It’s the last Saturday Night Live of 2014. What a year it’s been. We’ve lost Seth Meyers (among others)
and gained Sasheer Zamata (among others).
It’s truly been a year full of growing pains for the show.
But Amy Adams is hosting the SNL Christmas episode, which
traditionally features special guests.
Who will show up? And will
this episode end the year with a bang or a whimper?
Our Rating system
Phil Hartman – Comedic gold
Chris Farley – Definitely funny, but
kinda messy
Norm MacDonald – Funny, but not for
everyone
Kristen Wiig – So-so premise saved by
performer.
Tim Meadows – Didn’t hate it, didn’t love
it, dripping with adequatulence
Darrell Hammond – Funny, but overstayed
it’s welcome
Jim Breuer- Crowd pleaser, but a bit
obvious
Robert Downey Jr – Brilliant performer,
not a lot to work with
David Spade – Trying too hard
Janeane Garofalo – Weird weird, not weird
funny
And introducing our new Host Rating Scale;
Drake – Outstanding
Edward Norton – Impressive
Josh Hutcherson – Fine Enough
Charlize Theron – Essentially an Extra
Seth Rogen – Expectation, Unmet
Jim Parsons - Awful
Dr. Evil Cold Open – First off, I would have been totally
fine with “A Very Somber Christmas with Sam Smith” which looked funny enough,
but Dr. Evil was a great touch. It
allowed them to deal with the Sony/The Interview/North Korea situation from a
critical standpoint. The jokes
about moving a movie to January and The Love Guru were nice touches. And for a bit that could have easily
coasted on seeing a familiar character, it was actually well written and
funny.
Rating: Phil Hartman
Monologue – So Adams mentions that this is the second time
Kristen Wiig has hijacked her monologue, but it’s also the second time Wiig has
hijacked a musical monologue this season.
Normally I’d be bashing this monologue, but the holiday season has
ironically melted my heart and the song is getting me into the holiday
spirit.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Asian American Doll – This sketch was brilliant. It’s sort of like a thematic sequel to
The Dudley’s sketch from the Woody Harrelson episode. The toy company walking on eggshells was just great and
Strong’s narrator was perfect.
Rating: Phil Hartman
Tenderfield Christmas – Nice of SNL to take on viral family
videos, with a familiy who had viral success and is trying to duplicate that
success despite having a seriously rocky year. The high point of the sketch is McKinnon’s sociopath
daughter, Suzy. The low point was
Kenan playing essentially the same
character he plays 33% of the time.
Usually it works, but here it just feels lazy. Still, Killam and Adams’ enthusiasm really helps sell this
sketch.
Rating: Kristen Wiig
Serial: The Christmas Surprise – Serial is a phenomenon, but
it’s also a podcast, so making a parody for TV seems like an odd fit. Still, they did a great job of
capturing the rhythms of Serial, while elevating it to the absurd. It’s a solid parody, that goes on a bit
too long, because there were so many aspects they wanted to lampoon.
Rating: Darrell Hammond
Girlfriends Talk Show – I usually love this sketch, but this
week it felt like an excuse to cram One Direction into sketch. Morgan didn’t get a ton of lines in
this outing and she’s usually the heart of the sketch. Also Kira’s story about her boyfriend
wasn’t as outlandish as it usually is.
It makes me sad, because I really like visiting with Morgan and
Kira.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Office Christmas Party – The idea of a couple of guys who
get an office holiday party turnt up is mildly funny. But the image of Bobby Moynihan as the boss, making it rain
with gift cards is undeniably funny.
Equally hilarious is Bryant’s Carol from New Media going wild.
Rating: Kristen Wiig
One Direction First Performance – I don’t know what this
song was, I mean, other than extremely bland. I kind of dig how these guys still perform in a straight up
lineup. Not only does it show
solidarity, but it also keeps you from noticing the backing musicians.
Weekend Update – First off, shame on Michael Che for
tainting a perfectly good Cosby joke by failing to pronounce “sedative”
correctly. Good grief man! That said, Moynihan’s Kim Jong Un bit
was pretty funny. I also enjoyed
Che’s neighbor Willie, whose jokes slayed me (but then again, Gil is one of my
favorite residents of Springfield).
But seeing Garth and Kat on Update was like the best Christmas present
ever.
A Very Cuban Christmas – Ok, this was clearly supposed to be
the cold open, right? It’s
topical, it’s got Pharoah’s Obama in it and the ending felt tacked on. Apart from that, seeing Strong play
Latina, again, is kind of lame.
Equally lame, Killam apparently thinking all Latinos are Mexican,
because his Pitbull clearly sounded Mexcian. But on the plus side, Armisen’s announcer was funny and
seeing him actually show up as Raul Castro was great. And the Weekend At Bernie’s-esque bit with Fidel Castro was
pretty funny.
Rating: Tim
Meadows
One Direction Second Performance – I feel like this is the
same song and they just shifted their positions on stage so that we’d think it
was a different one. I swear this
is the same song. But it’s gotta
be hard to write songs for One Direction, because you have to have five
different voices to put in the spotlight.
But this is still the same song as the first one.
A Magical Christmas – This is one of those sketches that
hinges on the reveal. In fact, the
reveal might actually save the sketch for some people. For me the reveal was the cherry on
top. But I am a fan of the Dundee
Sisters and their fixation on trash.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Whisters R’ We – I was genuinely happy to see Barbara and
her new girlfriend, Ashley. I
loved Barbara cracking herself up with her jokes. I dug how Adams’ Ashley kept trying to get frisky, in weird
ways. But obviously the star of
the sketch was Toby, the textbook narcissist, who digs Adam Lambert and has
power of attorney over Barbara.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Final Thoughts – I’m glad that SNL went out on a strong
note, because it’s a long cold month until the next episode. The writers really brought their A game
and for the most part it was an evenly funny episode.
Adams certainly did her. She wasn’t asked to really carry any sketches, but he held
her own, particularly in the Tenderfield Christmas. And she ended things with her weird Ashley.
Host Rating: Edward Norton
Next Week Year: Kevin Hart and TBD
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