Paul Rudd/Charli XCX (12.18.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Given the afternoon's announcements about how the Covid situation in New York had ended up drastically affecting plans for tonight's show, I think they really made the right call turning this into an entirely prerecorded clip show with as little cast and crew in the studio as possible in the studio. I appreciate that there was some new material that was mostly pre taped either earlier in the week or on the home base stage hours before scheduled airtime to serve as wraparounds introducing each clip. Nice to know that they could walk a fine lone between canceling/not canceling the show and putting the audiences' fears that much of the cast and crews' health being seriously at risk to rest. Much like the first "At Home" Special from last spring (which is something I have mixed feelings about the show going back to on the new year) this is an episode I had a hard time reviewing since it was put together under such dire circumstances last minute. Still, I was intrigued by such a drastically different show than what we've been used to getting from modern SNL so if they're going to plug away as best they can, I might as well follow their lead. I'm not going to grade any sketches (as that wouldn't feel quite right) but this review rather will be a collection of my real time reactions rather than a polished critical review. Here we go.

Five Timers Cold Open - Hmm...pre taped guest cameos, a five timers club ceremony...I'm impressed by the way they were able to give us both what we were expecting/hoping for and do us one better here. It's nice to know Hanks and Rudds' presences this week weren't completely wasted. The only thing I really liked about Steve Martin's cameo was Martin Shorts' cameo within Steve's cameo. Was that filmed on the set of "Only Murders In The Building"? Still, it's good to see they could at least give us a stripped down version of what Paul's Five Timers monologue would've been (maybe give or take a few set changes and guest caneos). It was great to see right up front that a) they really were concerned with doing as little of the show "live" as they could get away with for the sake of the cast & crew's safety and b) the show was going to use this as an opportunity to wildly break from its usual format.

Casey HomeGoods - This was little repetitive and formulaic for my tastes, but I appreciate the whole "misguided attempt at something heartwarming" vibe they went for here. I did like the "scissors to cut holes in condons" and "weird opinions on Israel" lines and this did work much better than it should've in the absence of a live audience.

Digital Short: Dick In A Box - Well, I have technically reviewed this recently on the Saturday Night Vibes podcast so I'll just direct you there for my thoughts on that. Anyway, I have mixed feelings on the Tina/Kenan intro to this. I liked Kenans' "Mighty Ducks Forever, bitches" line but Tina's blatant mislead kind of annoyed me. I suppose it was unrealistic of me to expect some kind of compilation of footage of Tinas' cast skating on the rink with commentary from Tina and Kenan, but...oh, well.

An Evening With Pete - I loved the idea of Pete becoming a sad cross between Jake Lamotta and Joe Piscopo 40 years from now. I also appreciated the meta-ness of Jost being represented by a malfunctioning animatronic that catches fire (only those of us who regularly posted on the voy board would recognize that as being "meta"), Chloes' "who is the audience for this?" line during his bizarre Slim Shady/Warren Beatty rap, Mikey Day being the one in the audience yelling "do Chad!" (didn't he and Streeter cowrite those?) and of course, the whole "sex symbol" story at the end. I got a kick out of the MGK urn. I guess since he "IS Weed" he could've just OD'd on himself? Rudds' character really added the heart to this (wonder if he was based on any real writer friends of Pete?) and Pete did actually get a chance to show off his decent singing voice at the end. This was definitely the strongest of the new material tonight.

Santa And His Elves - Kenans' intro to this was very sweet and this sketch was alright. Good to see Bobby Moynihan again. Other than that, I don't have a whole lot more to say about this one, so I'll just move on.

Global Warming Christmas Special - YES!!!! I haven't seen this underrated gem in years and in spite of how sadly prescient it still is I personally would like to thank Tom Hanks for convincing the skeleton crew to dig this out of the vault and airing it unabridged!

Update was also pretty much what I expected. Che had some solid jokes and even some of Tinas' early jokes landed (she lost me after the Nintendo one but Che pretty much killed all of his). I guess whoever is my group chats' theorized that Tina MIGHT be able to do a better Update with this current writing staff rather than her own must be slightly vindicated then? I did like how Kenan, Hanks and Rudd were the sole "audience" members.

Christmas Socks - This was a little slow but I liked the special mildly heartwarming Kyle Mooney brand of absurdity behind it. Also, I'm glad they were still able to throw Charli XCXs' fans some kind of bone here (even if she had to wear a bird costume).

Steve Martin's Christmas Wish - This still holds up well and again, Rudds' intro made this more charming.

Short & McCartney - Kenan introduces another charmingly meta deep cut (from nine years ago which in SNL terms isn't that long ago) that is still fun to watch today. Too bad this got cut off before it could lead to Pauls' performance because that was an interesting transition. Still, Paul and Marty managed to sell the hell out of what little material they were given to work with here.

North Pole News Report - When I heard Tom Hanks mention Eddie Murphy as one of his favorite cast members, I got a little excited at the possibility of getting to see the Gumby Christmas Special from '82 (which I also covered on Saturday Night Vibes recently) but it was nice to see Eddie's strongest performance from one of the few non fan service holiday related sketches he did in his 2018 hosting episode (again, as chillingly prescient as it seems now).

Dan Charles: Adult One Direction Fan - This was just as funny as it was in 2013 and I loved Rudds' charmingly convoluted and long winded intro (mostly, because he turned out not to be setting us up for a Vogelchecks sketch).

NOW! That's What I Call Christmas - Tina's intro was short and to the point. This was another sketch my views on haven't changed much since 2013 (and since I remember not being that into it, I'll just move on).

TV Funhouse: Christmastime For The Jews - Tina's baby Santa suit/photo was very sweet (as little as it seemed to have to do with anything) and this claymation Smigeltoon is always fun (we would've bought this up on Saturday Night Vibes if our zoom meeting hadn't been cut off due to none of us having installed the latest update that prevents meetings of more than three people from being cut off after 40 minutes). Other than that, this was notable just for the novelty of seeing the TV Funhouse "come back here with my shooooow" animation overplayed onto a modern era host bumper.

Goodnights - Rudds' speech was very sweet and I liked hearing the "piano and sax only" acoustic version of the theme.

Now, for my updated rankings of this season (it'll be the only way I really "rank" this episode since I still have to see how it compares to the rest of the season)...

1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)
3. Simu Liu/Saweetie (11.20.2021)
4. Billie Eillish (12.11.2021)
5. Paul Rudd/Charli XCX (12.18.2021)
6. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
7. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
8. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
9. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, if the show absolutely had to go on, that was really the best way it could have. I noticed there was no announcement of who will be the first host of 2022 but that's perfectly fine at this point since it's highly doubtful there will be any new SNL episodes in 2022 going forward. I just hope the shows' entire cast and crew just stays safe and well (and that goes for anyone out there reading this as well). Happy holidays!

Billie Eillish (12.11.2021)

Okay, here's my review. As expected, Billie Eillish turned out to be a fun double duty pop star host. She seemed to carry herself with a quiet confidence (in spite of herself as she would go in to explain to us) and bought the right level of energy to a very slightly uneven show. The writers seemed to know how to use her. Kate McKinnon finally returned and somehow managed to NOT take away anyone's airtime. No, not even Melissa suffered any side effects from both Kate and Billie (someone whom she previously impersonated) being in the building. Still, for some reason Cecily, Sarah, JAJ, Alex, Chris Pete were forced to take a backseat but at least this meant Andrew, Aristotle and Punkie got plenty of moments to shine! Anyway, let's break this down, shall we? It was a pretty straight forward show.

The Return Of The Mighty CDC Art Players - Well, they clearly just took the cold open from the Keegan Michael-Key episode in May, sprinkled in some Christmas references and added a few new impressions just to accommodate Kate's return from Australia this week. The Cuomo Bros. segment was the high point of this. Andrew Dismukes wouldn't have been my first choice to play Chris but he did well with the material they gave him. I did like seeing Cecilys' MTG again (especially since this turned out to be her only appearance of the entire show) and she had some good material as well. As a Coloradan (who is dangerously close to bring gerrymandering into her district) I have mixed feeling about Lauren Boebert finally making it on SNL. While I appreciated Chloes' take on her (even though Heidi would've been my first pick) I feel like they could've been a bit harder on her if they tried. As expected, Aidys' Cruz has just become white noise to me at this point. C+

Monologue - I liked seeing the more articulate side of Billie. She really seemed to have a clearly focused energy here. The jokes about her wardrobe were kinda iffy but I did like hearing about how she learned to accept herself and I did also get a kick out of her detailing how her mom killed her dreams of acting in a movie. Also, she was smart to realize early on "when in doubt, burn Colin Jost out of no where". C+

Silent Night Gallery - Right off the bat the things I liked the most about this sketch were how they gave Alex and Melissa prominent roles as the anchors of this sketch (wow, I guess they really DID break the trend of shutting Melissa out of the show completely when a celebrity she does an impression of hosts, huh? Finally!) and how much more a creative twist on the "rejected/damaged ornament parade" sketches we saw with Lucy Liu and Matt Damon. Honestly, it didn't really start to pick up steam until the first Kenan/Bowen segment. The Punkie/Miley card was pretty funny and a clever way to work in that understandable-this-week-and-hyped-up-a-bit-on-Twitter-once-it-happened-at-dress-yet-still-somehow-inexplicable cameo. Good for Billie for managing to be the strongest performer in the lead off sketch in her first episode as host. B-

TikTok Scrolling - I had some reservations about this at first but I'm glad I stuck with it the whole way and gave it a chance. At first, it seemed like Driver's License/Squid Game levels if "how do you do, fellow kids" trend/song/streaming show/ thing acknowledgment solely written to pander to the GenZ audience they expected Billie to bring in. Then, I noticed the rapid fire pacing of each individual TikTok gag and decided to along with it. Near the end, I noticed how about four or five of these TikTok characters turned into their own runners and were each given their own conclusion. Yes, this is one of the rare times in SNL history where a pretaped piece had its' mere existence justified by both it's pacing AND it's payoff! Naturally, Billie and Squirmy were very in their elements here. Kenan, Chris, Punkie, Heidi and Melissa were highlights. Pete, Ego, Bowen, Kate, Mikey and Aidys' material kinda washed over me but at least Aidy had the payoff of Kyle's character bring tied (no pun intended) into her storyline. Andrews' 2008 acoustic guitar rap covers were great. Chloes' growing conspiratorial insanity really grew on me. Finneas provided my first genuine laugh in this given the pacing and how certain cast members were just giving us their same old selves. Good to see JAJ being able to work his (improving) Homer Simpson impression into two consecutive episodes. Aristotle gave us a nice subversion of a tired old internet trend. Alexs' Dad getting in on this was a nice addition. B+

Hip Hop Nativity Pageant - Surprisingly, Heidi and Billie turned in my favorite performances in this with Chris a close third and Dismukes a slightly distant fourth and all the rest just set dressing. Billie was surprisingly well suited for her character (even though her and Heidi seemed like they were performing a script cowritten by Dan Licata and Stephen Castillo for Kristen Wiig last year that got cut at the table read). Honestly, the only problem I had with this one was its' serious lack of an appropriate ending. C+

Lonely Christmas - Hmm, I guess Kate returned slightly earlier in the week than I thought. Either way, while I thought most of Kates' "twists" were a little obvious and low stakes I did like the twist of Mikeys' entire "Rutger" character bring a victim of Kate's Munchausen by Proxy. The Next door tag wasn't too great a twist but I appreciated it nonetheless. C+

Update was a little uneven at first. Colins' Jussie Smollett jokes didn't quite land with me but pretty much every joke that followed did. The Russia/Ukraine and Anime/Omicron jokes were saved by Josts' delivery of it. The Vaccine cards and Cuomo jokes felt too much like retreads of the cold open to me and the Nunes joke should've just been cut. The Ghislane/Epstien and women doctors' jokes were pretty much saved by their audience reaction (or Che & Josts' response to the formers' lack thereof in the case of the former). Other than that, the rest of their jokes were alright. Punkies' commentary was so solid I'd say she immediately earned the right to giggle through the beginning and end of her debut as herself doing her own standup act at the Update desk. Hell, I'm just glad to see anyone added to the cast mid-Covid get any airtime this week. Speaking of which, Andrew's commentary gave me some odd deja vu but I loved how he sold the sheer ennui of it (even more than the dog was willing to...seriously, did NO ONE just think to turn the dogs' cart around? I mean, at this point, you might as well let a stage hand be visible on camera and at least TRY to create another "Inside The Beltway" style blooper. It might have actually behooved Dusmukes' tenure on the show). B+

The Night I Met Santa - Obviously, Billie seemed the most in her comfort zone here as the sketch as it was centered on her singing smooth jazz. She, Ego and Kate really sold the low key absurdity of it and Kenan as Santa was a nice touch. I'm actually shocked that PDD did NOT write this as it fit so well with their style of "awkward absurdity that lands just well enough for me personally" but at a much slower pace. B-

Kyle's Holiday - This is the second deja vu moment I've had tonight. I feel like we've seen numerous variations on the "Kyle tries and fails hard to awkwardly bond/make plans with his castmates outside the show". In fact, this reminded me the most of a piece that I think git cut from either last years' Dan Levy or Regina King episodes where Kyle tries to organize a Valentine's day party with the cast. Still, I did like how they changed things up by taking the turn towards "sweet and heartwarming then suddenly extremely dark and creepy with several 'Inside Baseball/fan service references for regular SNL viewers along the way." Good to see Kyles' trajectory on the show still going upwards when he's by himself. A-

Business Garden - Right off the bat, I appreciate how Kate is paired with Billie rather than Aidy. Even if they both still inexplicably broke, it's something a little different (and something we can give Billie a break for, I mean...c'mon). Aidy was put to slightly better use as the manic front desk pamphlet lady. Once again, Phineas comes out of nowhere with the best performance of the whole sketch. That was the only thing that stood out to me here since I feel like I've seen so many Anna Drezen penned bad local Kste commercials (and commercials parodying bad hotel amenities in general) that most of it kinda washed over me. C+

Now, for my updated rankings of this season...
1. Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile (10.23.2021)
2. Keiran Culkin/Ed Sheeran (11.6.2021)
3. Simu Liu/Saweetie (11.20.2021)
4. Billie Eillish (12.11.2021)
5. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
6. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
7. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
8. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)

Well, that was just as much fun (and a bit more restrained) than I expected. Next week, Paul Rudd returns to host the final SNL of 2021 AND join the five-timers club. Even though his last episode was pretty forgettable without a big name musical guest seemingly there JUST to overshadow him (which at this point, I'd honestly say Charli XCX has about a 50/50 chance of doing depending on what she gets to do and how the show uses her) he will be a welcome comedic presence (especially at Christmas time). See you then (oh and speaking of Christmas, be sure and check out my guest appearance on the Saturday Night Vibes podcast where Greg, Emily and myself each break down our favorite Christmas sketches. Enjoy!)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/08ZuIXtynOfVsnTfAlEiyh?si=9J8Amyd2T-KZ0AAjyV4zFA&utm_source=copy-link