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!

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.

Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)

DISCLAIMER: Due to a long first week of training at a new job and some minor personal concerns, some of my ability to discern amd watch Saturday Night Live extremely critically and as more than just as an escape from substantial life changes may have been corrupted. 

Unfortunately, I did not have access to any deepfake or A.I. technology and neither John Higgins, Bill Brasky, Soaps and Scifi, or Blood Meridian were available to yassify this review on such short notice. 

Luckily, I had the idea to open with this lame attempt at a meta in-joke parodying one of tonights pretapes just to fully cover my own self consciousness at my latest batch of polished hot takes not exactly lining up fully with the groupthink of the small cult following of people I regularly interact with on Discord who I know are the only ones actually reading any of this and yo therapeutically acknowledge the nagging fear of losing considerable clout within said group.

Now, at the risk of possibly losing some of your respect for me as a writer, please enjoy.

Okay, whew. Sorry for making that disclalaimer, like, four times longer than what it was parodying (I swear, I'm gonna start learning to actually edit these better), but here's my review. As you can tell, this turned out to be a shockingly divisive episode amongst fans online. On paper, this isn't that far off from some of the weaker episodes of the season (so pretty much the ones not hosted by Bargatze or Chalamet but on a different level just slightly above Bad Bunny as that one was beset by its own unique issues). On the surface, what actually put this episode over (at least for me personally) was mostly Emma's performance and the fact that the show made use of some much beloved and underused new cast members who might not have seen as much screentime lately. Now, I don't know if the kids today still say things like "the Longfellow stans and the Troast tribe have been FED" on the TikkityToks and the YouFaceBlueThreadTwitters, but yeah, I would say that exact thing happened. Back to Emma, though, she proved she is still the solid reliable host she always was. As I've said before, Emma has a special way of working within the show to make sure none of her episodes feel exactly the same (well, aside from one recent recurring sketch) so even if the show itself was pretty cookie cutter in its basic outline, Emmas such a unique performer that she can bring her own special flair to sketch premises and templates that you feel like you've seen the show attempt multiple times before. Emma, Longfellow, Punkie and Troast in particular really helper push the highs of this show that much higher to take the sting out of how low the lows actually were. She just makes the show that much more fun to watch but smoke and mirrors aside, this reminded me more of her season 42 episode than anything else with it starting off fairly strong and falling off quite a bit by the bottom third (and her also hosting the first of three consecutive episodes taking place in December). As far as screentime, only Molly Kearney suffered a steep drop (don't worry, Molly... you'll get 'em next week), but everyone else really scored. Anyway, let's not waste any more time and just get right to it.

Situation Room - Well, opening the show with Squirm Blitzer was certainly a choic... Oh, THIS is what they scrambled to write for Bowen on Friday. Huh, I was kinda wondering how they would handle the Santos news? I gotta say, though, as cold as I've always run on Bowens' Santos, his actual performance here made this feel about a hundred times less "scrambled" than it had any right to feel. He actually imbued this with some dramatic theatrical energy that a Santos piece may have actually warranted by now instead of just cheekily droning his way through another Update desk piece (probably because he knew as well as we did or just flat out hoped this would be his last time ever playing him). I'm glad to see he had fun with it. I could even look past the boilerplate gay camp that came with this. The Princess Diaries and Beyonce references stood out to me the most. Even ending it with a slightly clumsy clunky "Candle In The Wind" parody was a nice touch (even if I thought replacing "candle" with "scandal" was far beneath even SNL but hey, it was probably 4:00am on a Friday night). His singing was decent, if not a little bit pitchy. I did genuinely laugh at the "evil Forrest Gump" line. I mean, I wouldn't go as far as to say that should've been cut or anything, but it did need some serious work. Eat shit, Randy Rainbow! Bowens got your number! B-

Monologue - Here it is, the obligatory jacket ceremony. We were all expecting this since we all know what a huge SNL nerd Emma is and what a deep and emotional connection she has to the show (not one deep enough that she felt she could do a solo monologue, apparently). I guess they're all gonna be as stripped down and bare bones as what Paul Rudd ended up having to get? Nice to see Tina and Candy again. If only I could forget that the last time they introduced the concept of a "ladies only" five timers club, Drew Barrymore and (somehow, inexplicably Jonah Hill) were involved. I genuinely did laugh at the Mulaney/Woody/Marty jabs and Tinas' "youngest members" and Candys' "places to cry" joke. Also, was anybody else actually hoping to get to see Dave McCary and maybe a brief overview of his history and involvement with the show rather than just visual confirmation that Lorne has...well, seen better days? B+

Question Quest - Thank God this show held off on opening the show with a game show sketch until they could put together a very absurd, writerly, detail/premise heavy one anchored by Michael Longfellow with a BIG assist from Punkie Johnson and Emma and JAJ (who really has a realistic game show announcer cadence down) there to pick up the slack. Oh hai, Molly & Chloe Troast. I laughed consistently throughout this (especially at Punkies' "same color penis" line and her string of fake reindeer names). I mean, it was very reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite State sketches (just replace the tortoise with orphaned children) but this was different enough conceptually that I cannot count that against it. A-

Fully Naked In New York - Wow, two absurd detail heavy sketches in a row. This one really just hits you out of nowhere, doesn’t it? There is just so damn much going on in this sketch that it's impossible to fullly process in one single viewing. I'll say that my first official thought upon the reveal was that SNL has fully escaped the November sweeps trap of getting big names and pandering to a wide audience for ratings and ad money and have allowed themselves to return to letting previously well established friends of the show take over and do unique things. This really started to pick up for me once we heard the Troast/Hernandez duet. The brief cameos from Fineman, Dismukes Punkie and Sarah helped this, too. The last SNL cast member I saw jump on the back of a garbage truck before this was Dennis Miller in season 11 second intro. Thank God he wore a big plaid coat there. B-

Treece Returns - Hmm, I never thought we needed to see this again. Bowen filling in for Kyle Mooney and Emma going all Fargo on us didn’t do anything to change my mind. I mean, I remember the one with Seth Meyers from 2018 being just fine mostly due to Seth but this couldn't make it past dress when Eddie Murphy last hosted. I will admit to chuckling at the "sewage" and "human dumbass" lines. D+

PDD: Please Don't Deepfake - Were Please Don't Destroy a little self conscious about the light criticism they may have received for some lightly A.I. assisted crowd scenes from "Foggy Mountain"? Anyway, while I liked how they used Punkie here (besides just reusing the old framework of "Punkie doesn’t know white celebrities or pop culture very well") this is something I couldn't fully get on board with until I saw how they used Marcello and how they showed a self-Yassified John Higgins in this. Honestly, the constant disclaimers kinda hurt this for me. It led to an unhealthy "tell don't show" feel for this and kinda hurt the pacing of an already slightly inconsistent pretape that started to feel like four separate sketch ideas smashed together. It reminded me a lot of the cold open to Scarjos' season 40 episode in a not so good way. C+

What's In The Kiln? - Hmm, I'm not too crazy about the pairing of Chloe & Heidi right from jumpstreet. Still, this is far less over the top than their demonic posession commentary from a year ago. It's much more than just a watered down version of Delicious Dish or the baking competition sketches that Cheadle, Murphy, Chalamet and Simu Liu gave us. It's much more prop and visual based in a similar vein to the grey pigtails sketch with Natasha Lyonne or the big dumb hat sketch with Amy Schumer so...this definitely has the feel of a female writer who recently left the show coming back. Either way, it's something I have a surprising amount of appreciation for considering I'm not exactly the target audience for it. C+

Update was possibly the strongest it's been all year (and in terms of THIS season, that's really saying something). Jost & Che had a string of great pre-commentary jokes but they really started to taper off post-commentary. Ironic that Che told an A.I. joke since he seemed so stumbly bumbly tonight it was almost like he was replaced with an A.I. deepfake of himself. Mikey Longs absolutely killed it as the old fashioned cigarette. Good to see he can still absolutely crush Bowen at playing inanimate objects. B-

Mama Cass Sessions - While this wasn't QUITE the Troast showcase I was hoping for since she was deceptively snuck into more of a supporting role, her voice alone put this over for me. Anyone else get slightly more Aidy vibes than Cecily vibes from her here? While I wasn’t too crazy about the idea of Emma in drag being the main focus, I loved how committed she was to it. Once she started acting out violent montages with Bowen, Mikey and Dismukes I could fully get on board with it. I especially liked the ending, too. B-

Return Of The Posters - With Pete being in the first two and him already having come and gone this season, I seriously wasn't expecting them to bring this back at all (and I was kinda hoping they wouldn't but Chrissy Knox seems to be Emma's only recurring character on the show, but Emma must like playing her and Mikey must like writing them). Still, this had a level of variation to it the others didn’t have (and I'm not just talking about Marcello being used in a pinch). Even Chrissy herself seemed to have four or five brain cells instead of the usual two. Did they let other do a major punch up on this one? C+

Diet Coke By Olay - Thank god this got in and got out quickly. There seemed to be absolutely nothing to this besides "lol (mostly white) women be mainlining Diet Coke amirite?" Was this written by whoever wrote the vagina sketch from Pete's episode? Would Diet Coke have been replaced by Starbucks if they did this a decade ago? It's a shame we may never hear or see what cut for time live sketch this replaced at the last second. D-

Now, looking back at my review of Emma's 2019 episode, it seems I DID actually try to rank her previous ones, so let me try and update those rankings right now.

1. Emma Stone/Coldplay (11.12.2011)
2. Emma Stone/BTS (4.13.2019)
3. Emma Stone/Kings Of Leon (10.23.2010)
4. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2016)
5. Emma Stone/Shawn Mendes (12.3.2016)

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
3. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.2.2023)
4. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)
5. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
6. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, THAT was certainly a journey. Next week, Adam Driver returns for his fourth time hosting. Now, he's anothrr solid, reliable host I always enjoyed seeing on the show. For as much of a sharp dynamic performer as he is, even he could still use some help from strong writing to put things over. Let's just hope this episode turns out more like his 2020 one than his 2018 one. See you soon!

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!

Ana De Armas/Karol G (04.15.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This show met my expectations and defied them all at once. I ended up coming around on Ana De Armas and she was the wonderful host I expected her to be. The show fit her like a glove. They knew exactly how to write for her and she was clearly overjoyed to be there. They also made some changes to the shows established format which, while exciting to see at first, didn't quite distract me from some of the pacing issues that resulted. The show felt uneven since they gradually went back to some of their old writing tropes and began recurring previously established thin premises from the previous era that should've left behind. You'll see what I mean by all this in a moment when the review of the actual show starts proper. Still, the sheer levels of energy made up for this, and while I can already see it was a divisive show to some, I certainly had fun watching it. There was a nice cast balance tonight. While nobody seemed to get shut out if the show entirely, JAJ and Dismukes seemed to have each only made one appearance all night. Anyway, let’s just start since there is a lot to break down tonight.

First Warm Day Of The Year Red Carpet Show - Wow...what the hell was the cold open in dress, and how badly did it bomb for them to scramble and bump this up top? Still, I say that with love as it's a shrewd choice and a very welcome change of pace to open the show with this. It's truly gratifying to see a light, breezy, non-topical, not too long cold open that doesn't actively drain the shows' energy up top after years of our pleas for such a thing seemingly falling on deaf ears. The JAJ/Mikey Longs and Devon/Punkie pairings are my favorite so far. Kenan & Sarah kinda overshot whatever they were going for, and it didn't really work for me. I did like how they made Ego/Dismukes and Marcello/Day into their own separate mini-runners in this. I also liked that this was accessible and not too much of an inside joke for another "weird/obnoxious New Yorkers we saw in the park" sketch. B+

Monologue - Nice to see Ana address the language barrier in a charming and not too self effacing way. I know when I drew comparisons to previous hosts in last week's blog, I mentioned the names Sofia Vergara and Gal Gadot, but she immediately seems more in control and at ease than those women. Part of me doubts that the "beg your pardon/acting class/Robert Deniro" stories are true, but the way she carried herself in this monologue left me not thinking too much about that. This felt a little long, but I think they gave Ana exactly what she needed here. She was the perfect host to bring back the "sincere personal monologue" trend. B+

The Dome - Well, Joe (or Bill whichever one of you this applies to), there goes your "Margot Robbie hosts the season finale" theory, but your "this is Mikeys' last season" theory still absolutely holds water for the time being. Maybe Mikey knows who the last two (as of right now tentatively) scheduled hosts of this season are but obviously can't reveal them. Either the last two hosts are men or Ana De Armas is the last host this season who is a glamorous, beautiful Hollywood actress or Mikey is operating under the assumption that the upcoming writers strike is definitely happening. Either way, I can see why he had to do this now instead of the finale. He had to strike while the iron was hot (pun somewhat intended). Anyway, this was a nice way for them to Trojan horse a third Matt Shatt on us. I appreciated how this was different from both of the previous Matt Shatts, but I was still a little disappointed with the setting for this one. When I saw that this was a game show titled "The Dome" for some reason I was half expecting a parody of "The Wall" (which is inexplicably still on the air on NBC right now) so I was hoping to see some physical challenges just for the sake of a drastic change to the Matt Shatt formula. Sadly, this never came to pass and I ended up just setting myself up for failure. Still, the multiplying nipples got me. B-

American Girls - Even though SNL has been doing too many American Girl based sketches lately (which is something I've never been deep into the lore of but thankfully didn't need to be for this) I did like the very grim and detailed "writerly/gallows humor" nature of this sketch, but it seemed to have some serious pacing issues. It seemed like it was absolutely dying with the audience during each moment when Ego (who seemed like she should've been carrying this sketch), or Molly, or Sarah weren't delivering their lines. C-

Young Spicy Sessions - When you really break it down, this was basically the most overused, played out sketch trope in recent SNL history ("inappropriate responses to a seemingly innocuous prompt") but this more than got by on sheer charisma. This was one of Egos' better showcases in a while, but Devon was really the glue that held this together. He seemed completely in his element here, and I liked his line "you leave my Corolla our of this." I also got a kick out of the implications that he may have a learning disability and should be on a watchlist for drugging women. B-

Spanish Transfer Students - Even if this felt like an inverse of the inner city school sketch from the Megan Thee Stallion episode but with Mikey Day doing his usual Mikey Day shtick added in, it was perhaps the perfect vehicle for both Marcello AND Ana (and Karol G). I did like how lived in and sincere they made this feel without it coming off too "pandery." Still, it felt like it could've been tightened just a little. B-

PDD: Hangxiety - This was pretty much the Please Don't Destroy take on the "Holiday quick cuts" trope we've been seeing reoccur since season 42 but the performances along with the lack of saccharine family get together "cutting the tracle" vibes put this over for me. John Higgins and Chloe opening fire got the most laughs out of me along with the interactions between Heidi/Bowen and Ben Marshall/Mikey Longs. They probably should've rethought the ending with Mikey Day, though. C+

Update was, once again, mainly worth tuning in for the commentaries. I didn't even mind the Discord jokes (they didn't apply to me or anyone I interact with on Discord), but I kind of wish that leaked document scandal wasn't the context for the first ever mention of Discord on SNL. The only other jokes that stood out to me were Che's Tim Scott/Rat Czar/missing alert system and Josts' litter campaign jokes. Kenan as Funky Kong turned out to be more fun than I was expecting it to be. I mean, the visual if Kenan in a gorilla suit was a little...unsettling...but by the time he got to "booty cheeks/titty meat" and had possibly genuinely botched that "Monkey Kong" line I was as fully on board with it as both Jost and Che seemed to be. I liked Sarahs' meditation expert a lot. It may have just been an excuse for her to burn Jost again but less elaborately and more in character/less as "Sarah" but I was just relieved to hear Colin set up this commentary with the phrase "with mental health struggles on the rise..." and NOT see Bowen come out (Mikey Longs would've been a'ight, but maybe he needs to slow his roll for a minute). The true highlight of this Update was Molly Kearney as Molly Kearney. They delivered the same type of sincere personal political statement that Cecily (and at one point Aidy) pulled off successfully but did so in a less harrowing and confessional and more flashier and showier but also more positive, encouraging, cohesive and uplifting way (both literally and figuratively). B+

Lisa From Temecula - Well, I guess we willed this one into existence whether we meant to or not. I have to admit, I was a bit more into this one than I was the first one (maybe because Ego affected a much goofier Kenan-like voice and the breaking was a bit more under control despite what appeared to be Egos' best efforts) but this still appears to ve suffering from Debbie Downer syndrome while lacking variance at season 35 levels. C+

Enter Stage Woof: Acting School For Dogs - There's no way in hell you can convince me this WASN'T a leftover script from a Cecily/Aidy sketch from season 45 that got cut at the table read. This felt like the first sketch all night that Ana De Armas was truly an odd fit for, but I will say Chloe handle the inevitable mishaps like a pro and Punkie had the funniest lines on the whole sketch. C-

Nail Salon - After the last few character showcases Bowen has given us, it's nice that we got something that was more reminiscent of his "choking victim poster" sketch with Scarlett Johansson from season 45 (even if it's delivered with the hamminess that season 48 Bowen can't seem to leave behind for very long). I honestly didn't mind his midwife sketch from a few weeks ago, and this felt like a slightly scaled back version of that.I didn't hate that random Family Guy-ish Twilight reference, but it felt a little too forced. C+

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. Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)
6. Ana De Armas/Karol G (04/15/2023)
7. Molly Shannon/Jonas Brother's (04.08.2023)
8. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
9. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
10. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
11. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
12. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
13. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
14. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
15. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
16. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
17. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
18. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that may not have been the ideal season finale for me...but there was fun to be had. The next announced episode doesn't sound like my ideal episode to even..
air or exist but I'm still holding out hope that the WGA can successfully negotiate another contract to get the pay they deserve and to give this season the proper finale it deserves (as of this writing the final two hosts and musical guest lineups of May have yet to be announced, so...who knows?) Barring the possibility of another Writer's Guild Of America strike, Pete Davidson will make his hosting debut in two week's time. That's right, Pete Davidson will be the first of the departing class of 2022 (less than a full year after he left to be exact) to return to the show (for a full length hosting gig, not just a surprisee unannounced cameo). For some reason, the words "TOO SOON" keep flashing in my head like an old, unprogrammed VCR constantly blinking "12:00" over and over again. I honestly can't say I can see how he would even fit into the show now despite the minimal changes made since his departure (mostly because he barely let us see how he could still fit into the show in his last season since he had multiple different reasons not to be there for his own personal well being) but I will say the trailer for his new Peacock series "Bupkis" looks...decent, so...if he had to host so soon at least it's to promote something that looks worth promoting. (Wait...a cast member hosts for their very first time just to promote a Peacock series? This might be just like the Will Forte episode from last season all over again! That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either). Oh well. See you then!

Molly Shannon/Jonas Brothers (04.08.2023)

Okay, here's my review. Some people were a bit lower than me on this episode as a whole. They were underwhelmed by it but it worked just fine for me simply because I went in to it with the most tempered expectations possible (which you can easily do when a well loved cast member with a distinct performance style who had a decently long tenure on the show returns...see, that's the nice thing about alumni hosted episodes...especially when said alumni has previously hosted). As expected, Molly Shannon was a perfectly pleasant host whose charm and warm personality shined through. Even if the post Update half of the show started to crumble, she was able to put pretty much all of it over on her part. No cast member got shut out of the show entirely, but both Mikeys' felt underused (in fact you'd think we might see more of Mikey than we did given that he and Shannon previously worked together on the American remake of "Kath and Kim" which incidentally aired on NBC around the last time she hosted) but Dismukes and Punkie made big comebacks. Anyway, let’s begin.

Trumps' Last Supper - Well, I was expecting this to be a JAJ/Trump open. I was foolish NOT to think they'd make it Easter themed. After all, this is the second time they've done such a thing since JAJ joined the cast. All I can say is, aside from Molly's Judas and JAJs' "get very violent and start a war" line and the slight meta nod at the end, this did absolutely nothing for me. C-

Monologue - Well, I was expecting Molly to do SOMETHING at the top of the show to bring up the energy level. If she couldn't find a way to pull off a Mary Katherine Gallagher cold open like she did back in '07, a charming musical number with shades of 'Leg Up!' was the next best thing. I liked all the cast cameos (especially how they got BOTH Molly's to chat briefly with each other while all but ignoring the elephant in the room). Shorts' cameo was a nice touch. B-

Vincent's Valets - Even though this felt completely telegraphed, they had me right from Dismukes and JAJs' first interaction. Shannon and Kenan added some fun dark vibes to it. I did like how blatantly Kenan made Devon break. B+

Jeannie Darcy: Selective Startage - I do love how one of the only recurring characters of Molly's to appear in both her hosting stints is by far one of her most obscure to casual SNL fans. The basic level of anti-humor here still worked for me (even if this did seem a bit similar to that fake trailer for a fake Dave Bautista standup special that Netflix actually did tweet out last week), and I liked how they took the pics out of what an overblown "event" Netflix made thst Chris Rock special out to be (even if these could've worked better as two separate sketches). Ego's Arsenio and Punkies' Wanda were pretty funny (even if Punkies' impression could've used a bit more work). I honestly could've done without Chloes' Sarah Silverman, though. It felt like too much of a cheap imitation of Melissas' Sarah Silverman. I did like the meta Tesla joke at the end, though. B-

Office Baby Shower - While I'm not normally one for extended fart jokes, I do appreciate how committed this was to its own gleeful stupidity and I think that we can all agree that Molly Shannon is really the only sketch performer with the warmth and likable personality necessary to put this over. Honestly, the way the ending came across as botched would be my only point against this sketch. B-

PDD: Molly 2K23 - I thought the idea behind this was fun and clever, but maybe the PDD boys breezed through this a bit too fast, and something felt missing? Watching it over again, I liked the details of the commencement/death battle/skateboarding/daughter talk levels , and I did the rap at the end. I will also say I do like how they tried to throw in subtle references to MKG throughout the show to make up for the fact that Molly can't really play such a heavily physically comedic role anymore, though. B-

Year Of A Thousand Men - At first, this seemed like it wasn't going to work for me at all. The obligatory Nick Jonas sketch cameo almost cemented this for me but I just couldn't get over the tired premise of "one person being humiliated beyond belief in front of a crowd" that felt played out roughly a decade ago. What ended up turning this around for me was seeing the play-within-a-sketch catch up with the sketch chronologically in real time. C+

Update was pretty underwhelming. We're back to Che getting the lion's share of the better jokes (specifically his MTG/Murdoch/Pope sex blessing/YouTube prankster/Vogue cover jokes), but at least he and Jost seem to know how to play off each other well (and I'll give it to Jost for that DeSantis joke). Bowens' Jafar was something I completely tuned out of. I immediately could tell this wasn't for me, but I liked the dumb revelation that DeSantis apparently got married at Disney in real life. Punkies Angel Reese commentary was entertaining. I wonder if this was the shows' way of making it up to her for cutting her Brittney Griner commentaries over the past two seasons? Heidi's new character just barely got by on sheer goofball energy and Wiig-like mugging. The reveal of her being Che's assistant felt like an inside joke that they didn't care if the audience was in on or not. C+

Drug Commercial Shoot - This felt way too unfocused and slapdash for me. I appreciated Kenan trying to add some silliness to it, but it just seemed to veer this more and more off track. Ego and both Molly's were really the best thing about it. C-

Sally O'Malley - Well, just when I thought she was going to leave this character back in mothballs...here she is. Considering this was also the second "obligatory Jonas cameo sketch" of the night, it seems doubly odd that this was buried so late in the show. I guess Jonas brother's fans from their early days either don't have problems staying up late or just...won't stay up or stay in at all and will just catch this online if it pops up in their social feeds. This also felt a little too rushed and confused to me (especially given how overly long the previous Sally O'Malley sketches always felt to me) and it lacked an ending (not the sketches' biggest problem, I know) but kudos to Molly Shannon for finding SOME way to sneak in whatever physical humor she can give us here. Also, there is one elephant in the room we should be addressing tonight. Shouldn't Sally O'Malley at least chronologically be 73 or 74 by now? I mean, yeah, it's a sketch, and that may not HAVE to be canon. Sketch and cartoon characters are probably the last types of fictional characters that should age in any way but I had to brung this up not just because Shannon is now 58 in real life but also because 50 is no longer considered...well, not just "that old" necessarily but it's not an age where it would be considered outrageous to have an active lifestyle. In fact, Patton Oswalt would be the first to tell you that heavy exercise and an outdoor lifestyle would even MORE be encouraged once you turn 50 (well, at least low impact hiking if nothing else). Maybe this was the Jonas brother's "safe choice" for a sketch to cameo in that wouldn't alienate some of their more Christian fanbase that stuck with them (it was clearly just an excuse to get some cheap laughs by wearing goofy outfits) or maybe the Jonases just wanted to do this because it's a sketch they grew up watching with their parents but either way...they probably should've switched this around with the Jeannie Darcy pretape between dress and air so this could've been earlier in the show where it would’ve made sense. C+

CNZen - Hmm... modern day CNN coverage of Trumps' indictment/arraignment being channeled into a meditation app for bland centrist Colbert #Resistance liberals. This one seemed like it was going to be a bit of a thinker. What this was missing in conceptual coherence it quickly made up for execution. All the cast members playing current CNN anchors did great jobs in this. I especially liked the inclusion of Sarah as Wolf Blitzer and JAJ as Lindsay Graham. Molly Shannon does have the perfect voice to pull this sketch off. I do wonder who wrote this because it seems almost like a Che concept but more focused and almost as pointed as some of Che's Update jokes about, just...certain types of white people in general. I mean, it may not have been as pointed as the "Trump Addicts of America" pretape was from the season 46 Adele episode, but at least this targeted a different type of person who "makes hating Trump their entire personality" and did so at a time when the stakes were substantially lower. C+

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. Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)
6. Molly Shannon/Jonas Brother's (04.08.2023)
7. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
8. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
9. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
10. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
11. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
12. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
13. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
14. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
15. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
16. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
17. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, aside from a new "Delicious Dish" that episode pretty much gave me everything I was expecting. Next week, Ana De Armas makes her hosting debut. Given that this would be another female host for whom English is not quite their first language (I had read that she had to learn her lines for "Blonde" phoenetically) I would expect this to be another strange episode in the same vein as Gal Gadot Circa 2017 or Sofia Vergara Circa 2012 (hey, I wonder if Andy picked that one for him and Jon to review BEFORE she was announced? I'm sure it's just a coincidence). I would hope she could defy those expectations because from what little I have seen of her acting, she seems to be able to hold her own. Still, she doesn't seem like the ideal pick for "potential final host of the season if another strike DOES happen in May." Oh well, see you then and Happy Easter!

Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023) and Fan Mailbag #1 (01.29.2023)

Okay, here's my review. Michael B. Jordan is definitely my pick for the best host of this season, no doubt about it. He had a strong presence and showed endless charisma right out of the gate. He also seemed to attract a lot of his own female fans into the audience based on some of their reactions (especially from Update onward). The newer, more underused cast members even got plenty of chances to shine (JAJ, Marcello and Squirm in particular). Molly was the only cast member who was shut out of the show entirely but other than that there was a near perfect balance of newbies vs old veterans (Kenan, Mikey, Heidi, Ego) getting big lead roles tonight. I would say this is the second best episode of the season simply because it felt like there were a lot of retreads (intentional or not) of premises we've seen before. I'll explain what I mean, so let's get to it.

Merrick Garlands' Document Search - Hmm, another "off the beaten path" political open for this season, allright. Those opening graphics and Steve Higgins voice over were way more than this sketch warranted, though. Mikey seemed to just be doing a sharper, harder edged version of his "super centenarian" character from season 44 mixed in with a bit of Dana Carveys' "Grumpy Old Man" character (if Garth Algar aged into him) but it was fun enough for a sketch where he wasn't the sole focus. Kenans' character was all right. At least he gave us a different take on Mike Pence than "lol he gay" but "an unpopular Republican politician who desperately any form craves human contact" is a take I've already seen assigned to Ted Cruz. Ego's part was essentially Ego but very brief and the same could pretty much be said about Bowen what with him essentially playing his role as "culturista/name dropper/star fucker". Also, while it wasn’t completely wrong for SNL to briefly mention the situation going on in Memphis right now, I would’ve rather they done so in a more sincere and focused way in the middle of Weekend Update rather than as just an odd button on the end of this cold open. C+

Monologue - Well, Michael B. Confident. Michael B. Hiding His Aforementioned Nervousness VERY Well. Michael B. Carrying Off This Monologue Expertly. Michael B. Giving Me The Impression He Will Be A Strong Host. However, Michael NOT B. Needing The Female Cast Hitting On Him Mid-Monologue But Hey, I Didn’t Hate Seeing It (but I have to give them SOME credit because I can really only think of one other time they did this with a male host instead of a female host and it was just recent enough that both Chloe and Ego were in it too). B+

Good Morning Today - Wow, Sarah B. Gettin' One Of Her Patented Cronenberg-Lite Concept Sketches On Air Post Fucking Monologue And Michael B. In It Willing To Make Himself Look As Equally Ridiculous As Her (and Andrew B. Sticking The Landing)! Way To Go! This may have dragged a little but I'll very glad to see this make it to air. B-

Southwest Airlines - Well, I am vaguely familiar with what has been going on lately with Southwest Airlines but I feel like you didn't need to be to get the basic jokes in this since they didn’t feel too specific. This reminded me too much of the airline ad from season seven and the "we learn something from every crash" sketch from Roseannes' season 20 episode for me to say anything else about it except that I can relate a little too well to working at a job where you just get yelled at all day and they only give you a 2002 IBM Thinkpad Laptop with the little red nipple on the keyboard. C+

Towell Guys - Wow, Marcello B. Getting His Sketch On, Too (allright, allriiiiiiight, I'll stop this now and start putting some damn effort into writing this thing already). Yeah, so good for Marcello for getting a sketch on with some funny lines and being able to hold his own next to Kenan, JAJ and Michael B but this felt too much like Kenan just threw all of his David Ortiz commentaries in a blender with Key and Peeles' valet sketches and Beck and Kyles' waterslide lifeguard sketch with Reese Witherspoon from season 40 (and maybe a dash of "fresh pepper" from season 20 but Kenan definitely knew when to say when). I mean, it was still fun to watch but it could’ve used a bit more structure to it. The Tony Soprano jokes got the biggest laughs from this our of me. JAJ and Sarah was definitely my favorite of all the side characters asking for towels (or an umbrella in the case of the latter). B-

Jake From State Farm - I felt like I immediately knew where this was going as soon as I saw Mikey, Heidi and Mr. Jordan all on screen together at once and I was expecting a retread of the Roach-Ex pretape from Don Cheadles' episode. Thankfully, this took a slow left turn once Heidi mentioned the kids went to church. I immediately thought "ok, this is going to be just wholesome enough to subvert my expectations." Then, it gradually went into M3GAN-like, dark, psychological thriller territory into a grittier version of Its' A Wonderful Life when Andrew and the Limu Emu showed up (I liked how that was literally the only time a "surprise twist" ending where it is revealed that there is a different sponsor you weren't expecting actually worked and I liked how they stuck with using that cheap looking Emu puppet in such a glossy detailed pretape). A-

Street Fighter Sessions - I was expecting a retread of the J.J. Watt/Owen Wilson voice over sketches and ended up getting something that felt more like a retread of a Eli Manning EA Sports sketch. I figured this would go a different way once Mikey showed up WAY later than I expected. I will say Andrew was really the glue that held this together and Michael B. Delivering His Lines In A Way That Didn't Let The Jokes In His And Bowens Back-And-Forth Breathe (GOD. DAMMIT!!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just...yeah, I saw what I was setting myself up for there and just...couldn't stop myself. Trust me, it WON'T happen again. I promise you that). C+

Update kept up the energy from last week but it was still kinda all over the place. Weirdly, Jost had the better jokes tonight (I especially liked his Disney/Dopey/new coat jokes as it gave me my biggest chuckle) but Che seemed to take some wild swings that mostly missed (that Taylor Swift joke in particular felt like a HUGE misfire...not that the joke was bad or anything but it just seemed like the type of joke that would’ve played better had it been told five years ago in some alternate universe where the show DIDN'T manage to get Tay-Tay on to plug "reputation"...man, they must've completely given up on ever getting her on again...and also, I think Che mentioning the "cat turd" Twitter account was a mistake too but he's not on Twitter so he won't see it...Che did kinda win me back with that Kanye joke though). I expected the first commentary to be Sarah for a second when wealth inequality was mentioned but then when I heard the word "doorman" I correctly expected Kenan and I gotta say his character felt a little aimless but he won me over with that "barking dog" joke. I like that he added some absurdity to the typical "Che is a degenerate deadbeat dad" fare. I was probably a little more surprised than I shouldn't been seeing Heidi bring Angel out of mothballs. I thought the "every boxers girlfriend" trilogy concluded with Damons' appearance as...well, THE boxer in question but then Michael B. Reprising His "Creed" Role...MOTHERFUCKER!!! SHIT!!! Ok, THAT was the last one. No really, I'm DONE with it! Shows you what a promise from me is worth, huh? C+

Male Confidence Seminar - This was definiteley Andrew Dismukes best role of the night (and possibly his best role of his entire tenure in the cast tonight). JAJ had his second best role of the night but it's good to see him branch out a little and give us a new voice. Devon did some good character work but I'd like to see him rely on giving himself lisps at random a little less. Longfellow and Marcello has good one-liners. This would not be the last time Dismukes and MBJ would play off each other tonight but to me it was the best for how pointed and focused within its own premise it felt. B+

Palm Springs Bachelorette Weekend - This just felt like it was written to be female eye candy even more blatantly than the monologue (but with Sarah included in a capacity where her presence would make sense) until Heidi showed up and I immediately flashed back to that Woody Harrelson season 45 sketch where he was a high school football coach and she played his inappropriately young girlfriend. It immediately became clear that this was gonna be another "Heidi plays an obnoxiously dim woman accidentally dragged by her man into an inappropriate situation she does not belong in" sketch an from there everything felt too telegraphed for me. Also, this feels like something Heidi cowrote too just to see what it would take to get Ego, Chloe and Sarah to break on air. Still, no one really broke and everyone was so professional here that they all just blew past MBJ casually dropping a caught-just-in-time-to-be-muted F-bomb on air like it was nothing (I knew I could've be the only one that caught that one since catching the same night rerun in my area they obviously replaced this with the dress version and that is the second time this exact thing happened this season...and now that I think about it, the blatant "other camera barging into frame" shot was probably the other reason for this). C+

King Bros. Toyota Vs. The Coward Hugo Gallegos & Raising Canes - This might have been my favorite live sketch of the night and not just because it was JAJ biggest non-impression lead role in a sketch to date and how the continued chances Dismukes got to play to his strengths continued. I loved how increasingly detailed this got as they doubled down on the threats of vengeance and petty specificity of it all. I also loved the frequent references to Marcellos' character only seen in still photo form. They even found a way to make MBJs' presence make sense in this. Hell, I know there's an actual Raising Canes restaurant that opened up near me recently that I'm now curious to try out sometime. A-

Michael B. Falling Down (grrrrr) - Wow, I never knew Michael B. Jordan was such a gifted physical conedian. Maybe he's been playing the long game this whole time and has only been taking all these acting roles just to get to host SNL someday and show off his ability to take a fall. Somewhere Chevy Chase is quietly seething about twice as much as he normally does on any given day. Anyway, I liked how well MBJ and Dismukes played worthy adversaries (with some assists from Bowen and Squirm) and...HOLY SHIT I HAVE to meet whoever at SNL has an actual vintage issue of MAD magazine just hanging on the corkboard in their office. Anyway, yeah I liked this. The only thing negative I can say about this is that it reminded me of the much inferior "Drake's Beef" short from season 41 where he just raps about how much he likes Josh Gad more than that cast and crew after petty slights (maybe I just noticed a slight physical resemblance between Drake and MBJ? I dunno). I'd be especially curious to know who wrote this because if it's NOT PDD, it is DEFINITELY someone aping their style. B-

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. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
7. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
8. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
9. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
10. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
11. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Now, it's time to introduce a new 10 year anniversary feature to my blog that I like to simply call "Fan Mailbag". This is where I invite you, my loyal long-time readers to submit actual fan questions to me and I answer them here on the blog.

Like I mentioned here last week, the fans of mine who read this blog and regulary give me valuable feedback mean the world to me and you are what drives me to keep this going so...please forgive me if the regular review portion of this weekends' blog post seemed a little rushed or thrown together at the last second. I wanted to make sure I had enough time and energy to get this new feature in here because I know for sure that i would especially a lot to one of you in particular. Plus, it kinda helped that this show didn’t give me a whole lot to unpack and over analyze so I wanted to move through it quickly to get to this point right here.

Anyway, this week's inaugural question was submitted by a dear friend of mine who goes by the name of Ken George Jones (among other names) who writes...

"What made you become a fan of SNL, and what keeps you watching SNL?"

Well, I'd say I became a fan literally from birth. My parents were fans of the show from its inception and the were really the ones who introduced me to it. They actually invited my sister and I to stay up late with them and watch the show live Saturday nights on NBC. Sometimes they would do the sanme thing with early MAD TV, All That and Kids In The Hall. They wanted it to be a formative part of our senses of humor and by gum, it worked. What keeps my watching it is mainly that it's always been such an integral part of my life from having been ingrained into my personality from an almost irresponsibly young age (hell, I'd say about 96% of my earliest childhood memories are centered around the show in some way) but going beyond that I'd say I've just always been drawn to anything having to do with comedy, parody and satire in my life (and especially people, places and things that have been considered long running "institutions" in that field like MAD/CRACKED, MST3K, Weird Al, The Simpsons and other "adult" animated shows, etc) and since I watched it from a young age and the show did a lot of topical/political humor I'd say it had a way of helping me process the world around me to the point where it didn’t because it would be pretty ignorant and un-hip to say that about how the show does what it does now. I've always been intrigued by the "live" aspect of it as well (that NBC has been playing up more and more in recent years, because let's face it...they, and really all of broadcast television in general now really have nothing else going on) that makes you feel like you're watching along with the whole rest of the country in real time even when you're alone. There's not much else besides sports and internet livestreams that do this now but SNL is so fine tuned and carefully crafted to be what it is that it's still really the only thing of it's kind nearly five decades later. The last thing I want to mention here is just the fact that it's something I grew up loving as a part of my life for a long time so naturally I was drawn to online communities of similar minded fans who wanted to discuss the show and similarly analyze it and find out all there is to know about all it's previous eras that may have been before our time, which, of course, led me...here of all places. When somethings' been around that long and stuck around and has absolutely refused to give into the battle against its' own looming irrelevancy, you naturally want to learn more and more abour its history and how it evolved to stick around in wildly changing times. 

Thank you, Ken! Here's hoping at lesst part of that answered your question they way you hoped it would!

Remember, if YOU out there would also like your own fan mailbag questions answered by me (or if you would like to write your own guest post on the blog like Blood Meridian) please either leave them in the comments or privately reach out to me elsewhere.

Well, SNL certainly continues on it's upward trend into the new year! Next week, Pedro Pascal makes his hosting debut. I thought I was the only one who knew that guys' name from somewhere but couldn't think of anything I'd seen him in or known him from (or even what he looks like, to be honest). Thank God some of you are in the same boat as me. Oh, well. He seems to have a devoted fanbase from the stuff he's been in so he must leave a great impression on people as an actor. I'm sure he'll make it a fun show. See you then!