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!