Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)

Okay, here's my review. I went in expecting an episode more like Woodys' 2014 one and sadly what I got ended up resembling his 2019 episode but more focused yet still uneven and less cameo dependent. This episode was fine. It will probably be one of the weaker episodes of the second half of season 48 but it just felt like it was too front loaded with its' weaker material up top. I didn't mind that the show was pretty much dominated by Ego, Chloe, Kenan and Mikey but a little more Sarah, Molly, Marcello and Longfellow wouldn't have hurt either. Anyway, I'll just get right to it since I didn't have much to say about this episode anyway.

Trump Visits Palestine, Ohio - Well, that was...certainly questionable. This is definitely my least favorite use of JAJs' Trump so far. Still, I'd take this over literally any Baldwin Trump cold open any day. I appreciate that they threw in Chloe as someone for JAJ to play off of but she didn't do anything for me here either. C-

Monologue - Hmm...I'm not quite sure what to make of this either. I mean, I would appreciate an overly long set up to a straightforward punchline if said punchline had a much bigger payoff (of if said overly long set up didn't make keep needlessly coming back to the "Woody likes his weed...and naturally he tends to forget things because of it" well because I'm starting to think he naturally forgot this ISN'T the first time he's mentioned this on SNL). What I DID appreciate was the false set ups to the five timers jacket (along with the callback just before Jack Whites' first performance which was pretty solid and the payoff at the end with them both getting jackets from Kenan and ScarJo respectively) and the fact that SNL is finally starting to give 16 minute monologue slots (or at least monologues that FEEL 16 minutes long) to hosts with an actual likable presence. Also, was anyone else expecting him to bring up "Triangle Of Sadness" when he kept mentioning that script he was reading? C+

Visiting Hours - Thank God this turned out to be a two hander between Ego and Kenan. I don't think I would be that interested Woody and Chloe (bringing back THAT voice...or God forbid Chloe) as the main focus. The only thing I didn’t care for was how repetitive Ego and Kenans' lines felt. C+

PDD: The Stakeout - Ok, I know that some of us are souring on PDD but I definitely appreciated them giving us something with a little absurdist energy just when the episode needed it (even if it just feels like a slightly inverted neo-noir take on the "Andys' Dad" digital Short with Jonah Hill). It felt like it may have been a little too soon to make Ben the odd man out in this since we just got that in the short they did with Steve and Marty two months ago but thankfully they built on that and added more to it. B-

Slingshot - This felt like it had the most wasted potential because it went absolutely nowhere. The performances did it justice but that still isn't saying much. If this were any later in the show I'd be more inclined to think whatever ending it had needed to be edited for time because this show was obviously running long. D+

Naval Base - Somehow, Andrews' brief dialogue in this gave me my first genuine laugh of the entire show, so...yeah, even though this was essentially a "Boaty McBoatface" sketch done about seven and a half years too late this somehow worked for me. This was an extremely dignified and dramatic setup to an extremely juvenile punchline being shouted and overexplained in great detail. It didn’t overstay its' welcome either (which is more than I can say for the Slingshot sketch) and even though it was a standard length sketch, something about this execution made this feel like the closest thing this era to a blackout sketch this era could pull off. B-

Cologuard - This first part of this felt like the standard "creepy, off putting fetish" sketch we've seen time and time again in Mikeys' era on the show but the menacing twist with the (literal) knives coming out followed by Heidi and Dismukes appearance and the reveal of Woody playing himself worked for me. Unfortunately, those parts were too short. C+

Update didn't quite come in too hot but I did like Josts' Trump Water/Chloride/Tucker Carlson/Oscars jokes and Ches' Ron DeSantis joke. What I did appreciate more how they gradually snuck in more and more "joke swap" energy starting with Che's "What Did They Even Do Wrong?" segment. I appreciate them giving JAJ some insane dialogue as Bill Walton and Heidi what turned out to be a wonderfully dark character piece (even if it did remind me quite a bit of that oblivious grandma sketch with Jim Breuer and Colin Quinn from Tom Arnolds' season 21 episode). B-

The Hippo - While I appreciated the specificity in the writing of this and the sheer Norm MacDonald-like melancholy Woody bought to his performance (and the petty bitterness Chloe, Mikey, Ego and JAJ bought to their parts way JAJ kicked his trash can) I have slightly mixed feelings about this imagining the online discourse just the visuals of Woody in the fat suit will bring about. Incidentally, it reminded me quite of a bit of that "I Can't Even" sketch that was in Dakota Johnsons' episode from season 40 that got cut from tonight's "Vintage" airing or that sketch from 1987 where Dabney Coleman played a blind man so, yeah...it was just a little derivative. C+

Two Men Speak Inside The Most Beautiful Gym In The World - This felt like a very "Bowen" piece but a very writerly "Bowen" piece. It felt like Bowen returning to his roots and giving us something he would've more than likely come up with before he joined the cast and found a questionable new niche in playing insects, demons and inanimate objects. I liked the Sarah appearance (and I would’ve probably liked it more if it weren't her only non voice over role of the night) as well as the "gym rat" and "torn ACL" jokes but other than that it felt like another one of those sketches you'd frequently get during the Wiig/Samberg era that's just a random string of one liners being barely held together by a threadbare premise that I just couldn't get into. 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. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
6. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
7. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
8. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
9. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
10. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
11. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
12. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
13. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Now, let me revisit my rankings of Woodys' previous episodes and see where this one lands...

1. Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar (11.15.2014)
2. Woody Harrelson/David Byrne (11.18.1989)
3. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
4. Woody Harrelson/Vanessa Williams (5.16.1992)
5. Woody Harrelson/Billie Eilish (9.28.2019)

Well, that was certainly one of the more underwhelming episodes of the season. Next week, Kansas City Chiefs Tight End (and recent Super Bowl champ) Travis Kelce makes his hosting debut. Huh, guess we were overdue for an athlete host? Oh well, I can't say whether or not he will be funny until I see him but the very little interview footage I've seen of this man (mainly when he professes to be a longtime SNL fan on Fallon recently) makes me think he will at least be game (no pun intended) for anything and have enough charm and charisma to pull it off so I'm keeping an open mind on this one. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer like I did for Ken George Jones, PLEASE let me know!)

Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This was definiteley the weakest SNL episode of 2023 but absolutely none of that was Pedro Pascals' fault. He was a fine host who certainly had fun and gelled with this cast but he didn’t exactly blow me away or anything. Still, there were fun moments to be had in a field of bland mediocrity so this was far from the worst episode of season 48. It's about what I would expect from the third episode of a run of three in a row. The cast felt a little imbalanced seeing as I really missed Dismukes after the strong outing he had last week and Molly was shoved into the background once again. Still, Longfellow, Marcello and Devon had great nights and JAJ and Sarah continue to make headway in a week where Bowen, Ego and Chloe dominated the show. I'd say the biggest thing this episode had going against it was their falling back on old habits when they should be experimenting a bit more in an effort to figure out what their identity will be going into the next era. Let me explain what I mean.

Katy Tur Reports - Something told me this would be the cold open...and something else told me it would be this goofy and aimless...as that's pretty much what this warrants, anyway. I'm getting the sense that somewhere my friend Rubys' nose must be bleeding right now and she will remember none of this by tomorrow and neither will I. Bowens' obligatory role makes me feel like this was supposed to be an Update commentary originally but had to be hastily rewritten once news broke that the baloon was shot down and then they were just like "fuck...ok, we gotta completely change the greenscreen effect we were going with now". Yeah, I'd find it hard to believe this was the original cold open in dress and I'd like to see them try to top this for "worst cold open of the season".D+

Monologue - Pedro seemed like a bundle of nerves at first when talking about The Mandalorian but once he started talking about his Chilean background he seemed more at ease. Near the end, those nerves seemed to have transformed into raw emotion. He was a little more low energy than recent hosts but he handled "charming self effacement" about as well as the rest of these past two seasons of hosts. B-

Big Hollywood Quiz - Well, Bowen hosting a game show (and a rather campy one that seemed to be written just for him) is something different at least. It's more low key and focused than typical "post monologue game show sketches" and it makes a salient point about our current media landscape (especially streaming shows...boy, Taylor Swift must've laughed her ass off at that "Ginny and Georgia" slam, right?). I remember how our friend Ruby made a similar point about how binge watching and streaming affect our memories. If I didn't know any better, I'd say either she wrote the entire show so far tonight or one of SNLs' current writers is stalking her. The only criticism I have of this is it somehow still felt like something we've seen before (like with "What Is Burn Notice?" or any of the Kate Mackinnon post covid "is my brain ok?" sketches) but it was at least a fresh spin on such a vaguely familiar framework. B-

HBOs' Mario Kart - Well, we got our obligatory host sketch and it seems like they were trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle they caught with the David Harbour Joker/Grouch parody from a few years ago but this felt way too telegraphed and predictable for me. I mean, it felt like another one of those pop culture parody sketches where you're meant to admire it more for how much it wrings out of such a thin, simple, nothing of a premise but even looking at it from that angle there seems to be nothing there. I mean, they made good use of Marcello here but Chloe as Princess Peach just made me flashback to Grimes as Miss Peach a couple of years ago and I have a feeling people are gonna react to this the same way they reacted to, well...that. Hell, after that "swole Grimace" sketch from the premiere I'm just thankful that Yoshi and Toad being bisexuality weren't the ENTIRE joke. D+

Coma Patient - This felt like it was written by an A.I. that was fed nothing but Mikey Day and Kroll Show sketches (yeah, I'm aware of how hacky that sounds so don't bother pointing that out. I just bring up A.I. because I was watching aboyt 25 minutes of that endless "Nothing Forever" Seinfeld Twitch feed to kill time before the show and I finally figured out that it was Jon Daly in those Kroll Show "Rich Dicks" sketches that Pascals' voice reminded me of). Pedro seemed to be breaking hard enough to guarantee not one but TWO band shots later in the show, so it's nice to see he was at least having fun here. Other than that, I was just glad to see that such a dadaist nothing of a sketch could have such a sweet, heartfelt ending. C+

Fancam Assembly - Ok, this HAD to have been written by the same writers behind "M3GAN 2.0" since it's mined heavily from GenZ social media lingo (yeah, thankfully I must've missed when "no crumbs left" became the hot new Twitter buzzword) and it features a cameo from Sarah Paulson (was she actually IN something with Pedro Pascal or was she just there because she fit the theme this sketch was going for so well?), so...yeah, whoever wrote this was either very in touch with "the gays" or just paid enough attention to the actual SNL fancams in the replies to tweets from the shows' official Twitter account and could only get this sketch on the air two years too late. I can tell Che DIDN’T write this (not for the obvious reason) but because it was written to humiliate the audience instead of the host and the cast. Plus, you could tell it was written by someone who didn’t hate their job with a burning white hot passion and thus was desperately trying to get fired. Molly's character was my only genuine laugh of the whole sketch (well, along with Devons' "mid" line and the wat he delivered it). I'm honestly not that shocked to discover how badly I missed that the "big boys" song from the Keke Palmer/SZA episode was the song used in all those fancams because I think I've made it pretty clear as to how and why that song left my brain permanently pretty much immediately after it aired. Still, I did appreciate how this sketch also went for a semi-heartfelt ending that tried to make a point about the relationship today's teens have with their social media (even if they just absolutely HAD to go and dip back into the "lol Covid broke all our brains" well ONCE AGAIN). The way this was acted made me realize that the only time I don't like Ego or Sarah as performers is when she leans to heavily into the trendy, social media buzzword/slang heavy stuff that's more in Bowens' wheelhouse than theirs (but at least when Ego does do this she appears completely at ease and it comes off as more believable and natural than when Sarah takes part in this). I was about to question how high schoolers would have access to that much footage of their teachers or how the students would avoid getting caught and written up for blatantly filming their teachers in class but overthinking this particular sketch anymore would just make me frustrate me more, so I'll just move on. C-

Wing Pit - Finally, this episode delivers on SOMETHING! This was definiteley my favorite segment of the night just for the sheer violent chaos and "Taco Town somehow gained sentience and tried cocaine for the first time" vibes of it. A+

Update was really only worth about two jokes ane one commentary this week. Ches' "Delaware beach house" joke and Josts' "16 year olds on social meda" jokes made me laugh just for their delivery and the "chicken wings" joke only made me laugh for Che's reaction to it. Good to see Mr. Longfellow get another commentary where he doesn’t just play himself. I have to give them credit for giving Michael Longfellow when we were being set up to expect Bowen Yang. It's also great that this was written for Michael and not Bowen. I could tell because they gave Punxsutawney Phil a real "burnt out dirtbag" vibe that only Michael Longfellow could pull off and I didn’t feel like this was supposed to be a Bowen commentary but Bowen suddenly fell ill so they just grabbed Longfellow, slapped Bowens' costume on him and threw him out there. JAJ and Devons' two hander was one of the highlights of the night for me as we finally got to see them break out of their shells (and see JAJ break out if his "political impressionist/southern gent" box) and experiment with some original and pleasantly silly character work. Whatever Kyle Mooney was going for with his "rapper from Holland" character JAJ improved upon a thousand fold with this. B-

Luis' Protective Mom - Nice to see Marcello get another one of his sketches on the air. Weird how this was the second sketch in this episode that made me flash back to David Harbours' episode but I was glad to see there was more to this sketch than just the host in drag and that this was able to focus up effectively mine it's humor from multiple culture clashes (which makes me all the more stunned to find out that PDD helped write this and not the next sketch). B+

Italian Restaurant - Well, I'm just shocked to hear that Sarah didn’t write or even help cowrite this herself because that's really the only way I could have even bought into the outrageously unbelievable and outlandish premise of "Sarah Sherman is repeatedly told by other men that she is ugly and/or unattractive". That's all I'm gonna say there. D+

Lisa From Temecula - While I'm glad to see Ego get another character on, I guess I was just expecting something a little different. This is the first time I've seen Ego do a Debbie Downer/Bill Hader/Kate & Aidy self-indulgent type pieces that seemed designed solely for her to get her castmates to break (or based on how quickly Bowen broke which makes me think this was based on some inside joke betweem them that the audience wasn’t in on), but I guess she's earned her right as a performer to do that at this point. Thankfully, this was short (or just had to be hastily edited for time) and felt more grounded and contained than I thought it was going to be. C+

Goodnights - I don't always comment on these but it was nice to see JAJ and Colin wearing shirts in solidarity with the increasingly-less-likely-to-strike-now-it-seems post production unit. Also, I noticed Chloe was wearing a brunette wig and a leopard print dress which made me wonder if that was her costume from one of the cut for time sketches?

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. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
9. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
10. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
11. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
12. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that certainly was another episode of SNL. In three weeks, Woody Harrelson joins the five timers club. Even though his last episode from 2019 has somehow aged the worst out of his existing four episodes (yes, even his 1992 one) I'll be looking forward to this one as Woody is always a welcome presence at the show. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer like I did for Ken George Jones, PLEASE let me know!)

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!

Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This was honestly the best show of the season so far for me. Aubrey Plaza was a strongly committed host who bought a diverse acting range to everything she was in and she clearly bonded well with the cast and writers because they knew exactly how to use her. Plus, this episode gave the newer featured players quite a few chances to each break out on their own. The only sense of imbalance in the cast I found was the fact that Michael Longfellow was seemingly only used in pretapes tonight. It truly felt like we were finally truly breaking into a new era of SNL. Anyway, let's get right to it because we have a lot to unpack here.

NFL on FOX - Wow, I have to give them credit for the epic misdirection here. Way to Trojan horse your obligatory George Santos sketch on your audience SNL. I guess Bowen playing him instead of, say...Marcello (hey, at lesst we know he's not letting it get to him right now) is appropriate because George Santos' real ethnicity (and sexuality apparently given his drag queen past) is so heavily shrouded in secrets and lies the he also might as well be lying about being gay and Asian too at this point? Oh well, it still works for me. Kudos to Bowen on the impossible seeming quick change and jumping in for a solo LFNY. I'll still take a solo one even if it involves one cast member jumping over to another set. Devons' Michael Strahan was pretty solid. As this went along, it seemed more and more like he WASN'T just adding a lisp to his "Ed from Good Burger" voice. It was fun seeing JAJ as Jimmie Johnson and Molly as Terry Bradshaw. The voices they used may have sounded a little more JAJ/Molly than Bradshaw/Johnson to me, but it's easier for me to buy those impressions than it is for me to buy Mikey Day as Howie Long. B-

Monologue - I guess the only things this monologue delivered on that I did NOT fully expect were it's sheer length and the eerily disquieting Biden pretaped cameo (that I'm still not sure should’ve happened for numerous reasons and even given his connection to Aubrey I'm never going to be 100% sure WASN'T deepfaked). I guess I let myself get lulled into a false sense of security with all these sincere host monologues from mostly first time hosts whose only tenuous connections to the show are them being longtime fans or...just having lived and/or worked in New York at some point in their lives. I was definiteley expecting Aubrey to bring up her past connection to the show in her monologue (maybe her failed audition moreso than her internship but hey, what do I know?) but I wasn’t quite expecting her to take that and RUN with it this much. Still, I am a sucker for a sprawling, back-stage wandering monologue and an out of nowhere Leo Yoshimura cameo. An unexpected NFL cold open and a backstage monologue back to back? What is this? The Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers episode? I was half expecting the Poehler cameo, not counting on it. This era of the show has taught me not to get my heart set on cameos from the host's costars or even cameos in sketches from certain musical guests if I don't want to just set myself up for disappointment. Plus, Amy seemed like she's in what I like to call the "wine mom Jordan Peele" phase of her career in that she's not only moved on from SNL but moved on from acting and performing in general in favor of directing and producing but given that I know how much Amy Poehlers' influence meant to Aubrey Plaza (hell, I know Plaza was so dead set on not just working for SNL/NBC but just working for Poehler in some capacity professionally because she idolized her so much that Plaza just borderline stalked Poehler just to beg her for a job which is basically how she got that page gig) I can see how and why Amy may have made an exception. Hell, this cold open and monologue combo put it over Chappelles' episode for me and made it the best episode of the season for me. Sure, tonight's sketches weren't as consistent all across the board (as we'll get into in just a moment) but this episode had a more all across the board likable host who didn’t cast a dark shadow over the whole show from the week before it started and this monologue cemented that. A-

Miss Universe - Well, I'm only VAGUELY familiar with the "Miss FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!" thing because I just read about it (yeah, I still get the "Know Your Meme" newsletter in my inbox from time to time, don't ask me how or why) so it's a viral moment I only know about tenuously because I haven't seen the TikToks or the remixes. Naturally, I'm more than a little surprised they found a way to SSSSSTTTTRRRRREEEEEEETCCCCCHHHHH this thing into a full length sketch but even as scattered as this was I'm all for any sketch that's written for Molly Kearney to scream. Also, Aubrey really sold the hell out of this with some assists from Squirm, Punkie and Heidi (could've used a bit more of them). The Tony Hawk cameo was fun but the Property Brothers felt a little gratuitous. C+

Black Lotus - You know, I've definitely heard more about "White Lotus" than I've actually seen (which is none, haven watched a single episode but I could tell this was written by someone who has at lesst seen this season). Still, as much as this seemed like a simple premise stuck out of time, I was glad to see someone take this approach to satirizing it. It seems to me like this show is getting more and more ridiculous with each season (and again, I'm basing this take on one Jennifer Coolidge GIF alone so take that statement with a grain of salt), so it's about time some poke some holes in it and (if you'll forgive the expression) take some of the wind out of its' sails. Kenan seemed to most into this premise as anything he has been in so far this season (the fact that it was a pretape probably helped) and JAJ, Ego, Aubrey, Punkie and Dismukes stole the scenes they were in. B-

Taboo - This definitely felt like a sketch tailor made for Aubrey. Only she could make this feel like it's more than just "Cards Against Humanity: The Sketch". It was nice to get an inversion of the dreaded "Mikey reacts" trope (where everyone else reacts to Mikeys' strangeness and it's brief and not too dragged out). The pacing felt off but then I realized that the sketch just left me wanting more after it just ended with minimal Kenan/Ego/Heidi/Longfellow reactions to Mikey and Aubreys' intensity, which...might actually be a good thing? I mean, this live sketch and the one that followed it felt quite short compared to everything that came before it but then when we got to Sam Smith and Kim Petras' performance of "Unholy" I realized what a short, concise song THAT was and suddenly it clicked as to why this show felt like it had minor pacing issues. B+

Sisters - Wow, two sketches in a row that only Aubrey Plaza can hit out of the park this well (with or without her McKinnon-like commitment to that Irish accent!) Plus, we finally get a Molly showcase that really showcases their strengths as a performer (with some assists from Dismukes and Squirmy, of course). I didn’t care too much for the "Shallow" musical ending. It put an awkward button on the sketch that I didn’t quite like but everything else hit home for me! B-

M3GAN 2.0 - I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the idea of SNL doing a "M3GAN" parody in general (unsurprisingly, Chloe and Aubrey can both physically play "robotic doll girl" well but neither could pull off the "uncanny valley" look well enough for this to work much for me on a basic ground level) but adding gay camp to it (seriously, does Aubrey Plaza now have a huge gay male following from that I'm unaware of?) is automatically going to make a great deal of this sail gently over my head (I mean, I can see how maybe "White Lotus" or some early "Parks and Rec" moments could make Aubrey one of those "gay icon" chicks, but...anyway, I don't wanna get too sidetracked here). It didn’t help that it didn’t escalate or go anywhere (literally, since this was set almost entirely inside a gay nightclub) and the only real ending it had was "Allison Williams shows up for a surprise cameo" but...it seemed like the underlying message of this was "gay men are gleefully oblivious to their own imminent danger?" I dunno, at least that's what I picked up. I mean, there's a very big chance I could be missing something important here but...something about that bring my main takeaway just...doesn’t sit right even with me. C-

Update was quite possibly the best it's been all season. It's really nice to see Jost and Che NOT gassed out even in the slightest for once (seriously, until tonight I legit can't remember the last time I saw either one of them looking like they actually wanted to be there. It's legitimately been years). That MTG drag queen joke and Josts' tennis joke were both a bit...questionable to me but all the rest worked well for me simply because they looked lile they were actually having fun delivering them. I'm not sure why the show felt we needed two different segments where Bowen Yang played George Santos in the same episode (I'd say maybe they stuck with it because they probably wrote this before they wrote or decided on the cold open but this feelt like they just dusted off the script for one of Bill Haders' John Mark Karr commentaries from the beginning of season 32 but with Stefon-levels of dress to air cue cards changes) but I will admit that Bowen had quite a few lines that worked better for me than the material he had in the cold open (especially the Madonna calls and the Rasputin/Anastasia bits). I didn't think I would enjoy a blatantly drumrolled Parks and Rec fan service bit (especially since it's been years since I've seen the show and it would still take some convincing for me to believe it holds up that well) but this was fun. I could get into this because the good vibes this show had already been putting out carried it over. It worked for me even though I felt like Amy and Aubrey were forcing themselves to channel season one April and Leslie since I couldn't escape this nagging feeling that Poehler and Plaza may have grown out of these roles (and I say that not in terms' of these womens real life age at all but more in terms of their character development throughout the run of a series that's been off the air for eight years outside of one Covid Zoom reunion, just to be clear). B+ 

Avatar, Too - This was definiteley the weakest and most conceptually confused sketch of the night for me. I mean, I know what I'm about to say makes it seem like I am WAY overthinking this but how would two random possible lesbians from Arizona even get access to Avatar equipment and how would the other Na'vi go nearly a decade and a half living with Jake Sully and not catch on to tye fact that he too is a human in an Avatar. Putting all that aside, this did nothing for me. I'm starting to think maybe Ego discovered she could do an impression of one of the roles from Avatar and she took it to Mikey and Heidi who helped her write this sketch backwards from there. D+

Dovato Commercial Shoot - Wow, right off the bat this comes off pretty dicey premise-wise...and a little unfocused, too. I mean, Aubrey played a solid distracted (but comitted) director but why were both Mikey and Devon the split focus of this? Devon was solid here and had some genuinely funny lines but something about this sketch made it feel a little too much like a product of a previous, less enlightened era for me. If Devon weren't playing a dumb character here, this would've felt more like a contradiction of his big Weekemd Update commentary about making women feel safe as a straight man. Weirdly, this was the second sketch of the night set at a gay nightclub that I could've fully get on board with. C-

Jack Raughley, Private Eye - Well, we didn’t QUITE get the JAJ character piece I was hoping for but this was possiby the best use of his knack for old timey acting voices (since he got to play it more subtle as a male non-impression lead in something for once). Plus, he got the lion's share of the best jokes in this and held his own against Aubrey who, again, was well cast here. She must've drawn on her past Parks and Rec persona as Janet Snakehole for this one. The Sharon Stone cameo actually worked for me. I mean, it took Jon Schneider, Bill Kenney and Kaley Morrison on the SNN hot take show pointing it out to me that THAT WAS Sharon Stone (odd to have her and Amy Poehler in the building on the same night, huh? I guess I'll have to revisit her '92 episode to see if it's truly that bad or if it just aged incredibly poorly) but she served this sketch well (and given that she was the quite literal centerpiece of Sam Smiths' performance of "Gloria" it makes me think Sam might have had more to do with getting her on this week than Aubrey did). B+

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
3. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
4. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
5. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
6. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
7. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
8. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
9. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
10. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, this seems like the beginning of a promising new year for SNL! Next week, Michael B. Jordan makes his hosting debut. He's someone I would consider another "wild card" since he's mostly known for serious, dramatic roles as well as Black Panther. I believe SNL might be his first foray into comedy, so I wish him well. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer, please let me know!)

A Few Words About Casey

 

Hi everybody, it’s me Blood Meridian! Some of you might be familiar with me from some other online SNL venues, but I’m here on this occasion to write a few very special words about the one and only Casey Killingsworth in celebration of his blog’s incredible 10th anniversary. So, bear with me for a few minutes as I take a trip down memory lane with all of you here. 

There are casual fans, there are hardcore, and there are SNL reviewers, and there’s Casey Killingsworth, in a class in his own. Talking or writing about Casey is always difficult for me, because, where to even begin? There are to me simply no words enough to describe what that name means to me as both a person and most importantly as a young, reviewer & fan of the show. To put simply, without Casey and his blog, I wouldn’t BE even here typing these words that I’m in the process of doing as of now. Casey made me feel there are others who share my obsession, that there others who would share their thoughts without both a filter of fake praise nor a cynical attitude. Considering that I never delved too deep onto the many message boards that used to exist when I started to get into SNL, as the mid 2010s were in process. Casey’s reviews, especially since I started reading along with season 41 of the show, were always a major highlight of my enjoyment of an episode; always so evenhanded, balanced, and wholly uninterested in trying to stir drama or be there for clout or attention; even when I disagree at times with a take, I agree. Casey didn’t need to make them like that, this is his own personal blog at the end, but did so out of both respect for the show AND for his readers. And, as a reviewer of the show myself, I always try my best to be like that. 

Also, without Casey’s example of always being the adult in the room in both his reviews of the show and conduct, I wouldn’t have been here myself talking about him. In particular that at times emotions take away the best of us and we lose our composure for a moment and might do or say things we never meant that would hurt others (I certainly have in the past). Also, ever since I became a reviewer of the show with last season, to receive not only positive reception from Casey and many others in the community meant the world to me, and, to know that Casey, whom I looked up to in the past and still to this day would enjoy them makes me feel both eternally grateful & incredibly proud. So, to you Casey, here’s for ten more years!

10th Anniversary Celebration!!! (part 1)

Hey, everyone!

So, as I mentioned over the weekend, this is actually the tenth anniversary of me starting this blog (yes, down to the exact date and time because blogs posts have time stamps on them you can pay attention to). In fact, this September is going to be the tenth anniversary of when I started writing SNL reviews in general but it would be another four years and some change before I would start publishing them to my blog. 

Yeah, I used to just write reviews and post them to the old SNL message board on Voy.com and the old S-N-L.com message board run by a guy named Sean Bradley. Those two sites are long dead and thus those early reviews I did of seasons 34 through 37 of SNL are legitimately lost to the sands of time...thankfully. I mean, I started writing those when I was 17 going on 18 so I WAY had not developed my writing skills to where they are today so, yeah...I'm not exactly proud of the ones I wrote in high school and early college. I mean, hey, who DOESN'T look back and cringe at themselves at that age, right?

Still, I kept at it and learned to write in a way I would feel comfortable with myself and other people reading decades in the future. In fact, this blog wouldn't exist if it weren't for few specific journalism classes I took in my late college years. They each required me to maintain blogs and post assignment responses on there regularly so I figured "hey, while I'm doing this...why don't I just start a FIFTH new blog for my SNL reviews just for fun? I mean, I feel like they're WORTH saving for posterity now! Maybe someday people who AREN'T regular posters on two very specific niche message boards would want to read them!"

Well, here we are, a full decade later and I can confidently say I have received enough feedback to have been proven right! So naturally, I have a few people I'd like to thank.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my family for (mainly my parents) for introducing me to SNL (and sketch comedy in general) at a surprisingly young age and making it such a huge part of my life. I was lucky to grow up in the '90s which, even putting SNL aside, were really a peak era for sketch comedy what with All That, Kids In The Hall, In Living Color (which I only really saw as much of two decades after the fact) and of course, the rise of MADtv. All of these shows (along with MAD the magazine, CRACKED, The Simpsons, "Weird Al" Yankovic and their ilk) were really formative to my early sense of humor.

Secondly, I'd like to thank the one we all know simply as "Stooge". His reviews were the first I read on those old (now defunct) message boards. Since I started reading those boards and his reviews in my junior year of high school, he really spoke to me at a pivotal time in my personal SNL history when I started to turn a more critical eye to the show I grew up loving to watch so much so (naturally) I wanted to write and post my newly formed opinions on the show somewhere online for people to read just like he did. 

Third, I'd like to thank these three specific people by their real, actual names: Andrew Dick, Tim Cicalli and Jon Schneider. Yes, these men are podcasters and not bloggers like myself, but still, I consider them to be at the forefront of online SNL fandom, building new communities, bringing people together and leading longtime SNL fans into the next era of new media. I'd discovered Andy and Timmys' "That Week In SNL" podcast through the Voy board just before it became largely abandoned and naturally started following him and his podcast account on Twitter, which was where a lot of people reading this right now started gravitating toward each other at the time so naturally, we eventually formed our own little group chat, which later evolved into a Discord server when ol' Andy decided that would be a be a better "home" for his fans and acolytes and invited us all to hang with him over there. I had checked out quite a few other SNL related podcasts around this time as well but "That Week" was "that one" I kept coming back to the most, time and time again. 

Just like Stooge inspired me to start writing, reviewing and blogging, Andy and Timmy inspired me to dip my toes into the podcasting pool. Naturally, when Jon started up his "SNL Stats" project (which he later renamed "The SNL Network" and then "Saturday Night Network" as it is now known as of this writing) a few years later, I sat up and took interest. You see, when Jon made his presence known in our little burgeoning new SNL community he put it out there that it was an interactive project that he wanted our help with (which is kind of what I'm about to do with this blog post but I'll get to that in a few paragraphs) so I reached out, kept in touch, and got to be a featured guest on HIS podcast multiple times (hell, I even got to be on the "Saturday Night Vibes" podcast once because of him). Because of Jon Schneider and his podcast, I got to introduce this blog to some potential new readers and ingratiate myself into yet another new like minded community of which I am forever grateful to be a part of as they made it clear they value my contributions greatly.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you out there reading this right now. You make this all worth it for me and you are the ones I am doing this for. I'd especially like to thank my dear friend who goes by the name Blood Meridian. You see, ever since I joined Discord and became more active with Jon and Andys' servers there (in fact, Jon may have even started his discord at my suggestion but I digress) I have received more and more positive feedback on my reviews. Blood Meridian, in particular, has been my biggest and most directly vocal cheerleader as of late and his told me directly how much I've been an inspiration to him as he has started his own SNL blog where he regularly reviews the show. Hell, he has more motivation than me and Stooge have had in the past few years to go back and review older seasons in the present day (I guess life got in the way for me there, too but again...I digress).

One thing I've heard a lot of from my regular readers as of late is how mine and other amateur, unpaid fan penned SNL reviews mean a lot more to them than the "professional" reviews from writers paid for their work by well known pop culture publications. This warms my heart and I am eternally grateful to hear it. Hell, I've considered the possibility of putting my reviews behind some kind of paywall (two of the people I've thanked have their own Patreons of which I am subscribed to and I've seen a couple of guys with their own Substacks who review SNL) but I know everybody has different budgets these days and not everyone even has an extra five bucks a month to spare so I'd rather keep my blog easily accessible to everyone and maintain my integrity. I really like the independent/homemade ethos of this blog (I've kept this here on Blogger and never once considered a move to Wordpress for God's sake) and I'd rather keep that than make a hypocrite of myself. Yeah, I could probably make a decent amount of extra money doing this as a side hustle but I'm already growing my audience enough doing my blog the way I'm doing it right now, just for fun  rather than as a low paying second job I only clock into on the weekends. 

Speaking of which, I'll admit publicly that for a brief time over the summer (right as season 47 ended to be precise) I actually considered ending this blog. Thankfully, I became intrigued by the direction the show was heading in and you, my dear fans, reached out to me and made it loud and clear how much it would mean to you if I continued this blog so I'd like to give something back...and invite you guys to be a part of this blog!

I've invited Blood Meridian to write his very own guest post on this blog that will be posted early tomorrow afternoon. After all, we were talking recently and he told me the first year anniversary of his blog was ten days ago and when I told him that the TENTH anniversary of mine was coming up, he began pushing me to do something to celebrate, so...he's the reason I am writing these words right now and likewise, I am giving him the chance to write a few words of his own here. 

I'm also opening up the floor to questions from the rest of you fans so, if any of you have any questions you would like me to answer, please post them in the comments and I will answer them here on the blog. It might be a whole separate post for this one or I might be parceling them out over the next few posts depending how many I get and how long it takes me to formulate answers. Either way, I thought the tenth anniversary of this blog would be a great time to introduce a "fan mail/reader mailbag" element (much like Andy does with his podcast and most recently did with his 100th episode celebration), so...any questions you've got, just send 'em in. Post them in the comments and I will answer them later.

...and hey, if you'd also like to be like Blood Meridian and write your own guest post on my blog, too...well, just let me know and I can arrange that for you, too!

Of course, this is all just to say thank you for indulging me for a full decade now and allowing me to keep on going with what turned out to be the only real creative outlet I've allowed myself to have in my life. If it means, the world to you, it means the world to me, so...thanks, everybody!

Keep those fan questions coming and I'll see you guys in a few days for my Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith review! (glad to see Aubrey finally get to host, BTW. She'd been long overdue and hopefully she subverts my expectations in a better way than Selena Gomez did)

Something big is coming...

Hey, readers!

I am currently planning something very big for this blogs' upcoming 10th (yes, that's right, TENTH!!!) anniversary!

What is it that I am planning?

Well, only one other person besides me has even the faintest idea what it's actually going to be right now.

The only hint I'm going to give is that you (yes, you specifically...the person or persons who just so happen to be reading this sentence right now) are going to get to contribute and be a part of it.

How big (or small) a part of it will you get to be?

Well, you're going to have to wait until this Thursday January 19th when I publish my tenth anniversary blog post and thus reveal what BIG plan I have that I am inviting you all to be a part of.

See you then!