Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Maya Rudolph proved once again that she is an absolute dream to work with backstage. You can tell she bought back just enough of the good vibes this season once had to put over some of the weaker, less ambitious writing. Still, I would say this was far from the worst if season 49. It was mostly "middle if the road" which sadly was the best you could hope for with this episode at this point. I mean, my expectations were pretty low already considering how this season has gone and the fact that this is the mother's day show (which in recent seasons always turns out to be a total washout at best) so I was mostly pleasantly surprised tonight. I do appreciate the choice she made to stick to only one recurring character/impression from her old days and just vamp in completely original sketches the rest of the night. It was a but stronger than last week because the highs were higher and the lows were at sbout the same level but just...felt lower sunce they were helmed by someone who basically started their career on this show...so, it was a less consistent show just...not quite at the same level as last week. Cast use was very well spread out tonight. In particular, Ego and Sarah had very strong nights. JAJ got a lot of straight man roles, but still nice to see the show gradually start using him well. Seeing as much Bowen, Heidi, Marcello, Punkie, Mikey, Kenan and Chloe F was to be expected but we saw just enough Chloe T, Longfellow, Kearney, Devon and Dismukes to almost make up for any shutterings they had this year. Anyway, let's get right to it, shall we?

Casts' Moms Cold Open - Huh, this again. Ok, fitting. I mean, it's not like we NEED this with this host (in fact, Maya may not be the ideal host for one of these cold opens) but these are always sweet and endearing so, this season especially, I'll take it. Hell, any season these beat something political (especially what would've been an incredibly forced and unnecessary Kamala sketch anyway). All that really stood out for me were the Kearney bald caps, Longfellows' "stuff that bombs" comment, JAJs impressions routine, Sarah's "jackass/RFK brain worms" joke and seeing what Marcellos' mom actually looks like (and Longfellows for that matter, but...those guys are still in their 20s and thus a decade younger than me, so I shouldn't be THAT surprised). Mikeys' "buttheads mom" joke felt just gratuitous and was really the only demerit against this to me. Anyway, it's nice to see the post-Covid era cast bring out their moms (and even some pre-Covid cast members who I don't think got to bring their moms on the show yet). Even PDD scored with something dumb. B-

Monologue - Well, that cold open certainly beat this campfest of a monologue, too. Mr. James Anderson is certainly in the building tonight, ain't he? I mean, I liked Mayas outfit and I liked how suddenlythey glammed up the lighting on the home base stage on such short notice, so...this came close to winning me over, but instead, they just chose to repeat a bunch of RuPauls' drag race buzzwords to fill time. Did they just touch up an old Deep House Dish script they found lying around in Kenans' dressing room and then just say to themselves, "You know what? Let's add a "Vogue" parody to this while we're at it (even though this may already be a parody of a Meghan Trainor song)!" Again, I just have to keep reminding myself that while I am not the key demographic for this, it certainly works for someone... some GenZer on Twitter out there. The SNN Hot Take Show seemed thoroughly impressed with it. I will admit they had a point about this raising the energy level of the show up top after a lower key cold open and that's something I can never fault the show for wanting to do. Maybe this might grow on me upon a rewatch or two, I dunno. C-

Hotter Ones - Well, I WAS expecting a Queen Bey impression because "Cowboy Carter" came out recently. I guess I was just naive to expect them to do more than just run the "find-and-replace" function on an old script from three years ago. I mean, hey, we all loved Conans' real life "Hot Ones" episode from a month ago, right? I guess no one at SNL even bothered to consider the possibility that Conans' Hot Ones was so over the top silly that it rendered any and all past & future attempts at "Hot Ones" parodies redundant and pointless (however few there may be?) I appreciated the Zuul reference and the blurred face belch, though. I also appreciated how quickly they rushed to that MIB inspired ending. They really are too content to just run out the clock on season 49, huh? - C-

PDD: Uneesa Confidence - SNL, Uneesa PDD shorts again. While the break we from the boys didn't exactly take it's toll on me, this over the top absurd short after not seeing them in pretape form for, like, a month reminded me of what I always LIKED about their output. While I loved all the quick paced zaniness that PDD usually gives us, I thought it did get a little muddied when they tried to tie THAT into a sincere message about a serious' men's mental health issue (the "loneliness epidemic" and lack of male confidence) before hitting us with Ben Marshall's sudden death by iPhone asphyxiation. It didn't ruin the whole thing but I felt like they could've actively made that part clearer so it doesn't need to take you an extra viewing or two to process. C+

Y'all Won - I was partly hoping to see that cut Vitamin C parody from last week's dress rehearsal I had heard about, but once this was going, I was like, "Hey, I'll take it." Ego pretty much walked away with this...well, AFTER she pretty much said "hold my thermos...and TSIDDAHN". JAJs "sweet southern guy" character also was a stand out here. Also, it was nice to see at least one of Mayas actual children in this. Nice to see she's supportive of her kids getting into the business. The only negative thing I can say about this is that OnlyFans tag at the end needed to be cut, like, yesterday. B+

British Cavemen - I guess what the show really needed at this point in the home stretch of the season was something just abstract and near-dadaist enough to feel radically different from most of 2020s SNL to keep me interested. JAJ did a great job stringing this along. I mean, if SOMEONE had to be the straight man necessary to keep this palatable to the normies, it was nice that they chose him. Maya and the rest of the cast did a great job keeping the wild mugging and nonsense vocalizations just funny enough to not feel absolutely necessary and not too over the top. It felt like this really was written for those of us who regularly keep up with the That Week In SNL Twitch streams. It truly gave me "early Sunday evening on Andy's stream" vibes. B+

Sleepovers - It was good to see the low key absurd vibes continue with Maya and Kenan giving us some sleepy, groggy silliness here mixed in with a heartwarming relatability. It was pretty straightforward, so not much to really break down here. Still, it was pretty fun and somehow managed to appeal to a wide ranging audience. B+

Update seemed to suck most of the energy out of the room. The only jokes of Jost & Ches' I liked were Ches' Stormy Daniel's line and Josts "jury hush money" ones. I mean, I didn't laugh necessarily but they were delivered just well enough to work. It doesn't quite make up for Che completely bottoming out tonight, but still. Hey, it's not my fault that Che took all the wrong lessons from Norm & Quinn. An anthropomorphized RFK Jr brain worm was something that the show had all the opportunities in the world to completely biff but it warmed my heart to see then just throw Sarah out there just to have her own brand of Milhousian fun with it (and keep the Jost roasts light and to a relative minimum by comparison). I know this didn't work for a lot of you guys as a whole, but I mean...I'd rather see Sarah play some kind of non-human costumed creature than see them try to shove Marcello into this type of niche role again. I also thought that the musical number at the end should've been cut along with the cold opens' foreshadowing of this exact thing. Heidi's "woman who's not mad" character was grounded and restrained enough (by Heidi standards anyway) that I was fleetingly curious to see where it would go. Really, it just seemed like a dumbed down version of her Instagram girlfriend minus Mikey. It slid out if my brain almost instantly. C+

Dawns' Ad - This started out just subtle enough to keep my interest but didn't take long to become flatulent enough that I wished it would end unceremoniously. I know it would be incredibly hacky of me to make another "was this a lost season 30 script?" but I literally never have nothing else I actually WANT to say about this. The most interesting thing about this was trying to figure out what was suddenly muted on the west coast (or was that just a glitch with my own affiliate)? D+

National Nurses Week - This seemed like it was gonna be more low hanging fruit but Ego, Maya and even Mikey made an absolute MEAL out of this. JAJ, Molly and Chloe F did fine support work. B+

Lanzettis' Lawn Care - What seemed like a premise they should've done two decades ago (y'know, when "Desparate Housewives" was a hit show and Maya was actually still in the cast?) was saved by just letting Kenan, JAJ, Devon and Dismukes just run wild. Mikey and Maya comitted to this well. Dismukes' "hell yeah dude" may have been my second strongest laugh of the night. B+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.09.2023)

3. Kristen Wiig/Raye (04.06.2024)

4. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)

5. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)

6. Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

7. Dua Lipa (05.04.2024)

8. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)

9. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)

10. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.02.2023)

11. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

12. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

13. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)

14. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)

15. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)

16. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)

17. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (01.27.2024)

18. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)

19. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

Now, for my rankings of all of Mayas' host outings...

1. Maya Rudolph/Sleigh Bells (02.18.2012)

2. Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend (05.11.2024)

3. Maya Rudolph/Jack Harlow (03.27.2021)

Well, SNL had some gas left in the tank this week after all. Next week, Jake Gyllenhaal hosts for his third time and Sabrina Carpenter performs for her debut as a musical guest. Geez, what is it with this show and booking Jake as hosts with musical guests who opened on tour for the chick who sang a ten minute song about him on this show once? Anyway, if you read my blog from the last time he hosted, you'll know why I've soured a bit on Gyllenhaal in general (and it's not just his last episode just flat out sucking) so I won't go into that here. I'm just as complacent to ride out season 49 of SNL as the show itself seems to be at this point, so...see you next week!