Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.1975)

 Pam Bondi Hearing

• Hey, another “off the beaten path” political cold open (I mean, that describes any modern SNL cold open that doesn’t feature James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump as JAJ but still).

• Speaking of, I see JAJ is playing Senator Chuck Grassley tonight and the two new white guys are getting some airtime right up top. I did like Jeremy Culhanes’ “Jeff-rey Ep-stein” chant as Senator Whitehouse. Boy, Dismukes as Senator Kennedy from Louisiana looks like it will be a fun impression. 

• Among the miscues, I see Ashley Padilla is playing Amy Klobuchar…but, wait…this is supposed to be a Pam Bondi sketch and didn’t Ashley play Pam Bondi in last seasons’ “White Potus” or was that some weird random color blob? Wait, does this mean we’re getting…HEY!!! Amy as Pam Bondi! (or is this just Leslie Knope if she became a “bad girl”?)

• Well, it was smart of the show to have Amy helm this cold open since over the past several years she has proven herself adept at producing light political comedy that functions as comfort food for liberal wine moms. 

• She’s trying her damndest to put this over. I especially liked her Blumenthal/Durbin/Klobuchar roasts and her line about “who fell asleep in the middle of a sentence” but…something about this makes it feel like the energy is off. Maybe the audience isn’t into it because it isn’t quite what they were expecting? Maybe they just wanted to get past the current politics and get into the instant nostalgia?

• Kristi Noem? Wait, Heidi played her and she’s gone now. Who’s going to…wait, I recognize THAT voice more than that face at the moment. Is that…Tina under those prosthetics? Tina Fey impersonating a hardass right wing backwoods governor known for shooting animals with a goofy ass accent that makes her sound like a member of “Da Yoopers”? That’s totally new.

• I think, bare minimum, cameo-wise people were just expecting some combination of Tina, Rachel and Maya (even if she seems completely burnt out on the show and another Bronx Beat so soon after the 50th might seem like overkill). Those women have always been a package deal on SNL whether they were in the cast, hosting or just making a plethora of cameos during the height of the Wiig era. 

• In fact, I’d say Tina had the best material in this with her ICE ad copy and it’s still fine by me if she wants to do some political humor on the show sometimes. Still, this grew on me and struck the right balance between how to work Tina well into political sketches and what type of political commentary works best on Update from her. B-

Monologue 

• This monologue seemed a little “all over the place” but the things I appreciated the most about it were Amy giving this casts’ newbies the same treatment she gave Taran, Jay, Vanessa and Paul fifteen years ago as well as the very heartfelt acknowledgment of this very moment in time being SNL’s actual chronological 50th anniversary aimed at longtime fans and aspiring comedians watching (or just regular viewers watching considering her “tough times” comments). 

• I also liked the lines about no one having asked her to do full frontal yet, SNL “not caring after 50” (boy, does that ring true but thanks for being diplomatic about it, Amy) and the fact that Amy Poehler may be the first host in SNL history to only be plugging a podcast. B-

The Rudemans

• Umm, oookaaaaaayyyyy? I guess this is the Amy/Sarah/Ashley collaboration I’ve been wanting to see this week? Thanks? Especially for letting Sarah play yet another “generic grandma” role? Because that’s my favorite thing she does in this show, I guess?

• So, this has a theme song? Like a season 30 sketch? Ok, thanks for giving us a flashback to THAT "beloved" era? I mean, whaaaaat? (all right, I’m gonna drop this whole tired ass “meta” bit here because I DID like this sketch a bit more than I am letting on)

• I’d say Bowen, Amy, Sarah and Mikey (as “on the nose” as he felt in this) came off as more passive aggressively confused than rude or offended but their performances worked for me. Ashley and Andrew as a couple provided a fresh new dynamic that they played off of well.

• I like how each beat came in at a specific point that felt like it was designed to keep the sketch from getting too stale. You can see this in the phone call bit with Amy, Sarah' s fall (as telegraphed as that felt with Dismukes final lines) and Mikey suddenly smashing his beer bottle over Andrews’ head. There was enough going on here in the end to keep this from feeling like someone just played one of Fred Armisen and Vanessa Bayers “dictators two best friends from growing up” bits on super slow speed.

• One last thing I will add. I heard in dress rehearsal of this sketch Sarah fell so hard her prosthetics ripped open and fell off and God dammit I've never wanted to see dress footage posted online so bad in my life. B+

Non-Non Alcoholic Beer

• Hey, nice to see a Dismukes led pretape after barely being able to remember that such a solid player is still in the cast!

• I loved the very detailed, writerly nature of this sketch. I especially liked Kam telling Andrew his breath smells like gasoline, the jokes about the hyphen/skeleton key/double negative marketing and the breathalyzer chase. A-

Miss Lycus The Fast Psychic

• Hmm, a real early 2000s topic with a very 2010s/20s premise specific approach. I like it 

• This is definitely a sketch that’s appropriate to put up top after the monologue due to its sheer rapid fire pacing and energy. This sketch even applied gastrointestinal humor well with the colonoscopy gags.

• I liked Amys’ comments to Jeremy, Ashley, Ben and Veronica. JAJ had some great asides. The speed round with the appearances from Bowen and Marcello were the perfect beat to end this on from both a pacing and writing perspective. C+

The Hunting Wives Season Two

• Well, my favorite thing about this sketch by far is how they glammed up Sarah the most they’ve ever done since she’s joined the show. I mean, damn…

• The Aubrey Plaza cameo was a nice touch (for something else we were all half expecting to see in the back of our collective minds after her hosting stint from a couple of years back was one of the few things that brought Amy back to the show after a long absence from just…acting in general).

• Other than that, it’s not a great sign that the fake Steve Higgins voiced fake reviews were the sharpest jokes in this. This sketch was…well, visually dazzling (which is as much as I CAN say about it) but there wasn’t enough here to distract the viewer from the basic joke was “hey, look how horny this fake ass country Netflix show is that you probably actually haven’t heard of until now”. C-

Work Birth

• Uh oh, after the last time Molly Shannon hosted I get a bad feeling whenever I see a sketch where a former female alumni is very visibly pregnant. Thankfully, this just focuses on the actual pregnancy and not gas…or anything else apparently.

• I gave this a chance based on the idea that this might be something Amy could draw from some of her own experience on from her “leaving SNL and heading into doing Parks and Rec full time” era but…this just didn’t go anywhere.

• Since there were no real twists, I’ll just say a few more things. I’m glad they finally gave Ben Marshall the chance to play a “character” character that wasn’t just a background straight man that any cast member could’ve played. Mikey and Kenan didn’t add much for me (when you don’t think about how weird it feels that this is Kenans’ first appearance in the whole show since he and Jost are the only onscreen regulars that were there when she was in the cast).

• Thankfully, this was also one of the few sketches that knew where it needed to end before it officially went on too long. Kenans’ walk on was a good place to wrap it up and Bowen being birthed Will Ferrell/Ted Brogan style was as good an ending as any. C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Gee, Che doesn’t LOOK that sick. Stage health?

• The only things I laughed at were Ches’ “MTG/Trump coin” joke and Josts’ RFK/Kristi Noem/Saw/German day gags. (boy, that Gen-z/trad sons joke hits close to ho….ah, nope…not going there right now)

• You know, as much as I like Sarah Sherman…I wish they would have her do more than just an inverse of Heidis’ “mom who’s only read about NYC from Facebook comments” but from the perspective of an actual New Yorker that took until it got very horny five minutes in to actually go anywhere.

• Dear GOD, I hope that clip of Jost strutting in the background of that old clip of Trump and Epstein at that party was made with a green screen and some good old fashioned video editing software and NOT Sora 2.

• Normally, I liked Grant and Alyssa and the energy Marcello usually brings to the show at this point but…for some reason I felt it necessary to tune halfway out to take some notes here (which is a better sign for this episode because last week I started doing this straight from the cold open).

• Weirdly, Jane had the better lines in this with her Sylvia Plath, “please calm down” and “jack o his lantern” jokes. Good to see her get this after being shut out last week.

• Ok, Amy has come out at the Update desk followed closely by Tina so we’re getting to the part most people really want to see (even if they don’t quite know why). Finally, we get a Joke Swap (which I liked probably a bit more than I should’ve) and suddenly the show feels like it’s somewhat back on track again. 

• Hey, A Seth cameo! Wasn’t expecting that…given how infrequently Seth has cameoed on the show since leaving. The lack of Jimmy Fallon here makes this feel a bit…unbalanced but at this point, I think we’ve all seen more than enough of Jimmy Fallon for one lifetime. 

• Anyway, I liked most of the jokes here enough that I don’t want to single out any ones in particular and the sheer energy from the previous eras’ Update anchors really carried this. C+

Experienced Lawyers

• Hey, we haven’t seen a JAJ/Dismukes pairing in a while. Let’s hope this is worthwhile.

• Ok, Amy as a jacked old man with disturbingly realistic arm hair (and painted nails for some reason) crashing through a break away wall is a strange enough burst of high energy to keep me intrigued. 

• I liked how they’re both giving Veronica a shot to play a “character” character instead of just a straight role and also excluding her from playing another old woman. Dracu-Law was delightfully dumb and felt more in Sarah' s wheelhouse.

• I wasn’t crazy with this winding down with the visual of Bowens’ face superimposed over a tree after we meet several clones of the JAJmukes characters and some turtles (I did like how you could clearly see the in studio monitor reflected in the turtle cage at one point) but Kenans’ line as Zeus and the closing jingle made up for that (and made up for his weird absence from this episode, too).

• The only real flaw is how all the lawyer introductions just wash out the client testimonials but I don’t want to split hairs here. B+

Perimenopause

• Amy is a goth/scene/punk/emo mom whose kids have to confront HER about her attitude and behavior. Wow, THERE’S a switch! 

• Again, this was another concept that only Amy Poehler could put over for me. Still, I liked the visual of Kam, Jane and Ben as goth kids. Chloe, JAJ and Jeremy played well off Amy, too (especially the “superintendent” line and his stumbling through the mosh pit to unplug the boombox).

• I also liked Amys’ “F my life” speech and the heavily infected tattoo reveal at the end (as well as how Amy and JAJ reacted to the camera panning away from them as the sketch ended). B-

Composers Symposium

• So…this sketch explores the rather common theme of “hey, why aren’t there any more early 90s Fresh Prince style expository rap theme songs to TV shows that explain the entire premise to you anymore?” and then spent the whole sketch insisting upon itself so hard it made you question why Mikey Day wasn’t in this?

• Ok, I will admit that Amy Poehler is literally the only comedic performer that would put this over for me (yet another sketch that carries this theme). Other than that, it does have very small but noticeable traces of tropes that remind loyal SNL viewers of what they haven’t liked about Bowen centric sketches since 2022 (or just sketches where people react to questionable songs since 2018).

• Bowen threatening to whip Jane's character with a belt felt very “Garrett From Hinge” to me. Kenans’ character didn’t add much either. C-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.1975)

2. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Ranking Each Amy Poehler Hosted Episode From Best To Worst

1. Tina Fey & Amy Poehler/Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (12.19.2015)

2. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)

3. Amy Poehler/Katy Perry (09.25.2010)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, it’s certainly nice to have had a seasoned comedy professional that got her big break on this very show to help right the course of this season. Granted, last week set an incredibly low bar to clear, but a lot of the pacing problems were non-existent.

• There wasn’t a lot to distract from the current shows’ ongoing problems but Amy’s performances and sheer commitment here reminded us of why she was considered to be such a beloved cast member during such a troubled era of the show. I’m sure the current cast benefitted a lot from her presence this week.

• Sure, we got to see a lot more of Kam, Jane, Ben, Tommy, Jeremy and Veronica than we did last week but it will still be quite a while before we get a real bead on this season's newbies to be able to figure out who they are and what they bring to the show. Still, it’s nice that Amy could give them a voice this week. 

• Nice to see lots of Sarah and JAJ this week (although when he’s not playing 47 he seems to be getting stuck with a lot of dorky dad type roles when he should be getting to play more original characters) and I even liked how they figured out the strongest ways to use Bowen, Marcello and even Chloe this week.

Closing Thoughts 

• Next week, Sabrina Carpenter makes her hosting debut. Her appearances at SNL50 make me think she is going to handle the show well. Still, this season hasn’t really gotten far enough off the ground yet for me to make any kind of call as to how her episode will go. Let’s just hope she brings some youthful, bubbly l pop star energy to keep morale up.

• Hey, one thing I know about Sabrina Carpenter is that she once did voices on an animated Disney show called “Milo Murphy’s Law” opposite one Mr. “Weird Al” Yankovic. Now, this show is probably too obscure for SNL even reference let alone parody in a live sketch but on the extremely off chance that it isn’t, one thing I would personally like to see is some kind of variation on this sketch with either a possible cameo from Al or maybe just JAJ playing him or something, I don’t know.

• Hey, be sure to listen to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader podcast where me and Deej react to all three Greg The Alien sketches. It’s a short one, but it’s a lot of fun. After that, our next episode will be a full length review of the Zach Braff/Maroon 5 season 32 finale (which you will also be able to read on this blog in two weeks). See ya next time!

Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

 Quantico

• Hey, a Hegseth cold open. That’s…slightly different from what I was expecting

• Hey, Jeremey Cuhlane as Hegse…nope, just a random general character introducing Hegseth. Still, it’s good that they got enough faith in this new guy to have him lead off the new season.

• It’s nice to see Jost put some juice into his shouting frat bro Hegseth character. Every other word out of his mouth had me laughing. Jost has always been at his funniest to me during his brief flashes of aggression on Update so it’s nice to see the writer finally base, well…half of an entire sketch around that.

• I’m glad that JAJ as Trump briefly glossed over the late night TV situation but I was more than a little disappointed that he didn’t say…more and just left it there. This is another one of those times where I wish they would’ve been angrier in the moment. I did appreciate the Saudi/Riyadh and “old and confused/keep an eye on Marcello” jabs as well as the visual detail of JAJ/Trumps’ tie hanging over his waist high pants.

• Mikey as Brendan Carr was…cute but didn’t do much for me and ultimately should’ve been cut. B-

Montage

• I guess it’s not that weird for them to keep the heavily stylized season 50 intro when you realize that they could just as easily edit around the fact that the new hires are all just at the end. 

• Too bad they couldn’t just shoot a new transition to Sarah’s appearance that doesn’t feel like such a hard smash cut since she’s now driving a bus that we don’t see at all because Heidi and Ego were on it.

Monologue 

• Marcellos’ and Juan Jamon cameos were OK. I liked the self deprecating jab at his own "choreography" and the FOX News montage. Otherwise, not much about this monologue stood out to me. C-

Jeopardy

• Huh, a regular non-Black/non-Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. This feels…new.

• As much as I like seeing Andrew Dismukes on the show, I feel like he has just a smidge too much charisma and personality to play Ken Jennings of all people.

• Nice to see Veronika get her first role (even if it was essentially nothing)

• Ok, this sketch only has two jokes: Kenans’ character being named “Luck-ass” instead of “Lucas” and Bad Bunny just…not knowing that he has to answer in the form of a question. Great. 

• …and it’s STILL just a regular ass, aimless, go nowhere game show sketch right after the fucking monologue. Man, old habits die HARD on this show, huh?

• God bless Dismukes for trying to make this work, but damn…this just isn’t working for me.

• Wow. Ok. Bad Bunny just accidentally answered “Who Is The Who?” out of sheer confusion and frustration…and that’s the big payoff…and then they just left it there and walked away.

• Well, that was a LONG ass walk to a rather unique punchline…but I can’t totally say that was worth it. D+

ChatGPTio

• Well, that Jeopardy sketch just set the bar so low that it would be impossible NOT to clear. At least this started off with the requisite energy that something that SHOULD be up top in the first third of the show.

• Whoa, who did that voice over during the opening scene where Veronika was lying on the couch? It sounded so much to me like a former cast member that I’m thinking it had to be either Heidi or Cecily. Yeah, my money would be on Cecily there.

• I know some of you may be sick of Marcello just popping up out of nowhere and growling at you, but at this point I’ll certainly take it. Hell, it may be the closest thing we’ll be getting to another “Immigrant Dad Talk Show” sketch that is worth watching.

• I liked Marcello and Benitos’ energy in this but it went on quite a bit too long and initially me too much of the “GPYaass” sketch from the all time bummer Steve Carrell episode from 2018, but thankfully had a bit more going for it.

• It’s nice to see Ben Marshall and Tommy Brennan make their cast member debuts in this sketch, but it’s kinda sad that this PRETAPE was the most screentime they had in this episode (especially when you consider the irony of this being the case for Ben Marshall of all people).

• This went on a few beats too long but I liked the visual of Marcello drawing a cheap company bread logo with a blue sharpie over a “past due” Xfinity bill. I also liked the Halls’ cough drop bit and Marcello calling Mikey in the middle of the night. I feel it should’ve ended there and cut the bits with the guys hitting on Chloe. C+

Sperm Donors

• This seems like a unique premise so far. I wonder where they’ll go with it?

• Oh, it’s a sketch where Bad Bunny and Kenan play skeezy, flashy buttinskis.

• This is the type of thing I wanted to like a lot more but feel like it WAY wasn’t fleshed out enough. They should’ve gone a lot further with the sleazy inappropriateness of Benito and Kenans’ characters.

• I liked Bad Bunnys’ “put it in the front/back” line but really I spent most of this sketch thinking about how much better literally any other male host would have been in his role.

• I kinda liked the ending with Marcello showing up as Benito's illegitimate son, as telegraphed as all hell as it was.

• I didn’t like the Sopranos reference at first but I liked the HBO callback to it at the end just for the sheer weirdness of it. Did anyone else think for a second that was just a hard cut to another unrelated pretape for a second? It certainly didn’t feel like an ending. Hiyoooo! D+

K-Pop Demon Hunters

• Ok, so a group of friends are just naming random movies and things from current pop culture…and Bad Bunny’s character seems to be stuck on…K-Pop Demon Hunters…to the point of obsession…like they’re the Mango to his Garth Brooks or something.

• I guess this is this season premieres’ requisite “blatant pop culture/viral click chasing” sketch? Well, at least the entire show wasn’t that thus far.

• Somehow Bowen coming in as a “demon” wasn’t a low point of this since it managed to break up the monotony and brought some energy to this sketch a bit.

• I did get a kick out of Sarah admitting to being on the Epstein list and suddenly spitting up blood in “demon” facepaint. Chloes’ Sydney Sweeney reference felt a little too unfocused to me.

• Huh, I guess these K-Pop Demon Girls were actually live in the studio. Is this group just…mutual friends of both Bowen and Bad Bunny who wanted to get them on the show? Did Bowen co-write this sketch with that specific purpose in mind?

• Well, at least this had an actual ending. The first sketch to have something approaching one so far tonight. This had to be the laziest “button” on the end of a sketch ever but somehow it’s the one I am the least mad at. 

• Wait...according to Jon Schneider, that was the biggest song of the YEAR at this point? God damn. Song of the summer? I mean, it sounded VAGUELY familiar, but…I apparently missed it? Either I'm getting old or I had a pretty shitty summer (eh, it’s probably both). C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Boy, Josts’ opening line about the government “shut down” hit close to home.

• Hmm, there weren’t many jokes I DIDN’T like from this Update (and except for that Photoshop of Che’s cleavage, the Trump/Coolidge thing and the A.I. Weinstein joke, most of them were after the first commentary…I guess that’s why they looked so nervous at first). Still, I guess I AM more bummed about Ego leaving or these two guys staying for their twelfth season now.

• Speaking of commentaries, I’m glad Kam didn’t get shut out of his first show entirely. I didn’t hate his commentary or anything…but it was a little unfocused and rambling for me. He has a slight Colin Quinn quality to him…in that it becomes immediately obvious that Weekend Update isn’t the best fit for his looser style of standup.

• Hmm…you know, when Kam said “roll the clip” I immediately thought of, like, three or five times off the top of my head the show said the N-word in the first eight seasons alone (three of them were from white guys and two of them were from Eddie Murphy) but…did Che really “say” it in 2016 or did he just…chicken out and half mumble it? I know Sasheer said it loud and clear that year but…when she did it she stumbled over her own Update commentary so badly it took away the impact of it.

• Bowen as Dobby The House Elf from Harry Potter. As reminiscent as this is of things I’ve seen Chris Kattan and Rachel Dratch do on Update in 2003, this might be the most “late period Bowen” thing ever at this point. 

• I guess the little “wardrobe malfunction” he had shows’ why it’s best from an FCC fines stand point why this WASN’T a Sarah piece like I was expecting.

• Ok, I have to say something. It’s become blatantly obvious that Bowen has fully filled the Kate void in the show now where they get a lifetime pass to deliver a sincere heartfelt message about current LGBTQ issues that comes across a bit too “preachy” to everyone else because they’re pretty much viewed as the star of the show now. 

• Cecily did this a few times with reproductive rights and various women' s issues near the end of her run on the show, but I feel she pulled it off better and made it come across as more genuine.

• Hey, I read all the Harry Potter books and watched all the movies until they felt like a chore (so around the fifth book and…somewhere between the fourth and seventh movies just because my dad stayed more into that series than I did and took me to see all the movies in theaters with him. Does that make ME “millenial cringe”? I was just bonding with my dad. C+

Invention Of The Spanish Language

• Wow, another sketch in the vein of both “Age Of Discovery” and "Washington' s Dream”, huh? Interesting. This WAS something I was wanting to see them attempt again even if I ultimately feel it didn’t live up to those examples.

• This sketch seemed like it had a lot of writerly details that would’ve grown on me upon a second viewing, like the ocean being a boy and the bible being a girl and Marcellos’ closing line “whoever doesn’t die of disease in the night, I will see you tomorrow.” but it felt a bit light and skimpy on those hidden details. 

• I definitely wanted to like this but it was another “just OK” sketch premise that went on for a beat too long and could’ve had a couple of things cut.

• Mikey as the “Delegate from Barthelona” who suddenly gets beheaded stood out to me but it’ s not the greatest sign in the world for this sketch that Marcello suddenly holding Mikey’s fake severed head was the main stand out moment.

• Benicio Del Toro was a cameo I wasn’t expecting but…hey, I’ll take it. He didn’t exactly blow me away or anything but I liked his lines just fine, like the “what if the letter R went on for a really long time?”. C+

Principals’ Office

• Well, the big positives to this sketch are that a) they buried the requisite “host is hot” sketch near the end of the show and b) Ashley Padilla really got a chance to shine as a performer/sketch lead.

• Also, the drawings and (to a lesser extent) the visual of Marcello in that shaggy scene kid wig were pretty funny.

• The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was Andrew Dismukes in the cuck role (I was going to say “cuck adjacent” until he said his last line). B+

El Chavo de Marcello

• So, I guess we’re getting this instead of a third Sabado Gigante sketch from Marcello? I’m fine with that. I have some vague familiarity with “El Chavo del Ocho” and “Chespirito” so I DO get what this was supposed to be.

• Did anyone else get flashbacks to that awful wheelchair sketch from Scarlett Johanssons’ 2010 episode when they saw Kenan fall on the ground as “Mr. Stomach”?

• I liked what this was going for and I liked the visual commitment to making this look like an actual early 70s comedy show, but even on rewatch parts of this seemed difficult to parse and the live audience seemed as extremely confused as I was

• I feel like I would’ve liked this more if it were more of an indirect parody of “El Chavo de Ocho” rather than just a word for word English translation of one of those episodes that the show must have had to get clearance from the estate of Roberto Gomez Bolanos to do.

• If that truly was the case, I feel a lot of this got LOST in translation to the point where this felt like a redux of Cleese and Palin recreating the parrot sketch in January 1997 or Horatio Sanz and Colin Quinn doing that “latin comedy explosion” thing on Update in October 1999 that the audience may have been even more confused by (judging by how seemingly the only genuine non-laugh track audience reaction seemed to be applause from Jon Hamms’ inexplicable cameo). C-

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, this episode started out showing a lot of potential for a modern SNL season premiere but suddenly faced one of the biggest nosedives in quality I’ve ever seen with this show.

• I think the biggest problem I had with this episode was the constant leaning on tired modern SNL tropes throughout instead of trying to recapture the more unique experimental feel of Bad Bunny' s previous episode, but its’ a season premiere with substantial cast and writers’ room turnover so…what are you gonna do?

• I don’t really have a problem with cast usage in this episode (don’t worry Tommy, you’ll get your chance some day). I expected Marcello, Chloe, Kam and Sarah to be used as much as they were and I expected the show to continue to forget that Jane Wickline existed. I was expecting Ben to be used a little more but I think the show felt that its regular viewers were familiar enough with him already. Surprised to see Bowen used as  little as he was though. 

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, that certainly was a season premiere. Next week, on the actual chronological 50th anniversary of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, beloved former cast member Amy Poehler returns to host for the fourth time.

• Amy was someone who left and didn’t give us much of a chance to let us miss her with all the cameos she made right after leaving (much like her castmates Tina and Amy) but she’d gone on to great success and took a break from the show since then.

• In fact, I’d say she was the Sarah Squirm of her time in that they both started out doing crazy, outrageous underground comedy before getting hired by the show and used in such a way that was FAR removed from their pre-SNL personae and sensibilities that eventually some of her long time fans were disappointed (more with the show than with them personally).

• Still, they both carved out their own little acting and comedy niches outside of the show and Amys’ run was from an era that is now so far removed from the show that I am genuinely curious to see how they would interact with the modern cast and writers.

• Also, she is and always was a likable presence on SNL and pretty much everything else she’s done. I may not be expecting this episode to correct the course of the season or anything but I am looking forward to it. See you then!

• Oh, and by the way, Deej and I are planning to review the SNL season 32 finale with Zach Braff and Maroon 5 on the next episode of We Heart Hader so be on the lookout for that episode of the podcast and for that write up on this very blog as well this coming Friday.