I’ve never seen Henson do comedy, so I’m looking forward to
what she brings to the table and what the SNL writers write for her. I’m also looking forward to hearing
Mumford & Son’s new sound.
Was my curiosity paid off or punished?
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
Hillary Clinton Cold Open – This is a decent bit. It doesn’t really add anything new to
the characterization of Clinton, which can be mildly forgiven at this
point. Hillary is monomaniacal, we
get it. Nice to see Hammond pop up as Bill Clinton, which was always one of my
favorites of his impressions.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Monologue – Yet another musical monologue? I understand that SNL doesn’t really
care what recappers think, but I don’t think anyone is calling for more musical
monologues. Unfortunately this
one’s an unbalanced number; Henson can actually sing, but the writing’s not
there at least in terms of lyrics.
Fortunately the cast comes in to bring some much needed levity to the
number, but it’s too little to late.
Rating: David Spade
Depend Legends – This is a very well done bit. Granted it’s completely adding to the
stigma that diapers are for babies, but using the marketing tactic of putting
likable images on the product is a pretty funny one. It’s a mean joke, but it made me laugh. I dug the various product lines “The
Greatest Generation” “Newsmen and Newsmakers.” The “Female D.A.’s from Law and Order” slayed me. Also funny; “On a diaper? That’s the
last place Monk wants to be.”
Rating: Norm Macdonald
Hot For Teacher – I guess this should be more troubling than
it was. After all, sex abuse is
sex abuse, right? That said, I’d
be lying if I didn’t admit to an occasional tinge of envy when reading about
the seemingly weekly stories on Gawker of a female teacher being inappropriate
with a male student. And this sketch
wouldn’t work if the genders were reversed. So, double standard out of the way, this sketch was really
just fine. The high points being
the sly smile Kenan’s judge gives Davidson’s witness and the some of the names
he was called by his classmates.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Home 2 – Can we all implore the writers of SNL to officially
retire Zamata’s beyond horrible impression of Rihanna? Every time is shows up, I’m
aghast. It only appeared for a few
seconds and it left a bad taste in my ears and eyes. The rest of the impressions were adequate at best. Pharoah needs to put some more work
into his Lamar and Jones’ Missy Elliott felt equally off model. Even Kenan’s usually fine Rick Ross
didn’t work in this bit.
Rating: David Spade
QVC – “Claudette Fontaine”? Apparently SNL’s writers were
afraid of offending the estate of Liza Minelli? (What? She’s still alive?!) Bryant gets points for really staying in character in this
sketch. She’s an integral part,
yet she doesn’t have much to do and she still sells it. I’m guessing this sketch would be
funnier if I were an avid QVC watcher, but as the intro noted, then I’d be a
dog whose owner left the tv on.
Rating: Tim Meadows
John Singleton’s Game of Thrones – For those of you who
thought the Beyagency’s parody of The Adjustment Bureau was too topical, here’s
a Game of Thrones/Boyz n the Hood mash-up. Yes, South Centros is funny and I’m always up for an Ice
Cube impression, but this is a tough sell. Boyz n the Hood was an important movie for me and even I had
trouble remembering some of the scenes being referenced. Props for the Kingslayer cameo and
Michael Che’s pretty decent Lawrence Fishbourne impression.
Rating: Kristen Wiig
Mumford & Sons First Performance – Based on this song I
feel like Mumford (and Sons, presumably) took all of the calling them soft and
biting of their style personally.
This is clearly a response to something. That said, I detect a distinct Snow Patrol vibe to this new
sound, which is decidedly not the opposite of soft. Also, this song as the same standard Mumford swell, only now
with electric guitars. As someone
who has Mumford & Sons albums, I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll be
picking this one up.
Weekend Update – The good is that Che got some truly awesome
racial jabs in. Photos being the things that cops like
to shoot the least and white people rioting without consequences were so on
target. Cecilia Giminez was
fine. And with the appearance of
Jacob’s dad, Dr. Heinken, does that mean that Jacob is done? I’d be ok with that, he’s had a good
run. There wasn’t really a bad
part of Update this week, it was just sort of middling.
Hollywood Game Night – This coming on so late in the show is
puzzling. Equally puzzling is why
SNL writers decided to take Celebrity Jeopardy, double down on celebrities and
remove most of the characterization.
This sketch gets props for incorporating Chris Pine’s tear and for the
bit with Nick Offerman’s moustache.
Also, Henson’s Wanda Sykes impression was actually pretty decent, which
may be more of an indictment for how cartoonish Sykes is. But this sketch didn’t do much. (Side note; Jay1 and I were just
talking about how difficult pulling off a Common impression would be and
Pharoah’s attempt illustrates it perfectly.)
Rating: David Spade
How 2 Dance With Janelle – Ah, Zamata’s attempt at a
reoccurring character, who can apparently only appear when there’s a Black
host. Zamata bumbles a joke early
(by not drawing a longer pause between “state” and “penitentiary”) which is the
closest this sketch comes to having a written joke. Fortunately Henson’s commitment to the bit and her character
bring something to the sketch. And
the sketch even has an ending with Pharoah’s panicked ending of the
livestream. Sadly, neither were enough
to redeem a sketch with a paper thin premise.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Sesame Street – Here’s an example of an obvious premise that
still works. Part of it is because
Henson is so comfortable in Cookie’s skin. Part of it is because of the juxtaposition between the
setting and the character. And
part of it is because of some amazing acting by Bert and Mr. Snuffleupagus,
which is a statement that makes me feel like I can now die having fulfilled a
marvelous dream.
Rating: Phil Hartman
Cinema Classics: Their Own League – I will never tire of
Reese De’What. In fact one of the
flaws of this sketch is that he’s not in it nearly enough. Another flaw is that they didn’t quite
go far enough with this one.
McKinnon’s line about “while our husbands are away, we’re the racists”
feels like the tone that this sketch should have had once it kicked in. That trigger is pulled a bit too late
and not really followed up on.
But it was a decent attempt.
Rating: Tim Meadows
Mumford & Sons Second Performance – Yeah, this really is
sounding more and more like Snow Patrol.
In fact, has anyone seen Snow Patrol and Mumford & Sons together at
the same time? Could they be same
band? Is that possible?
Connectatron – This is a funny sketch and a funny
premise. But it’s so messy because
of the time crunch. I love the
idea of a group of characters who have to come together as a unit to save the
day, with interpersonal beef as a hurdle.
Also, couldn’t SNL have figured out a better way to show Connecatron
missing a leg than literally having Connecatron hopping on one leg with the
other leg clearly bent?
Rating: Chris Farley
Final Thoughts: This was an interesting episode. There were several points where race
came up directly, which felt at least refreshing if not bold. And the Black cast members certainly
got a ton of screen time, even if the writing wasn’t always there. And I’d feel bad for Kyle Mooney who
played straight man in one sketch, but he still got paid the same amount for
this week.
Henson did a pretty good job. She didn’t seem completely comfortable, but she committed
herself to the characters she was given, even if the writers never really
trusted her to carry a sketch. Her
Wanda Sykes impression actually impressed.
Host Rating: Josh Hutcherson
Next Time: Scarlett Johansson with musical guest TBD. Or possibly she’s pulling double duty,
which doesn’t seem like an empty threat.
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