Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

Okay, here's my review. This was a bad show, no doubt but it was just a little too inconsistent to be the absolute worst episode of the season compared to one show that was just consistently duller and one episode that I can now say I may have been a bit too hard on. Still, when a show is bad enough that I have seriously rearrange my rankings of the whole season (as you'll see), you know things are bad all around right now. Jacob Elordi manage to confirm me initial trepidations regarding him as a host. He seemed to get along with the cast just fine yet at the same time he seemed to have no real connection with the show until this week and seemed to see it as just a high profile sketch workshop that he could use to plug his new movie. He may be a fine character actor but he didn’t seem to be able to translate that into sketch comedy. His entire comedic range seemed to extend from "just there" to "quietly yet actively bringing down a sketch". At least this episode made decent if not ideal use of the cast (outside of Longfellow and Kenan, who both seemed to blend into the background more than usual and JAJ who barely got to do any character work this week). Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

Trump Defamation Trial Press Conference - Hmm, another safe pbvious choice for a cold open theme. At times, this felt a little too unfocused to take in all at once but JAJs' goofy delivery put this over for me as usual (though I guess that's usually the point with these JAJ Trump cold opens by now?) I did like the Ron DeStupid/Vivica A. Ramaswany/cognitive run-on sentence. Yeah, this seems topical enough that they must've felt like they HAD to tackle this month's Trump news in some way (while still having a bit of an unfortunate "been there, done that" vibe to it loke with the "weird stance" jokes) but hey, they're shaking off the cobwebs from another long holiday break and there have been much worse cold opens this season (hell, there have been worse cold opens involving JAJs' Trump than this one) so, hey..I'll take it. C+

Monologue - Just when this monologue starts to give me disappointing Nancy Kerrigan vibes, Rosebud Baker, Alex English and Queen Squirm come in to save this with some assists from Kenan & Bowen (and hopefully not as much of the "Applause" sign as I suspect). Thankfully, this quickly gave me flashbacks to the late 90s Ferrell & McKay era "questions from the audience" monologues when they cared enough to use writers who were then just unfamiliar enough to most of the home audience (your Pells, your Feys, your Higginses, even moving on to your Smooves & you Sudeikises once Fey became more prominent on the show...hell even Downey was in the one with Kelly Ripa, remember that?) to really SELL us on the illusion that ANY audience member could just stand up and interrupt the show willy nilly. As for Jacob himself, the Saltburn/Priscilla/Lilo & Stitch/Kissing Booth references gave off the same empty, autopilot checklist vibes that most of the top half of Pete Davidsons' episode this season gave off as well as every third cold open from seasons 43-46 gave off. The sincere statement at the end of his monologue was really the only part of HIS I liked, even if he gave next to zero indication he had even heard of the show before last month (since, y'know...he is Australian after all). B-

Crown Your Short King - My first impression of this sketch was that the joke must be that this is the absolute LAST sketch you would expect Jacob Elordi to appear in...until he actually DID and you realize that (even as shamelessly wedged in here and underwritten as this whole thing was) this sketch actually DID need him to help visually sell you on this entire premise while playing off some lame, tired dumb guy tropes (and maybe take some of the weight off of Mikey & Marcellos' shoulders and distract you from Molly sticking out like a sore thumb here). Even Ms. Fineman had very convincingly heartfelt dialogue here, which feels like something we haven't seen from her before. C+

Club Shay-Shay: Extended Katt Williams Interview - Ego didn’t disappoint here even if she didn't exactly disappear into the role of Katt Williams either. The idea of her as Katt Williams alone piqued my interest, but the sheer energy that an Ego/Devon pairing radiates alone was more than enough to engage me in this. Thankfully, Ego bought some CBB levels of absurdity here and lived up to my instant expectations. Still, I could've used a bit more here to keep me from wondering why this was as long as it was and whether or not this was considered "old news" by now. While I don't want to see Ego fall into the Kate/Aidy/Cecily trap of being forced to play too many male drag roles, this falls more in line of how I would like to see Ego used om the show when compared to Lisa From Temecula or that Jenna Ortega Excorcist sketch. B-

ET Interviews Lip Readers - It's odd but not surprising that they put both vaguely of the moment pop culture referencing sketches up top back to back like this because this was drastically weaker than what just aired before it. Seriously, this was a translucently paper thin premise that felt so drearily stretched thin that I swear it could've been a season 11 sketch. Yes, that's the actual vibe I got from this. I'm honestly shocked they couldn't come up with a better sketch to drag-and-drop the obligatory Renée "Mom: We Have Billie Eillish At Hone" Rapp into but hey...this felt right at home being aimed at the audience who tuned in just to see her, Jacob and Bowen! Good on the two guys for pulling their weight here but not even Jake pulling a "duh duh dumb guy" voice out of his pocket for Travis Kelce or Bowen suddenly singing a Streisand verse out of nowhere could get me. D+

Bowling Date Animations - I guess part of the reason the last two sketches at least felt so long was that could tell exactly where this was they needed the extra time to make sure half the cast could get into their bowling pin costumes in time (and half of THAT half of the cast were in the previous two sketches?) Anyway, although I knew exactly where this was going before the first ball was even rolled, I loved how labored and increasingly dramatic the punny reveals were here. The "gutter/9" ones really got me, and I liked the "foot on the line/have sex" twists, too. The "WGA" signs being in the background of the "strike" one felt a little too on the nose for me. Also, I feel kinda bad for him that this was Longfellows' first and seemingly only appearance all night. I'm glad to hear that this was one of the sketches that Stephen Castillo came back to (guest?) write. No wonder it was the only thing I genuinely laughed at all night. (Was this cut from a previous dress rehearsal? It felt oddly familiar to me? Seriously, was this a cut sketch from season 46 he resubmitted?) B+

Alaska Airlines - At first, this felt like it was going to be in the same vein as the Adidas/Kanye ad from last season (which I honestly had mixed feelings about) but this included just enough odd details to keep me from completely checking out, like the thicc safety brochure, inflatable slide and pilot on mushrooms. JAJ as Sully was a nice touch. The bolts joke reminded me of Norms "Disneyland/Extra-Terror-estrial" joke from one of his season 20 (IIRC?) Updates. B-

Update was almost entirely worth watching for the way they went as hard in the paint on Tim Scott, the Catholic Church and Nikki Haley for her "America was never a racist country" as they did. I did like Josts opening Trump Vs. Biden joke. I mean, I didn’t exactly LAUGH but I sadly identified with it (and with political election humor in 2024...hell, even going back as far as October 2016 if I'm bring real with y'all...that's as much as I can muster). I felt the same about his "50 y.o. net worth vs. 30 y.o. net worth" joke but for totally different reasons which I won't go into here. Anyway, as much as I appreciate seeing Punkie get airtime, her "flying defendant" commentary didn’t quite...land with me (pun unintended, but I'll stick with it just because it works). It's mostly that I didn't care much for the material (as much as she sold it) and partly because BOTH black women in the cast playing male drag roles felt like overkill. C+

Women Supporting Women - Well, at first I felt like I could've fully get on board with THIS being the obligatory "all the women in the cast get to drool over the conventionally attractive male host (and I do mean "all", Ms. Fineman...you already had your chance, please let your castmates have their moments)" sketch but thankfully this was saved for me by Ego, Molly, Squirm and Punkie (again, if I'm bein' real with y'all). Too bad Mikey almost ruined the whole sketch for me. C+

Acting Class - This truly felt like the least focused sketch of the night. The Day/Fineman "pimp vs ho" scene was funny enough but sadly that was the absolute peak here. Sorry, Bowen but Bobby Coultsman you are not. I'm glad that Rachel MacAdams was used in an actual sketch instead of just a musical guest introduction (even if her late entry into the scene, seemingly reading cue cards she just saw for the first time on air Stefon-style and delayed applause break once the notebook was mentioned kinda threw off the whole sketch), but sadly, this dragged to the exact point where she killed any momentum this sketch COULD’VE built up. Once Jacob showed up and stiffed his way through his lines, things didn’t exactly improve. Not even that "beat your illness/make-a-wish" joke at the end could save this sketch. It's funny that this sketch chose to name drop Selena Gomez a couple of times because this sketch reminded me of the high school modeling sketch from her episode a couple of seasons ago only this was more stretched out, dilluted and cut with bits of the Women Supporting Women sketch that preceded it...and also that Aubrey Plaza director sketch from a year ago...and, do I detect a hint of that Lin Manuel Miranda high school substitute sketch from, Jesus, seven and a half years ago? Really? C-

Garrett From Hinge II: Hinge Garretter - Oh boy, well... I know a lot of you didn’t like the first one of these, so I imagine this didn’t go over well. I'll admit the first one of these somehow became a guilty pleasure of mine, but despite being a fine use of Ms Troasts' performing talents, this was a bit of a letdown. Still, I liked the visual of an elderly church organist also wearing an open lavender button up over a Stewie shirt. I actually did chuckle a bit at Jacob and JAJs' Lois & Cleveland impressions as well as the absurdity of Garrett disappearing into a Christ portrait (even if the technical reveal was blown a bit). C+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.9.2023)
3. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
4. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
5. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
6. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
7. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
8. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
9. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was certainly one way for SNL to ring in the new year. Next week, Dakota Johnson returns for her second time hosting with Justin Timberlake for his sixth time as musical guest. I'm glad I'm not alone in saying I don't have a lot of confidence in this one, but I see some hope. Dakota may have basically sleep walked through her season 40 episode but the cast and writers did just put all their effort into the highly successful 40th anniversary special two weeks earlier so they can all at least share the blame there. Plus, we're getting post Vanity Fair lime/Ellen interview era Dakota hosting so if nothing else I have no doubt that she can singlehandedly stop another Barry Gibb talk show from happening (or any Fallon/Timberlake sketch we didn't need to see again in 2013 let alone 2024). I know only being billed as a musical guest has not necessarily stopped Justin Timberlake (or anyone really) from appearing in sketches on this show but hopefully he can be kept in check by some combination of his own current pop cultural irrelevance and lack of goodwill and Dakota Johnsons' increasingly endearing bluntness and sheer compulsion to shut down other peoples bullshit (including her own). See you then.