Crime Stories w/Nancy Grace
- Well, I've never cared much for any of the shows' previous takes on Nancy Grace (they haven't aged all that well)...but I like Sarah Sherman enough that I am willing to give this a chance...and I do like what Sarah's giving us so far.
- She's making the absolute most out of this material. If anyone can make a sketch where the entire take on the UHC shooter story seems to be "lol he's a sex symbol in some corners of social media", it's Sarah.
- I especially liked the Jonbenets' ghost "YOU USED ME" joke as well as Marcellos' SCREAMIMG YOUTUBE AD!!!
- Kenans' the only one who can elevate those "lol McDonalds is bad for you" jokes that probably could've been cut. Ashley and Emil made the absolute most out of their own small parts.
- Overall, a lighter, sillier take on Nancy Grace's media presence in her YouTube era than Amy Poehler used to give us in her cable news era really saved this. I for sure like Sarahs' characterization which is exaggerated just the right amount over Amys' portrayal which was far too drawled and drawn out.
- This turned out to be one of the better frameworks for the evergreen "three random guests on some news pundit show" cold opens they've used. Nice to have a sudden segue into LFNY for once though. B+
Monologue
- Welp, here we go.
- So far, I liked that "50th anniversary/25 great years" joke at SNL & Lornes' expense. Reminded me a lot of his "25 years and only four funny" jokes from his 25th anniversary monologue.
- That "Baby oil sniffing dogs" joke and the Jake Paul stuff didn't do anything for me (I mean, I don't like Jake Paul either but that just felt pointless to me) but weirdly, the bit about how "it's all about looks" aged better in 2024 when applied between Luigi Mangione and Jonah Hill than it did in 1996 when applied between Clarence Thomas and Denzel Washington (but that just speaks more to how the rise of social media has degraded our society in general than anything else).
- I wasn’t crazy about him seemingly taking the UHC CEOs' side and humanizing him until that "sometimes drug dealers get shot" comment. He turned that around nicely.
- His Trump stuff was...well, it wasn't too muddled per se. I mean, he had a valid take on the "dignity" of America's history and all but I personally could've done without it. I did like the line "it COULD happen to a NICER guy".
- As far as his Elon adjacent material goes...well, it was better than what he said about Elon in "Selective Outrage" (and that's a very low bar to clear since he blatantly just kissed Elons' ass there). At least his Joe & Hunter Biden jokes were a sensible enough take to end this on.
- Well, that was FAR from Chris Rocks' worst SNL host monologue I've ever seen. Maybe it wasn't his best because it felt like he was going all over the place but that story about him storming out of that unnamed billionaires' party in a huff over an unauthorized recording (apparently of the same Elon/deportation jokes he told on this show tonight which had me a bit worried) had me guarding my expectations so, I'll say I was pleasantly surprised. C+
Santa's Village
- Hmm..."white Santas be like this but black Santas be like that" seems like almost too basic of a premise but I'm hoping Devon and JAJ can add something to it.
- Seems like they're making Rock do most of the heavy lifting which isn't doing this any favors. I did like Dismukes line "we just remembered we're Jewish".
- Finally, Chloe...gives Devon and surprise Jane something to work with. Nice of them to work Emil into this too.
- Overall, not a bad sketch for what it was. Too bad it took about a full minute too long to get going. C-
Simpsons Christmas Boogie Gift
- Hmm, judging from the commercial bumper...this seemed like it's going to be done in the same vein as that "Yankee swap" sketch from last year's Kate McKinnon episode. Thankfully, this turned out quite a bit different. The brief back and forth between Sarah & Emil was funny.
- Rocks' enthusiasm at his "Simpsoified" portrait is a charming way to string this along. The back and forth between Dismukes and Heidi was funny. Chloes' "tampons" line was funny enough.
- I gotta admit, Chris Rock suddenly free associating his own dark Simpsons fanfic with slight assists from everyone else is really winning me over. I know a lot of people have said they don't see how Chris Rock even makes sense as the right host for this but personally, I had an easier time picturing him starting on a tangent in his standup act about Homer drinking and strangling Bart. I would agree that he may not be the right host to go off on a fantasy about sleeping with Marge though.
- Maybe it's my longtime Simpsons fandom that's making me appreciate the string of fan service character references here, (I mean, hey...I ASKED for a couple of specific Simpsons themed items for Xmas this year, let's see if i actually get either one) but this might have been my second favorite live sketch of the night. I don't even mind that this feels pretty par for the course of any era of SNL where Mikey Day is involved in the creative processes. Chloes' Marge didn't do too much for me, though.
- By the way, is it more than just a coincidence that Chris was wearing the exact same outfit as Carl Carlsson here? B+
Grandpas' Magic Car
- Ok, the gag of "lol boomers and Gen Silent are racist misogynists" may not be enough to fully sustain this but the "living car" gags were executed well and this piece did have its own rustic cinematic charm to it.
- The ending seemed kind of rushed (I wasn't even mad at that Lyft button at the end even though those are never ideal) but I didn't hate that slam on the brakes either (if you'll pardon the expression). C-
Sexual Harassment Charlie III
- I could immediately tell where this was headed the moment I saw how everyone was arranged, and I honestly didn't mind too much.
- I mean, we did just have an overload of sketch retreads from 2019 a month ago with Charli XCX, but I honestly didn't mind another one of these. Kenans' silliness usually puts these over for me (even if there's very little variation to his lines), and it helps that they've only ever done three of these in seven years.
- Plus, this sketch does make sense in a Chris Rock hosted episode. The only real hard demerits against this were that it was a little too long, it lacked a crackling energy the first two had and Dismukes isn't really believable in a office boss type role as Beck Bennet was. C+
Weekend Update w/Jost & Che
- Che's drone joke was unsurprisingly try hard but his Trump/Amazon joke was OK. Too bad it was immediately followed by his first "it's the 90s" joke.
- The rest of Colin and Michaels' jokes were pure white noise to me. Thankfully, the guest commentaries ended up greatly elevating this Update.
- Dismukes as "a bald man"? OK, let's see where this actually goes.
- His energy is putting this over and the bit with the turtleneck and "jury duty/eyebrows/lotion" jokes were pretty funny. The "Marvel money/impotence/DON'T LAUGH" joke was the exact right note to end this on.
- I had heard this was something that Beck Bennet tried to get on air in season 44. It's funny to see him believably pull off something Beck did after I just talked about a sketch where he...didn't just do that.
- Jane Wickline on/as Sabrina Carpenter? Let's see where THIS goes...
- Well, I can't say I've ever seen anything as "high concept yet stripped bare and straightforward about what it's going for" as Jane Wicklines' second ever Update song.
- This had the odd feeling of being "not aimed at me" but not in an off-putting way. Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm all in on the current pop girlie scene (I mean, I mostly some of the names mentioned here and some of the songs attached to those names) but let's just say I sometimes gloss over the right corners of Twitter enough to know what Janes' going for here. B-
Botched Surgery
- Another sketch where Sarah is the main character. Chris Rock is the only one defending here because he's not completely keyed in to Sarahs' extreme self-consciousness.
- Gee, I hope something else happens in this sketch because i don't think I can take much more of this Sarah charct...WHAT'S THIS?!?SUDDEN SANDLER!!! What a pleasant surprise! He played off the sudden blood tube malfunction well and transitioned that quite flawlessly into the meta moments between him, Ego, Bowen, Emil and Rock to keep this sketch at JUST the right level of "charmingly falling completely apart." Kudos to Sarah for being the one to step in and officially jumpstart the sketch again at that point to keep it going.
- This may have been my actual favorite live sketch of the night. Seeing a Gracie Abrams bumper as I type this makes me think she and Sandler each might have something to do with getting the other on this week.
- I have a feeling Sandlers' daughters might be fans/friends of Gracies' and that may be why Adam agreed to at least cameo tonight? If that's the case, was Sandler originally scheduled to host tonight but had to drop out suddenly, resulting in Chris Rock being a last-minute replacement? That might explain why it felt like they took a little extra time in announcing this and next week's lineup. B+
Your Office Christmas Party
- Ok, so now we're bringing back a Pete Davidson/Jay Pharroh rap from ten years ago but stripping it of any music whatsoever and executing it more like the Christmas day church service pretape...also from ten years ago and the graduation pretape from...five and a half years ago. Is that it? Oh, I see. They did leave in the "one guy is still trying to finish his days' work as the party gets started" joke but gave that role to Emil. Ok.
- Well, the only real weak parts of this were when I suddenly realized how absent Michael Longfellow was the entire show and how often they felt the need to cut back to the cleaning crew getting drunk. I didn't care much for JAJs screeching son here either.
- Jane, Heidi, and Ashleys' parts were fine but not my favorites. Jane's character reminded me too much of her and Marcellos' Update commentary from Mulaneys' episode last month (and Amy Adams' character from the now decade old sketch that clearly inspired this). Mikey and Marcellos' bit felt like something they could've done a teeny bit more with. I did appreciate the Easter egg of that Penne Ala Vodka callback, though. The Chris, Ego & Sarah scenes were definitely my favorite. C-
Blind Date
- Chris Rock blatantly lies to Ego Nwodim about being her blind date in order to get her to have sex with him in her car. Well, I can't say I've seen this exact sketch premise before on SNL, and I do like the very quiet, low-key, subtle nature of this.
- Marcello enters as the real blind date, which turns out to be a low-key suave skeeze. His performance made me realize how much I liked this whole sketch being underplayed so much.
- Suddenly, Rocks' Character doesn't look so bad after all. I kinda saw that ending coming, but I'm not mad about it at all. I'm less enthused about how underused Longfellow, Wickline, and Wakim were here (and really the whole show in Longfellows case). B-
Ranking The Season (Best To Worst)
2. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
3. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
4. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
5. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
6. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
7. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
8. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)
9. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
Ranking Each Of Chris Rocks' Episodes From Best To Worst
2. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
3. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.03.2020)
4. Chris Rock/Prince (11.01.2014)
Overall Thoughts
- Well, my expectations were pretty low for this episode, considering how Chris Rocks' previous two hosting stints went down. Still, there were a few small surprises here and there that made this episode one of his better ones for me, personally.
- I would place this one slightly above last weeks' episode with Pedro Pascal simply because the highs were higher even if the lows were about the same. While this episode was still far from the best of this season, obviously, it was far from the worst. Still, the fact that I somehow included both this weeks' and last week's episodes in my personal top five rankings is more just a damning indictment of this season than anything. Hopefully, Paul Mescals' episode gets pushed into the top of my bottom five in a week.
- Cast balance remains about the same. The newbies are still making strides while Mikey, Chloe, Devon, Bowen, Longfellow and (sadly) JAJ are still being cut back on. Sarah, Ego and Kenan had strong nights at least.
Closing Thoughts
- Well, that was a nice little escape. Next week, Martin Short returns to host the big Christmas show of season 50!
- This is one I am cautiously excited for as Shorts' always been a strong comedic performer who I've never seen host even a remotely bad episode on the whole.
- Plus, Martys' officially getting to join the five timers' club at this point! By that, I just mean he should be getting to graduate from being a mere waiter/busboy to being a full time member! Gee, I sure hope the monologue involves someone explaining to him how it DOES count if he cohosts with Steve and/or Chevy as they officially induct him!
- SNL usually pulls out all the big stops for Christmas. It's not like they've never had a lackluster or just outright bad Christmas show in the past but a Christmas episode hosted by Martin Short of all people should be the big boost season 50 needs right about now as they head straight into their big anniversary show two months from now. If they manage to biff this one even slightly, I will be stunned. See you then!
...and by the way, the official trailer of the We Heart Hader Podcast is officially out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music right now. It contains a sneak preview of our first episode where we discuss Bill Hader and Andy Sambergs' impression off from the season 31 premiere. Me and Deej will be recording the second episode on Tuesday and we will be recording and releasing new episodes every two weeks starting early in the new year.
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