Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

Okay, here's my review. For once, SNLs' crazy wild gamble of booking an actual comedian to host their sketch comedy show paid off and got this season on the right track. Nate Bargatze was a terrific host and a fine first time sketch performer. The show knew how to play to his comic voice well. Naturally, this turned out to be the strongest episode of the season up to this point. It was WAY more stable of a show than last weeks (outside of maybe three or four questionable sketches at most but the highs were so.mich higher that the lows were barely noticeable we'll get to that later). Sarah had a surprisingly strong night, but not in the way that I had hoped given that this was a legit Halloween show in a couple of ways (one of which she was directly involved in). A couple of other people faced a steep decline in screen time (and come to think of it Kenan had a surprisingly light night) but we'll get to them later. Anyway, let’s get right to it.

Bidens' Boo Back Boo-er - Okay, we got a LOT to unpack here! My immediate first thought when this started was "Hmm, ok...nice to see them using JAJs' Biden once again instead of his Tr....MIKEY DAAAAAAAYYY? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?" Well, this impression works for me. It may seem like Mikey doing a cheap impression of Carveys' Biden but at least Mikey does facially resemble Biden much more than JAJ ever did and he certainly seems to be having more fun with the material (especially the prerequisite "lol Biden is very old" jokes). From his "cancel culture" for preschoolers" Update commentary with Heidi a few years back, I could tell both Heidi and Mikey had slightly conservative bents to their styles of comedy that they could at least keep hidden from overtly political sketches and just sneak into a bit character part in the middle of the show and in ten to one sketches and stuff like that without it coming off as too off-putting to the audience. They could play seemingly right leaning characters that could be the butt of the joke without coming across like they're pushing some kind of uncomfortable agenda on you. It actually serves to make Mikeys' Biden characterization feel that much more focused and you can tell he relishes in it. I can't imagine JAJ is taking this too hard as I imagine they must be trying out a different Biden just in case the 2024 debates do turn out to be a Biden/Trump rematch and they've already decided they don't want to rely on any Carvey circa 1992 style pretapes. In fact, this cold open might be the biggest, longest mislead in recent SNL history. We didn’t get a Chevy style fall when Mikey was on the ladder and instead of a walk-on from JAJs Trump, we got walk-ons from...Longfellow and Devon as both Mike Johnstons (who provided my biggest laughs in this) and...Walken! (heyooo). Even if he didn’t get any hard laugh lines, Christopher Walken is always a welcome presence on SNL (and no need to wonder why he isn't hosting as his face says it all. Speaking of "saying it all", I can't believe it took until the first Foo Fighters song to realize the REAL reason he was in the building. Shows what kind of an SNL nerd I REALLY am, huh?). B-

Monologue - Having heard great things about Bargatze but not bring familiar with his material, he seems like a friendly fellow who just doesn't have the most captivating stage presence in the world of standup comedy. I liked his ability to do "well, I'm not THAT old but I'm mow just getting old enough that I find it difficult to relate to some things about the modern world" jokes without going full on "old man yells at cloud" and just moving on. Speaking of, he may not exactly be the "segue king" but he has this ability to transition between various topics like state fair animal stunts stealing focus from his magician father to his parents family destroying nasal spray addictions to just general challenges with reading the sheer volume of words one finds in a book just by riffing on the sheer absurdity of these things and the bewilderment they induce in him. This allows him to move through his jokes so seamlessly that his entire act runs together (for better or worse). It's definitely a monologue that will take you at least a second watch to fully appreciate. B-

Chef Showdown - I liked the writerly premise and detail heavy nature of this. On paper, it seemed like tired, thin racial humor but it was expertly cast and performed and had enough different elements to keep it from just being each character hammering home the same sense of befuddlement for four straight minutes. Nate said upfront that he is vaguely southern so I wonder if he at least pitched this himself on Monday? The Padma Lakshmi cameo didn’t do a whole lot for me, but she was a good sport at least. C+

Hallmark Horror Movie - This premise seemed like it was going to be interesting at first but it quickly became obvious that they didn't go far enough with it. It was well performed (Chloe & Nate were the ideal comedic actors to parody the bland white emptiness of Hallmark productions) but the only laughs I got were from Punkies' lines and the severed hand gag. C+

Washingtons' Weights And Measurements - This was definitely the weakest sketch of the night (and possibly the whole season at this point). I'm sorry, but this one almost lost me from the first minute. This might have worked better with a different host who is more experienced with acting to lend some faux-gravitas to the role of George Washington. This seemed like it would’ve been better performed as one of Nates' forgotten standup bits (just typing that sentence out just gave me flashbacks to Andy & Timmy deconstructing that Bob Saget track coach sketch. Sorry Andy, but I disagree on your extremely hot take that this is a "boom stamp classic" as you like to call it). Still, there were some small details that I liked. The sports stuff was okay. Also, as a Coloradan, I do unironically agree with the line about 5280 being an "easy number to remember" as the number of feet in a mile. You see, Denver is known as the "mile high city" given that it's elevation above sea level is exactly one mile. If you've ever lived here or just visited recently, you might be surprised at the number of Denver based local businesses with some variation of the number 5280 in the title. I mean, it's the name of a local magazine for cryin' out loud. Kenan, obviously, had the best lines in this at the end so in a way, I'm glad I hung on. Also, it's nice to see JAJ actually have a love role in a sketch after being conspicuously absent from the cold open. Guess he didn't have to go home sick tonight or anything. D+

Down On The Lake Beach - This might have been my favorite pretape (if not my favorite piece overall) of the night. It was more classic Dismukes/JAJ down home southern fried cartoon level absurdity that made hay out of one of the most obnoxiously overdone tropes of modern "bro-country" music. They even made excellent use of a Dave Grohl cameo (who wore a wig that made me think he was Danny McBride at first). The only thing bad I can say about it was that it happened to be Molly and Marcellos' only appearances of the night (but Marcello had such a much needed on his part strong start to the season so he deserves to take a bit of a breather this week). A-

Happy Fran-o-ween - Well, I'm glad we got a Sarah led Halloween sketch but if you told me before the show that we'd get just that alone, this would NOT have been what I'd have had in mind (but hey, it's still Sarah Sherman so I'll still I'll it). Of course, Sarah did a fine enough job intentionally doing a Fran Drescher accent. I mean, she always seems to be doing a Fran Drescher impression at varying levels even when she's not trying. She just has to dial back the "Sarah-ness" to get into character. (I mean that literally, as I keep picturing a wardrobe person or stagehand flipping a giant switch on Sarahs back from "Sarah" to "Fran" backstage). It did a decent, if not maybe a little incomplete job of actually explaining those strange Halloween costume rules surrounding the SAG-AFTRA strike (that may have been rolled back earlier in the week thus possibly renderingthis sketch utterly pointless). It felt a little too long and seemingly managed to discover a new form of clapter (probably in a misguided attempt to unmuddle this sketch for anyone who they think could criticize it as being anti-union when everyone on the show is part of a union...even the cast is part of a different SAG-AFTRA contract thatcis not being renegotiated or struck agsinst) but given the context of the sketch, that is to be expected. Sarah's constant costume related jabs to Nate and her "exhausting" lone were all right. The child actors did a fine job here (especially the kid dressed as Hoda). C-

Update was a step up for this season. The highs were higher (Josts' Mike Johnson/Cohen/Pence/Hitler kiss cam comments, Ches' Trump/Biden/Kill Me and Charles/Megan and white strip club jokes) and the lows were...just there. They were more like mediums. Glad to see that "Sarah as Josts' agent" that was cut from last week make it to air. Yeah, it was another Jost roast and yeah it was another Sarah drag role but this was at least toned down quite a bit from her pervy boss in the Quinta Brunson episode and at least this was a newer fresher framework that allowed Sarah to go harder in the paint here (even if it felt a bit long and after hearing about that Punkie ghost story commentary that got cut, this might have been a better choice). Her Thomas the Tank Engine line got a laugh out of me. B-

Lawyer On A Plane - This was decent. I liked all the additions to it. Dismukes did a solid job anchoring this. Even Chloe Troast added something to it. Boy, her actual resemblance to Cecily was out in full force in this one. Dismukes & Mikey had great lines and this was my second favorite Dave Grohl sketch cameo of the night. B-

PDD: Dawg Food - After a strong start to the season, this was a rare miss for Please Don't Destroy. It seemed to rely mainly on quick cuts and sharp pacing in favor of any escalation whatsoever. At least it was fairly short and the "R.I.P. John Higgins" ending was the highlight. D+

Now, for my updated ranking of season 49...

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
3. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, this season of SNL has finally found its footing. In two weeks, Timothee Chalamet returns for his second hosting gig. Man, they really must've been counting on the SAG-AFTRA strike to be settled by that point, huh? Seriously though, I'm looking forward to seeing Chalamet again. He was a solid professional host and his episode was one of the genuine bright spots in the troubled, difficult 2020-21 season. See you then!

Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

Okay, here's my review. To start off, this episode truly felt the most "different" from a lot of recent SNL as circumstances this week (not just the ones that may have been induced by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike) essentially forced them to take some more risks and try different things. Some risks paid off, some risks didn’t but it felt like the show truly found a way to work with the host rather than around him. As a host, Bad Bunny didn't seem like he was difficult to work with. He seemed like he got along with everybody on a personal level. Still, there was a very noticable language barrier present but the upside is that this forced the writers to dig a bit deeper and come up with some fresher sketch premises and sharper writing (or at least bring back a couple of things that worked well last season to fill in the gaps). A lot of the humor in this episode came from the host's culture so it relied a bit less on dialogue and more on some slightly broad visuals but thankfully this staff was more than adept at making sure nothing got completely lost in translation. With this episode, it felt like they actually successfully pulled off what they were trying to do with Megan Thee Stallions' episode from last year. This is probably because Bad Bunny seems to have a more easily accessible brand/image than MTS did. Plus, the show has people on staff that better understand his cultural heritage, what his audience would want to see, and how to better play that to viewers outside of the host's audience. Also, as long as I am making previous host comparisons' Bad Bunny as a host felt like an exact cross between Regé-Jean Page (an non-white male host from another country with an audience of thakfully less distractingly shreiky fans lends his talents to a number of sketches revolving around his sex appeal to women) and Nick Jonas (a previous male musical guest who is used to making the odd sketch cameo now and then is billed as host but somehow still manages to make so little impact that it truly feels like a hostless episode punctuated with musical guest cameos) with a little dash of Jackie Chan thrown in for good measure (do I really need to explain that one to you?) With all that being said, this was definitely a better episode than last week. After a season premiere that was as rote and by the numbers as ever culturally (as SNL season premieres often tend to be) it's nice to see an episode that may have started off a bit rocky but thought outside of the box enough to be as rewarding as it could the more it went on. There were a lot of cameos this week but fortunately they came off less distracting than they were necessary in a way that made some sense once they sunk in. Thankfully, no cast members got completely shut out. Marcello may have had the strongest night of them all with Devon, JAJ and most of the women (especially Troast) coming in second. However, Longfellow, Dismukes and Squirm saw a noticable drop this week. Anyway, let's break this down further.

Jim Jordan And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Vote For House Speaker - I guess the main difference between this and literally any randomly selected season 42 cold open is that the Trump impersonation is weirdly the STRONGEST thing it has going for it? It was a safe choice for a political cold open right now, at least. Perhaps it was a little TOO safe and expected, but that's not the main thing I'm holding against this sketch. What I AM holding against this sketch were the choice to center it around Mikey as Jim Jordan (him breaking the phone was basically my reaction to the whole "oh, so I see we're going back to just opening the show with a completely unearned applause break again? Fine, whatever" thing) and the Santos jokes that were low hanging fruit (no pun intended). As a Coloradan, I appreciated the idea of taking jabs at Lauren Bobert again until I saw they were just going for more tired ass theater groping jokes. C-

Monologue - It's nice to see Bad Bunny address the possible language barrier right off the bat. I wasn’t expecting him to make that the ENTIRE monologue, though... but at least he bought Pedro Pascal out on stage for a bit. Sadly, that didn’t quite solve this monologues' pacing issues. I liked the nice meta moment where Pedro deconstructed modern-day SNL monologue tropes. Unfortunately, that didn’t distract me from the fact that Bad Bunny seemingly forgot how to not come off too cocky by that point. Oh well, at least HE did a decent job of hiding any visible nervousness in this, and he expressed some sincere appreciation for the show and eagerness to host. C-

Rap Battle - Wow, nice to see Benito stretch as an actor and break out of his comfort zone right out of the gate. This sketch just left me wondering if it was Mikey and Streeter Seidell who wrote those WWE promo sketches from the last two Dwayne Johnson episodes (or if not, did whoever actually write this sketch happen to watch Scary Movie 3 recently?) At least it was short and had an unexpectedly heartwarming ending. I admit that the lines about Mikeys' character having four testicles got me. Also, it just dawned on me that they had a rapper play a fictional rapper in a sketch and didn’t have the actual rapper rap once. Both this and the lack of a Kendall Jenner cameo (hell, they even inexplicably got Lady Gaga to introduce his first musical performance instead of her for some reason) just goes to show you that this show will somehow find a way to consistently subvert even the most base level expectations you could make based on even the smallest bit of information you gleam from any host. You gotta love SNL for that! C+

Age Of Discovery - Well, doing a sketch entirely in subtitled Spanish may have been a risk, but it was certainly worth the risk. Normally, I run a bit cold on Fred Armisen cameos, but he worked just fine for me here. This did remind me of a sketch he led about ancient Mayans discovering chocolate for the first time from the 2006 Matthew Fox episode for whatever that was worth (and a certain early Monty Python sketch when the llama was bought out). This sketch felt a little unfocused at first and a little derivative near the end, but it all came together, and again, it was the most "different" thing the show has tried in recent memory. It is definitely the type of thing that grows on you more upon a rewatch or two. C+

Telenovela Shoot - Wow, so pretty much all of the live sketches in this episode were designed to give our host as little English dialogue as possible, huh? I mean, aside from pacing issues this caused here, in the monologue and in one other cameo laden sketch later on, I don't really have a problem with that. I guess I should've expected this to be a strong night for Marcello. He does naturally play off Bad Bunny well. I wasn't expecting Bowen to turn in a heavily padded performance reminiscent of Scott Thompson in the Kids In The Halls' "Shitty Soup" sketch. I certainly wasn’t expecting Punkie to pretty much steal this sketch, but hey, I'll take it! I'm really starting to notice how much Punkie can really add to a sketch she's in given the chance. I most definitely wasn’t expecting a random ass Mick Jagger cameo where he shows us he can handle dialogue in Spanish just as well as Marcello and Bad Bunny but I can appreciate that and wonder why (beyond just old age and other commitments of the week) he could've been as big a part of this episode as he was the season 37 finale. B-

PDD: Shrek Screenplay - Ok, suddenly the best sketch of the night and the thing that gets me fully on board with this episode is Ben, Martin and Johns' sheer bewilderment trying to figure out why Bad Bunny just wandered into their office unannounced in a full on Shrek costume? And he makes them read a whole ass screenplay he barely has any faith in? And these moments are punctuated with some of the cheapest Rapsittie ass CGI ever? Goddammit, PDD. Don't ever stop being you! B+

Update was a bit strange tonight. It was so short all I can really say about it was that Che had the only jokes that landed with me (Desantis, Coney-Barett/Thomas, WNBA, alcoholism) and Egos' Jada Pinkett Smith commentary (questionable wig and topicality issues aside) was the real highlight for me. I especially liked the "brutiful/Tupinkett/publicly cucking/never go to bed happy" lines. This is the type of more focused, pointed character work I'd like to see more of from Ego on the show. C+

Protective Mom (Now With Aunt!) - With Pedro being in the building along with this basically being a bilingual episode and Marcello being used to pick up the slack a bit this week, I should've expected a reprise of this sketch tonight. I'm glad that we got to see this again because it was one of the true highlights of Pedro's episode back in February. This sketch still has sharp writing and should probably have been placed earlier in the show. The fact that the wordless scene where Pedro casually dumps Chloes' cookies in the trash and then filled the empty tin with her sewing thread was met with more roaring applause than laughter from the audience (mostly the same screaming Bad Bunny fans from the monologue) really signaled that the entire show was playing to a very different audience than usual (and succeeding largely by playing on the charisma of it's guest performers who know THEIR audience and how to play this type of material to their own culture very well). That seemed like a joke pulled from a Black Jeopardy sketch but played out visually for a different audience).The ending was very sweet and the entire Spanglish conversation between Pedro, Marcello and Benito that kicked off with the "septum piercing" joke was funny to me. Plus, it's nice to see that by her second episode Ms. Troast can easily ingratiate herself with this cast. Anyone else get strong Arden Myrin vibes from her in that blonde wig? B+

The Right Track - Speaking if things SNL did earlier this year with hispanic hosts, I was glad to see this pretape template from Jenna Ortegas' episode return. Unfortunately, I have to say I still liked the Waffle House version of this better. Sadly, the craziness happening on the subway didn't quite steal focus from the solid dramatic acting chops that Devon and JAJ were showing (again, talk about ingratiating yourself into thr cast, huh?) Plus, that CGI rat was distractingly bad. C+

Sisters - Wow, either Kearney and Fineman are the only ones who DON'T secretly have the hots for Bad Bunny & Mick Jagger or they just dusted off and resubmitted an old script from either Regé-Jean Pages' episode (or pretty much any episode from season 24?) Either way, I'm glad to see that SNL in season 49 has a strong enough female cast to be able to fully put over such a threadbare premise. I also liked seeing that Punkie, Ego and (especially) Sarah have now gained this Chris Redd like ability to steal a whole sketch with a single line delivery (but Sarah only do this in the horniest of sketches for some reason. Wait, did she cowrite this with PDD and Ke$ha?). B-

Burts' Bees - This may have been the most ten-to-one ass ten-to-one sketch the show has done in quite a while, but it really started to pick up for me once Ego just sassed Mikey about his six year old daughter out of nowhere. That's literally all I have to say about it. C-

Now, for my first official best-to-worst ranking of season 49...

1. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
2. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was a mostly successful experiment. Next week, stand up comic Nate Bargatze makes his hosting debut. I'm not too terribly familiar with Nates' act, but I've seen bits and pieces before and I know he's friends with Fallon so he has connections to the show there. I also heard he has a rather PG-13 Jim Gaffigan-like, "safe for the whole family" style act (which must be true since I can't immediately recall any jokes of his I have heard). Still, I like thst their going for another comedian host with little exposure. I do hope the SAG strike gets resolved but until then I'll enjoy seeing SNL having to make itself take risks and make more different out-of-the-box type hosting choices. It was nice to get an episode like this but it'll still be nicer to see another traditionally comedic host help the show find it's footing again this season (and this episode may now be the best of the season by default but hopefully if the rest of the season goes right, it will be somewhere in the lower middle of my rankings). See you then!

Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't seen it, here is my latest appearance on the Saturday Night Network Patron Podcast as part of their ongoing countdown of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. I'm particularly proud of this one and I really feel that it's my best podcast appearance yet. You might be surprised by some of the names we discuss in depth here!

Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Okay, here's my review. All things considered, my expectations for this episode were at the floor. It was a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike that ended a mere three weeks earlier so I knew they'd have a few more weeks of cobwebs to shake off than they normally would around this time. Plus, there was some dire geopolitical news for the show to have to navigate. Oddly enough, Pete as a host was the strongest part of the show. He really gave it his all performance wise and didn’t do all the things we expected him to based on his previous eight year stint in the cast. Maybe we all just underestimated Pete or maybe we all just forgot about tye possibility that Pete could be a great guy to actually work with behind the scenes. We all know Pete has a deep heartfelt connection to this show and the people he worked with here and it really did come through on his part. It's clear that Pete actually did want to come back and host this season and from this episode one can see how he has a comittment and a strong enough presence to put the show over when it needs a little extra help this week of all weeks. Thankfully, this season's premiere only seemed to be dealing with external baggage rather than the internal baggage they were all too willing to put on full display around this time last year. I know I joked just before the strike started that this episode should have the words "TOO SOON" stamped all over it in big red letters but instead it seemed to have the words "COMFORT FOOD" and "SWEATILY ASSEMBLED DESPERATE ESCAPISM" stamped all over it in big red letters. Thankfully, none of the cast got completely shut out of the show and nobody new got Luke Null'ed off screen. Also, goid to see PDD get the Robert Smigel TV Funhouse treatment in the opening credits. I suppose if they were never going to be added to the cast, this would be the next best thing. Anyway, let's break this down, shall we?

Cold Open - Well, up until this week, this was not the cold open I expected this episode to have (especially for a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike no less) but this was a very important, urgent issue weighing on everyone's minds and at least it was done in an appropriate and respectful manner. Also, Pete's known for making comedic hay out of his personal life but this may be the first time he's made a truly meaningful personal connection to the audience using the event that impacted his young life the most at a time that truly called for it. We all know they like to open with the hard news these days and when the hard news is dominated by tragedy, they gotta do what they gotta do. I appreciated that they weren't too concerned with taking a side or a hard stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict and that this was done in the same vein as what Cecily did mid-season 41 and what Lorne (and only Lorne) did to open season 27. 

Monologue - After all the tabloid drama Pete has been through in nearly a damn decade, it's nice to see Pete can deliver a classic hand mic standup monologue in such a way that he could almost make you forget he was ever even on this show before (or even if you're just tuning into SNL tonight after somehow having been made aware of the shows' existence for tte first time in your life last week you could be watching this monologue and think to yourself "Wowa Who's THIS kid? He's really gonna go places someday!") All he needed to do to bring up the energy level after that cold open was to emphatically scream the word "incest" at us during a bit about Game Of Thrones. I also liked the football coach jokes and even the obligatory Staten Island self-flaggelation took an unexpectedly dark and personal turn that worked for me, too. It was a great upending of the shows' expected format to do this as a monologue instead of having him do it as an Update piece straight into the camera. The last thing the show would want to do right now is call attention to the fact that this is one of only two rare times I can think of when a cast member is hosting the show with the same Weekend Update anchors as they had when they left. A-

NFL on FOX - Uh oh, just from the on set bumper I accurately smelled a Swift sketch! I guess since we didn't get one of those "political checklist" cold opens tonight that leaves them room to apply that approach to pop culture try and spread that exact same energy through at least the middle third of the show (either that or this WAS originally this week's cold open before they decided on Thursday or Friday that a different approach was necessary). Well, at least this one was actually well written and should convince the Swifties out there that at least some of SNLs writers are on their side. Having seen Mikey show off his friendship bracelet (confirming his Swiftie status) I'm guessing he had a hand in writing this? Anyone else get any flashbacks to the Jeremy Lin cold open from Maya Rudolphs' season 37 episode? Petes' role as the sideline reporter was the comedic high point of this for me. He definitely gave me the most laughs. The Travis Kelce cameo seemed a little gratuitous and tacked on but I will hand it to them that it tracks with his numerous public statements on not wanting his new love life to be the focus over his performance on the field. In fact, Travis (whom I had absolutely zero expectations of seeing on thr show at all during the regular football season) seemed so rushed and tacked on to the end of this that I have zero trouble believing that neither he nor Taylor were present at dress rehearsal. What I am having some trouble believing is that neither of them had anything better to do together tonight (heyooooooo!). B- 

Seriously though, while I do genuinely LIKE seeing Taylor on the show (or anywhere for that matter) and I know she lives in New York and all but having her come on JUST to introduce the SECOND Ice Spice performance (and I know they're supposedly great friends and all and Ms. Swift is nothing if not extremely supportive of her friends) may have been the most baffling way they used a "big get" cameo in recent memory. At first, I thought she may have backed out of a planned sketch cameo between dress and air but now I'm starting to think the show wanted to have her on but were afraid of a massive applause break throwing off the whole shows timing causing sketches to be cut or drastically edited.

He's Just Pete - You know, I honestly still haven seen Barbie but thankfully I've read enough about Ryan Gosling having done songs for the movie that this monologue didn’t quite go over my head. Still, I would say this was preferable to another Yo! Pete Raps ditty or a sequel to Three Sad Virgins with Ice Spice. My only real complaint us that I thought the black hoodie/BDE dance number could've been edited out (along with maybe the crash at the end and the brief Ye memlntion but screw it they way they pulled that off made me giggle). I did like the acknowledgement up top from Punkie and Dismukes of the questionable nature of Pete hosting...really at all as well as the magazine shot of Pete dating Lois Griffin and Devon as "Black Pete". It was a great change up from people's pre-concieved notions of what this particular show was gonna be that we got this instead of another "Chad" pretape, that's for damn sure. B+

Wired Autocomplete Interview - Um, did someone resubmit a sketch that got cut from the table read for Jonah Hills' 2018 episode? No? Wait, what's that? This sketch was based on a recent real life incident? Well, Ok, then. I've never seen a sketch before that I could describe as "SNL parodies a type of viral YouTube video that Casey has never seen beyond the thumbnail" but they pulled it off expertly! I did like how this quickly escalated to light absurdity and then ended it at the exact right moment. C+

Trudy - Well, I felt like this didn't really go anywhere but I liked it a bit more than I liked a lot of Heidi-centric sketches from previous seasons even if it didn't seem to go anywhere interesting besides just having a random burst of Farleyesque physical shtick out of nowhere. C-

PDD: Princes Of Comedy - This might have been my favorite piece of the night. I loved how the child actors playing Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall, J.D. Higgins and Big Mart-Mart Herlihy really sold the hell out of 90s/00s Def Jam comedy that (even by its own admission) does NOT hold up. I even appreciated Pete referring to Ben as "Ice Spice" and the self deprecating cameo from a shockingly but like not THAT shockingly aged looking these days John Mulaney (possibly included here as a nod to his Home Alone 2 bit from "New In Town?"). I also loved Big Mart-Mart roasting that white preppy dude in the audience who was the only one laughing at Mulaneys' quicksand bit. I especially loved that frank and lively Lunchables joke that almost sounded like it could've only aired once before bring replaced in all reruns by a grim, seeious Jim Downey voicover telling us how this nearly cost them all their jobs. My only complaint is that the but where Ches' grandma wanted to meet Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall felt super telegraphed to me. A-

Update started out a bit rough but picked up some stream quickly enough. The only joke from the first run I liked was the Bob Menendez one just for its sheer strangeness. Sorry, Colin, but "peoole be postin' some weird ass takes on Israel/Palestine" is not a particularly fresh or unique observation. Bowens' Christopher Columbus commentary may have been the most bland and uninspired  thing I've seen from him in a long time. It's like he just put his George Santos and Jafar from Aladdin commentaries in a blender. It's something I might have preferred to see delivered by Michael Longfellow, but even that might not have put it over for me. Thankfully, there was just enough to this to keep me from tuning out completely like I did with Jafar. Ches' subtle reaction to being forced to read that line about Boygenius off the cue card was pretty funny too. Fortunately, they saved this Update after that with that run of Russel Brand/Ebony Alert/New Jersey/Spirit Airlines jokes even if those were followed by some noble (and maybe one less than noble) failures. Thankfully, they ended on a high note with Kenans' Neon Deon commentary. It may have been a little repetitive, but it I appreciated it as a Coloradan who went to CU Boulder nearly a decade ago and as enough of an SNL nerd to appreciate a deep cut shout out to perhaps the most harmlessly ridiculous moment from Deons disastrous season 20 episode. C+

Space 2044 - Immediately, I got bad flashbacks to that other spaceship sketch from the season 33 Bon Jovi episode where Kristen Wiig couldn't find her purse Thankfully, I was able to convince myself to give this a fair chance and I ended up only disliking this slightly less than some other recent Bowen-centric sketches in recent memory. I do like how glammed up Heidi was even if it seemed like a season 20 level near waste of money and resources on something that barely worked for a cast member who had minimal lines and wasn't even the main focus of the sketch. C+

Grandmas' Bean Farm - Even if it's this late in the episode, it's nice of them to give us a low-key "more 'funny strange' than 'funny ha-ha'" sketch centered around an Andrew Dismukes character. I liked how this seemed to more successfully go for what Amy Schumer went for in that Matzo Ball soup sketch from her episode last season. Also, it was nice to finally see Squirm amd Troast pop up on screen. I was starting to get concerned for Ms. Troast as I realized mid-Update that we haven't seen her. B-

Glamgina - Good to see a sketch Squirm got to lead near the end of the show. I liked this just fine for it's scattershot nature (how they managed to shove every female cast member and Kenan in there so haphazardly was silly enough for me). Still, it felt a little unambitious by Squirm standards (especially with previous scatalogical/vaginal material I've seen her do on and off this show). C+

Roadhouse Bar - This started out promising enough, but it got a little too repetitive once Pete showed up and they started doubling down on the talk of selling feet/genitalia pics online. I'm still glad to see they're giving Dismukes two sketches per show. D+

Well, the 49th season of SNL has officially begun. Next week, one time musical guest Bad Bunny makes his double duty hosting debut. Now, this guy may be a more intriguing host than Pete because he's not a cast member who's coming back not so long after ending their eight year stint on the show. Granted, he has appeared on the show as a musical guest before and cameoed in a sea shanty sketch I barely remember but I do remember his cameo in Kenans' Big Papi Covid Cooking Show sketch from one of the season 45 At Home shows. He held his own pretty well there. I may have to rewatch those along with the Simpsons short he did for Disney+ before Saturday but my point is, Bad Bunny is a host I can go into the show with little to no expectations for. He'll likely be a decent host as long as they don't have to cater the whole show to him and his image or brand like they did with Megan Thee Stallion last year (and even her I've come around on since my main take away from that show was that she seemed to be more heavily promoting her own mental health foundation than just her music and she turned in a strong performance in that substitute teacher sketch). See you then!

Oh, and before I forget...my friend Jon Schneider of The Saturday Night Network has been doing a new Patron Podcast where he counts down their fan voted list of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. Be sure to catch the next installment of it because I will be on it. In fact, I was also a part of their countdown of the 20 greatest SNL impressions of all time earlier this summer but apparently I just plum forgot to promote that on any of my socials. In case you missed it, here it is.

Also, my friend and fellow reviewer Blood Meridian has just been upgraded his own site. I'd advise all of you reading this to check out his reviews here simply because I admire his dedication to his craft and vice versa. 

See you next week!