Season 46 overview

Well, folks, here we are. It’s time to take a look back at the highs and lows of Season 46. 

First, let’s take a look at the cast members…

Repertory Players

Beck Bennett: In his final season, Beck kind of grew on me. I had always dismissed him in the past due to his terrible political impressions. But, now that we have a new administration, most of his really bad ones (such as Mike Pence) have been retired. I’ve actually missed him in Season 47, but I’m glad he decided to leave when he wanted to. Also, Beck somehow had the most screentime in his final season! That’s pretty impressive!

Aidy Bryant: She missed a few episodes early in the season, and as a result, her airtime was diminished in comparison to last year. On the plus side, they thankfully cut down on the number of pairings she had with Kate.

Pete Davidson: As hard as it is for me to admit this, Pete Davidson didn’t have too bad of a year this time around. Now that he’s gotten all of his personal issues sorted out for the time being, it seems like he gives more of a shit about his performances. We also saw the end of his biggest recurring character (Chad) before he got too stale. In conclusion, probably Pete’s best season since Season 43.

Mikey Day: It seems like they went lighter on Mikey this year. He’s still probably my favorite male member of the cast, even if the stuff that he writes is starting to take a dip in quality.

Heidi Gardner: She isn’t the most annoying cast member to me anymore, most likely because someone else (who I’ll be getting to later) has taken up that spot.

Kate McKinnon: With each passing year she remains on the show, McKinnon’s shtick just keeps getting worse. The number of sketches that she ruined just by showing up was worryingly high. How she remains popular with the audience is beyond me. 

Alex Moffat: Once his signature Eric Trump impression was retired after the end of the Trump administration, Moffat has started to reach Finesse Mitchell-levels of underuse. There were a lot of episodes from the second half of the season where it seems like he was only in a couple of sketches. I will say that he is starting to grow on me, however.

Kyle Mooney: Another cast member who’s starting to grow on me. Some of my favorite sketches from this season were ones that starred him (like the prank sketch from Daniel Kaluuya’s episode). I’m more than happy to see him come back for Season 47.

Ego Nwodim: My favorite female member of the current cast. With her promotion to repertory status, Ego’s airtime EXPLODED this season! Like with Mooney, a lot of my favorite sketches this year came from her, particularly her Update commentaries, which she always excels at.

Chris Redd: Yet another cast member that I’ve gained a lot of respect for in this season. He seems to be one of the few good impressionists left on the show. His Update commentaries, while extremely rare, are almost always good.

Cecily Strong: She missed the first few episodes, and was only a minor presence in all the rest. A lot of people saw these as signs that she’d be on her way out at the end of the season. After seeing the stuff that she did this year, it’s pretty obvious that Cecily has done all she can do already. I mean, after nine years in the cast, you’re bound to dry up at some point.

Kenan Thompson: As much as it pains me to say this, I think I’ve finally gotten tired of Kenan on this show. He’s been on way too long at this point, and his roles are becoming more and more obnoxious, especially when he does that one voice I hate.

Melissa Villaseñor: Probably the best female impersonator in the cast. Other than that, not too much to say, because they barely use her.

Featured Players

Andrew Dismukes: Not too bad of a season for a newbie. While he did show a bit of greenness as a live performer, he excelled at quieter pieces like the commentary he did about his grandmother.

Chloe Fineman: Ugh, she may be my least favorite person in the cast right now. Hear that, Heidi? You’ve been dethroned! Her terrible impressions and annoying high-pitched voices have soured me on her to the point where I mentally tune out when she has a lead role.

Lauren Holt: Poor poor Lauren Holt. Not since Luke Null have we seen a cast member reach this level of underuse. On most nights, she was lucky enough to even get a speaking role, and there were even some episodes that didn’t feature her at all! Maybe the cast just isn’t ready for two plus-sized women yet.

Punkie Johnson: It seems like she only got to shine on nights that were hosted by black people, for obvious reasons. That one commentary she did on Update near the end of the season was amazing, and it has me hopeful for her future.

Bowen Yang: Asian Terry Sweeney had a slightly better season than his first. While he still got typecast into gay roles a lot, he had a lot more variety this time around, like that impassioned commentary he did during the #StopAsianHate crisis. On the other hand, he still annoyed me on some occasions, such as that godawful iceberg thing.

Now, it’s time to rank the episodes. I had always remembered there being no good episodes from this season, but my rewatch showed me that this thankfully isn’t the case.

Episode Rankings

Best episodes: Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny, Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent

Worst episodes: Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion, Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters, Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa, John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly, Nick Jonas (Dishonorable mention: Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus)

And now, it’s time to rank the sketches:

Sketches

Best sketches: Monologue (from Bill Burr), Enough is Enough (from Bill Burr), Another Uncle Meme (from John Mulaney), Monologue (from Jason Bateman), Santa’s Village (from Jason Bateman), Tiny Horse (from Timothee Chalamet), Lifting Our Voices (from Dan Levy), TwinsTheNewTrend commentary (from Dan Levy), What’s Your Type (from Regina King), The Negotiator (from Regina King), Driver’s License (from Regé-Jean Page), The Job Interview (from Regé-Jean Page), Jessie Raunch commentary (from Regé-Jean Page), The Grocery Rap (from Regé-Jean Page), NFTs (from Maya Rudolph), The Maya-ing (from Maya Rudolph), Viral Apology Video (from Daniel Kaluuya), Weird Little Flute (from Carey Mulligan), Cold Open (from Elon Musk), The Astronaut (from Elon Musk), It’s Pride Again! (from Anya Taylor-Joy)

Worst sketches: Cold Open (from Chris Rock), Eye on Pittsburgh (from Chris Rock), Cold Open (from Bill Burr), The Blitz (from Bill Burr), both Wayne Wenowdis commentaries, Samuel Adams Jack-O-Pumpkin Ale (from Bill Burr), Bonjour Hi! (from Issa Rae), Carla commentary (from Issa Rae), Jack Flatts (from Issa Rae), Village People commentary (from Adele), Cinema Classics (from John Mulaney), Headless Horseman (from John Mulaney), Souvenir Underwear (from John Mulaney), Fired Mascots (from Dave Chappelle), Mario Moments (from Dave Chappelle), DC Morning (from Dave Chappelle), Sleepover (from Jason Bateman), A Rona Family Christmas (from Timothee Chalamet), The Dionne Warwick Talk Show (from Timothee Chalamet), Sportsmax (from Timothee Chalamet), Monologue (from Kristen Wiig), Secret Word (from Kristen Wiig), Surprise Sue (from Kristen Wiig), Now That’s What I Call Theme Songs Sung By The Stars Of The Show (from John Krasinski), Pandemic Game Night (from John Krasinski), Hot Damn (from Dan Levy), It Gets Better (from Dan Levy), Birthday Gifts (from Regina King), both Oops, You Did It Again sketches, Bridgerton Intimacy Coordinators (from Regé-Jean Page), Workout Mirror (from Nick Jonas), Cinderella (from Nick Jonas), Viking Voyage (from Nick Jonas), Cold Open (from Maya Rudolph), Monologue (from Maya Rudolph), A Kamala Harris Unity Seder (from Maya Rudolph), Barfly Awards (from Maya Rudolph), Scattergories (from Daniel Kaluuya), Study Buddies (from Carey Mulligan), Gen Z Hospital (from Elon Musk), Wario Trial (from Elon Musk), The Muppet Show (from Keegan-Michael Key), Hollywood Squares (from Anya Taylor-Joy), AMC Theatres (from Anya Taylor-Joy)

Overall, what else is there for me to say about this season? It’s definitely a huge step down from Season 45, but it’s not as horrible as I had remembered.

Stay tuned as I continue my Season 47 reviews with Kim Kardashian/Halsey.

SNL Reviews: Bill Burr/Jack White (10/10/20)

 Cold Open: Vice Presidential Debate

“Wacky” shenanigans occur at the Vice Presidential Debate.

• I won’t beat around the bush here...this is one of the WORST cold openings in SNL history. Everything that could have gone wrong here did.

• The first 30 seconds of this were plagued by random video dropouts (at least on my affiliate). At one point a brief shot of Kenan and some other assholes flashed on screen from what I assume was dress rehearsal footage. I’m sure this was fixed for reruns but I haven’t bothered to check because I never want to watch this sketch again.

• Have I told you how much I DESPISE Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris?!? While the random social media jokes she used to do have been thankfully phased out, she still finds the time to be smug and annoying. I really hate the way she emphasizes Biden’s name, and the part where she does a Philadelphian accent (don’t ask) was super painful to listen to.

• Beck Bennett continues to prove how much of a terrible impressionist he is by trotting out his awful Mike Pence impression for the first time in forever. I didn’t miss him. At least they didn’t do any jokes about how much he hates gays for once.

• I forgot to mention her earlier, but Kate McKinnon’s Susan Page impression is just as smug and annoying as Harris. She outright says to Pence at one point that she wasn’t asking if Trump was recovering well out of sympathy, but because she’s full of rage towards his incompetence. Can they make their politics any less transparent on this show?

• Really? They’re doing spit-takes now? This is turning into a bad variety show sketch.

• Jim Carrey shows up as Biden again, watching the debate on television. Any hope that I had of his impression improving from the last episode is quickly extinguished once he starts going into the Fire Marshal Bill routine again with the goofy faces. 

• Then, as if this awful sketch couldn’t get any worse, it randomly turns into a parody of “The Fly”. Biden decides to teleport himself to the debate, for some reason, and we get a shot from the movie where Carrey’s head is crudely pasted onto Jeff Goldblum’s body as he gets inside the teleporter. But, surprise surprise, there’s also a fly in there. So you can probably see where this is going. Of course, they merge together and end up on Pence’s head (JUST LIKE IN THE REAL DEBATE HERP-A-DERP!), followed by the worst Jeff Goldblum impression ever. Considering how much they love their celebrity cameos these days, I’m surprised they didn't get the real deal for this. Luckily, he was in England filming a movie at the time, so he couldn't.

• Kenan brings out his Herman Cain impression, proving that not even death will stop SNL from digging up old, tired routines. They also show a shocking lack of respect for Cain by having him say that Trump was the reason he died for not having him wear a mask. 

• Just thinking about this shit anymore makes me sick, so, let me cut this short; overall, this is the worst cold open ever, end of story.

-2,000/5

Monologue

Bill Burr does stand-up about COVID, cancel culture, and white women.

• Color me shocked, this monologue wasn’t that bad! I had no knowledge of Bill Burr before this episode, so I didn’t know what to expect from him. He totally won me over with this monologue, though!

• We start out kind of slow with bland COVID jokes, then he turns to the main subject: he’s tired of cancel culture. And this is where my interest is piqued.

• He has some great insults towards those people who tried to cancel John Wayne earlier this year. 

• GREAT point about how most of the members of Black Lives Matter are white women! 

• And he ends on a ballsy note by making fun of Pride Month! I wish all of the stand-up comedians they get to host the show were like this!

4/5

Sketch: New Normal

A couple (Burr and McKinnon) gets nervous while meeting with their friends for the first time since quarantine started.

• After the good feeling the monologue left me with, I wait through 45 seconds of this sketch for the jokes to start, then McKinnon says “unpresidented” instead of “unprecedented”. Then the rest of the sketch is McKinnon talking in a drunk voice while she and Burr keep coming up with unfunny mispronounciations. I’ve got nothing else to say about this one.

1/5

Sketch: The Blitz

Unfunny shit happens while Kevin (Kenan Thompson) is trying to editorialize to the audience about police brutality.

• I thought the humor in this one was going to come from Burr’s character wearing a bear hat, but then Kenan started talking about some black man getting killed by police, and it hit me; this show is clearly more interested in politics than it is in actually entertaining us. 

• While he tries to keep talking, Burr keeps pulling unfunny pranks on him, and we get another damn joke about Snapchat filters! Will you guys please stop with the Snapchat jokes?!?

0/5

Short Film: Enough is Enough

An up-and-coming actor named Benji (Beck Bennett) sings an anti-Trump rap on Instagram in hopes that his friends will see it and like it, but they don’t want anything to do with him.

• I was expecting the worst from this one. I thought the entire sketch was just going to be about him singing the rap (which is extremely cringeworthy) and that would be it, but I was in for a surprise. 

• Instead, the real joke was that his rap was so pathetic that all of his friends want him to take it down. They accurately sum up all those nobodies who take shots at Trump when someone tells Benji that he’s not famous enough and is jeopardizing his career. It’s a surprising move for SNL to mock this type of behavior, when they’d normally be encouraging it.

• Best of all is the ending, when Jason Momoa calls him up and asks to be untagged from the video, all while insulting him and asking why he hasn’t died yet.

4/5

Musical Performance: Jack White Medley

I normally don’t comment on the performances, but this one was so great that it may rank among the greatest in SNL history.

Weekend Update (featuring Wayne Wenowdis and Pete Davidson)

• Once again, our first joke is one where they say that Trump is mentally ill. They then call him a “bioweapon” and make a random Terminator II reference.

• One bit I don’t understand is when Jost says that it looks like Trump greenscreened himself in front of the White House. The video he is referring to is obviously not greenscreened.

• Michael Che then expresses his disappointment that Trump survived by comparing it to a drunk driving accident where only the drunk driver survived. It’s pretty pathetic.

• What follows is one of the most disturbing and unfunny things I have ever seen; we get a guest commentary from “Dr. Wayne Wenowdis”, played by Kate McKinnon in her 1,000,000th drag role. All this character does is talk in a goofy voice and say “we know this” every three seconds. It was so bad that I actually had to skip through the rest of this commentary. Apparently, I missed a part where McKinnon suddenly breaks out laughing for no reason and Jost asks if she’s okay. Uh-oh, that probably means that they’re going to bring this character back at some point in the future. (EDIT: Whaddya know, they did!)

•  Absolutely ghastly “joke” about baseball legend Whitey Ford being “from a simpler time where you could just name your kid Whitey”. Even when somebody dies, Michael Che can’t keep his anti-white jokes to himself.

• We end with a commentary where Pete Davidson talks about J.K. Rowling’s transphobia. I couldn’t skip to the next sketch fast enough once I heard that.

0/5

Sketch: Don Pauly

Some shit about the Mafia, or something.

• You know, in a sketch about how we shouldn’t racially profile people, it’s kind of ironic how they’re going with one of the oldest stereotypes in the book: “Italians are in the Mafia”. As an Italian, I’m normally not offended by these types of jokes, but when you’re doing them in a sketch about how we shouldn’t racially profile people, there’s kind of an odd double standard there.

• Oh, and they’re doing a Mafia sketch in 2020? Didn’t we exhaust all those jokes already while The Sopranos was still airing?

1/5

Fake Commercial: Samuel Adams Jack-O-Pumpkin Ale

• I totally didn’t understand the joke in this one. All I could see was lame Boston accents that were already overused on those Boston Teens sketches.

• And there’s a spit-take for the second time in this episode. Why?!? This is the type of shit that Lorne would have called “too Carol Burnett” back in the 70’s.

• Why did this have to be an ad for a real product instead of a creative original one? Years from now, people are still going to remember fake ads like “Mel’s Char Palace”, “Happy Fun Ball”, “Colon Blow”, and “The Clucky Chicken”, while shit like this will be forgotten in a few years. Maybe they were hoping to get free stuff from Samuel Adams.

0/5

Musical Performance: “Lazaretto”

Side Note: After Jack White’s second number, they showed a brief clip of Eddie Van Halen’s performance on the show, as this was the first episode after his death. It was nice to see the clip, as it gave me a brief glimpse of a much more pleasant experience. Also, the guitar Jack is using during “Lazaretto” is one that Eddie made especially for him.

Final thoughts: A slight step up from the last episode. Still not very funny, but I did get a few laughs from Burr’s monologue, and the Jason Momoa cameo appearance. But you know things are getting bad when one of my highlights is a gratuitous cameo.

Best sketches: Monologue, Enough is Enough, Jack White’s performances, Eddie Van Halen tribute

Worst sketches: Cold Open, The Blitz, Weekend Update (especially the Whitey Ford “joke”), Samuel Adams

Next review: Issa Rae/Justin Bieber

SNL Reviews: Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10/03/20)

 I’m back, everyone! Another season of SNL is upon us, and I thought that I would post my reviews of the season as it airs this year.

Cold Open: Presidential Debate

In which the first Presidential Debate is poorly re-enacted.

• Hoo, boy, this was a painful sketch to sit through. Not only was it completely unfunny, but it was also THIRTEEN MINUTES LONG.

• I was hoping they would scrap the debate sketch because of Donald Trump contracting the coronavirus only a day before this aired. But, of course, I should have known better, because they took the easy way out by making this a “flashback” to the debate.

• So, let’s talk about Jim Carrey’s Joe Biden impression. To put it simply, it fucking sucks. When I first saw the promotional video they released of him, I thought he was playing Fire Marshall Bill. He goes way overboard with the mugging and silly faces, which, don’t get me wrong, Carrey is great at doing, but it doesn’t fit who he’s playing. Why couldn’t they just get Harrelson or Sudeikis back again? Or, better yet, have someone who’s actually in the cast play him?!??

• Alec Baldwin is back as Trump, too, and his impression is just as bad as ever. Just give the role to someone else, already.

• Dear God, these jokes are awful. At one point, they literally have Trump say that his statements about the virus “won’t come back to haunt (him) later this week”. There’s nothing hackier than a “predicting the future” joke.

• Random Harry Styles cameo because WHY THE FUCK NOT?!??

• Maya is back as Kamala Harris yet again. At least they stopped doing those horrid social media jokes with her.

• Overall, a terrible start to the season.

0/5

Joining the cast this season, we have Andrew Dismukes, Lauren Holt, and Punkie Johnson. Dismukes is also a writer for the show (he wrote some of my least favorite sketches from last year), but I have no idea who these other two are. Ego Nwodim has also been promoted to a regular cast member (about damn time!)

Side note: Cecily Strong is missing from the first few episodes of this season as she is away filming a TV show.

Monologue

Chris Rock does stand-up about Trump contracting the virus, the pandemic, and the economy.

• It felt good to see Rock on SNL again at first. But then, my respect for him suddenly evaporated when he implied that he wants the virus to kill Trump. Absolutely disgusting.

• The rest of his monologue wasn’t much better, not helped by the fact that it was over eight minutes long.

0/5

Sketch: Eye on Pittsburgh

A news report about an evacuation at a “change-of-name office” due to COVID-19.

• Just when the episode couldn’t get any worse, they decided to bring back that horrid name change office routine from Season 44. When is SNL going to realize that only middle-schoolers find this shit funny?

• The names include such knee-slappers as “Edith Puthie”, “Irma Gerd”, and “Mike Rodick”. Isn’t that so hilarious???

-5/10

Music Video: Bottom Of Your Face

Some rappers sing about wanting to see their girlfriends’ faces.

• I hated all those dumb rap videos from last season, and, surprise surprise, I hated this one too.

1/5

Sketch: Future Ghost

A ghost (Rock) visits a teenager (Kyle Mooney) to warn him about his future.

• I thought this was going to be another one of those “living posters” sketches, for some reason. Instead, it randomly turned into a promotion for the latest Tony Hawk game. That’s right! For the fourth season premiere in a row, we have a sketch that only exists to promote someone else’s product. And the less said about that dumbass Cheeto sketch from last year, the better.

• It seems like the only reason they set this sketch in the 2000s was so they could do a bunch of 2000s references. Kyle has posters of AOL and blink-182 on his wall, and he mentions having a crush on the mom from “Spy Kids”. Get it? Because all those things were popular in the 2000s!!! Herp-a-derp!

1/5

Fake Commercial: The Drew Barrymore Show

In which they make fun of Drew Barrymore’s (Chloe Fineman) talk show.

• Good Lord, yet another lame impression showcase from Chloe Fineman. She has to be one of SNL’s worst impressionists ever. Even Charles Rocket would have told her to tone it down.

• Brief appearance by Alex Moffat as Tom Green. Get it? Because they used to be married!!!

1/5

Musical Performance: “Savage”

Weekend Update (featuring Chen Biao and Carrie Krum)

• The first Update joke of the new season is comparing Trump’s helicopter leaving for the hospital to the last helicopter out of Vietnam. I see that four months off the air didn’t make Che and Jost any funnier.

• Chen Biao comes back to grate on my nerves yet again. No further comment necessary.

• Then Carrie Krum shows up to make things even worse! I’ve never liked this character, time to retire her.

• This Update ends on a horrifying note: the camera cuts to Kate McKinnon in the audience dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. UGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! Couldn’t they have just shown a dedication card to her instead of shoving that awful impression down our throats for the millionth time?!? The only good thing is that this is hopefully the last time we’ll ever see it!

0/5

Sketch: NBA Bubble

Women compete to get drafted into the NBA Bubble.

• When they showed the crew setting this sketch up, I hoped it was going to be another one of those Inside the NBA sketches with Kenan as Charles Barkley, because those are usually pretty funny. I was wrong. Instead, it’s just some other bullshit where they wear giant plastic bubbles. Get it?!?

• The only notable thing about this sketch was when Heidi Gardner brought out the same Pluto mask that appeared in the original Debbie Downer sketch, only because it made me wish I was watching that instead.

1/5

Sketch: Stunt Performers Association of America

Stunt performers plead with audiences to stay safe during the pandemic so they can get back to work.

• This had a good concept, but wasn’t executed very well.

• I will say that I got my only laughs of this entire episode when Kate McKinnon’s character got hit in the face, and again at the end when a stuffed animal bit her in the crotch.

• I also got some slight chuckles from the fake movie posters.

2/5

Musical Performance: “Don’t Stop” (feat. Young Thug)

Final thoughts: Man, I can’t believe how awful this episode was. All the terrible shit I suffered through last season is here to stay in this one. Why are these season premieres always so fucking bad???

Best sketches: NONE

Worst sketches: They all sucked, but the Cold Open, Eye on Pittsburgh, and Weekend Update were particularly horrid.

Next review: Bill Burr/Jack White