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!