I was looking forward to this episode, mainly because I was
a pretty big fan of James Franco’s SNL documentary. It was pretty interesting look at what goes into the making
of an episode of SNL. And how
blindingly white things are behind the scenes.
And having Franco host with Nicki Minaj as the musical guest
sets up all sorts of interesting things.
Will the writers at Saturday Night Live be refreshed by their holiday
break or rusty?
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
Politics Nation – SNL was in a no win situation; if they
didn’t address the Grand Juries with the cold open they’ve be viewed as
avoiding the one thing that’s been dominating headlines for the past few
weeks. But how do you make that
funny? As this sketch proves, you
really can’t, in sketch form. The
jokes come from standard Kenan as Al Sharpton humor.
Rating: David Spade
Monologue – Nice work including the Sony hack in the
monologue, which gives it a bit of topical relevance. But then Seth Rogen comes in and effectively sucks all the
air out of the thing, which becomes incredibly predictable. Though Franco tying his Instagram
fiasco into the hack was a nice touch.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Peter Pan Live – This was a sketch that I bet sounded better
on paper. Not only is it poking
fun at NBC’s Peter Pan Live, but it also brings back Aidy Bryant’s Tonker Bell
character. Unfortunately, because
it’s really two sketches crammed together, it never really found a rhythm. And I haven’t decided if I liked
Franco’s Walken or thought it was terrible. I feel like it’s the latter.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Star Wars Trailer – This was a funny bit that maybe went on
too long. Killam’s Harrison Ford
was pure comedy. The rest of the
sketch was just jokes about old people, set in a galaxy far, far away. It was stupid, but it made me
laugh.
Rating: Kristen Wiig
Jingle Ballerz/Hip Hop Nativity – This sketch was
garbage. The premise was so thin
and the impressions ranged from adequate to laughable. Sasheer’s Rihanna was horrible, like
distractingly bad. Franco had to
be crammed into this sketch and I just kept waiting for it to end. Though McKinnon’s Bieber deserves a
shout out for being great as always.
Rating: David Spade
Grow a Guy – First off, “A Mike O’brien Picture”? Mike gets
branded stuff now? Nice! I like the weirdness of this one. I love Beck as the jerky bully that he
often plays. I liked watching
Franco’s character grow and learn things.
The fact that Franco’s character had a sense of humor was a nice
touch. And that ending was pretty
sad, in a funny way.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Troll Bridge – Nice to see Cecily anchor something
again. This is the second time
we’ve seen this character, right?
She’s an interesting character with a pretty funny story, but she’s
bogged down by the premise of the sketch.
And the big laugh getter in this sketch is supposed to be Franco and
Mooney making out, which feels pretty juvenile. Eh.
Rating: Robert Downey Jr.
Nicki Minaj Performance #1 – Bold of Nicki to allow Skylar
Grey so much time to establish the hook of the song, given that it’s Nicki’s
performance. I vaguely recall
Skylar Grey was supposed to be something huge, but that never really panned
out. Anyway, Nicki is rhyming and
aiming squarely at her base.
There’s to see here, other than an outlandish figure.
Weekend Update – You’ve got to applaud SNL for devoting the
entire opening of Update to some pretty awful Grand Jury decisions. It was good not only because of the
shift in tone and voice, but also because it showed that the show can
evolve. I was happy to see Anthony
Crispino again, because he’s one of my favorite of Moynihan’s
correspondents. Leslie Jones,
again performing stand up, and with diminishing returns. Maybe she should give Update a rest
until the Spring? It was kind of
fun to see Nicki as Kim K. They
are clearly grooming her to host SNL in the near future.
Jeremy’s Brain – Light on plot but funny premise with some
solid jokes. It’s also completely
relatable.
Rating: Chris Farley
Tad Rankin – I loved this one. I loved the fact that Tad was traumatized by sight of
Tommy’s father’s ballsack. I liked
how bitter he was about losing an election to a kid. I even liked when Franco almost lost his composure. This was good stuff.
Rating: Chris Farley
Nicki Minaj Performance #2 – This performance was a mess and
really illustrated the a problem with Hip-Hop; given it’s highly collaborative
nature, if all of the contributors to a song aren’t present a performance can
have some awkward gaps. Nicki
trying to fill voids by soliciting response from the audience was possibly the
most awkward thing since Ashlee Simpson’s hoedown. Also, I really appreciate how Nicki is blatantly selling
sex.
Sunseeker Yachts – I’m surprised and slightly saddened that
this sketch wasn’t been retired.
It’s another case of diminished returns. “We’re gonna need a bigger throat” was a pretty funny line,
but beyond that things looked bleak until Franco’s character brought some life
to the sketch. I’m totally fine
with this being the final one.
Please.
Rating: Kristen Wiig
Final Thoughts: Seriously, I think we can all agree that
Nicki Minaj will be hosting SNL within the next 12 months, and possibly later
this season. This episode was
clearly a test run.
Franco did fine, which is another way of saying “it’s not
him hosting the Oscars.” I wasn’t
blown away and I wasn’t disappointed.
Host Rating: Josh Hutcherson
Next Week: Martin Freeman and Charli XCX. I’m genuinely curious about this
episode. I’m putting even money on
both Sherlock and Fargo getting send ups.
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