Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton (1.27.2018)

Okay, here's my review. This show was pretty par for the course for this season. It was at least the second most enjoyable show that aired in January of this year. It seemed to get off to a strong start fairly quickly but then lose some serious steam about a third of the way through the show. It had its moments, but theres' certainly no doubt it was disappointing to a lot of people. I think the most disappointing thing about this show was the lack of Ferrells' recurring characters or appearances from cast mates or old writers of his from his old days on the show. I certainly wasn't expecting that to be the entire show and I can understand if Ferrell and the writers just wanted to do some new original material and get away from those sketches. I just wish that Ferrell had made more of an impact as host throughout the week. In fact, I don't think we really can blame this episodes' faults in any one person. I think what dragged this show down was just a sense of palpable burnout from having to put on four shows in a row right between Christmas break and the Winter Olympics. I was afraid this would show during Ferrells week as host. I was hoping he would really boost morale and lift everybody's spirits and I'm sure he did behind the scenes but I guess they can only do so much to not run on fumes when they're under this much duress. Still, Ferrell did do a lot to save some pretty mediocre material tonight There's no denying that his age may be showing as a comedic performer in these late phases of his career but damn it if it wasn't wonderful to still be able to get glimpses of what made him such a beloved sketch performer on this show. The cast seemed almost as evenly balanced as last week. Leslie and Mikey felt a little underused and Pete was practically invisible the entire night. I am enjoying seeing the increased presence of Chris and Heidi, though. Anyway, lets' break this down

Dubya Returns Once Again Still - This cold opening helped get this episode off on the right foot. Just when I thought this would just meander with pointless silliness, it actually reminds us that George W. Bush was an actual war criminal! Ferrell had several laugh out loud lines here. There were too many to list individually. I guess Baldwin wasn't available this week? I'm glad they're relying on him less but this was one of the weeks I would've actually appreciated seeing him. Leslie as Condi Rice joining Ferrell in an All In The Family inspired duet felt a little strange but it was written just well enough to work. B-

Monologue  - This seemed promising, but I was really hoping it would escalate to crazier places. It really reminded me a bit too much of Ferrells' '05 monologue. Oh well, we all know that the monologues were never really the high points of the episodes that Ferrell hosted. The only real highlight was Ferrell calling them out on doing too many song-and-dance monologues. I mean, thunk about it. Every monologue this (calendar) year has involved singing and dancing so far. C-

Clown Penis Fighter Pilot - This was okay. It took a little long for it to go anywhere, but Ferrell made it worthwhile. It seemed like it was going to be way too one note early on, but Ferrells' explanation of why he picked the name "Clown Penis" turned out to be quite funny as did the reveal that he was in space. Yes, I do remember the clownpenis.fart investment website commercial with Chris Parnell from 99-00. At least that was a sign that he bought at least one old writer with him. C+

The House: Sonoma (Season 7,500,000) - I was glad to see that Ferrell got to do a Good Neighbor short with Beck and Kyle. Hell, I'm glad Beck and Kyle are still even getting to film their own Good Neighbor shorts at this point in their tenure on the show. While I wasn't sure at first how Ferrell would fit in with the vibe of their recurring Big Brother/Real World/Kardashians/reality TV parody, his endearing goofiness really sold this and put to rest any doubts or fears that he might be too old to fit in here. Thankfully, I was also able to enjoy Tracy Morgan's cameo since I didn't blink. B-

Commercial Shoot - This was definitely the weakest pre-Update segment of the show. When you consider who was involved in putting this on the air, it seemed like the biggest possible wastes of everyones' talents. The lines "baked in my bra and ass", "Nobody beats The Wiz", and "Yahtzee ISIS Queef" stood out to me. I'm genuinely curious as to who wrote this now because at first it reminded me of the short lived series "The Spoils Of Babylon" that Ferrell and McKay produced for IFC a few years ago which I believe Kristen Wiig and Tobey Maguire starred in. Ferrell played a very Orson Welles like host in the intro/outtro segments that seemed like an obvious riff on his infamous french wine commercial so Ferrell could've been drawing on that from his fairly recent past. Then, I saw the real viral video this sketch was based on. It was a faithful recreation no doubt but I have to wonder who thought it was worth putting on air during the week Ferrell was there. Now, this seems more reminiscent of Herb Welch (another faithful recreation of a viral YouTube clip that was run into the cold, cold ground while Hader was still a cast member which this hopefully won't suffer tge same fate as). Also, I was trying to think of who Ferrell reminded me of in that wig and those glasses. Then, I suddenly realized he reminded me of himself when he played Henry Hyde and Bob Livingston during the 98-99 Clinton impeachment related sketches as well as when he played Peter Graves that season in the sketch where Hammonds' Jack Perkins found out he was being replaced as host by CBS News' Harry Smith. He seemed to be channeling Nick Kroll and John Mulaneys' "Oh Hello" guys along with those obscure previous roles. D-

Atheist Flight Attendant - This sketch was more disappointing than it should've been. It seemed like something that was better on paper than in true execution  and Ferrell playing the role as a flamboyant southern man should've helped but something seemed off here and I'm pretty sure it was something about Ferrell and his timing. Chris, Aidy and Leslie played very well off of him. It seemed a little one note, but it was nice to see some darker Ferrel/McKay type humor at this point in the show. Also, it seemed pretty sad that beat boxing is the most notable thing that Luke Null has done on the show at this point. Hopefully, he will get to do something on Update next week. I mean, they gave Jon Rudnitsky that same courtesy by tips point in the season two years ago and he still ended up suffering the same fate that most of us suspect Null is going to suffer. C-

Next: For Men - This commercial was okay, but just felt derivative. It did speak to the incredible restraint they showed this week waiting about 30 minutes into the show to do their first "woke" piece of the entire night. C+

Update was serviceable, if not a little inconsistent. A lot of jokes stood out including Jost and Ches' jabs at McConnell, Miller and Trump as well as the obstruction of justice comments. Also, the Super Bowl/camel beauty pageant/shirtless Tonga man/Pitbull jokes were very funny. I can't believe they actually bought back Jacob Silj! I was actually thinking about what other semi-obscure long shot characters Ferrell could've done tonight and I flashed on Jacob Silj for a bit because I thought how easily well he could interact with Jost or Che behind the desk. I also predicted that they may not do another Celebrity Jeopardy sketch if they feel there isn't much room to explore after the last two. That turned out to be right given that Clown Penis was the first live sketch of the night. After Update, I didn't hate being right as much as I thouht I would. This was still very funny and the sharpness of the writing is still there even though it didn't stand out too much from this characters' previous Update appearances during the Quinn/early Fey eras and the timing and overall dynamic seemed a little different between him and Jost/Che. I did like the jabs at Jost/Che as well as the reveals about his sexuality and the sudden surprise ending. I'm glad to see Heidi got to debut another new original character. I just wished it was a bit more focused and trimmed initially. I'm glad we eventually got to see the legitimate work that went into her crafting this character and the specific aspects of teen/YouTube culture this was meant to satirize. I just wish the buildup to that wasn't so slow and dragged out. Also, I did hear her line about how her character thought Lady Bird sucked and women shouldn't direct. Maybe she should've been incorporated into the character rather than just compressed into a quick throwaway line. B-

Reality Stars Barbecue - This was WAY all over the place and it leaves me wit quite a bit to unpack. First of all, I have to say seeing a backyard barbecue set during the commercial for something that obviously didn't turn out to be another "GET OFF THE SHED" sketch may have been the biggest disappointment of this entire show (and after that pot pie sketch, that's REALLY saying something). Secondly, it felt a little culturally dated in its obnoxiousness and two reality TV based sketches in the same show the week after a show with at least three Tide Pod eating jokes just seems careless. It played out like something that got cut from dress at one of Ferrell previous hosting stints where maybe Wiig or Poehler were originally placed in Cecilys' role. Boy, I guess I spoke way too soon on the pot pie thing wasn't written by Anderlette, huh? Still, I have to say Ferrell is the only performer who could've made it work even this well. He clearly had the funniest lines in this sketch by far. Lastly, it looks like the thing this sketch may be the most notable for is going to be the first time SNL audiences ever witnessed Cecily cracking up and breaking character (or even come as close to doing so as she did here). Usually, she has always been more professional about that sort of thing than Kate or Aidy but I suppose it took Ferrell being her scene partner in this specific sketch to get that to finally happen. C-

Aziz Ansari Dinner Discussion - This felt like the longest sketch in the whole show. They really stretched what seemed like an already broad, observation on whats' at least a week old story by now and absolutely stretched it too thin over too long of a sketch. It really seemed like the second biggest waste of Will Ferrell this whole show. I did like the string of exaggerated visual and physical gags that led us up to Heidi's character using witchcraft to disappear into thin air, but (especially with Ferrell in the building) they should'be exaggerated these things to further and more absurd and dangerous heights if this sketch was going to be this length. C-

Crate and Cracker Barrell - This sketch unexpectedly worked much better than what preceeded it. I did like how Ferrell lashed out at his coworkers more and more the more defensive he got. The oncreasingly outrageous things he accused everybody of were funny. I do wish this sketch had more of am ending than it did. C+

Chucky Lee Byrds' Greatest Hits - This sketch may not have had the most original or creative premise but it was just funny enough to work for what it was. Surprisingly, Kate and Beck did more to improve this sketch than Ferrell did. Ferrell didn't necessarily drag this sketch down or anything, but this didn't feel like one of those roles that he and only he could've played. Also, the songs all seemed to run together to me and it also felt like timing was an issue here as well. I know from Ches' Instagram that he and Josh wrote an actual sketch this week. I wonder if this was it? B-

Now, I'd like to rank all of the episodes Ferrell hosted. Obviously, this was ALMOST going to be a no brainer. I was just curious to see how this episode compared to his others.

1. Will Ferrell/Green Day (5.16.2009)

2. Will Ferrell/Queens Of The Stone Age (5.14.2005)

3. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton (1.27.2018)

4. Will Ferrell/Usher (5.12.2012)

Now, for my updated rankings for the rest of this season...

1. Tiffany Haddish/Taylor Swift

2. Chance The Rapper/Eminem

3. James Franco/SZA

4. Jessica Chastain/Troye Sivan

5  Sam Rockwell/Halsey

6. Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

7. Saoirse Ronan/U2

8. Larry David/Miley Cyrus

9. Kumail Nanjiani/P!nk

10. Gal Gadot/Sam Smith

11. Kevin Hart/Foo Fighters

12. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z

Well, that was that. Next week, Natalie Portman hosts for the second time. I mostly remember her being a pretty solid and game host and her episode was one of the highpoints of the 05-06 season mostly due to the rap video she did with Samberg. Maybe she'd be willing to do a sequel to that one if she was willing to apppear in the 100th digital short (the last time Ferrell hosted incidentally) to commemorate it? Maybe, but hopefully they'd have more ideas than that. It doesn't surprise me at all that they announced this on Monday rather than waiting until Saturday. I've noticed a pattern with this show during the Winter Olympics. Every four years like clockwork, they will book either a big A-list celebrity host or a well established friend of the show as their last host before the Winter Olympics in February. Since this is an obvious Sweeps week move, they tend to announce these well in advance on the years of the Winter Olympics. I remember they did this with Melissa McCarthy in 2014 and with J.Lo and Ashton Kutcher who both hosted in 2010. Also, it's important to consider that Steve Martin hosted in '06 after a twelve year gap (much like Portman) and Britney Spears hosted in February of '02 which may have been the first year NBC may have gotten to air the Winter Olympics. John Goodman and Garth Brooks both hosted in February '98 but that may have just been a coincidence as the Olympics were on CBS at the time. Oh welll. Something tells me this episode will be more like Chastains' than Ferrell and that they won't skimp as much on the woke PC material as they did this week. See you then!