Okay, here's my review. This was just a very uneven episode that had its moments. Sadly, it's not one of those episodes that is likely to leave a long lasting impression on you or even stay with you for a long time. Having nearly an entire third of the show devoted to discourse on a certain subject that had been beaten to death by mid week didn’t help much either. Jerrod Carmichael may be a fine standup comic but he's practically invisible as a host and as a sketch performer. Speaking of "practically invisible" it was another episode where a number of cast members were shut out entirety. We didn’t see any Punkie, Melissa, Aidy or Aristotle. Pete was only in one pretape and Kate disappeared after the cold open and first post monologue sketch. Ego had one voice only part and then showed up on camera in only one post Update sketch. That kind of cast imbalance tends to throw the show off in some noticable ways. Anyway, let's break this thing down, shall we?
FOX And Friends - It's good to see this is still a palatable and flexible cold open template all these years later. I liked the jabs at the new right wing social media app burning up everyone's phones (ranking all of SNLs' Brian Kilmeade impersonators, I'd have to go Bobby Moynihan > Mikey Day > Beck Bennett...I know Beck was the most accurate with the voice but other than that his impression was pretty forgettable). I also liked the sight gag of Cecily Pirro shotgunning wine and SNL showing enough restraint to channel their (hopefully non-Update) commentary on "the slap" through JAJs' Trump badly describing the plot to "Hitch". I also like how they turned his Trump into a blatant self-incriminator. It shows they're trying out different things with JAJ as Trump than just having him blast through rundowns and wordles. Kenan as Clarence Thomas didn’t do much for me but Kate's Ginni and her whole "biblical vengance/release the Kraken" speech. Also, Alexs' Steve Doocy has improved but Heidi just seemed to be playing herself. Overall, a pleasant down-the-road-less-traveled surprise of a cold open. B-
Monologue - Well, I certainly respect Mr. Carmichaels' approach to tiptoeing around the topic everyone wants to address so vaguely one could argue that he didn't even address it at all (and knowing what Lorne has been like for years, I totally buy that he would tell Jerrod to "heal the nation" by talking about it). He should be glad to know he is FAR from the least famous SNL host of all time. That honor goes to Miskell Spillman. Hell, Jerrod Carmichael doesn’t even crack the bottom ten on the "all time least famous SNL hosts list". B-
Is My Brain Okay? - Well, Sarah, Chris and Bowen made this for me but I couldn't get past that nagging feeling in the back of my head that Twitter is going to pick this sketch apart for unfairly making fun of those with long haul Covid symptoms without knowing or really caring who at the show has them. I've already seen some people saying that this felt like a sketch from last season but if thst were the case, Kate would jusy be playing herself and waiting for the very end of the sketch to reveal it. C+
Short Ass Movie - This had its' moments and the premise didn’t feel too banal or derivative to make it on air. Say what you will about Gunna, but he was surprisingly decent here (but then again even an overrated professional rapper would probably bring a little more to a rap video than Pete and Chris would). I wasn't sure how to feel about the Simon Rex cameo (mostly due to me barely knowing who Simon Rex even is) but I loved how the entire reason for his cameo seemed to be to take advantage of his facial resemblance to the late Jim Varney. I also appreciated Pete mumbling his weak defense of "King Of Staten Islands'" length. Basically, my main takeaway from this piece was to start reccomending MST3K to people more since every episode of thst show is basically a 90 minute movie. Hell, even the ACTUAL MST3K movie is a mere 75 minutes (which is one of the reasons so many people say it is a good starting point for getting into tye show itself). B-
Rhylee Rainbowlocks - It was a bit of a long walk at first but I liked how such elaborate writerly details went into such a subtle reveal of something so casually raunchy. My only criticisms were that Cecily and Mikeys' characters seemed too similar to the "Right Side Of The Bed" hosts she played with Taran and it seemed like Jerrods' character could've been played by any host but other than that I had no real problems with this sketch. B+
Oscars - Well, I'm not crazy about the fact that they decided to devote a whole sketch to this but I will say it was well acted and written. Chris Redds' Will Smith works well enough for a sketch where the main focus is him trying to carry on a casual conversation with now-former fans of his who are unfortunately meeting him for the first time in *that* moment and Will being blissfully unaware that they've instantly lost all respect for him they once had. Kyle and Jerrod acted their parts well and it was a decent length for what it was. Some might say Jay Pharroh did a better Will Smith impressions but only Chris Redd could've sold Smiths' apparent obliviousness in the moment. C+
Update was...something. As expected, Che way outclassed Jost with the "slap" material (but I did like Josts comment on the academy supposedly asking Rock if they should remove Smith or not). Other than the Black Bear/Madea sex voice/Mtn Dew Breast Milk jokes and Che's subtle plug for the second season of his HBO Max sketch show, not much else stood out to me. I never thought I'd have an actual favorite out of all the dim blonde Republican women Cecily spouts pure Fox News word salad as, but her Marsha Blackburn comes close. I wanted to like Kenans' O.J. commentary just for his performance but I definitely feel like OJ even offering his take in real life it was too close to parody itself (and too many people have pointed that out already) for me to really get into it. Hey, at least by random chance I picked the right option in the SNL Standby Line "guess the update commentaries" twitter poll (well, I picked Kenan deliberately just because I had a gut feeling he could be the only one to deliver their commentary on "the slap"). B-
Funeral At Sea - I'm glad that Dismukes is getting more time and I especially liked that they gave JAJ an opportunity to act in a non-impression role in a momemt of pure chaos. Heidi and Kyle were great in supporting roles. Other than that, they should’ve aimed a little shorter if they were aiming for a short sketch. I don't think that the parts with the urn and Dismukes kidnapping that random biker were necessary. Plus, this is the second sketch of the night where I got an "interchangable host" vibe from Jerrod Carmichael. C+
French Waiter Story - I wanted to like this a lot more just for Kyle's performance but it felt too much like Nassim Pedrads' "Tibby" character from season 38 and Kyle's "cut to" musical short from last season for me to get into it. Plus, even though it had a silly enough ending for me it felt like "socially awkward character needlessly/incredulously interrupts a mundane story from someone they just met to the point where they don't even register that the story has ended" is a trope I've seen a few too many times on SNL. Plus, I feel kinda bad that this was Ego's first appearance of the night. C-
Born This Way Onesies - Wow, I don't really know what to make of this one. I mean, the only joke I even remotely liked was "Alexander Hamilton was a TERF" just for the sheer outlandishness of it but other than that, it seemed so jumbled, confused and on the verge of just punching down I'd have a hard time believing Che didn't write this. D+
Now, for my updated rankings of the season so far...
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. John Mulaney/LCD Soundsystem (2.26.2022)
6. Oscar Issac/Charli XCX (3.5.2022)
7. Jerrod Carmichael/Gunna (4.2.2022)
8. Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía (3.12.2022)
9 Paul Rudd/Charli XCX (12.18.2021)
10. Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift (11.13.2021)
11. Rami Malek/Young Thug (10.17.2021)
12. Willem Dafoe/Katy Perry (1.29.2022)
13. Will Forte/Måneskin (1.22.2022)
14. Ariana DeBose/Roddy RichBleachers (1.15.2022)
15. Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves (10.2.2021)
16. Kim Kardashian-West/Halsey (10.9.2021)
Well, that was that. Next week, Jake Gyllenhaal returns for his second time hosting with Camilla Cabello as his musical guest in what has to be both the most ill-advised AND ill-timed host/MG booking in SNL history. I mean, I hope they can either figure out a way to make Gyllenhaal feel like as much of a low-impact host as Carmichael was or just do what they did in '07 and just use him like Dick Ebersol used his hosts in the early '80s (barely...and hopefully only in sketches with JAJ/Squirm/Aristotle where he can give them a boost) because with certain other more *recent* revelations that have come out about him, I don't really want to see that much of Jake Gyllenhaal right now. Basically, Gyllenhaal might be the third worst host SNL could've booked right now after Jared Leto and Kanye (the latter of whom I only compare to because they both breifly convinced 16yo Casey back in 2007 to admit to himself "OK, these famous guys who I don't think all that much of do have a sense of humor about themselves and can be funny sketch performers, so...maybe they've earned a little bit of respect from me" but then both guys would quickly undo most of the goodwill they've earned from me and the general public at large who aren't their most devoted fans over the next 15yrs as we learn more about them and the messed up stuff they've done/would do (particularly to a certain other performer who's been in this show six months that I've semi-shamelessly yet still ever-so-subtly dropped blink-and-you-might-miss-it type hints that I am a genuine fan of...and yeah, that reminds me...I'm sure Tay-Tay and Baby C's friendship is going to be a bit strained for a while). Seriously though, some may say Gyllenhaals' not quite as bad a person as Kanye (I may not be willing to go that far myself but YMMV) but it's still a case of "I know too much about this guy to fully be into seeing them give it their all in an SNL sketch in 2022". See you then.
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