Family Feud Election Showdown
- Huh, I certainly wasn't expecting them to dig this template out of mothballs. They were always the strongest use of Kenans' Steve Harvey impression. That "Diddy parties" joke made me laugh. I always liked...some of these, but I'm not sure the current cast/visiting cameos can really pull these off.
- This wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's not completely inappropriate. I wouldn't have made it the cold open, though...but OK.
- All this season's big cameos still work in this format, I guess. It's not the most ambitious thing they've done, but I haven't been expecting much from this season's election material going in.
- I guess it was real slim pickings this week for the cold open. They didn't have much else to choose from besides "wow, Kamala Harris sure did a lot of interviews this week, didn't she?" and yeah, I can see how hard it would be to stretch that alone into a cold open, so they just had Maya acknowledge that quickly and...move on?
- When Carveys' Biden gets more laughs out of me than Gaffigans' Walz, something may be wrong.
- JAJ as Trump has gotten a bit more...visually jarring. Hope he's not wearing out his voice too much doing this. I liked the brief "where's Melania?" fakeout here but other than that, the writing for the republican side if this was just...a whole lotta nothing. At least this ended much quicker than I was expecting and at least this was more watchable than the Game Of Thrones vs Avengers Family Feud Cold Open they did a few years back (but not that much better than the Trump vs Hillary Family Feud from a few years before that). C-
Monologue
- So, she's basically singing Justin Timberlakes' 2011 monologue to the tune of Jean Smarts' monologue from...last month?
- Oh, I see. It's now a medley including "Baby One More Time" and "Don't Speak". The Miley impression was...fine.
- It's like they suddenly remembered Arianas' Tidal sketch from 2016 was a viral semi-hit and thought on Thursday "oh wait, we forgot to write another one of these for her...ah, screw it, we'll just make that her monologue this time."
- Bowen in drag. Should've expected that.
- Meh. Not a great start so far, but the hardest part may be out if the way. Let's see what else they got. D+
Singing Bridesmaids
- Ok, now she IS singing...again. Now, it's a purposely bad, off key parody of "Espresso".
- The lyrics are just as jumbled as the original but at least I can sense that the point of this song seems to be to humiliate Andrew Dismukes' groom character. He might be the strongest part if this sketch, so...good for him. I liked his "rhyme scheme" line.
- I'm starting to think this may just be just his "island castaway" sketch with Jason Momoa from last year...just set to pop music and set arcade wedding.
- Now, Marcello shows up as the guy they were singing about. Not crazy that the ending was so rushed here, but at least it did end. I was starting to think it never would. D+
SNL Midnight Matinee: My Best Friend's House
- Hmm...new title card? Possible new branding for pretapes?
- Nice use of Pee Wees' Playhouse style puppetry in this.
- This was obviously more "cute" than "funny" until the insane sudden reveal if Mikeys ' dad being a serial killer.
- Sarah appears as a severed head in a fridge. Honestly, a bit surprised she didn't have a much bigger part in this. Still, this one of the more successful outings of the "sudden explosive, near vomit inducing gore" pretapes she's been involved with in the past couple of years.
- A Dan Bulla Short? Good for him getting to branch out into directing from *just* writing. Since his ending vanity card indicates he also wrote/directed/produced "Tiny Horse", "Shrimp Tower", "Meatballs" and "Pongo", it looks like they might have been grooming him to take the Smigel/PDD/TLI mantle since...season 49 or 46 at the earliest? B-
Charades
- Jane and (especially) Emil are featured prominently in this. Let's see where this goes. (Spoiler alert: no where for Jane and Emil sadly).
- Bowen seems to be playing a more low key grounded role here and his chemistry with Ariana actually works for me here. I like the idea of them sniping at each other.
- Arianas' Judy Garland-esque 40s actress voice is a strong choice (is that her "big theater kid energy" coming out or...has it really been that long since she acted?) but it works well with the antagonistic energy of this.
- Dummy fight!
- This might have been my favorite live sketch of the episode. Well done. B-
Celine for UFC
- This may not be the first time Ariana has done her Celine Dion impression on SNL, but the sheer strangeness of this was enough to pique my interest. I didn't laugh a whole lot at it but, still...not bad. C+
Weekend Update w/Jost & Che
- Josts' "subway series/livestreamed car crash jokes" and Che's "R. Kelly" jokes were the only things from them that rose above the level of "white noise" for me. Che almost had something there with his his "78% of black voters" rant but...he didn't quite put that over for me.
- Hey, another wonderfully deranged, manic one-off Ego Update character! This was the exact type of performance I've always liked seeing from her! I especially liked the "drone/STD/USB" joke. Makes me feel a bit guilty about those new earbuds I ordered from Amazon on Wednesday, but...oh well.
- JAJ/Squirm is a pairing we have yet to have seen. Their Gallagher bros commentary may have been goofy and juvenile but...it certainly felt unique to their voices so it was easy for them to make this fun. C-
Sounds Of The Italian Renaissance
- More JAJMukes nonsense leading into some Samberg/Rudolph nonsense mixed into a white sauce and drizzled over some pizza pasta to reveal that...Ariana is playing a castrati?
- This may seem quite juvenile but once we got to "opium induced coma" this had a "slightly writerly feel" to it. The thousand yard stare from Ariana added a likable oddness to this. It's at least nice to see Maya and Andy being used in the odd non political sketch deep in the show (like Maya was early on in season 46) as long as they're hanging around. Maybe they could get Gaffigan and Carvey in on this? Wouldn't hurt, imo.
- Once again, this sketch had not even a trace of an ending. They just took the longest way possible to there "how do we even follow THAT?" point of the sketch and just slammed on the brakes there, as if they had to make some abrupt sudden cuts out of nowhere. That was the only thing this had really going against it. C+
3 Jennifer Coolidge(s) 3 For Maybelline
- I didn't mind either Chloes' or Arianas' Coolidge impressions. I certainly wasn't expecting them to have both of them do their impressions together Fallon/Jagger style. I mean, it's not great that this is mostly making me wonder why the actual Jennifer Coolidge hasn't hosted yet, but it's not taking anything away from this episode at this point.
- Carvey as Coolidge was a nice (if not jarring) addition to this. (Careful what I wish for, huh?) Thankfully, he kept this from getting too monotonous (even if all his impressions sound like they're running together now).
- I wonder if this was originally a pitch Chloe was saving for the real Jennifer Coolidge if the last writer's strike didn't happen and she got to host the season 48 finale? C+
Hotel Detective
- Wow, helluva quick change for Ariana there. They really slammed into this one. (*someone whispers in Caseys' ear*) What's that? Oh, there WAS no quick change? Oh, this sketch is actually a pretape of a live sketch that was originally cut from dress rehearsal suddenly tossed in because the soundboard froze for a like a full minute before Stevie performed "Edge Of Seventeen" and thus the entire shows' timing was thrown out if whack so a planned Reese De'What sketch about The Blob had to be cut? OK, then.
- They haven't put any live looking non commercial pretapes into the show since at least 2002 so this felt like an interesting throwback in multiple ways.
- One good thing to come out of this episode was the opportunity for JAJ to do another old timey, fast talking 40s G-man voice. Nice of them to let Dismukes get in on this action. Ariana already did one of these but at least this sketch actually called for it. Plus, this also had a writerly feel to it, so...while I can see why this would've gotten cut (redundancy) it's nice to actually see it because it actually grows on you after multiple viewings. I have a feeling this would've gotten thrown up on YouTube either way.
- Ariana does Judy Garland and Dismukes does...either Charles Bronson or Rod Steiger? Either way, Andrew's enunciation was certainly...a strong choice.
- Wow, sudden Rod Serlongfellow! OK, that may have been the best ending to anything this entire episode could've asked for. I mean, I've seen better Rod Serling impressions on SNL but it was a breath of fresh air in this episode. B+
Ranking The Season (Best To Worst)
2. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
3. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
Overall Thoughts
- This was far from the worst show of the season so far, but not quite the best. It was wildly uneven.
- It got off to a rough start but it took a lot more chances than either of this season's previous episodes. For the most part, they paid off and the episode grew on me.
- Ariana Grande turned out to be a strong host who worked well with any cast. She really elevated the material and the cast and writers really knew how to play to her strengths.
- Bowen didn't quite have the big night I was expecting him to have in an Ariana Grande episode. Fortunately, JAJ and Dismukes had surprisingly strong nights. Chloe, Kenan and Longfellow did well, too.
- Jane and Emil continue to barely earn a paycheck while Ashley Padillas' conspicuous absence continues. I heard she had her own Update piece cut, so...progress? Keep at it, Ashley. You'll get some lines on screen at some point.
Closing Thoughts
- Well, this season continues to show unexpected signs of promise. Next week, Michael Keaton hosts for his fourth time with Billie Eilish as musical guest. SNL has pulled off successfully good episodes with both of these people at the helm before, so I've been looking forward to this episode the most out of any others that have been announced so far. Hope they don't let me down! See you next week!
(Oh, and soon I will be publishing a blog I wrote reviewing the new film Saturday Night. Keep an eye out for that!)
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