right! We can’t even see her!!!
• Ego’s playing the same character she played in the Kieran Culkin version. I like her getting mad at Jake for his supposed racism against her for being black.
• I laughed at the part with Longfellow’s operator making a vaguely sexual comment and Jake immediately asking to talk to someone else.
• No comment on Kenan doing that awful Jamaican accent again.
• I’ve never heard James to that particular kind of voice before, even if he does slip into his Trump voice for a bit.
• This is also Punkie’s final sketch. Rather fittingly, she has only fifteen seconds of screentime and a single line.
• I take it Jake is a rap fan? He just quoted DMX out of nowhere, and in that awful bike sketch earlier, he referenced a Jay-Z song.
• Just like last time, this sketch ends with Bowen playing an almighty being.
• I thought this was slightly better than the original version, but that wasn’t saying much.
Musical Performance: “Feather”, “Nonsense”
Sketch: NYPD Press Conference
The police make an impassioned plea to stop punching famous character actors.
• This sketch is referring to a recent incident where someone randomly punched Steve Buscemi. This could be a great concept…
• And here we have Molly’s final appearance. At least it isn’t a drag role.
• Nice criteria for what a character actor is: “Faces you can remember, but names you cannot.” So true!
• I love the list of things that put character actors at risk, particularly the one about appearing on Boardwalk Empire.
• Jake: “We’re asking you to avoid mass transit if you ever played a girlfriend on Seinfeld. Or a boyfriend on Sex and the City.”
• A big laugh from the Paul Giamatti line.
• I like how it’s eventually gotten to the point where Jake can’t even remember the character actors’ names, only calling them “this guy” or “this lady”. But he does remember Stephen Tobolowsky!
• Random Jon Hamm appearance.
• Jake: “So, the next time you see a character actor, don’t punch him! Google him!” Hilarious!!!
• Overall, a hilarious gem, and a nice tribute to our underappreciated character actors.
Sketch: Snake Eyes
Snake Eyes is the least intimidating biker in the West.
• I knew I was in for a great sketch when I saw Andrew in that wig.
• Sarah is giving me some nice eye candy for the second time tonight!
• Oh my God, that ridiculous high-pitched accent that James is doing caught me off guard! For some reason, it reminds me of Ross Perot!
• James later said in an interview that he auditioned for the show with this sketch. I’m glad they allowed him to do it now that he has enough experience.
• In any other sketch, such a character would be extremely annoying, but here, it’s intentional, so I’m laughing.
• Bowen’s character is the only thing I hate here. His gay mugging shtick is so unnecessary in this particular setting.
• Rather fittingly, this sketch (and the whole season) ends with a shot of Snake Eyes’ grave. It’s certainly a lot better than last year’s final sketch, which was just Bowen mugging for the camera.
Final thoughts: And so the season comes to an end. This episode was a lot better than the last few. While there were still a few low points, Jake Gyllenhaal made it all worth it.
Best sketches: Dad Has A Cookie, XIEMU, NYPD Press Conference, Snake Eyes
Worst sketches: Cold Open, Bike Trail, Weekend Update
Coming up next will be my overview of Season 49! Don’t miss it!!!!
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