Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)

Okay, here's my review. After the confusing mess of last week where our expectations we based on an old returning hosts previous performances were decidedly not met, it was actually nice to see a bit of a change of course with a first time host we could easily temper our expectations for. Travis Kelce turned out to be a fun host who meshed well with the cast and writers. The show knew exactly what to do with him. The only real problem with this show was the cast imbalance as Dismukes and particularly Molly seemed to be shut out of the show completely (frankly, I'm starting to worry Molly especially since it will have almost been two whole months since they made an impact in any episode). Longfellow and Marcello only seemed to make one sketch appearance all night each but everyone else seemed to have a solid night. As expected, Heidi, Ego, Mikey and Bowen were standouts. Unexpectedly, Devon, Punkie, JAJ and Sarah had strong showings as well. Chloe and Kenan quietly faded into the background to provide scene support. Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

FOX & Friends - Well, this may be a more questionable cold open template than ever NOW (especially this particular week) but I do have to give them some credit for choosing an out-of-left-field topic for this week's cold open. Heidi had some funny lines with the subway/rats and wrong court case bits even if her delivery was a little over the top. I'll admit, the bit with the Laura Ingraham texts got me, too. Mike Lindell jokes may be beyond played out now, but it's more fun to watch JAJ put them over than anyone else. Speaking of played out, I also gotta give Kenan credit for a unique delivery of another solo LFNY. C+

Monologue - As someone who doesn't follow football too closely, Travis Kelce handled this monologue pretty much the exact way I was expecting him to given everything I've heard about him. Even in the face of what sounded like it could've been legitimate booing, he was charismatic, confident, and handled self deprication with ease. The "more...more...more" clips got me from the get go. I also liked the way they worked in the obligatory Jason Kelce cameo. I especially liked the shot of him laughing at Travis' joke about his old reality dating show not being on Peacock. B+

American Girl Cafe - I was expecting a prequel to Mikeys' American Girl sketch from the Saiorse Ronan/U2 episode from 2017 and what I got was the obligatory "huge, masculine guy in a dainty, feminized setting" sketch they seem to try to do some variation of with each athlete host. The fact that Travis' character was revealed to be more and more of a deranged, delusional creep throughout this really worked was nice but since this sketch had Mikey Days' fingerprints all over it, the fact that he was only onscreen for about the first third of it really worked in its favor and the ending with Devon as the security guard mistakenly shouting at Sarah really made it for me. C+

PDD: Self Defense - Ok, they had me right from the "little bitch boys" text from the interns with this one. You know, it's nice to see Please Don't Destroy take a break from the rapid fire quick cuts and give us something...linear with more of a straight throughline, something a little more static and grounded in just one outside setting. The fact that this was a lot darker and more violent than their previous shorts (with most of the violence being directed at them nonetheless...boy, they like to spoil their biggest online critics, don't they?) and that they threw that random old lady into the mix just to keep things from feeling too telegraphed) made this work for me. B+

Funeral At Miss Glendas' - Ego and Travis Kelce of all people keep the dark and weird vibes from PDD going with this. Great hydraulicized corpse work from Ego. She must have studied the old Merryville Brothers sketches for this one. The only bad thing I can really say about this was Devon, Punkie, and Sarah's timing seemed a little bit off (either that or one of them may have just skipped one of their lines entirely...and I'm not quite convinced that Punkie can be slotted into the Melissa Villaseñor role that easily...and it feels weird that Sarah would have such a peripheral role in a sketch that seemed to be so heavilywritten in her voice but none of these observations dragged the sketch down for me). B+

Straight Male Friend - It's nice to see something more quiet from Bowen that felt more from within his wheelhouse and felt more relatable to a wide swath of people. After seeing him play giant insects, inanimate objects and mythical demons its' nice to see Bowen take a break from carving out these odd niches for himself that don't quite work and start drawing his comedy from a more human place (and I mean that as LITERALLY as possible). One could make the argument that Travis' role could’ve been played by pretty much any straight male host but Travis Kelce was pretty much the ideal straight male host to execute this (I coukd also see this MAYBE working with Jack Harlow but a professional NFL player obviously fits the the role of "stereotypical central casting straight dude" more than a white rapper) so it was smart of Bowen to save this from him. B+

Tears Of An Ex-Girlfriend - Okay, the main conceit of this sketch seemed to have been given away right when Heidi got up since I could see the tube running up her dress, but this turned out...OK. This was a little less outlandish than what I was expecting (no sleeve vomiting, no floor peeing or...other bodily functions) but there wasn't a lot to dislike here. Good use of Jason here but the ending made me question (and thanks to Ellis Mitchell in the SNN Hot Take Show Livestream chat for answering this for me) whether Travis was also supposed to be fitted with some kind of hose that just so happened to be malfunctioning on a "Rookie Cop" level (he was not). C+

Update was another instance of the commentaries being more worth watching than the jokes. The only ones that stood out to me was Josts' TikTok ban/Alex Murdaugh/Jesus Lizard/James Bond jokes. Other than that, they tried to carry over the "joke swap vibes" from last week except instead of "who can tell the most outrageously offensive joke?" it became "who can make the other deliver the weakest punchline?" Michael Longfellow as a quietly deranged bizarro world Frank Grimes-like Dilbert made the whole show for me (anyone else get Rachel Dratch as Peppermint Patty vibes?). It was nice to see Mikey and Punkie just being their natural selves (hell, it's nice to just see Punkie on the show, period) and I liked how wildly Punkie defied my expectations. This is a pairing I would never expect on Update but given that Mikeys' been paired with Ego in sketches multiple times, has done two different 50 Shades Of Grey commentaries with Leslie in 2017 and, again, was on season one if Nick Cannons' "Wild N' Out" I guess I should've remembered he does have a certain type of chemistry with black women. Nice to see more "Sarah News". Not crazy about her returning to mostly Jost roasts, but at least she went harder on them and everything else in general she did tonight. My only complaint was that the cake was just a normal cake with nothing disgusting about it. B-

Parent's Song - It's nice to see this finally make air after being cut from the Pedro Pascal episode but I guess reading that detailed Reddit description kinda dampened my expectations for this sketch since I knew pretty much how it was going to go down. For some reason, I wasn't expecting the musical numbers to feel as scaled back as they felt. Also, is it just me, or did it seem like this sketch was written solely around a Michael McDonald impression that JAJ was trying to get on air? C+

Garrett From Hinge - OK, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting to see a Heidi/Travis sketch begin like this for some reason but thankfully Bowen showed up playing a different, more grounded type of oddball I've been wanting to see him play. I got a kick out of the Stewie shirt, the inexplicabky green and glowing poison, and Travis repeating Bowens' "sucka at Buccacinnos (sp?)" line but not so much the breaking. Hey, maybe we should introduce Garrett from Hinge to...Lisa From Temecula? Something tells me they'd make a perfect pair! B+

Too Hot To Handle - Ok, this sketch went right over my head. It seemed like another one of those sketches written specifically for people who have watched the specific show its' parodying with everybody doing a specific impression of someone from said show. This would explain why Chloe seemed to be doing a specific voice that ended up coming out as a hopefully unintentional Garth Algar impression. Maybe Travis Kelce and Chloe both watch this show and they bonded over it? That might explain where this sketch came from and why it's the only time all night Travis attempted any kind of accent? Either way, I am left with far more questions than answers here, so I'll just leave it at that. D+

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
6. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
7. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
8. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
9. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
10. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
11. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
12. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
13. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
14. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that was a nice course correction. Next week, Jenna Ortega makes her hosting debut. She's someone I've definitely heard about way more than I have actually seen act (haven't seen Wednesday yet or whatever Disney Channel show she happened to be on) but I'm excited for this one because she's sure to bring more youthful energy to the show (at a time when it is desperately needed) and I have a hunch we might just get another episode like Aubrey Plazas'. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer like I did for Ken George Jones, PLEASE let me know!)