I don’t think I ever saw this episode, so I’m going to keep an open mind here…
Cold Open: Easter
Trump advertises his new God Bless the USA Bible.
• The Biblical intro to this sketch is somewhat impressive.
• Unfortunately, this then turns into another one of those instances where Trump interrupts the sketch to promote himself. I hope this doesn’t become a trend for every Easter episode now.
• Ha ha, Trump just quoted an Eminem song! It’s funny because he would never do that!!!
• Basically the same as every JAJ Trump appearance, so what do I even need to say that I haven’t said before?
Monologue
Ramy does standup about religion, Arabs, and Palestine.
• When was the last time we had a Muslim host? Kumail Nanjiani back in Season 43?
• Some of his stories about growing up as a Muslim are really heartwarming. I like the part where he hesitates to specifically name Muhammad.
• While not too bad, this was way too long.
Sketch: Couple Goals
Couples compete to see who knows their partner the best.
• “Bob Dabilda” again? Of all the JAJ characters I wanted to see come back…he was not one of them.
• I like the sponsor plug for Swiffer.
• So far, we’re getting the same formula as the previous installment.
• I do like Ramy’s question asking whether or not the police will be able to read his text messages after destroying his phone.
• I like Mikey’s delivery of “I didn’t know we’d have to show our answers to everyone!”
• Hilarious bit from Ego about Ramy preventing her from jumping off of a waterfall until there were other people watching.
• While this was pretty much the same as before, I’d have to give this one an edge over the first one, mainly because it doesn’t end with Kenan bugging his eyes out like an offensive stereotype.
Please Don’t Destroy: We Just Got High
The guys sing a song about getting high.
• It takes about thirty seconds for this to suddenly turn into a rap song by Travis Scott.
• For once, I’m not laughing at a Please Don’t Destroy short. Is that even possible? What’s been happening to these guys lately?
• If you think weed is the funniest thing ever, you may like this song. But not me! Probably the weakest PDD short since that one with Taylor Swift, which was also a musical sketch. I would say that they need to stay away from musical sketches, but one of my favorites from last year was the one where they were in the car with Jenna Ortega, and that one had a song in it.
Sketch: Immigrant Dad Talk Show
A talk show where immigrant fathers discuss their children.
• How many times has Marcello used this particular voice by now? It’s getting old. I generally still like him at this point, but he is slowly getting on my nerves…
• On the other hand, Ramy’s accent is amazing and spot on. I’m certain he’s imitating somebody in his family who probably talks like that.
• Kenan’s role is so unnecessary. Again, how many times has he played a character like this?
• I like Ramy’s character just casually using a hookah while Marcello is blabbering on.
• Okay, I did get a laugh from Marcello’s “thesis” pun, even if it was a little reminiscent of that sketch he did with Bad Bunny and Pedro Pascal earlier this year.
• Here’s Mikey playing his 1,000th awkward dad character.
• Mikey: “(to Marcello) Hola! And…(to Ramy) your thing!”
• Andrew’s parkour skills are really impressive. Unfortunately, his scene is then ruined by him and Mikey kissing, which is treated as something “shocking”. I cannot believe that in 2024, SNL still expects us to laugh at men kissing each other.
• Overall, I liked what this was going for, but too many things here annoyed me. Maybe it would have worked better if Marcello’s role was played by James?
Sketch: Team Captain
A basketball team’s captain tries giving a motivational speech, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
• Kenan’s delivery in this sketch is so annoying. I just wish he would leave already.
• Speaking of people who should probably leave, Mikey is WAY too old to be playing a high-schooler. I remember a problem in a similar sketch from Season 20 that had Kevin Nealon playing a high-schooler despite being one of the oldest people in the cast.
• Meanwhile, Ramy is giving this sketch his all, and somehow manages to keep himself from laughing at the lines about his coach wearing a leather thong and role playing as a cat.
• I like Marcello’s excuse as to why he posted a video of the coach using a litterbox: “I thought it was AI!”
• Some great facial expressions from Devon.
• Another sketch where Punkie shows up just to deliver a single line. In fact, that’s the only time she’s in this episode!
• Somehow, they even managed to make a newspaper headline ending hilarious!
Fake Ad: Ozempic for Ramadan
A brand new way for Muslims to use Ozempic!
• This is certainly an interesting concept.
• I got a big laugh from Ramy injecting himself with the product.
• Ego looks so weird in a hijab.
• I like how one of the side-effects of using this is going to Hell.
• Who is the old Muslim guy dancing with Andrew?
• Apparently, that’s Chloe Troast singing the jingle. I honestly had no idea, as I thought they had just used the actual one from the real commercials!!! That is really impressive!
• For a sketch about Ramadan, I’m amazed that they didn’t do any stereotypical Muslim jokes. Did Ramy himself have a hand in writing this?
Musical Performance: “MY EYES”
• What an appropriate name, because my eyes hurt just from looking at this awful performance!
Weekend Update (featuring Piper Dunster and Flaco the Owl’s widow)
• Trump selling Bibles? So that’s what the cold open was about?
• Again with the airplane fetish?!? This time it’s in a joke that otherwise has nothing to do with aviation!
• I did kind of chuckle at Che saying that Biden is just like that collapsed bridge in Maryland, because he’s “no longer connected to black communities”.
• ANOTHER airplane joke?!!?? What the fuck is going on???
• Our first commentary is from a TikTok influencer named Piper Dunster, played by (who else?) Chloe Fineman. I can tell I’m gonna hate this.
• Yep, I was right. This is fucking awful!
• Just in case you needed more proof that SNL is behind the times, one of the TikTok videos has a joke about George Santos in it. You know, the guy who’s looooong out of office by now!
• Another joke from Che about how women’s basketball sucks. Yawn.
• That joke about a tree taking part in the January 6th riots was so stupid.
• Remember that story from a couple episodes ago about the owl’s death? Because SNL loves to pathetically chase trends, here’s a commentary featuring, ugh, the owl’s wife, played by Sarah. Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen…
• Oh, wow. What a surprise! Sarah starts roasting Colin again!!! You know, I really hate to say this, because I’ve enjoyed her for the most part, but I’m starting to hate Sarah Sherman with a fiery passion. These cookie-cutter commentaries she’s been in lately have not done her any favors.
• Of course, the blame isn’t entirely on Sarah. There seems to be a huge problem going on behind the scenes at Update. For the rest of this season, all remaining commentaries are all pretty much the same: A “wacky” character played by Heidi, someone dressed up in a retarded costume (usually Bowen, Marcello, or Kenan), or Sarah roasting Colin. That’s not even getting into how burned out and stale the anchors are at this point.
Sketch: Murder Detective
A detective annoys everyone with his constant one-liners.
• I was immediately won over when Andrew turned to face the camera and delivered a cheesy Caruso-esque pun.
• Andrew’s constant repetition of the same joke has me in stitches.
• This doesn’t really have anything to do with the sketch, but I got a laugh from the fact that the victim’s last name is “Turkle”.
• Funny twist where everyone loves Ramy’s joke despite it being the same type of thing that Andrew did.
Musical Performance: “FE!N”
Sketch: Tiny Desk Concert
An annoying man interrupts a performance at NPR.
• Awesome! JAJ and Troast get to sing in the same sketch!!!
• Ramy perfectly captures the smarmy nature of this type of person.
• Even better than JAJ’s mere presence in this sketch is that fact that his name is “Goose”, which he then demonstrates by making a quacking noise.
• UGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Just when this is getting really good, here comes Bowen “Asian Terry Sweeney” Yang to ruin everything!!!! Surprisingly, this is his only appearance in the whole episode, and I didn’t even notice his absence.
• Okay, so this sketch is now about Bowen’s character being a wacky gay stereotype. Why would they change the premise like that?!??
• Well, that sketch turned out to be a huge disappointment. The first half was pretty interesting, but then Bowen entered and ruined everything. Fuck Bowen Yang and his dumb fucking face and his annoying fucking voice.
Note: There was a Cut for Time sketch here, but it looked like shit, so I didn’t even bother reviewing it.
Final thoughts: A bit of a mixed bag. While I liked Ramy as a host and he did some great things, he unfortunately couldn’t save a lot of the horrid material in this episode. And I don’t think this is a coincidence, but a lot of the really horrid material in this episode happened to star the same few cast members that I’m extremely tired of.
Best sketches: Team Captain, Ozempic for Ramadan, Murder Detective
Worst sketches: Cold Open, We Just Got High, Weekend Update, Tiny Desk Concert
Next review: *sigh* Kristen Wiig returns…
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