Last night was the season finale of SNL. All things considered, the general consensus around Fish And Spaghetti manor is that this has been a successful season.
We all missed most of last weeks episode because we were up all night helping our intern Chet study for a big exam (He's just a few credits shy of a taxidermy liscense) but the little bit I saw was unempressive.
Will the season finale be any good?
Talk is that big names from the show (Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader) are leaving so I’m interested in seeing how the cast members say goodbye.
As usual here’s our rating scale.
Phil Hartman – Comedic gold
Chris Farley – Definitely funny, but kinda messy
Norm MacDonald – Funny, but not for everyone
Tim Meadows – Solid Bit
Andy Samberg – Funny, but overstayed it’s welcome
Jim Breuer- Crowd pleaser, but a bit obvious
David Spade – Trying too hard
Chris Elliot – Didn’t click at all, how did it get on
Cold Open:
Shocker. Right off the bat, it’s Lawrence Welk, a signature SNL bit of Wigg’s. I’ve always liked this bit and thankfully, the last one was done perfectly.
Jon Hamm, who, in my eyes is joining the ranks of John Goodman, Alec Baldwin and Justin Timberlake as “performers who are so good on SNL that they could be cast members” does his thing.
During the cast introduction I see that Arcade fire and The Foo Fighters are joining Mick, that should be dope. I don’t care about the Arcade Fire but I’m always down to see the Foos.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Monologue:
Mick Jagger answers frequently asked questions. It’s solid. It’s better than solid, especially for someone who isn’t an actor or comedian.
Actually, wait. He’s an actor. He was in “Freejack’’. And that movie was hilarious.
I’m crossing my fingers for a “Freejack” parody featuring an Emilio Estivez walk on cameo. We’ll see.
Rating Tim Meadows
Password:
I’m so tired of this bit, but it’s one where Wiigg gets to do her thing, so I’m not surprised. If you’ve seen this bit before and liked it, you will love it this time. If you hated it, you will like it. I think knowing that it’s the last time that I’ll see this bit (until she hosts the show eventually) made me like it more. Plus Jagger completely commited, which helped.
Rating: Phil Hartman (If only for the fact that I'm watching it knowing I'll never see it again, I'm grading this as an overall bit)
Karaoke:
This is blowing my mind because on Thursday, I had a dream that I was in an SNL sketch with Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wigg and Jim Carey and we were at a Karoke bar. I’m bugging. This is a weird bit. People are singing Rolling Stone and doing impressions of Mick Jagger. Mick criticizes and people say “if you think you can do better, then go ahead.” But he never does. The payoff was sitting right there. The curveball of Jagger not performing was a let down. In retrospect, maybe it would've been too easy for him to go "now here's how you do a Jagger impression", then totally kill it, only to have his friends say he was terrible would've been too obvious. Whatever.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Digital Short:
I thought last weeks Digital Short was the last one. It had that feel to it. It was an epic "100th Digital Short" with tons of cameos that gave shout outs to all the Digital Shorts.
But Lazy Sunday pt 2 makes way more sense since Andy’s leaving. Bringing the Digital Short full circle was a pretty cool move. It’s a satisfying ending one of my favorite parts of SNL, and now that I think of it, a reason they were able to remain relevant over the years.
The digital shorts helped put SNL in front of the youtube generation as these Digital Shorts turned into viral hits again and again. Oh, hey cool, they snuck in the word “shit” into the last lyric. Cool.
Rating: Phil Hartman
Politics Nation:
Al Sharpton is horrible at reading the teleprompter in real life. This is one of Keenans best impressions. There are no surprises or twist, it’s just a solid, satisfying bit.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Mick Jagger Performs:
Litterally.
Weekend Update:
Seth kills. Hader destroys as the lone guest, Stefon, giving out summer tips. I'm convinced that some jokes are added to the show last minute with the express purpose of making hader "break".
Rating: Phil Hartman
So You Think You Can Dance At A Music Festival:
This is a funny premise to me and I get it. But I wasn't into it. The contestants are funny. Jagger Impersonates Steven Tyler. If you go to a lot of music festivals and listen to Santana and Dave Mathews it's hilarious.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Californians:
The first time I saw this bit a, which I swear was like 2 or 3 episodes ago, I got it, but it did nothing for me and it almost annoyed me, but I remember the cast kept breaking and that's always funny. That didn't happend this time but Steve Martin, one of my comedy heros made an appearence. So there's that.
Rating: Tim Meadows/Norm MacDonald
Mick Jagger Performs:
Mick gets some help from Jeff Beck on a Blues song he wrote about the presidential election.
Goodbye Kristen Wiig:
One of the coolest and emotional things I've ever seen on SNL. It was a graduation scene where Wiig played a graduating student. Jagger, slow danced with her as Arcade Fire played "She's A Rainbow" and blended it into "Ruby Tuesday". Each cast member came up and shared a moment with Wiig. Jason Sudeikis looked like he'd been crying for the last half hour leading up to his goodbye. Bobby Moynihan lost his composure and Lorne Michaels made an appearence as well. It was a genuine and fiting goodbye to one of the most talented cast members in the history of SNL.
And that was it. A really well written and solid episode with a classy and heartwarming moment thrown in for good measure.
See you next season!
Bonus:
This bit got cut after dress rehearsal.
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