Anya Taylor-Joy/Lil Nas X (5.22.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Anya Taylor-Joy turned out to be another host that was far more capable for the show than they let on, but that's a little more excusable this time because this show turned out to not be about the host at all. With this being the finale to such a historic season and roughly half the cast being rumored to leave (everyone has their own little theories they've been speculating on) it was only natural that the host would get overshadowed a bit. Anya Taylor-Joy did show us she was capable of a lot more than what the show gave her, so I'd like to see her get another shot at hosting in the middle of a much more stable season some time in the future. Since there was a lot going on tonight and a bit of buzz surrounding this episode, I'd like to keep this intro short and just get right to it.

What We Learned From This Year - Wow...OK, there's a lot to break down here, but let me just start by saying...I think I have a good idea of who's leaving (or at least who is still seriously consider leaving and may make or publicly announce that decision in August) right off the bat just based on facial expressions alone. Say what you will about the actual quality of this season, one cannot deny that the historical moment it took place in and the circumstances that forced them to adjust their production process accordingly absolutely warranted this cold open. For me, this really kicked into high gear with the positive test result jokes from Cecily & Pete (whose green screen was obvious) followed by the Adele nose swab story from Chris and Beck & Kenans' stories. I'm sure Cecily (even ironically) naming Wario Musk as a "highlight" and even mentioning Morgan Wallen by name will get some online reaction but, what the hell? The whole theme of this monologue was already about leaving tragedies in the past and learning from them! I also liked Cecily pointing out the previously unseen audience medical reader. This was also one of the best possible uses of Andrew, Lauren, Punkie and Akira all season (as well as making sure tge entire rest of the cast gets on). Chris Rock really hit this out of the park for me. He really did highlight how it felt like way more than just ONE season of television had just passed us by, right? Overall, they struck the exact right balance between sentimentality and levity here to give us the perfect topical yet apolitical cold open to close the book on a momentus challenge of a season. A-

Monologue - Nice of Anya to acknowledged this being the first (and now only) show to full audience (who, come to think of it, did seem to do most if not all of the heavy lifting required to make this really feel like a finale) this season and then acknowledge her own...unique ethnicity. Even though "Queens' Gambit" seems to be a full year old at this point, it was smart of SNL to base most of Anya Taylor-Joys' monologue around it seeing as that's probably the thing she'd be most recognized from. Still, while Anya seems just as likable as she's been made out to be and I appreciate her ending the monologue in Spanish (possibly an SNL first?) I do wish there could've been a bit more energy here. B-

Hollywood Squares 1998 - Yeah, this is definitely my SECOND favorite Tom Bergeron era Hollywood Squares parody I've seen SNL do (but this does give Dustys' Love, Jingleheimer Junction and The 17th Annual Adult Film Awards and countless others some serious competition for the title of "favorite heavily edited TV broadcast sketch" in my book!) I feel like the comedic concept of "TV and movies from the past now bring incredibly problematic and thus necessitating heavy glaring edits" has already been heavily explored over the past few years. Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer and Jared Fogle have certainly (and deservedly so) been the butt of many of those jokes in that time. Thankfully, this sketch got those references out of their system quickly and spent most of its runtime hilariously piling on the overlooked target of pre-inexplicable YouTube/Comedy Central fame Jeff Dunham (who Mikey might have been my last choice to play but hey, Beck was already cast as Tom Bergeron) and giving us Aidy, Chris and Beck as anchors with Anya Taylor-Joy as my first conscious celebrity crush, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton to tie up all the loose ends. I was a little conflicted about how this sketch was presented at first but thankfully it's the type of thing that (ironically) holds up better on rewatch! Additionally, it appears the squares we didn't get to see were Dismukes as Kevin Spacey, Lauren as Roseanne and a cardboard cutout of Apu from The Simpsons. Gee, I'd hate to think Lauren and Andrew had their lines cut there but I'd like to think that the Apu thing could've been done by just simply having another male cast member (possibly Dismukes? get another writer or extra to play a vague outline of Kevin Spacey?) to just play Hank Azaria being asked to do one of his Simpsons voices just before another edit sets in but now that I think about it, they kinda already covered that with Jeff Dunham (even if chronologically it would make more sense to do that joke with Azaria INSTEAD of Dunham). B+

Picture With Dad - I liked that this went the extremely dark route it did because it would’ve seemed extremely cliche otherwise. The level of commitment to this exhibited by Beck, Heidi, Aidy and Andrew were what made this for me as repetitive as Beck made parts of it. B+

Human Man Design - This also felt like a comedic concept that has been done do death before but I think the bigger problem here was how unfocused this felt both times I watched this. I couldn't tell if the humor was based on fake names for extremities, first drafts of things that thankfully aren't real (like one giant toe) differences between male/female body functionality. It seemed like the latter but they should've tightened the script up a bit to make that clearer. Also, I was left a bit confused by the inclusion of Kyle as Jesus. Normally, I'm a fan of Kyle's but this seemed so pointless it was almost like they realized that this was something they absolutely had to edit but it somehow didn't occur to them to edit Kyle out of the sketch entirely. Finally, it was nice to see Melissa get a very Melissa role in this sketch rather than being edited out entirely after her recent Instagram drama. As far as my take on that, I'll just say that while it would be a bummer to see her go without the show even having come close to utilizing her to her full potential I would support her seeking better opportunities for herself elsewhere if it came to that. C-

It's Pride Again - Well, I appreciate Bowen and Kate getting big pretapes that allow them to celebrate their sexual identities but like most pieces if that nature, I recognize it as something where the jokes were lost on me because I am far from the target audience here. Thankfully, I decided to give this a rewatch in order to process the hidden secondary theme to this piece of "quarantine driving us to miss interpersonal drama and other minor irritants we had no business missing in the first place but we only miss anyway because they were outside and not at home with us." Shout out to Bill Kenney of SNL Stats for pointing this out. Thanks,, Bill!! I believe this marks the first time for me that joining the live chat of a post episode SNL Stats stream has actually made one of reviews better rather than gotten in the way of me finishing them. Good way for them to sneak in the obligatory Lil Nas X rap pretape cameo, though. I also liked the "theory/podcast" bickering between Bowen, Kate and Anya. It's rare you see something that real and leftist Twitter on SNL. B+

Celtic Woman - At least I could immediately recognize this as having a clear focus and being able to introduce me to something I was unfamiliar with but not necessarily excluded from. Yeah, I've seen the phrase "Celtic Woman" in emails from the Paramount Theater in Denver listing their upcoming events but never actually considered going so, it's nice to be filled in on what I've been intentionally missing. The brief cameos from Chris, Beck, Kyle and Chloe made me laugh. Good use of Lauren, Punkie, Heidi and Alex as well. I also liked "Sweet Home Alabama" as a random set list inclusion. Also, did anyone else get the vibe that Cecily was playing the same character she played in the Irish Dating Game sketch from Bill Haders' Season 43 episode (or that this also could've been a pitch that Saiorse Ronam rejected when she hosted that season)? B-

Update was one hell of a way to cap off this season. Thank God the "gift exchange" has become a bi-yearly Jost/Che tradition since those were the strongest ones tonight outside of Josts' Biden Truck/Boom Airline and Che's Andrew Guilianni ones. I appreciate Jost really having gone H.A.M. on Che (do the kids still say that? "going H.A.M"?) with that police brutality joke and I'm sure Dennis Perrin will have some extremely mixed feelings on Josts' Woody Allen joke. Yeah, I can see that "Man Of Steal" getting some light unfounded accusations of plagiarism tossed SNLs' way. Please don't ask me why I think this, though. Pete and Cecily gave us some strong commentaries to have gone out on (and yeah, they very unsuited hinted to us that they were in fact going out). The only things that surprised me were that Cecilys' as-of-this-very-writing-unofficial final Update piece was that it was Judge Pirro instead of Cathy-Anne or "Party" Girl and that she found a way to top vomiting Jost and soaking him via Zoom but a big musical number was a very Cecily way to exit the show. She did promise an "Irish Goodbye" for this season and since we already saw her play Irish in the previous sketch it's nice to see her make the "goodbye" part just as obvious. Overall, I liked how much of a throwback this Update was to the Eddie Murphy/Lizzo one from last season. B+

Enid & Astrids' Brawr Barn - Well, I spent most of this sketch just being thankful that Anya Taylor-Joy had what would’ve obviously been Kate's part given the fact that Aidy was standing right next to her. Now, I'm starting to wonder if there was a specific reason for that? Maybe Kate just couldn't emotionally handle being on camera in this sketch with Aidy of she knew it would be their last and thus Anya was a last minute replacement? I know neither of them ha e dropped hints that they were leaving yet but maybe they each know something we don't? Beck and Heidi brief walk ons along with the "load bearing brawr" were the highlights for me. Other than that, I kept imagining a viewer tuning into the show just in time to catch this sketch, mistaking Anya Taylor-Joy for Emma Stone and becoming very confused. In fact, I'm starting to think a lot of the sketches in tonight's show were just dress rehearsal cuts from Emma Stones previous episodes. C+

NYU Panel - At first, I was trying to determine if Che wrote this since he may have had to plug his own HBO Max show recently and this piece seemed largely critical of white women. Then, the names "Sudi G" and "Fran G" were both mentioned and suddenly this got a lot looser and sillier and then I noticed how coherent this always was and I was like "yeah, nah this ain't Che". I did like Bowens' slow burn and how the direness of the questions aimed at him, Ego, Punkie and Heidi contrasted against the light puff piece trivia lobbed at Pete. B-

Vin Deisel for AMC - Nice of SNL to close out this season with some escalating silly baritone nonsense from Beck with some assists from Chris, Melissa, Kenan and Anya Taylor-Joy. Plus, (again, as Bill Kenney said) that secondary theme from the Pride pretape was there but with much lower stakes. B+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…
1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. Anya Taylor-Joy/Lil Nas X (5.22.2021)
5. Keegan Michael-Key/Olivia Rodrigo (5.15.2021)
6. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
7. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
8. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
9. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
10. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
11. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
12. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
13. Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (5.8.2021)
14. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
15. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
16. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
17. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
18. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
19. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
20. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, good or bad, we may never see another season of SNL that resembles this one. So, as SNL and the world at large prepare to go back to a rough approximation of "normal" let's hope for a livlier, safer season. Here's to also hoping for a more manageable cast size this fall that gives the less senior cast members more time to shine. Whoever doesn't return, we thank them for the great moments they gave us and wish them the best with their careers. Have a great and fulfilling summer, everyone!

Keegan Michael-Key/Olivia Rodrigo (5.15.2021)

Okay, here's my review. After last week it was certainly very nice to get such an overcorrection on hosts in terms of stage presence, acting/entertaining experience and just general qualifications to be on this show (or any scripted comedy show in general). Plus, the fact that the show apparently felt it necessary to draw from the talent pool of not just one, but TWO of their own must enduring direct competitirs/hipper cable alternatives for the first time in nearly twenty six years (and barely even have them outright mention it or even have him plug the show he just did with one of this shows current cast members that she missed this seasons' whole first block of shows for) REALLY says something. Yes, Keegan Michael-Key was just as excellent a host as you would expect but the way the show used him didn't seem to reflect that. I guess I should've learned from the Donald Glover/Childish Gambino episode from a few years ago (which was a fine episode if you tolerance for cameos is particularly high, by the way...I guess I was just building myself up to expect something a little different than what I ended up getting given my familiarity with his pre-Star Wars/Lion King era body of work) that anyone expecting anything more than just a standard, generic by-the-numbers SNL episode with minimal non-cast cameos and no appearances of the host's previous characters from other shows (that they wouldn't have the legal rights to do anyway) because a first time host comes to the show with a substantial amount of sketch comedy/dramatic acting experience they picked up outside this show was bound to be disappointed but Keys' presence really did elevate a lot of the material as I expected and he blended right in with this cast as seamlessly as ever (again, in stark contrast to the previous weeks' host but definitely nearing a point where you almost forget he is in fact the host). Speaking of, this show also did a good job of making sure each cast member got some screentime. Anyway, let's break this down and find out what worked and what didn't, shall we?

The Mighty CDC Art Players - I appreciate how lightly absurd, fast-paced and off-the-beaten-path this was (until you remember all the similarities between this and all those high school theater showcase sketches from seasons 40-42). I definitely have to say "reacting in confusion to things sight unseen" is their best use of Kate's Fauci yet. Out of all the little playlets, the Beck/Aidy, Pete/Melissa & Bowen/Ego scenes really made this for me. The Capitol reference in the Alex/Cecily bit and performative allyship in the Lauren/Punkie bit seemed a little too forced. The Andrew/Chloe scene seemed too reminiscent of a certain rap video from this season's premiere for me but I was thankful Kyle came in to save it. Out of the two scenes with four players, the "riddle" one was better. Overall, I liked seeing a different type cold open this season (one that seemingly tried to set a tone of "focusing on this weeks positive news" for this week) but it started to seem too much like a disparate mishmash of different mask takes after a while. C+

Monologue - Getting over how surreal it is seeing Keegan Michael-Key live on the SNL home base stage for a second, it seemed like they nearly wasted him on this monologue. I appreciate the change from one tuxedo to another tuxedo but not every musical number calls for even one real tuxedo. I appreciate how they tried to set this up so that we would expect some meta SNL format jokes but the few of those they actually did didn't land with me. Cecily and Kenans' cameos did but Pete's just kinda washed over me. Plus, I was surprised Cecily didn't use this opportunity to plug "Schmigadoon" at all since that's the big reason Keegan is hosting right now. Oddly looking back, the real highlights for me were Keegan using his "host states sincere love for/deep childhood connection with the show" moment to setup that wallet stealing joke and Stephen Castillo appearing just to confuse Key with Peele. Finally, to address the elephant in the room the song sounded far too much like Steve Martin's "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" for me to really get into. I can totally see Key wanting to do this as a tribute if that happened to be one of his favorite SNL moments I started to get worried about what type of tone they were setting for this show since if you've actually seen that Steve Martin/James Taylor episode, you'd know that no other moment that followed it quite lived up to that moment in terms of sheer hype. Thankfully, this episode as a whole is stronger than I remember that one being but not by a whole lot unfortunately. C+

Braxton High School Prom Red Carpet - Given how questionable it feels for high schools to even be having proms this year (no matter what SNL writer Dan Licata tells me on Twitter), I can appreciate a good Fran Gillespie/Sudi Green (who I guess are subtly using their position at the show to criticize Chloe for her "crazy religion" right under her nose?) penned sketch. that's just a string of outlandish character revelations. As expected, Keegans' character was really the glue holding this thing together. He was even solid enough to remind you why he and Pete DIDN'T need to have switched roles before this aired when you remember Keegans' character was supposed to be a "super-senior". Plus, that might have been the funniest used of Melissa and Andrew they've had all season. I can't believe I'm saying this but the Ego/Chris/Beck scene kinda washed over me but the sponsors were fun.The only thing I didn't like about the Aidy/Mikey scene was the minor disappointment I felt when I realized that was Aidy and NOT Lauren being given a fair chance. C+

The (Really) Last Dance - A year after this premiered is an odd time to parody it, but hey, if you feel Keegan Michael-Key was just born to impersonate Michael Jordan on SNL one day and you write for the show and this is the only week Keegan could host, so be it. Keegan (aside from some really bad deepfaking) and Kenan really made this for me (especially when they established that this entire piece would be based on Jordan's well documented gambling problems). I also appreciated the rare chance to see Heidi being placed in a role that probably would've been given to Kate if it weren't for the sneaking suspicion I had that Heidi at least co-wrote this. I haven't seen this documentary yet so I can’t really judge the impression I just found out she was doing of a real guy. Still, her performance was quite fun and I liked her commitment to being dominated and perpetually losing. I didn't even mind how badly misused Chris Redd was here. B-

The (Rebooted?) Muppet Show - I was a little confused about the execution of this sketch, but thanks to the performances from the cast members in live action non-Muppet roles (who didn't contribute to the puppet dialogue syncing issues by recording either part or all of their dialogue across two different Muppet roles), I didn't let that stop me from enjoying it. Thankfully, Keegan and Kenans' absolutely necessary presence really pulled this sketch together and give the audience something real to focus on as they're just getting over the fact that actual puppets were involved. Nice of them to give Melissa a chance to debut her solid Lily Tomlin on the show, but that kind of thing made me question why they had to frame this is a modern Day reboot if the Muppet Show when, as I understand it, no such thing has been attempted yet and it's the old '70s ones people are watching and talking about now thanks to Disney+, disclaimers and "cancel culture" still being a thing. Maybe they just had to accept that Melissa could really only (or just simply wanted to) do a Lily Tomlin impression based on modern Day Grace and Frankie career resurgence era Tomlin and for some reason couldn't do 70s/80s Laugh-In/9 To 5 era career peak Tomlin and just had to roll with that?? Honestly, the worst thing I can say about this sketch is that it gave me a brief flashback to that overlong "Nobel Prize Awards" sketch from season 20 as soon as the unofficial Kermit puppet showed up on screen. B+

T.G(emma).I.Fridays - The SNL Stats Twitter account hinted that we would see this tonight (and if Cecily is indeed leaving next week as some have speculated, it makes sense since she named this character as one of her favorites) so with that hint out there I do appreciate how they broke this character somewhat out of her rote formula setup and Trojan Horse'd her on us a bit. I mean, I always liked this character of Cecilys'. I thought the few appearances she made were fun and her performance really put them over for me (especially in the non-Rock/non-Momoa helmed ones which kinda tanked) but this time she had much more cast support than she used to. I do appreciate that they tried to finally have an emotional, heartwarming ending to one of these but it felt a little tacked on to me. C+

Update was a little underwhelming this week, but there was some fun to be had. Jost seemed to have the lion's share of jokes this week but Che definitely got the lions' share of laughs. The guest commentaries may not have been anything to write home about either. Kate as Liz Cheney had some strong material but I definitely feel like I would've liked her piece more if she'd focused more on that than the voice. I'd say it's about time they give Andrew Dismukes his own solo Update commentary and while I liked his material and his rapport with Jost (and the fact that he probably got something cut and got less applause for mentioning his home state of Texas than he did for mentioning the title of an obscure Disney Channel Original Movie which is probably due to tonight's. musical guest having just come up from that world), I'm not sure he has the right energy to fill the Pete Davidson/Beck Bennett/Kyle Mooney shaped void on the show by himself just yet. Speaking of Beck Bennett, I wanted to like his guest commentary for his delivery but most of his material (aside from, like, every fourth line of his) seemed like white noise to me. C+

Gershwin Tribute - I'm sure there were a lot of people out there hoping for a campy musical sketch with Keegan and Cecily (since, again, their work on "Schmigadoon" may be the big reason Keegan is hosting right now) and after seeing this I sure hope all those people were thinking "...not like this". Still, Keegan and Mikey pretty much made this for me so it's nice to see Keegan show up at just the right moment for viewers that may still need to be reminded that he is, in fact, tonight's host. Plus, it was nice to see them give us a slightly inverted version of the "Cecily and male host of the week force guests to gradually remember the lyrics to an existing song everyone thought they just made up on the spot until they suddenly remember that this song exists as Cecily and male host mysteriously didappear into thin air" formula. C-

Commencement - I didn't know where this was going at first (and it seemed strategically placed and/or re-edited to fill time for whatever was cut on air) but I was more than happy to let the casts' strong commitment guide me along that journey. Plus, it definitely made the best use of Ego, Chris, Beck and Punkie all night. B+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…
1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. Keegan Michael-Key/Olivia Rodrigo (5.15.2021)
5. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
6. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
7. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
8. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
9. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
10. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
11. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
12. Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (5.8.2021)
13. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
14. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
15. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
16. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
17. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
18. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
19. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, there was certainly fun to be had and this show certainly nudged SNL back on the right course. Next week, Anya Taylor-Joy (wow, two hosts in a row with hyphenated last names! That's gotta be a first!) makes her hosting debut to close out the season. She's someone I've certainly heard OF more than I've seen act in anything so this should be interesting. Plus, for the first time in countless years the show got a non-alumni first time host for the season finale! Lil Nas X will also be a first time musical guest. I wouldn't be surprised if he were worked into sketches somehow but I'm not sure how I'd feel about seeing that just yet. Still, it will be nice to finally get some closure on a rather unique season that may not have seemed as ambitious under more "normal" circumstances and hopefully usher in some much needed changes to the show this fall. See you then!

Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (5.8.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Given the absurdly long litany of controversies and valid criticisms against this weeks host, there's only been one specific past episode of SNL, I've had lower expectations for than this. Thankfully, Elon Musk is legally prevented from becoming President Of The United States (for now) and he seemed to actually WANT to be on the show for more than just the camera time and free publicity. Say what you will about Musk himself or the shows' decision to invite him on as host, he definitely came across as someone who was having fun checking another item off of his bucket list throughout the whole show. Musks' level of "acting" was about what you'd expect from him if you happen to have seen any of his other TV or film cameos but he seemed like he was having a great time doing it (unlike their last controversial hosting choice who would go on to become the leader of the free world). Since Musk was announced as host I was expecting him to be used as little as possible outside of the monologue with Miley Cyrus essentially serving as backup host. Then this morning I remembered how when Donald Trump (the last host to generate as much controversy as Musk did) hosted in 2015 someone actually crunched the numbers and determined that he only had 12 total minutes of screentime throughout the entire show because it was determined that was the most they COULD give him without having to give equal time to the other 2016 GOP candidates. Then, I'd heard he'd be "heavily involved" in the show and remembered Musk isn't currently running for anything at all so the "equal time" rule wouldn't apply to him. Thankfully, my fears of Musk being used the typical way most hosts with any modicum of acting or entertainment experience seemed to be mostly unfounded. Musk seemed to be a genuine fan of the show (which surprises me given how much he plays to a crowd on Twitter that looks down their collective nose at present day SNL) and let that enthusiasm show. To their credit, the writers seemed to actually cater to him (at the expense of, y'know...dragging the entire show down to his and his stans' level and everything) and make him feel welcome by putting him in roles and sketches that fit his distinct performance style like a glove so he didn't stand out too much as an awkward host. In return, he paid back the favor by showing SNL he had enough of a sense of humor about himself and his image to not just force them to turn this weeks' show into a 90 minute SpaceX/Tesla/Dogecoin infomercial. Sure, they had to reconfigure the entire structure of the show around one specific host again but at least this time the host wasn't actively working against them so hard that they created a black hole like Trump and Beiber did. It didn't hurt that he had some fans AT the show on his side either (speaking of which, they also made better use of every single member of this cast than I thought they would). Not everything they did totally worked but it made for a much more watchable show than I was expecting. Putting everything about Musk aside, this episode came off less like the cynical ploy for ratings and publicity from both sides it seemed like it was going to be on paper once you actually watch it and process what you're seeing a bit. Those tuning in for a fascinating slow-motion trainwreck or to just see Musk take on his Twitter troll persona and "own the libs" or whatever must have been sorely disappointed since we just ended up getting the wildly uneven episode modern SNL viewers are used to seeing quite frequently but with a more questionable choice of host. Don't get me wrong, this episode didn't do a whole lot to humanize Elon Musk for me or change my view of him as a person. I still know far too much about him and the things he's done to not have some issues with him or not let him totally get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. I'm just saying I was expecting as little as I possibly could and the show and it's audience just got a little lucky this week for expecting the worst and bring pleasantly surprises by the shows' bare minimum of competence. Anyway, there's still a lot to break down here, so let's not waste anymore time and get right down to it.

Mother's Day 2021 - Well, it was smart of SNL to open this particular show with a redux of the cold open from Amy Schumers' last episode (the only part of that episode that I actually remember enjoying, quite frankly) but with Miley Cyrus singing and the moms of each cast member the show hired since season 43 (who wasn't already a writer on the show in Spring 2018). I particularly liked the segments with Kate, Heidi, Ego, Melissa, Mikey, Beck and Colins' moms (although the latter is something I wish they could've taken further). Good to see Kenan finally acknowledge his penchant for reaction shots. Even better to see Aidys' decision that the chance to plug the final season of "Shrill" on hulu alongside her own mom was enough to convince her not to go low key Nora Dunn on us and sit out the show this week. Cecilys' mom was the best sentimental way they could've ended it and at least inject some warmth and heart into the show before this week's host came out. B-

Muskologue - I should've expected the monologue to be this full of statements (well, I hesitate to call most of those "jokes") meant to (almost literally) humanize Musk and make him seem relatable to SNLs' audience. I REALLY wasn't expecting Musk to go as far as admitting his Aspergers' diagnosis for the first time on television, though. I mean, that doesn't exactly make me think of him any differently but I certainly don't want to disparage Elon *just* for being on the spectrum, don’t get me wrong. Still, it certainly does explain A. LOT. about him to me, though (and yeah, given how this show works Lorne would probably *prefer* you and the cast make eye contact with the cue cards than each other). Aside from his "chill normal dude" and "smoking weed on podcasts" jokes, they were pretty cringe (and not to be "that guy", O.J. hosted in '78, not '79 and *certainly* not in '96). Bringing his real life mother on was a nice break from Elons' delivery, but didn't do HIM any favors for me. Overall, this monologue was less stiff but still more stilted than I was expecting and even the two lines of his I kind of liked I could barely bring myself to laugh at. C-

GenZ Hospital - Yeah, I had to REALLY dig deep to find ANY redeeming value in this that made it remotely watchable. The funniest thing I could find about this sketch was how it seemed like a failed pitch that they realized they could finally get on the air this week of all weeks because this host needs SOMETHING that doesn't make him stick out like a sore thumb acting-wise. It's like everyone involved in this sketch deliberately did their own impressions of Musks' line readings without him even realizing it. Still, them doing this made the sketch borderline incoherent to the point where it was just white noise to anyone under 25. Other than that, I just kept waiting for Miley to make a walk on given how strongly this sketch reminded me of "The Millenials" from her last hosting stint. Speaking of which, it just occurred to me how naive it was of me to expect a sketch that portrays stereotypical young people as whiny bitches who criticize Musk just for being the ultimate troll he views himself as since this depicted him as the hip youngster he *really* views himself as (and subtly exposed him to be the walking, living, breathing Steve Buscemi "how do you do, fellow kids" GIF he *actually* seems to be at the expense of possibly doing the same for Kate, Mikey and Heidi whether intentionally or not). C-

Every Conversation Post Quarrantine - Now, this got off to a promising start. It wasn't the most relatable "Covid winding down" thing they could've wrote to me but I mostly liked the execution of it (well, I liked the Kate/Beck and Chris/Ego parts along with Andrew's closing line anyway). It was just too bad Heidi and Elon had to kill the momentum of this but at least it was smart of them to stick Musk into something where his character was *intentionally* awkward. C+

The Ooli Show - While I was glad Chloe finally got to debut her big non-impression character in a live sketch, it made me realize that this character really only works in pretapes. It was even more incoherent than "GenZ Hospital" to the point where I barely noticed Chloe got the word "tit" on the air twice in a row. Plus, this was the second segment in a row with characters were implied to be narrowly avoiding incest which was a little off-putting and the timing wasn't great as certain things have come out about Chloes' past that have made her almost as divisive of a figure as Musk. Speaking of, this sketch made better use of him given that everyone has similar accents to him in it. Still, I feel like they could've given him even fewer lines. Honestly, this sketch was really only worth to see how the cast impersonations were utilized. I liked seeing Kate's Frances MacDormand again. That was a fun impression from her. I know people seem to see a strong resemblance between Pete and Steve Buscemi but Pete in that role made me wonder why Melissa wasn't used in that role until I saw she was playing Bjork (which was honestly a better use of her than Steve Buscemi would've been). C-

Murdur Durdur - As a fan of Kroll Shows' "Pawnsylvania" sketches and those "Pittsburgh Dad" videos on YouTube, I REALLY wanted to like this more than I did but it just seemed like nothing more than the only three Pennsylvania centric jokes they could've come up with (without Tina Fey or Christine Nangle as guests writers that week apparently) beaten deep into the cold, cold ground. This didn't have even a shred of the lived in, written and performed by authentic born and raised Pennsylvanians element that really sold "Pawnsylvania" and Pittsburgh Dad for me and just left me dreading the potential online discourse of Kroll Show/Pittsburgh Dad fans baselessly accusing the show if plagiarism just to get that "SNL hater" clout. Plus, they just had to shoehorn Musk into a sketch where he REALLY didn't belong. C-

Update was a REAL Rollercoaster this week but there was fun to be had here. Once we got past Josts' brown-nosy Musk rocket joke, he and Che really hit those Bezos Rocket/Trump blog/Florida/Evangelical vaccine/underage golf/L.A. Harvey jokes out if the park before getting a few "meh" at best jokes out of the way. I'm glad Ego finally got her weary Disneyland mom commentary from her first season on the air because it was genuinely the funniest moment of the whole show for me (even the whole unexpected Viola Davis/Tyler Perry vibe of it) and kudos to Ego for one upping Chloe by getting "pushy" on the air. I wasn't exactly looking forward to a potential Elon commentary (especially once it seemed like it was going to be a blatant on-air Dogecoin infomercial) but once he had to keep finding new ways to answer Jost & Che's pressing question of "what IS Dogecoin?" until they just got him to flat out admit "it's a hustle" I was actually glad this got on the air. A lot of people online have been saying that the only way to justify having Musk actually host would be to write some sketches that viciously skewer him right under his nose and if this isn't what that segment of Twitter was asking for, it's as close as they're gonna get. I really don't think we needed to see Baby Yoda again (especially not as a newly jacked MMA enthusiast) but I do appreciate them adding something new to this character. Maybe they're trying to bring Baby Yoda to his logical conclusion if Kyle turns out to be leaving? B-

Mario Kart Trial - This sketch was a rollercoaster, too. For one thing, I do have to admit this was Elons' strongest live performance of the night. He really made the Walugi accent work for him. He seemed so in his comfort zone here I'm willing to bet money he cowrote this with Mikey Day and/or Streeter Seidell. Hey, if this is *was* actually one of Elons' own sketch ideas he pitched to the show I'd say we really dodged a bullet by getting this on the air instead of "Irony Man" or "Woke James Bond" or "Baby Shark Tank". Still, the strongest thing about this was Elon and the rest of the casts' strong commitment to this premise (much like the similar Jurassic Park trial sketch from the Donald Glover/Childish Gambino episode which was actually stronger than this one for a few reasons). The weakest parts of this were the all Toad jury and the reading of the Wario Wiki page. The ending with the sexts followed by Pete bringing back his Gov. Cuomo alongside Kenans' Mario was the best possible note to end this on. When Pete first walked out I thought he genuinely missed a cue until I realized he was probably taking a second to keep himself from breaking so he could get his lines out. Other than that, the only other part of this that really grabbed me was Princess Peach since I was trying to figure out if she was being played by Chloe or Grimes. The nose prosthetic and the voice gave me zero hints but the hands and Grimes' promise on Instagram of her "acting debut" on Instagram (which I would NOT have seen if it weren't for a certain Twitter mutual of mine, you know who you are) were a dead giveaway that it was her. Speaking of which, did anyone else get any flashbacks to around the time it first became public that Grimes and Musk were an actual couple a few years ago when there was an actual "Italian Elon Musk" joke Twitter account that got suspended and then a new "French Elon Musk" joke Twitter account popped up? C+

Mars Needs Chad - I was worried that *this* would be the sketch meant to stroke Elons' Ego Trump 2015 style until it became obvious this was the Chad pretape we were promised. Honestly, this wasn't my favorite "Chad" outing but I did like the Miley scene as well as Chad's "death" (yeah, he's gotta be leaving in two weeks, right?) Elon was fine here. He obviously had no problem just playing himself in a pretape and he *did* acknowledge the discourse surrounding his planned Mars trips killing everybody who goes on one. C+

Pearl River Gang - As much as I like seeing three segments in a row where Musk pokes fun at himself, this was a little too clunky and heavy handed for me. If they were going to devote a full non-Update sketch to making fun of Musk to his face, they should've focused on one thing and not tried to cram pretty much every common criticism of Musk into one, unfocused sketch (especially since those were kind of weak ways for him to address his Covid denialism and submarine cave "rescue" controversy which is almost a three year old story by now). Also, the ending being a tribute song for Kyle's character didn't work for me. Just about the only thing that did work for me in this sketch was Beck's "that's not how money works" speech but that was already covered by Musk himself on Update. D+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
9. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
10. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
11. Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus (5.8.2021)
12. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
13. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
14. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
15. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
16. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
17. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
18. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, when the bar is this low, it couldn't be hard to clear it. Next week, Keegan Michael-Key becomes the first ever MADTV alum to host SNL! Now, THIS is a qualified host who certainly deserves to be on the show given his vast experience in comedic and dramatic acting! I had figured Keegan would eventually host someday, but pre-Covid I would have thought it would’ve taken him getting a few more dramatic roles (especially a *lead* since he seemed to be getting a lot of supporting roles outside of Key & Peele and that starring in "The Big Sick" is what finally got Kumail Nanjiani his hosting gig) but I heard SNL was struggling to book hosts throughout this season (obviously) and Keegan was available after having just filmed the upcoming Apple TV+ series "Schmigadoon" with Cecily. Now, they're obviously both the leads in that (and it hasn't been released so no one has seen enough of to say just how dramatic or comedic it really is yet) and Lorne might be producing it so I think it's at least safe to say Cecily played a big factor in getting Keegan booked as a host (what is possibly her second to last episode). None of that is a knock on Keegan either. Again, I think he's a great performer and he's definitely the host this show needs right now. His presence is definitely going to make up Elon Musk hosting for me. See you then!

Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Carey Mulligan was certainly a strong host who elevated a lot of the material she was given. Unfortunately, you couldn't tell from how little she was used but you could get a sense from how many rehashed and repeated premises they used her in. I wouldn't mind seeing her host again some day with better material. The cast seemed a little unbalanced this week. No Cecily or Melissa. Lauren seemed to only be in one pretape all night. Mikey, Chris, Kate and Aidy seemed to dominate the show with everyone else seemingly used very sparingly. Anyway, let's break it down.

Eye On Minnesota - I guess we're back to the low key style of barely topical cold open that started out this half of the season, huh? As soon as this sketch started, I was expecting something similar to the local news sketch from last seasons' Phoebe Waller-Bridge episode that was such a hit. What we ended up getting was more resembled a direct cross between the cold open from last season's ScarJo episode and the "Inside The Beltway" sketch from Woodys' last episode but with Trumps' impeachment taken out as the jumping off point and replaced with the discourse surrounding this weeks' Derek Chauvin trial. It's no surprise to me that Che co-wrote this. Thankfully, the rapid fire energy this had (which made it perfect for the cold open, by the way) counteracted the lack of focus Che's sketch writing tends to have that brings things down. The Prince/DMX ending was allright but while Chris made this for me, I didn't really care much for his last line. I was gonna say this felt like it wasn't supposed to be the cold open in dress but knowing what a slow news week this actually was and how they would've had to dig deep for something topical. C+

Monologue - Careys' deadpan really made this for me. She pulled off standup comedy well and really elevated some of the weaker jokes. I should've expected a cameo from Marcus Mumford but his part kinda went on too long for me and killed some of the momentum his wife had been building up to that point. C+

What's Wrong With This Picture IV? - I usually like these but I didn't need to see it a fourth time (even if the show thought the one they did during the "at home" shows from last season didn't count). This was fine but Chris bring placed into what used to be Pete's role (and having all the best lines) and Careys' delivery (and at one point non-delivery when the camera was supposed to be on Aidy) were the only parts of this that stood out to me. C+

Tremfalta - Yeah, bathroom humor only works for me when Kenan is there to react to it. Funny how they aired this right after they aired the Emma Stone/BTS episode where Kenan pretty much did the exact same thing in that Ladies Room sketch. Thankfully, this was shorter than this. D+

Study Buddies - This feels like Kate and Aidy doing a type of character we haven't seen from them before with voices we've heard from them both as other characters before. Carey seems like she was a little miscast in a role a slightly younger female host would've made work just as easily. I found this a lot more watchable than a lot of Kate and Aidy two-handers from the past few seasons but I couldn't quite get as into it. I still haven't decided whether it hits too close to or too far from home for me. C+

Weird Little Flutes - Given Pete and Kid Cudis' close friendship, I suppose it was inevitable that we'd see them in a pretaped rap video together. I wasn't crazy about this at first, but I got more into it as it went along with the green screens (especially how outlandish it looked trying to pull off Chris' Airport scene) and the reveal that they were just in a music store the entire time was the perfect ending for me. The only thing I didn't care for was Chalamets' unnecessary cameo. I guess what got me more and more into this was how early the realization that this just applied the same concept behind Ferrell and Walkens' famous Blue Oyster Cult Cowbell sketch to hip-hop instead of prog-rock (emphasizing and heavily focusing on an unusual instrument that normally wouldn't belong in its' respective genre). B-

Update was quite fun this week. Jost and Che had a lot of successful jokes on a wider variety of topics than what we got recently. Ches' Will.I.Am joke in particular worked for me. A lot of Josts' Matt Gaetz jokes weren't as great as last week's but his riff on Gaetzs' actual speech was great. I never expected Chris and Beck to play Obama and Springsteen on the show and I gotta say, they each did those impressions much better than I thought they would've. Unfortunately, it seemed like they counted on the audience evaluating the impressions long enough not to notice how thin the material was. Nice to see Punkie finally get a solo breakout Update piece that also explains the Paul Pierce story that Chris' weatherman character referenced in the cold open. She turned in a great performance even if most of the material that actually WAS there was a bit lost in me. Bowen as the Titanic Iceberg was just silly enough to work for me. There were definitely shades of Samberg-as-Cathy there mixed in with what if I had to venture a guess was probably just whatever "Real Housewives" reunion interview segment that inspired Bowen to write this? B+

Starchaser Andromnea - At times, this felt like it put more energy into parodying specific Star Trek tropes than it did on the characters played by Mikey, Carey and Chloe who were obviously the focus of this. In fact, more than anything this reminded me of a couple of sketches from way back in 2015 that specifically made fun of whiny, privileged "millenials" (the ones from the episodes host by Dakota Johnson and Miley Cyrus that year specifically) which made me wonder if this was just another repurposed late season 41/early season 42 Day/Seidell script they resubmitted? As much as I liked the ending of the Mikey/Carey/Chloe characters just being shot out into space, it did make the ending feel a little rushed and hastily edited. C-

Lesbian Period Drama - I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this was written by some combination of Bowen Yang, Anna Drezen, Fran Gillespie and/or Sudi Green. It was a niche genre parody in the same vein as Drezens' "Space Mistakes" and various pageant sketches but one with the specificity and pointed references of Yangs' "Cheques" and "The Actress" (also shown an hour earlier in the evening during the Emma Stone/BTS vintage rerun, incidentally). While the references were so specific, I couldn't tell which, well...ACTUAL Lesbian Period Drama(s) this was based on I could appreciate just how much though and effort went into dissecting this genre. I do like how they worked in Kate in the least obvious and yet still most "third wheel" way they could. C+

War In Words III - I suppose I should've expected this, huh? I mean, distinguished British female host...comes with the territory and all. Unfortunately, not much stood out to me here either from the previous installments and this might have been the weakest one so far. D+

Beat Buddies - This sketch was okay. I wanted to get into this more but it seemed rushed to the point where it got ahead of itself and tripped on it's own sagging pantyhose to get where it was going. Once it caught it's own breath, I could appreciate how detailed and niche they tried to get with it but it felt like they didn't realize how what a long walk this was supposed be. C-

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
9. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
10. Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi (4.10.2021)
11. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
12. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
13. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
14. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
15. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
16. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
17. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was certainly below what I was expecting. I've been told the show is returning live on May 8th but the show itself is unable to reveal any May hosts at the time of this writing so it will certainly be interesting to see who they get. See you then!

Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)

Okay, here's my review. Daniel Kaluuya was a much stronger host than his strangely decreasing presence throughout the show made him out to be. He carried a lot of material that felt mostly original with shades of premises I had seen before. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing him host once more if the writing could support him a bit more. Outside of Daniel, the show was good if not more than a little uneven. Compared to last week, the show seemed to have focused its energy a lot better and tightened things up. Melissa and Lauren were the only two cast members who seemed sadly shut out of the entire show this week. Anyway, let's just get into it.

Oops, SNL Did This Exact Cold Open Again - As fun as Chloes' Britney impression always is, this was best left a one-time thing. I don't think Britney's Instagram ghostwriting accusations warranted another appearance of this. I could see Chloe just wanting to do this impression one more time but aside from that I don't think anything that happened in the news this past week fit into this framework well. Least of all, the Pepe Le Pew non-controversy which feels like it was in the news last month. In fact, Kate as Pepe Le Pew felt so dated I'd be surprised to find out it WASN'T originally a cut Update commentary that Kate tried to get on last week. I mean, she and Chloe had some of the stronger material here but a lot of this felt out if place. As much as I like seeing Chris Redd on the show, I don't think we NEEDED to see him as Lil Nas X this week because aside from him giving a lap dance to Mikey as some guy named Gary cosplaying as God and later threatening Pete's character (we'll get to him in just a second) they didn't say much that hadn't already been said about the situation. I was hoping that the way they tackled Matt Gaetz wouldn't involve them fitting him into this but kudos to SNL for going the no makeup/no frills route and casting Pete in the role (who sadly for Pete I do see some natural resemblance to). The Quagmire impressions/comparisons felt a little overdone but I did genuinely crack up at the "gigging squat" line. I will admit that this cold open did grow on me upon second viewing so the worst thing I can say about it is that it's just in the right place at the wrong time. C-

Monologue - Daniel really had the right confidence and charisma to pull off a monologue that seemed a bit shaky at first. He really powered through the "British racism" material to get us through to the self effacing Golden Globes material and the reveal that he interpreted a Kenan and Kel episode into his own stage play at age nine (!) steering this monologue directly into Season 44 territory. Now, THAT'S something I'd like the complete oral history of someday! B+

Will You Take It? - This show hadn't had much success with vaccination themed game show sketches so far this season, but I gotta say the third time was definitely the charm here. A fresh perspective helmed by the strongest performers in this cast really behooved the show here. The worst thing I can say about it is that it still managed to remind me of similar but more forgettably weak game show sketches from the past few years such as "Should I Chime In On This?" from Matthew McConaugheys' 2015 episode and "Can I Play That?" from Idris Elbas' episode two years ago. B+

Prank Posse - As much as it felt like this should've been done in early 2018 if you take away the obvious shrimp tails/mouse bones framing device, Kyle made this for me. The idea of him as Not!Jake Paul and Daniel as Not!KSI satirizing sociopathic YouTubers incapable of self reflection putting out a series of meaningless, insincere "apology" videos and stumbling ass backwards into their own/each other's comeuppance turned out to be much funnier in execution than it would’ve been on paper due to a hint of Mooney-brand of absurdism with an assist from Daniel Kaluuya. B+

Rummy Cube - This felt too much like a leftover Kristen Wiig sketch from 2010 for me to really get into. It had a decent ending, though and was the exact length it absolutely needed to be. D+

Creative Writing Major - Once the premise of this sketch was established, I really liked it where it went and how great of a job Ego, Chris and Daniel did anchoring it! In fact, this sketch gave me the vibe that it might have been something so personal to Ego or Daniel I was NOT surprised to find out Ego was co-credited as writing it with Dan Bulla (but I was surprised to find that she herself hadn't taken credit for it on social media). The only thing this really had going against it (much like the rest of the show) was some extremely botched directing. B+

Update got off to a strong start tonight joke wise and kept that going in-between guest commentaries. Jost especially in some great Mat Gaetz slams. Kate and Aidys' meat mavens kinda killed the momentum they bought but I liked the very loose adlibby vibe of it. If anything, they continued what I saw as a theme Jost and Che established at the start of long time performers enjoying themselves as this is rumored to be the hone stretch of their final season until Alex showed up. Guy Who Just Bought A Boat didn't do much for me tonight but kudos to Mikey and Heidi for giving us two NEW characters to close out this Update. C+

Tahoe Frat Road Trip - This sketch felt like the entire second half of it had to be cut for time. It was literally edited to the point where it made no sense. There needed to be some explanation as to why everyone was gradually on board with Daniel's idea of bringing everyone's moms' on the trip except for Mikey being the lone holdout. I may not have liked the board fame sketch from earlier but at least that had the sensible conclusion that this was lacking. Otherwise, the only thing that made this work was the sheer energy it needed to power through the post-Update portion of the show. Also, Andrew as a pledge being light hazed was a nice touch but this being both Cecily and Pete's first appearances in the entire show (live or otherwise) felt strange to me. Speaking of Pete, he DOES realize he didn't need to just dye his hair blonde again just for that Eminem NFT thing, right? I mean, he could've worn a wig (unless he had to dye his hair again for resorts of "The Suicide Squad" or something in which case good for him for making something out of it). C+

Dog Voices - Good to see both Ego AND Andrew leading their own sketch (even though this seemed like something they would've wrote for Cecily at first for some reason). I wasn't crazy about where it was going at first but the Andrew/Daniel confrontation really made this for me (especially with Andrew's energy which I guess makes those who view him as Kyle's replacement feel pretty validated right now, huh?) C+

All About That (Upright) Bass (ugh, I am SO sorry) - Your typical Cecily/male host/Anderson/Sublette musical two hander to close out the night, I suppose? Yeah, this was fitting as it felt just as uneven as the rest of the show. C+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent (4.3.2021)
9. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
10. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
11. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
12. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
13. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
14. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
15. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
16. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that was all over the place. Next week, Carey Mulligan makes her hosting debut and since she is pretty much the same caliber of host as Daniel Kaluuya is right now I expect pretty much the same type of show as this one. See you then!

Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)

Okay, here's my review. This show was a strange way to come back from another lengthy break but it really was a testament to the strengths of this current cast (and Maya as a central figure in the shows history) even if the mostly dead audience didn't always reflect that and even if the show seemed written in a way to play towards some of Mayas' weaknesses. Kudos to Andrew and Lauren for getting to get their faces out there a but more. Anyway, let’s get right to it.

Snatched, Vaxxed or Waxed? - It's nice to see Maya front and center in the cold open but this was NOT the role I expected her in (nor the biggest applause break I expected her to get). Still, I loved her energy in this. The sheer charm of Maya and the current up and coming female cast in this really helped me take my mind of how utterly incoherent and rushed this was. That and the reveal of Becks' character as a cop (which was the only thing I even registered as a joke in this) were what made this sketch for me. I also liked whatever Melissa was doing even if I didn't totally understand what it was at first. Mostly, I was left wondering what made them go with THIS as the cold open besides the fact that it was a much more appropriate length for one (we'll get to what was reportedly this episodes' dress rehearsal cold open later). Thankfully, the energy level of this kept it more entertaining than the last lackluster vaccination themed cold open they did. C-

Monologue - This was a much more endearing way to start the show off in the right foot. Even better, it was a great way to get the new cast some airtime. After that cold open (and finding out how much younger Andrew Dismukes is than me), it was nice to see the more low-key absurdist, mellow Maya of recent years (even if she mostly just described the plot to The Breakfast Club Lorenzo McIntosh-style as if she were in it which I imagine Kenan must've at least had mixed feelings about). Most of all, I was glad to see that "sweater/leather weather" line was the only Bronx Beat callback we would get all night. I guess Amy, Bill AND Andy are all done with the show for good at this point, huh? B+

Hot Ones - Since I saw the Instagram post of this being rehearsed on Friday, I had a feeling that Beyoncé might be the impersonation that Maya utilized for this and that it would mostly be something that plays off Queen Beys' unflappable image and general air of mystery. While I was pleased to see how accurately I could predict something, I was a little disappointed to see how overlong this was on first viewing  due to how they had to stretch such as basic premise. Still, it grows on you the second time and I liked this more animated performance of Mayas' Beyoncé than what she used to put on. Props to the hair and makeup team on this one, too. The assists from Mikey, Kenan, Ego and Alex were welcome. B+

Boomers Got The Vax - Hmm, South Park already did this basic joke but SNL turned it into a "Mo Money, Mo Problems" pastiche. I'll admit, it's a fun juxtaposition to have boomers perform the least boomer friendly music genre ever but even I have to admit that it's time boomer humor in general should be put out to pasture. Still, it's great to see Ego now has a legit recurring non-impression character in Edith Puthie. She and The Nororious K.E.N.A.N. really saved this for me. C+

A Kamala Harris Unity Seder - I feel like I spoke too soon about sketches featuring Mayas' most popular impressions being too long. I mean, at least Hot Ones had the focus that this seriously lacked but this one had plenty of things going for it too. As much as outside cameos in political roles feels like something the show should've left in 2017 (along with things like Aidy as Ted Cruz who felt as forced as ever here despite Cruzs' border stunt bring in the news but at least was once again couched in between stronger political impressions) Martin Short is always a welcome presence on SNL no matter who he is playing. I do like that the show managed to find a non-take take on Kamalas' husband, Doug Emhoff. Chloe had a strong presence even if her characterization of Kamalas' stepdaughter, Ella's Emhoff didn't do a whole lot for me (I did appreciate the Easter egg (no pun intended) of her walk-on/walk-off music being the theme song from Mayas' old Donatella sketches which I always seemed to find easier to take than most SNL fans) and frankly I think that speaks well to Chloe Finemans' skills as a performer. Speaking of which, kudos to Cecily for making her Marjorie Taylor Greene both effortlessly funny and as dangerously unstable as the real deal! Kenan performed his part well even if he too seemed a little tacked on. Last but not least, it's nice to see they're actually sticking with Alex Moffat as Biden at least through his first presidential term. He has a better handle on Biden than Carrey ever did and the dummy Major attack was fun, timing issues and all. Mayas' Kamala is still solid but it seems better as part of a single standalone sketch in the show with a different host because in a full Maya-hosted episode where she plays various other over the top characters it just seemed more like Maya as herself but in a longer wig and a blazer. As for this sketchs' rather surprising placement in the show, I actually see why this was moved down from being the cold open despite them not really giving it a proper ending. It didn't have the right amount of energy to lead off the entire show compared to the game show sketch they went with but now that I think about it, maybe Hot Ones would've made for a better cold open? At least SNL is still figuring out how to operate with this weeks' obligatory long, dry political sketches being in the middle of the show rather than right at the top of it. C+

Without NFTs - Even though it's the second early Eminem parody Pete has given us this season alone (at least "Without Me" has been quite as beaten into the ground by the internet as "Stan" has so this felt that much fresher), I was able to enjoy this for the sheer silliness that he, Kate McKinnon as Carl Sagan as Janet Yellen, Kyle and (especially) Chris bought to this. Jack Harlow dovetailed well with this so kudos to whoever predicted he would do something with Pete. I do like how he explained what Non Fungible Tokens actually are better than Chris did (whose verse my only takeaway from was "any random Photoshopped GIF could be one and they are worth ridiculous sums of money for what they are"). B+

Update made a strong return. Jost and Che were really on a roll. I liked the idea of Jost basically pulling a huge bait-and-switch on conservative media critics who think the shows' not going nearly hard enough on Biden (but I didn't like him just telling that Sesame Street joke like he hadn't already been WAY beaten to the punch on Twitter). Cecilys' characterization of Sidney Powell was really funny. Nice to see her use her underutilized talent for mugging for once. Still, I feel like this was a real missed opportunity for the return of Nathan Thurm what with Short in the building and all. I was very pleased to see that not only did they give Bowen the chance to do an Update commentary as himself but they let him address a serious, pressing issue that deeply affects him personally. He also balanced his jokes and sincere appeal to humanity well. B+

Choreographer Clashes - This gave off the biggest "unused 04-05 script" vibes to me out of anything that aired tonight. It was a little repetitive and one note and it played to Mayas' more grating tendencies as a performer but at least it had a clear and concise conclusion which a lot of other sketches lacked. C-

2021 Barfly Awards - It was nice to see a sketch that finally felt intentionally sloppy tonight. I'm usually not the biggest fan of these specialized awards show sketches the show does from time to time but this really picked up with Laurens' botched caption and the "most bummer detail" award and the appearance of Mikeys' character. I guess it's appropriate to have Mayas' character Sweep whatever this was. The ending felt a little rushed though. C+

The Maya-ning - I like the idea of a very Inside Baseball parody pretape for longtime fans of the show. Although it almost lost me in the middle, it was very well executed. The only thing that bugged me about it was why Tina and Kenan didn't just play themselves like Rachel Dratch did instead of a fictional former writer and a fictional former crew member (and why Andrew played himself as a page rather than having a non-castmember as a page) but they had good material. Even the most vocal critics of Kristen Wiigs' "Gilly" character have to admit she works as the Shinings' two creepy hallway twins (that's probably how Gilly is best remembered anyway). The random Sum-41 shoutout made me laugh and I know Maya caught some flak for a 2012 bumper that showed her photoshopped in with the 70s cast but I guess it is appropriate THIS time given the parody subject. I liked this more than I expected to for something that seemed mostly tossed together as fan service for those who were expecting former cast cameos from Mayas' era. B-

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…

1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (3.27.2021)
9. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
10. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
11. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
12. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
13. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
14. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
15. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20)

Well, that defied about 75% the expectations I had for this show (the other 25% of my expectations were just what Maya would be doing which were definitely met). Next week, Daniel Kaluuya makes his hosting debut. After having seen him in Get Out I'm definitely excited to see what he cam bring to the field of sketch comedy! Overall, I'm impressed with the caliber of hosts SNL got for April! See you soon!

Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)

Okay, here's my review. I went into this show with rather low expectations and this episode did very little to prove to me that I was wrong to do so. Nick Jonas as host barely felt different from Nick Jonas as a musical guest making small cameos in sketches somehow and nearly every sketch felt like several different recurring (or previously one-off but now made recurring) sketches crammed into one sketch. Still, the cast gave it their all and each one of them got some screentime. As Pete said last week, the show did seem "noticably fatigued" but even more so than last week when he actually did say that. Still, I guess anything would seem low energy compared to last week when the guy from Bridgerton set off massive female screaming fits from the audience every two minutes and then the show seemingly sets you up to expect more of the same by booking Nick Jonas as host the following week but still, I'd say it was definitely the writing more than anything that proved the show was running on fumes again after five straight shows in a row. Anyway, let's break this down, shall we?

So You Think You Can Get The Vaccine? - This impression of Kate's automatically feels too soon to bring back, but I appreciate another unique premise for a cold open to couch it in (even if it feels like we're going back to longer, more political ones). I wanted to like the CVS jokes but those were beaten into the ground. I liked Alex, Cecily and Pete's impressions just fine but Aidys' Ted Cruz felt too wedged in for me. Aside from Mikey, the "contestants" didn't do much for me either but I still liked seeing them. C-

Monologue - I guess I SHOULD'VE expected Nick to sing in his monologue too, huh? I guess I also should've expected him to have a theater background given his past but as far as I know he hasn't had enough acting gigs to even suggest that. Otherwise, Nick carried himself well here. The song I wasn't crazy about but at least it was short. That literally felt like they just took Anne Hathaways' Les Mis/One Day More monologue from 2012 and put it in a blender with the "Let Kids Drink" song from one of the At Homes. Honestly, Kevin's cameo was the true highlight for me (especially the "Mmmbop? Was That Us?" joke). C-

Workout Mirror - This felt like a mishmash of several modern Day/Yang/Seidell era sketch templates being used at once (SoulCycle, Sandra Oh as Tushie, Chadwick Boseman as R. Kelly, Russell Crowe as Henry VII, Emma Stone as Christy Knox, Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins, Larry David as Kevin Roberts) but with a surreal, absurdist twist that made it worth watching. I did like Kate's performance as it felt like we were getting vintage Kate here. Kate seemed like she was drawing on the type of solid character work that got her hired almost a decade ago before she let herself get bogged down in the shows' obsession with political theater. A-

Murder and Cult Shows - Although the "banal music video about streaming shows" feels like a tired trope, I have to give them credit for writing an anachronistically upbeat pop song about murder and cult shows. Still, I think they could've gone a bit further. It would’ve worked more if they'd have gone more into graphic details on gruesome cases rather than devoting every other lyric to the other activities you give your divided attention to while this plays in the background. Good use of Chloe, though. She has a nice voice and I don't remember having seem her in any of these all female pop music videos that Kate, Melissa and Ego have been dominating so this must've been like a rite of passage for her. B-

Cinderella on Disney+ - This sketch felt all over the place before it finally settled on it's predictable reveal. It felt too much like a sketch meant for one of Mulaneys' episodes or J.J. Watts' episode (at least either of those guys probably wouldn't have overactive as hard as Nick Jonas did here). Honestly, Kenan and (to a lesser extent) Cecily were the only things keeping this sketch together for me. Nice use of Melissa and Chloe, though. D+

Boner Ballad - The unspoken awkwardness of mutual bachelor party erections seemed like fertile, unmined ground for SNL comedy. Unfortunately, it seems like this crew kept on digging right after they completely depleted the land and should've stopped. I mean,, they almost slammed right into the earths' core there. Honestly, Ego and Heidi made this for me with their fourth wall break (so, not quite for the reason you might have thought for me here). C+

Update was pretty par for the course for this season. As weak as the jokes were tonight, Che still had the lion's share of better material (although I did like Josts' "Orlando is awesome!/check his hard drive" joke). I didn't realize how much I missed Kenans' Lavar Ball until now. Did anyone else get All That/Cooking with Randy & Mandy flashbacks during the chocolate shoe thing? Nice to see Cecilys' Marjorie Taylor Greene start to get fleshed out into a full character. She really gave this her all despite the material being a little lacking in spots. I mean, it was pretty uneven in that she alternated between pointed jabs at MTGs' beliefs and politics and bland jokes that didn't land for me, but I appreciated the effort nonetheless. B-

Viking Voyager - This was pretty typical Kyle humor (even if he barely wrote any if it) but it was more annoyingly banal than endearingly awkward so I couldn't get as into it as much as I could more Kyle centric stuff. I feel a little bad for Punkie with this being her first appearance of the night. C+

Dionne Warwick Talk Show II - As much as I think this really should've stayed a one-off, it was a semi-viral hit for SNL. It was a big hit for Ego and it earned her the real Dionnes' affection and admiration (as well as earning each of this seasons' featured players a paycheck for the week) so I can see why they'd try it again. Still, it felt too cookie cutter to me. Having Pete reprise his role as Machine Gun Kelly and Nick Jonas play himself just to be drooled over felt beyond lazy and Kenan as The Weeknd felt like a waste of a decent impression. Honestly, the real highlight of this for me was Melissa Villaseñor as Dua Lipa and how neither Ego, Punkie or Andrew let the live bird blooper derail the sketch like the total pros that they are. C+

Bar - This felt too much like a sketch from 2011-12 for me at first (two specific sketches starring Melissa McCarthy and Katy Perry specifically) but with a slight quarrantine twist and some more slight overacting from Nick Jonas. Still, it had it's moments. I chuckled at Andrew's "guy piano" line as well as Kate casually taking money from Andrew's tip jar. The botched ball game lyrics were a nice touch. If there had to be two sketches in a row with audible off camera animal bloopers at least this one had an adorable kitten that barely affected the sketch. C+

Now, for my updated rankings for this season…
1. Timothee Chalamet/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.12.2020)
2. Regé-Jean Page/Bad Bunny (2.20.2021)
3. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
4. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
5. Kristen Wiig/Dua Lipa (12.19.2020)
6. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
7. Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2.13.2021)
8. Dan Levy/Phoebe Bridgers (2.6.2021)
9. Nick Jonas (2.27.2021)
10. John Krasinski/Machine Gun Kelly (1.30.2021)
11. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
12. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
13. Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen (12.5.20)
14. Bill Burr/Jack White (10.10.20) 

Well, that was a little more disappointing than I expected. In exactly one month, Maya Rudolph returns to host for her second time. Now, that is something I can look forward to. While Maya is always a welcome presence on the show and I'm happy to see that the show was able to announce that this early, it feels a little odd to me for three reasons. First, I guess this may lend some credence to the rumors being spread by this "deuxmoi" person that the show is now trying to get former cast members to host because they're having trouble booking new hosts and they're getting desperate. Still, I honestly wouldn't mind seeing Jason Sudekis host for the first time or Seth Meyers host again. I mean, he should be easy to book since he does his show in the same building, right? I'm guessing him renewing his Late Night contract with NBC would be the only thing preventing them from announcing that they've booked him. Secondly, I don't think Maya has much else to promote right now besides the second season of "Bless The Hearts" which is currently airing on FOX and an upcoming voiceover role in the next upcoming Disney/Pixar movie. The second time Mulaney hosted all he really had to promote was his role in "Into The Spiderverse" so I guess the world of entertainment has been so fractured even before Covid that as long as you're an alumni of the show you can host just to promote an animated project? That alone used to never even be close to enough for the show to let anyone host but maybe Mayas' really hosting in 2021 for the same reason Larry David hosted for his first time in 2016? Yeah, it goes without saying that they'll try to find some way to base a sketch around her Kamala Harris impression which suggests they won't be able to avoid using Alex Moffats' Biden impression (or Sudekis' impression would even be appropriate...or anyone who's mere presence wouldn't just scream "stunt casting" at this point). Look, I realize that Biden and Harris have mostly been working behind the scenes during their terms as President and Vice-President at this point and haven't done anything notable or memorable during the (understandably) few times they've been out facing the public yet and the show has had to set its' sights on much easier and more accessible political targets in the meantime but they can't keep avoiding this forever. They'll have to figure out how to approach Biden/Harris as characters in central positions of power sometime. Anyway, looking forward to seeing Maya after her brief break from the show. See you then!