Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)

Okay, here's my review. 

This episode, for me, may have been the strongest episode of March 2024 but I still had some problems with it, so that's really not saying a whole lot. For better or worse, it felt like they were going for the same type of vibes they went for with Quinta Brunsons' episode a year ago (with the host and their unique background seemingly influencing the creative direction the show took that week and thereby making the show seem like they were taking an interesting, one of a kind stance on something for once) but it still came up short somehow and let itself get bogged down in its rehashing of tired old sketch premises at nearly every turn. Ramy Youssef was a strong and capable host who deserves a chance to host again some day but somehow, by the shows' end he managed to blend in a little TOO well into the background on a night when every cast member got some airtime (except for Molly whos' only big moment in the show was cut at dress rehearsal) but no one really stood out or dominated. I guess Kenan, Marcello, Mikey, JAJ and Sarah came close but that may have mostly been due to their continued overuse as utility players or being pushed as the new "stars" of the show in a way that may not best suit their unique talents. Oh well, such is the nature of an SNL episode that tries for something better than "normal" when the show absolutely needs it more than ever but ends up not being able to overcome being plagued by the bizarre paradoxical nature of the season it's trapped in. Anyway, let’s get on with it so you all can better see what I'm getting at, shall we?

Trumps' Ressurection - Well, this was EXACTLY what I was expecting from the moment I heard the word "Easter" over a text crawl that said the same thing. With Trump actually selling his own branded bibles, I guess this was the lowest hanging fruit of all time, huh? The various "illustrations" and "cuts" of his bible were amusing enough along with the "miracle toaster" and the entire Destinys' Child ramble but this just BARELY worked for me just on the strength of those few things alone. Still, if this is what it takes for JAJ to get the airtime he truly deserves I can put up with hit for a little while longer. C-

Monologue - Not being too familiar with Ramys' standup, I was pleasantly surprised by what he bought to the show. He bought a fresh, substantially diverse point of view instead of just his own previous baggage. He singlehandedly made the show feel strikingly different at a point when the show DESPERATELY needed a change (if the fact that he said "free the people of Palestine" on the air to a near standing ovation wasn’t enough evidence of this for you). I also liked his north/south/Biden jokes as well. I don't know how well those trans president jokes will be taken though. B-

Couple Goals - Of course the show gives us a sketch nearly identical to one we've seen a year ago JUST as I said it was starting to notice someone different. At least this got a strong reaction (most likely due Ramy having already got the audience on his side). This definitely felt like a watered down version of the couples game show sketch from Quintas episode but done in a more writerly "tell, don't show" way which while I appreciate on one hand, on the other it makes this version of the sketch feel a bit too generic like it may be missing something. Thankfully for Heidi, she got a chance to be in this just so JAJs' "no more lines for you" comment in the cold open wouldn't hold water for the rest of the night! C-

PDDs' Night Out w/Ramy Travis - This has to be the most mixed feelings I've ever had about a PDD short ever. On the one hand, I don't think the show should be promoting Travis Scott this way post Astroworld concert incident. On the other, I actually did like this and appreciate that Travis was really only preipheral to it. I'll just say I can relate to feeling a little bit too high in a public nightlife setting (but thankfully I held what I was on better than J. Higgs, Smoke Dawg and Big Mart Mart did...and it sure as hell wasn't CBD because CBD wasn't that big a thing back when I was in college...an edible may have been involved but that's not important). This did feel like they threw three sad Virgins in a blender with their short from the Ana De Armas episode and Bowens rap with Megan Thee Stallion though, so it had that going against it. I did like Ramys' "napkin pants" and Mikeys' "gigantic pussies" line as the doctor though. B-

Immigrant Dad Talk Show - Ah, I see this one is going for subtlety right out of the gate. Anyway, if nothing else this felt like a more palatable alternative/companion piece to Heidi's son loving mom character from last season that knew better where its own boundaries should be and WAY more put over by the charisma of the performers (as they're doing something well within their cultural wheelhouses). I can't be the only one who got heavy ILC Damon Wayans "Hey Mon" vibes from Kenans' highly telegraphed character though. Are Mikey and Dismukes characters distant relatives of the Shatt family or the Vogelchecks? Dismukes sub-Michael Scott level Parkour was funny. I liked Marcelos' "thesis" joke and the detail of Ramy smoking from a hookah. There's another throwback object to my college days. B-

Locker Room Pep Talk - Ok, from what I've been hearing about dress cuts from SNN lately I could've SWORN this has gotten cut from at least one previous show. Thankfully, the confirmed it got cut from Jacob Elordis' episode and placed in an episode with a host that really added someone to this that Jacob may not have been able to. Still, I honestly liked how this played out in a writerly, escalating "tell don't show" fashion. I think that served this sketch well as did the brief performances by Devon and JAJ. B-

Ozempic For Ramadan - This paired with "Immigrant Dad Talk Show" in the same episode shows that this episode was written for a VERY specific audience. I am definitely not a part of that specific audience so this almost felt lost on me but there were a few specific details in there I could pick up on mostly thanks to Kenan and Dismukes. C+

Update wasn't much for jokes tonight. I liked Josts' opening lines on the Trump bible and Boeing parts. Other than that, he and Jost felt like they were alternating between trying too hard or just letting the sheer confusion and/or low effort of their jokes wash over you. I'm actually glad I fought against my natural instinct to tune out a Chloe Fineman TikTok character because she perfectly sold the over-the-top cringe factor of it all. That MySpace joke at the very end could've been cut, though. Sarah Sherman as Flacos' widow wasn’t my absolute favorite bits of hers but she managed to put it over in a way that only she could have. This did feel like a flipside to her freaked out Peppa Pig mom character from last season cut with some diluted Jost roasts but she put in enough raunchy lines in there to make it work. C+

Pizza Mugging Victim - This was definitely my favorite live sketch of the night for the way Dismukes sold it and ended it at just the right moment (even if this was just his beach sketch from the premiere transplanted to a crime scene). Plus, seeing Sarah Sherman on the verge of breaking but never QUITE getting there was a neat SNL first. B-

NPR Tiny Desk Podcast - This felt WAY too unfocused and scattershot to really work for me. At one point, I felt like I was watching maybe five different sketches stitched together. I guess the fact that this was the last sketch of the night (beating out something obviously for thst title based on that sudden band shot) and also Bowens first appearance in the entire damn show was supposed to make this feel like enough of a jumpscare to make another of his vanity pieces seem palatable? Thankfully, this one was more subtle by his standards. Honestly, Bowen was fine here (he was basically Garrett from NPR, a bit more refined amd cultured). What bothered me more was them teasing us with the possibility of her singing and ending up just using her in the Mikey Day role by the sketches end. 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. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)
4. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
5. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
6. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
7. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
8. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
9. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)
10. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)
11. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)
12. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
13. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
14. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
15. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that certainly was another episode of SNL. Next week, Kristen Wiig joins the five timers' club. While I'm still not the biggest fan of hers, I admit that her December 2020 episode turned out fine enough that I can go into this with an open mind and hope that if they bring back any recurring material of hers it will stand out the least. See you soon!

Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)

Okay, here's my review. This episode turned out to be much stronger than the previous week, although that isn't saying much. They were able to play to the strengths of their hosts better this week, but there's still some issues with the writing that have permeated this whole season (and in on case several seasons ago) that we need to talk about. Josh Brolin has previously showed that he doesn't have a huge fragile ego or any limitations as a performer that the show would’ve had to write around. He doesn't have any obvious personal or physical hooks that the show just wanted to cling to either (unlike last weeks host). He showed he still has the ability to seamlessly and effortlessly fit into the modern SNL mold no matter what type of material he is given. Still, he seems to have an uncanny Paul Rudd-like ability to get washed off the screen (not "upstaged" necessarily) by a pop star musical guest cameo who may be a bigger name or "star" than him but performance wise he seems to take this in stride better than Mr. Rudd nonetheless. The writers clearly were never afraid to pitch any of there more offbeat conceptual pieces to him and he always gave them his all. This still makes for a more interesting and challenging show to write about which is why I'm honestly feeling a little bit better about continuing to review the show than I did last week. Already online, I'm seeing that this episode wasn’t QUITE as divisive as last week and that my takes on this episode mostly fall in line with the general consensus on this episode. Cast wise, no one was shut out but Devon, JAJ, Longfellow, Molly and Ms Fineman took some hits this week. Marcello took the smallest hit of all. Sarah and Ms Troast are visible but are still underutilized. Bowen, Heidi, Ego, Punkie and Kenan dominated this week (but not necessarily in ways that best suit them for the audience). Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?

State Of The Union 2024 - Ok, a flashy, jumbled, style over substance, increasingly telegraphed "political" checklist cold open that relies on a celebrity cameo to do the heavy lifting? Is it 2017 again? I mean, I didn't hate this necessarily. I feel we're enough years removed from that era of political cold opens on this show that I can deal with it this week. I just hope we don't return to this being a permanent fixture on SNL as we approach another election with one of the exact same candidates of said era as a major player. It seemed like they were actually going to try a new approach to Mikey as Biden tonight and no, it's not just them avoidimg making a string of "lol Biden is old and evasive" jokes or fitting Biden into the JAJ Trump template of "commemting on the people who are now forced to sit silently behind him." I wished we'd gotten to see more of the sketch expanding on the new-ish character of "amped Biden" than having to see Ego clumsily stitch two separate sketches together. Also, the joke about Biden having caught a "glimpse" at the opposing response to his SOTU speech felt like the laziest writing ever to me and should've been cut. Scarjo making a cameo is obviously less a question of "how" than "why?" at this point but again, we're a few years removed from the point where the show did this frequently enough that it became a problem so I wasn't too bothered by it other than the fact that the only real bite this sketch had was when they just flat out stated how Katie Britt lied about key facts in her sex trafficing story. Yeah, we all knew EXACTLY where that 2020 joke was headed (but it couldn't have been cut, so...) and that the Get Out reference (in 2024? really?) was too forced and needed to be cut. Thankfully, I haven't seen any bellyaching on social media about how Punkie unfairly "replaced" Maya as Kamala now. Speaking of replaced impression roles, Heidi as MTG feels so cheap but also something I wouldn't mind seeimg more of if they absolutely have to do it at one point. I just wish the interaction between her and Mikey didn’t have that "botched timing" feel to it. B-

Monologue - Well, I was considerably happier with the reminiscing that began this monologue and the ice plunge that ended it than I was with "creepy male poetry" being the central theme of most of it. The reminiscing was just OK. At least he knew when to cut back on that before it got too...Baldwinny. The sudden strip down to an ice plunge is the type of thing that reminds you just how much of a ridiculously "game" host he is who will commit himself to any strange thing the show will throw at him...even if it has the potential to throw the entire live show off track logistically (well, at least as far as quick wardrobe changes go). B-

Chase Bank Robbery - Once Devon and JAJ walked in, this screamed "some SNL writer would rather get this on the air than go to therapy" to me. The problem I have with that is more that it's also one of those "i feel like I've seen this basic threadbare premise done multiple times before...not just on SNL but in comedy in general" sketches. Immediately, I got the vibe that this was a much hornier modernized version of Wiigs' "Don't Make Me Sing". I appreciate how Heidi and Josh threw themselves into this tired, worn out template, though. C-

In Flight Entertainment (Airplane Song) - This really felt like something only Dismukes could really put over for me. It also behooves this sketch that it doesn’t feel like a "relatable" observational trope that has been done to death (and that Andrew Dismukes is a stronger singer than Josh Brolin...I just wish they would quit teasing us with more Troast singing just as a sketch is ending). I mean, I kind of thought this was done funnier when The Simpsons (and to a lesser extent Family Guy) did these same jokes but about DVD players in the backs of cars (and that was back in the 2000s so...what does THAT tell you?) I guess it makes sense that this song sounded vaguely enough like one Arianas' songs from around the time of her and Pete having been an item. I mean, even though she had no cameo in this whatsoever it was obviously setting up her appearance in the sketch that followed. B+

People Pleasers Support Group - I definitely feel like I would’ve enjoyed this season 36 ass sketch more if it didn’t spell its whole premise out too fast and too early. Hell, Aidy Bryant did a whole Update commentary on this subject matter six years ago that I honestly enjoyed more than this. It was well performed but not the easiest thing to stay engaged with. It's obvious Bowen wrote this as it has his fingerprints all over it (themes of therapy/mental health, a promiment female pop star who happens to be this weeks musical guest suddenly becomes the center piece). Still, Ariana didn’t do a bad job here and the prayer ended this well. C+

Wine & Cheese Night - This was reminiscent of other sketches the show has done recently. Specifically, it reminded me of sketches they did with hosts like Austin Butler and Kate McKinnon recently but this had much more going for it. Here there were more writerly details mixed with an absurd escalating intensity and gleeful comittment from the host that made sitting through a mush of GenZ slang laden fart jokes (almost) worth it. C+

Shrimp Tower - This definitely felt like another writerly sketch that was a little more unbalanced. It put a little too much exposition up front and the ending felt phoned in, but I did like the raw physicality that Sarah and Josh bought to it and Kenans' one line was funny. C+

Shonda - This felt like another sketch that spent a bit too long working up to its big reveal. Still,  Josh really disappeared into his role and the supporting cast played into this reveal quite well by just all...gradually exiting awkwardly. This sketch was helped by its own willingness to go to odd places, but part of me wished they weren't places they've seemingly gone to before. B-

Update was shockingly short but fun while it lasted just for how much fun Jost had in his delivery (especially with the Katie Britt material and how that JetBlue/Spirit punchline hit you out of nowhere) and how Che seemingly found the right balance in "gleeful delight in bombing" without exhibiting Gillis levels of self sabotaging self awareness. B-

Moulin Rouge Medley - Wow, I haven't seen this level of "big theater kid" energy on SNL since at least 2016 (or at least this level of "the two lead performers in this sketch absolutely refuse to let the audience in on their little inside joke" energy since 2019). If I didn't know any better, I'd say this sketch is Bowen trying to break out in a new career as a Todrick Hall/Pentatonix type YouTuber so he can finally leave SNL and start making the big bucks! Hell, the guys' already a part time podcaster, he's already at lesst halfway there! Get on it, Bowen! Seriously though, that's all this sketch felt like to me. Well, I know a lot of us are sick to death of what we've come to know as "Bowen vanity pieces" but at least this was more palatable in that it's something that would fit nearly any other castmembers' definition of a "vanity piece" and not just Bowens' with his niche sense of humor. Josh occupied a very strange place in this sketch where once you immediately see him enter the scene you go from wondering "why isn't the host in this?" to "why wasn't the host cut from this at dress?" Gee, if it weren't for my local affiliate airing a commercial for the actual touring production of "Wicked" coming to some theater district near me, I might never have caught that nod to the musical that Ari threw in at the end there. C-

Side note: they included a snippet of "You Belong With Me" in a sketch parodying a movie we all know came out in 2001?

Sandwich King - Weirdly, this gave me my first genuine laughs of the night. I got into this more this sillier and goofier it got. Everyone played into the ridiculous details and reveals well. B-

Lisa From Temecula III - (*sigh*) Someone at the show must've heard my comments on this sketch on the last SNN Patron Feedback show. Way to Trojan Horse this on us. Still, while I wish they would've changed more of the basic structure of the sketch, I appreciated the smaller details they did add to this. I did like the line "erasable pens for the win, am I roight?" as well as her admitting to stealing soap from "Walgroans" and calling Bowen "negro-divergent" as Josh (instead of Punkie) acknowledges/speculates on Lisa's many, MANY personality and psychological flaws. Granted, it feels just like they're doing to this sketch what they did to the Mulaney NYC musical medlies but I'll reserve my judgement on that until the next time this sketch recurs since it does so quite irregularly at this point. I didn't mind the breaking so much since we got a delightful sudden wheeze out of Punkie. Still, if they were gonna bring back one of Ego's old catchphrases from the previous two sketches I would’ve much preferred "toss my salad" to "cook my meat". Hell, this might be the first Lisa From Temecula sketch I watch more than once. 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. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)
4. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
5. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
6. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
7. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
8. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
9. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)
10. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)
11. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
12. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
13. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
14. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was a slight step up. In three weeks time, "Poor Things" star Ramy Youssef makes his SNL hosting debut. I don't know much about this man but I know he's a stand up comic (which is why the name even rings a bell to me). Thankfully, with his rise to fame he seems like he's gonna be more like Ayo Edeberi than Shane Gillis as a host so it will be nice to go into a show with that being literal my only expectation. See you then!

Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

Okay, here's my review. After last week, I was glad to see the show at least return to being benign and undivisive in its mediocrity. Unfortunately, this episode felt like it stressed the "mediocrity" part a little too heavily. Yeah, Sydney Sweeney was a fine host who effortlessly carried this episode with the material she was given with her sweet, bubbly personality. Unfortunately, said material felt really bland and uninspired. At times, it even seemed like the show played into its own worst instincts, almost on purpose. The material I did enjoy out of this rundown, I couldn't much bring myself to laugh at. In fact, I'm quite surprised to see certain parts of this episode rated so highly but, hey...to each their own.

To be honest, this episode especially gave me pause and me wonder if I am actually just writing these reviews more out if sheer compulsion and force of habit than an actual love of the game. I'm not saying this episode made me want to retire from writing these reviews but I admit that I am starting to understand how Stooge felt when he stopped reviewing the show live a full decade ago. Don't worry, I know I still have some dedicated fans who will continue to read these as long as I keep writing them. I know full well how much my regular readers rely on me to put the show in perspective against all the immediate kneejerk live reactions we see each week (even when I disagree with popular opinion which you'll probably find a lot of in this review). Last week especially, I could tell that perspective was badly needed in times of heavy uncertainty so with you guys driving me, I think I'll be OK. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

Inside Politics - Even with Ego, Longfellow (who maybe should've had Dismukes take over his role?) Marcello, Mikey, and Devon putting in work and Heidi rushing us through it, none of this cold open really landed for me. They pretty much all just dragged out in sketch form something Jon Stewart glossed over pretty well about three weeks ago. It is nice that we are gradually getting away from Trump/GOP themed cold opens for a bit. Other than that, all I can say about it is, "next time, young blood". D+

Monologue - Again, Sydney Sweeney certainly had the confidence and lack of first time host jitters to carry this monologue with ease...which is sadly the only notable thing about it. I guess this showed she'll be a more competent host than one of her first costars was two months ago. I just wish this monologue didn’t give off the same vibe of "I'm just using this show to plug a movie that I'm confident isn't a HUGE bomb and this monologue is more to address some rumors about me than it is for me to show I have any shred of awareness of let alone connection to this show." C-

Police Interns - Hmm, I wonder how many other table reads this got cut from besides Aubrey Plazas? Anyway, good to see Sydney and Chloe F really stretch as actresses and play so starkly against type in the lead off sketch. Seriously though, it's not a good sign when they just say "fuck it" and just decide to devote the exact same amount of effort and energy they would normally put into writing a Thursday promo into an actual frigging sketch within the show. Hell, the word "writing" seems incredibly generous when applied to this sketch when it's obvious that Chloe Fineman just slammed together a list of all the social media apps she could think of and all the dialogue was pieced together backwards from there. At least I can say I got a chuckle from JAJs "fellow kids" moment. I hated how telegraphed Mikeys' Snapchat and Kenans OnlyFans jokes felt. C-

PDD In Mourning - Well, it wasn’t quite the best I've seen from Please Don't Destroy but at least it was nice to see something that quietly goes for over the top absurdity after such an empty buzzword laden sketch. The montage of comments and tweets over the audio from the YouTube clip made this for me. I also appreciated that they didn't just reference Flaco the Owl dying this early in the show as you would expect the first pretape of the night in this season to. B+

More Like "Air Dud", amirite? - Geez, we all thought they were gonna rehash old sketches they did with Dolly Parton and Raquel Welch...not Louise Lasser, Chris Hemsworth or Sam Rockwell! Anyway, kudos to Sydney for playing into the silly goofiness well and Marcello, Dismukes and Mikey Longs at her table playing their disbelief off her expertly. C-

Big Bench - I did like the real slapdash, feverishly thrown together nature of this. However, I feel like they could've done more than just cut back & forth between the same six or seven characters continuously with the second live dog of the episode thrown in for good measure. Hell, Bowen had a character in the montage of this that seemed to be cut entirely (like Chloe F should've, honestly). At least JAJ & Sweeney were actually the funniest part of this. Still, I'm genuinely torn between whether JAJs' naturally occurring over goofy southern accent was funnier or Sydneys' wild swing-and-a-miss attempt at one. C-

Bowens' Straight - I did like seeing Bowen play so starkly against type (and I mean that non-sarcastically this time given the how much all of Bowens pieces all seem the same). I also liked seeing what appeared to be a piece Bowen wrote to satirize heterosexuality in the same vein as "Straight Male Friend" with Travis Kelce. Unfortunately, this seemed like it couldn't succeed at either of those things so much that I had mo idea what it was genuinely aiming for at all other than just flash & glitz. Maybe this was largely intended as a "Euphoria" parody that subvers the "camp" of that show? Speaking of, is it just me or does the idea of Bowen only playing gay for easy laughs sound a little...reductive? Marcellos walk on at the end and Mikeys cameos were funny enough. The Gina Gershon cameo was a nice unexpected twist. C-

Shoooooooooooot - I wanted to like this more but it felt way too dry fir a Sarah Sherman sketch. Plus, I also feel Sarah deserves a little more out of a sketch where she is the comedic focal point than just the newly emerging trope of "one or two people fail to read the room properly as others (probably including Heidi Gardner) recieve a continuous string of bad news". Also, I was a little too distracted trying to figure out which previous female host Sydney reminded me of in that wig besides Billie Eilish. Yep, that's what this episode has done to me. At least it is still nice to be reminded that Chloe Troast is still in the cast. It's also nice to see Sydney attempt another accent (even if there's no chance in hell you'll be able to tell what it is). C+

Update felt like it was in a real nosedive for the first time this season. I did like the first four jokes after Heidi's A.I. generated gibberish (yeah, I know it's incredibly hack to compare things to A.I. content now but that genuinely felt like the most A.I. created shit I have seen on this show with how it felt like all of Heidi's one shot Update characters blended together...and sonehow a lesser known Simpsons meme got in there). Ego's commentary was a nice concentrated blast of WTF but it's not a good sign when something that would seem so mild in any other episode feels like it's slapping you upside the head out of nowhere. C-

Hooters Tips - Woooooow, you know something? I think I was a little too hard on Heidi's Update piece. Despite Mikey, Longfellow, JAJ and Dismukes trying to have a little fun with their gleeful misogyny, this was the type of sketch where literally any screenshot needs to be the photo you see when you look up the word "hack" in the dictionary. D-

Interior Design For Airbnb - This was certainly a better use of Chloe Troast. Still, it came across like a much tighter version of the hotel sketch with Billie and Kate. That ended up working against it because it lacked that other sketches live breaking energy and it was written in a way that tells me I just barely fell outside of the target audience for it. I see the obligatory jammed in Willy Wonka Experience reference of the night got the reaction they hoped for. You know that's always something that bodes well for sketch comedy. C+

Date Night - This pointed examination of both male and female bonding was the best written sketch of the night. Too bad the ending was rushed, and it was weighed down by being the ten-to-one of such a soul draingingly dull episode. Also, it looks like JAJ jumped his cue. B-

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. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)
4. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
5. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
6. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
7. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
8. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
9. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)
10. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
11. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (1.27.2024)
12. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
13. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Well, that was the episode that just was. Next week, Josh Brolin returns for his third time hosting. He's usually a solid reliable host (even if something always feels a little off about each of his episodes) so, I'm definitely looking forward to that one. See you then!