Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)

Okay, here's my review. For once, SNLs' crazy wild gamble of booking an actual comedian to host their sketch comedy show paid off and got this season on the right track. Nate Bargatze was a terrific host and a fine first time sketch performer. The show knew how to play to his comic voice well. Naturally, this turned out to be the strongest episode of the season up to this point. It was WAY more stable of a show than last weeks (outside of maybe three or four questionable sketches at most but the highs were so.mich higher that the lows were barely noticeable we'll get to that later). Sarah had a surprisingly strong night, but not in the way that I had hoped given that this was a legit Halloween show in a couple of ways (one of which she was directly involved in). A couple of other people faced a steep decline in screen time (and come to think of it Kenan had a surprisingly light night) but we'll get to them later. Anyway, let’s get right to it.

Bidens' Boo Back Boo-er - Okay, we got a LOT to unpack here! My immediate first thought when this started was "Hmm, ok...nice to see them using JAJs' Biden once again instead of his Tr....MIKEY DAAAAAAAYYY? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?" Well, this impression works for me. It may seem like Mikey doing a cheap impression of Carveys' Biden but at least Mikey does facially resemble Biden much more than JAJ ever did and he certainly seems to be having more fun with the material (especially the prerequisite "lol Biden is very old" jokes). From his "cancel culture" for preschoolers" Update commentary with Heidi a few years back, I could tell both Heidi and Mikey had slightly conservative bents to their styles of comedy that they could at least keep hidden from overtly political sketches and just sneak into a bit character part in the middle of the show and in ten to one sketches and stuff like that without it coming off as too off-putting to the audience. They could play seemingly right leaning characters that could be the butt of the joke without coming across like they're pushing some kind of uncomfortable agenda on you. It actually serves to make Mikeys' Biden characterization feel that much more focused and you can tell he relishes in it. I can't imagine JAJ is taking this too hard as I imagine they must be trying out a different Biden just in case the 2024 debates do turn out to be a Biden/Trump rematch and they've already decided they don't want to rely on any Carvey circa 1992 style pretapes. In fact, this cold open might be the biggest, longest mislead in recent SNL history. We didn’t get a Chevy style fall when Mikey was on the ladder and instead of a walk-on from JAJs Trump, we got walk-ons from...Longfellow and Devon as both Mike Johnstons (who provided my biggest laughs in this) and...Walken! (heyooo). Even if he didn’t get any hard laugh lines, Christopher Walken is always a welcome presence on SNL (and no need to wonder why he isn't hosting as his face says it all. Speaking of "saying it all", I can't believe it took until the first Foo Fighters song to realize the REAL reason he was in the building. Shows what kind of an SNL nerd I REALLY am, huh?). B-

Monologue - Having heard great things about Bargatze but not bring familiar with his material, he seems like a friendly fellow who just doesn't have the most captivating stage presence in the world of standup comedy. I liked his ability to do "well, I'm not THAT old but I'm mow just getting old enough that I find it difficult to relate to some things about the modern world" jokes without going full on "old man yells at cloud" and just moving on. Speaking of, he may not exactly be the "segue king" but he has this ability to transition between various topics like state fair animal stunts stealing focus from his magician father to his parents family destroying nasal spray addictions to just general challenges with reading the sheer volume of words one finds in a book just by riffing on the sheer absurdity of these things and the bewilderment they induce in him. This allows him to move through his jokes so seamlessly that his entire act runs together (for better or worse). It's definitely a monologue that will take you at least a second watch to fully appreciate. B-

Chef Showdown - I liked the writerly premise and detail heavy nature of this. On paper, it seemed like tired, thin racial humor but it was expertly cast and performed and had enough different elements to keep it from just being each character hammering home the same sense of befuddlement for four straight minutes. Nate said upfront that he is vaguely southern so I wonder if he at least pitched this himself on Monday? The Padma Lakshmi cameo didn’t do a whole lot for me, but she was a good sport at least. C+

Hallmark Horror Movie - This premise seemed like it was going to be interesting at first but it quickly became obvious that they didn't go far enough with it. It was well performed (Chloe & Nate were the ideal comedic actors to parody the bland white emptiness of Hallmark productions) but the only laughs I got were from Punkies' lines and the severed hand gag. C+

Washingtons' Weights And Measurements - This was definitely the weakest sketch of the night (and possibly the whole season at this point). I'm sorry, but this one almost lost me from the first minute. This might have worked better with a different host who is more experienced with acting to lend some faux-gravitas to the role of George Washington. This seemed like it would’ve been better performed as one of Nates' forgotten standup bits (just typing that sentence out just gave me flashbacks to Andy & Timmy deconstructing that Bob Saget track coach sketch. Sorry Andy, but I disagree on your extremely hot take that this is a "boom stamp classic" as you like to call it). Still, there were some small details that I liked. The sports stuff was okay. Also, as a Coloradan, I do unironically agree with the line about 5280 being an "easy number to remember" as the number of feet in a mile. You see, Denver is known as the "mile high city" given that it's elevation above sea level is exactly one mile. If you've ever lived here or just visited recently, you might be surprised at the number of Denver based local businesses with some variation of the number 5280 in the title. I mean, it's the name of a local magazine for cryin' out loud. Kenan, obviously, had the best lines in this at the end so in a way, I'm glad I hung on. Also, it's nice to see JAJ actually have a love role in a sketch after being conspicuously absent from the cold open. Guess he didn't have to go home sick tonight or anything. D+

Down On The Lake Beach - This might have been my favorite pretape (if not my favorite piece overall) of the night. It was more classic Dismukes/JAJ down home southern fried cartoon level absurdity that made hay out of one of the most obnoxiously overdone tropes of modern "bro-country" music. They even made excellent use of a Dave Grohl cameo (who wore a wig that made me think he was Danny McBride at first). The only thing bad I can say about it was that it happened to be Molly and Marcellos' only appearances of the night (but Marcello had such a much needed on his part strong start to the season so he deserves to take a bit of a breather this week). A-

Happy Fran-o-ween - Well, I'm glad we got a Sarah led Halloween sketch but if you told me before the show that we'd get just that alone, this would NOT have been what I'd have had in mind (but hey, it's still Sarah Sherman so I'll still I'll it). Of course, Sarah did a fine enough job intentionally doing a Fran Drescher accent. I mean, she always seems to be doing a Fran Drescher impression at varying levels even when she's not trying. She just has to dial back the "Sarah-ness" to get into character. (I mean that literally, as I keep picturing a wardrobe person or stagehand flipping a giant switch on Sarahs back from "Sarah" to "Fran" backstage). It did a decent, if not maybe a little incomplete job of actually explaining those strange Halloween costume rules surrounding the SAG-AFTRA strike (that may have been rolled back earlier in the week thus possibly renderingthis sketch utterly pointless). It felt a little too long and seemingly managed to discover a new form of clapter (probably in a misguided attempt to unmuddle this sketch for anyone who they think could criticize it as being anti-union when everyone on the show is part of a union...even the cast is part of a different SAG-AFTRA contract thatcis not being renegotiated or struck agsinst) but given the context of the sketch, that is to be expected. Sarah's constant costume related jabs to Nate and her "exhausting" lone were all right. The child actors did a fine job here (especially the kid dressed as Hoda). C-

Update was a step up for this season. The highs were higher (Josts' Mike Johnson/Cohen/Pence/Hitler kiss cam comments, Ches' Trump/Biden/Kill Me and Charles/Megan and white strip club jokes) and the lows were...just there. They were more like mediums. Glad to see that "Sarah as Josts' agent" that was cut from last week make it to air. Yeah, it was another Jost roast and yeah it was another Sarah drag role but this was at least toned down quite a bit from her pervy boss in the Quinta Brunson episode and at least this was a newer fresher framework that allowed Sarah to go harder in the paint here (even if it felt a bit long and after hearing about that Punkie ghost story commentary that got cut, this might have been a better choice). Her Thomas the Tank Engine line got a laugh out of me. B-

Lawyer On A Plane - This was decent. I liked all the additions to it. Dismukes did a solid job anchoring this. Even Chloe Troast added something to it. Boy, her actual resemblance to Cecily was out in full force in this one. Dismukes & Mikey had great lines and this was my second favorite Dave Grohl sketch cameo of the night. B-

PDD: Dawg Food - After a strong start to the season, this was a rare miss for Please Don't Destroy. It seemed to rely mainly on quick cuts and sharp pacing in favor of any escalation whatsoever. At least it was fairly short and the "R.I.P. John Higgins" ending was the highlight. D+

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

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
3. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, this season of SNL has finally found its footing. In two weeks, Timothee Chalamet returns for his second hosting gig. Man, they really must've been counting on the SAG-AFTRA strike to be settled by that point, huh? Seriously though, I'm looking forward to seeing Chalamet again. He was a solid professional host and his episode was one of the genuine bright spots in the troubled, difficult 2020-21 season. See you then!

Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)

Okay, here's my review. To start off, this episode truly felt the most "different" from a lot of recent SNL as circumstances this week (not just the ones that may have been induced by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike) essentially forced them to take some more risks and try different things. Some risks paid off, some risks didn’t but it felt like the show truly found a way to work with the host rather than around him. As a host, Bad Bunny didn't seem like he was difficult to work with. He seemed like he got along with everybody on a personal level. Still, there was a very noticable language barrier present but the upside is that this forced the writers to dig a bit deeper and come up with some fresher sketch premises and sharper writing (or at least bring back a couple of things that worked well last season to fill in the gaps). A lot of the humor in this episode came from the host's culture so it relied a bit less on dialogue and more on some slightly broad visuals but thankfully this staff was more than adept at making sure nothing got completely lost in translation. With this episode, it felt like they actually successfully pulled off what they were trying to do with Megan Thee Stallions' episode from last year. This is probably because Bad Bunny seems to have a more easily accessible brand/image than MTS did. Plus, the show has people on staff that better understand his cultural heritage, what his audience would want to see, and how to better play that to viewers outside of the host's audience. Also, as long as I am making previous host comparisons' Bad Bunny as a host felt like an exact cross between Regé-Jean Page (an non-white male host from another country with an audience of thakfully less distractingly shreiky fans lends his talents to a number of sketches revolving around his sex appeal to women) and Nick Jonas (a previous male musical guest who is used to making the odd sketch cameo now and then is billed as host but somehow still manages to make so little impact that it truly feels like a hostless episode punctuated with musical guest cameos) with a little dash of Jackie Chan thrown in for good measure (do I really need to explain that one to you?) With all that being said, this was definitely a better episode than last week. After a season premiere that was as rote and by the numbers as ever culturally (as SNL season premieres often tend to be) it's nice to see an episode that may have started off a bit rocky but thought outside of the box enough to be as rewarding as it could the more it went on. There were a lot of cameos this week but fortunately they came off less distracting than they were necessary in a way that made some sense once they sunk in. Thankfully, no cast members got completely shut out. Marcello may have had the strongest night of them all with Devon, JAJ and most of the women (especially Troast) coming in second. However, Longfellow, Dismukes and Squirm saw a noticable drop this week. Anyway, let's break this down further.

Jim Jordan And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Vote For House Speaker - I guess the main difference between this and literally any randomly selected season 42 cold open is that the Trump impersonation is weirdly the STRONGEST thing it has going for it? It was a safe choice for a political cold open right now, at least. Perhaps it was a little TOO safe and expected, but that's not the main thing I'm holding against this sketch. What I AM holding against this sketch were the choice to center it around Mikey as Jim Jordan (him breaking the phone was basically my reaction to the whole "oh, so I see we're going back to just opening the show with a completely unearned applause break again? Fine, whatever" thing) and the Santos jokes that were low hanging fruit (no pun intended). As a Coloradan, I appreciated the idea of taking jabs at Lauren Bobert again until I saw they were just going for more tired ass theater groping jokes. C-

Monologue - It's nice to see Bad Bunny address the possible language barrier right off the bat. I wasn’t expecting him to make that the ENTIRE monologue, though... but at least he bought Pedro Pascal out on stage for a bit. Sadly, that didn’t quite solve this monologues' pacing issues. I liked the nice meta moment where Pedro deconstructed modern-day SNL monologue tropes. Unfortunately, that didn’t distract me from the fact that Bad Bunny seemingly forgot how to not come off too cocky by that point. Oh well, at least HE did a decent job of hiding any visible nervousness in this, and he expressed some sincere appreciation for the show and eagerness to host. C-

Rap Battle - Wow, nice to see Benito stretch as an actor and break out of his comfort zone right out of the gate. This sketch just left me wondering if it was Mikey and Streeter Seidell who wrote those WWE promo sketches from the last two Dwayne Johnson episodes (or if not, did whoever actually write this sketch happen to watch Scary Movie 3 recently?) At least it was short and had an unexpectedly heartwarming ending. I admit that the lines about Mikeys' character having four testicles got me. Also, it just dawned on me that they had a rapper play a fictional rapper in a sketch and didn’t have the actual rapper rap once. Both this and the lack of a Kendall Jenner cameo (hell, they even inexplicably got Lady Gaga to introduce his first musical performance instead of her for some reason) just goes to show you that this show will somehow find a way to consistently subvert even the most base level expectations you could make based on even the smallest bit of information you gleam from any host. You gotta love SNL for that! C+

Age Of Discovery - Well, doing a sketch entirely in subtitled Spanish may have been a risk, but it was certainly worth the risk. Normally, I run a bit cold on Fred Armisen cameos, but he worked just fine for me here. This did remind me of a sketch he led about ancient Mayans discovering chocolate for the first time from the 2006 Matthew Fox episode for whatever that was worth (and a certain early Monty Python sketch when the llama was bought out). This sketch felt a little unfocused at first and a little derivative near the end, but it all came together, and again, it was the most "different" thing the show has tried in recent memory. It is definitely the type of thing that grows on you more upon a rewatch or two. C+

Telenovela Shoot - Wow, so pretty much all of the live sketches in this episode were designed to give our host as little English dialogue as possible, huh? I mean, aside from pacing issues this caused here, in the monologue and in one other cameo laden sketch later on, I don't really have a problem with that. I guess I should've expected this to be a strong night for Marcello. He does naturally play off Bad Bunny well. I wasn't expecting Bowen to turn in a heavily padded performance reminiscent of Scott Thompson in the Kids In The Halls' "Shitty Soup" sketch. I certainly wasn’t expecting Punkie to pretty much steal this sketch, but hey, I'll take it! I'm really starting to notice how much Punkie can really add to a sketch she's in given the chance. I most definitely wasn’t expecting a random ass Mick Jagger cameo where he shows us he can handle dialogue in Spanish just as well as Marcello and Bad Bunny but I can appreciate that and wonder why (beyond just old age and other commitments of the week) he could've been as big a part of this episode as he was the season 37 finale. B-

PDD: Shrek Screenplay - Ok, suddenly the best sketch of the night and the thing that gets me fully on board with this episode is Ben, Martin and Johns' sheer bewilderment trying to figure out why Bad Bunny just wandered into their office unannounced in a full on Shrek costume? And he makes them read a whole ass screenplay he barely has any faith in? And these moments are punctuated with some of the cheapest Rapsittie ass CGI ever? Goddammit, PDD. Don't ever stop being you! B+

Update was a bit strange tonight. It was so short all I can really say about it was that Che had the only jokes that landed with me (Desantis, Coney-Barett/Thomas, WNBA, alcoholism) and Egos' Jada Pinkett Smith commentary (questionable wig and topicality issues aside) was the real highlight for me. I especially liked the "brutiful/Tupinkett/publicly cucking/never go to bed happy" lines. This is the type of more focused, pointed character work I'd like to see more of from Ego on the show. C+

Protective Mom (Now With Aunt!) - With Pedro being in the building along with this basically being a bilingual episode and Marcello being used to pick up the slack a bit this week, I should've expected a reprise of this sketch tonight. I'm glad that we got to see this again because it was one of the true highlights of Pedro's episode back in February. This sketch still has sharp writing and should probably have been placed earlier in the show. The fact that the wordless scene where Pedro casually dumps Chloes' cookies in the trash and then filled the empty tin with her sewing thread was met with more roaring applause than laughter from the audience (mostly the same screaming Bad Bunny fans from the monologue) really signaled that the entire show was playing to a very different audience than usual (and succeeding largely by playing on the charisma of it's guest performers who know THEIR audience and how to play this type of material to their own culture very well). That seemed like a joke pulled from a Black Jeopardy sketch but played out visually for a different audience).The ending was very sweet and the entire Spanglish conversation between Pedro, Marcello and Benito that kicked off with the "septum piercing" joke was funny to me. Plus, it's nice to see that by her second episode Ms. Troast can easily ingratiate herself with this cast. Anyone else get strong Arden Myrin vibes from her in that blonde wig? B+

The Right Track - Speaking if things SNL did earlier this year with hispanic hosts, I was glad to see this pretape template from Jenna Ortegas' episode return. Unfortunately, I have to say I still liked the Waffle House version of this better. Sadly, the craziness happening on the subway didn't quite steal focus from the solid dramatic acting chops that Devon and JAJ were showing (again, talk about ingratiating yourself into thr cast, huh?) Plus, that CGI rat was distractingly bad. C+

Sisters - Wow, either Kearney and Fineman are the only ones who DON'T secretly have the hots for Bad Bunny & Mick Jagger or they just dusted off and resubmitted an old script from either Regé-Jean Pages' episode (or pretty much any episode from season 24?) Either way, I'm glad to see that SNL in season 49 has a strong enough female cast to be able to fully put over such a threadbare premise. I also liked seeing that Punkie, Ego and (especially) Sarah have now gained this Chris Redd like ability to steal a whole sketch with a single line delivery (but Sarah only do this in the horniest of sketches for some reason. Wait, did she cowrite this with PDD and Ke$ha?). B-

Burts' Bees - This may have been the most ten-to-one ass ten-to-one sketch the show has done in quite a while, but it really started to pick up for me once Ego just sassed Mikey about his six year old daughter out of nowhere. That's literally all I have to say about it. C-

Now, for my first official best-to-worst ranking of season 49...

1. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
2. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Well, that was a mostly successful experiment. Next week, stand up comic Nate Bargatze makes his hosting debut. I'm not too terribly familiar with Nates' act, but I've seen bits and pieces before and I know he's friends with Fallon so he has connections to the show there. I also heard he has a rather PG-13 Jim Gaffigan-like, "safe for the whole family" style act (which must be true since I can't immediately recall any jokes of his I have heard). Still, I like thst their going for another comedian host with little exposure. I do hope the SAG strike gets resolved but until then I'll enjoy seeing SNL having to make itself take risks and make more different out-of-the-box type hosting choices. It was nice to get an episode like this but it'll still be nicer to see another traditionally comedic host help the show find it's footing again this season (and this episode may now be the best of the season by default but hopefully if the rest of the season goes right, it will be somewhere in the lower middle of my rankings). See you then!

Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't seen it, here is my latest appearance on the Saturday Night Network Patron Podcast as part of their ongoing countdown of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. I'm particularly proud of this one and I really feel that it's my best podcast appearance yet. You might be surprised by some of the names we discuss in depth here!

Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)

Okay, here's my review. All things considered, my expectations for this episode were at the floor. It was a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike that ended a mere three weeks earlier so I knew they'd have a few more weeks of cobwebs to shake off than they normally would around this time. Plus, there was some dire geopolitical news for the show to have to navigate. Oddly enough, Pete as a host was the strongest part of the show. He really gave it his all performance wise and didn’t do all the things we expected him to based on his previous eight year stint in the cast. Maybe we all just underestimated Pete or maybe we all just forgot about tye possibility that Pete could be a great guy to actually work with behind the scenes. We all know Pete has a deep heartfelt connection to this show and the people he worked with here and it really did come through on his part. It's clear that Pete actually did want to come back and host this season and from this episode one can see how he has a comittment and a strong enough presence to put the show over when it needs a little extra help this week of all weeks. Thankfully, this season's premiere only seemed to be dealing with external baggage rather than the internal baggage they were all too willing to put on full display around this time last year. I know I joked just before the strike started that this episode should have the words "TOO SOON" stamped all over it in big red letters but instead it seemed to have the words "COMFORT FOOD" and "SWEATILY ASSEMBLED DESPERATE ESCAPISM" stamped all over it in big red letters. Thankfully, none of the cast got completely shut out of the show and nobody new got Luke Null'ed off screen. Also, goid to see PDD get the Robert Smigel TV Funhouse treatment in the opening credits. I suppose if they were never going to be added to the cast, this would be the next best thing. Anyway, let's break this down, shall we?

Cold Open - Well, up until this week, this was not the cold open I expected this episode to have (especially for a season premiere coming back from a WGA strike no less) but this was a very important, urgent issue weighing on everyone's minds and at least it was done in an appropriate and respectful manner. Also, Pete's known for making comedic hay out of his personal life but this may be the first time he's made a truly meaningful personal connection to the audience using the event that impacted his young life the most at a time that truly called for it. We all know they like to open with the hard news these days and when the hard news is dominated by tragedy, they gotta do what they gotta do. I appreciated that they weren't too concerned with taking a side or a hard stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict and that this was done in the same vein as what Cecily did mid-season 41 and what Lorne (and only Lorne) did to open season 27. 

Monologue - After all the tabloid drama Pete has been through in nearly a damn decade, it's nice to see Pete can deliver a classic hand mic standup monologue in such a way that he could almost make you forget he was ever even on this show before (or even if you're just tuning into SNL tonight after somehow having been made aware of the shows' existence for tte first time in your life last week you could be watching this monologue and think to yourself "Wowa Who's THIS kid? He's really gonna go places someday!") All he needed to do to bring up the energy level after that cold open was to emphatically scream the word "incest" at us during a bit about Game Of Thrones. I also liked the football coach jokes and even the obligatory Staten Island self-flaggelation took an unexpectedly dark and personal turn that worked for me, too. It was a great upending of the shows' expected format to do this as a monologue instead of having him do it as an Update piece straight into the camera. The last thing the show would want to do right now is call attention to the fact that this is one of only two rare times I can think of when a cast member is hosting the show with the same Weekend Update anchors as they had when they left. A-

NFL on FOX - Uh oh, just from the on set bumper I accurately smelled a Swift sketch! I guess since we didn't get one of those "political checklist" cold opens tonight that leaves them room to apply that approach to pop culture try and spread that exact same energy through at least the middle third of the show (either that or this WAS originally this week's cold open before they decided on Thursday or Friday that a different approach was necessary). Well, at least this one was actually well written and should convince the Swifties out there that at least some of SNLs writers are on their side. Having seen Mikey show off his friendship bracelet (confirming his Swiftie status) I'm guessing he had a hand in writing this? Anyone else get any flashbacks to the Jeremy Lin cold open from Maya Rudolphs' season 37 episode? Petes' role as the sideline reporter was the comedic high point of this for me. He definitely gave me the most laughs. The Travis Kelce cameo seemed a little gratuitous and tacked on but I will hand it to them that it tracks with his numerous public statements on not wanting his new love life to be the focus over his performance on the field. In fact, Travis (whom I had absolutely zero expectations of seeing on thr show at all during the regular football season) seemed so rushed and tacked on to the end of this that I have zero trouble believing that neither he nor Taylor were present at dress rehearsal. What I am having some trouble believing is that neither of them had anything better to do together tonight (heyooooooo!). B- 

Seriously though, while I do genuinely LIKE seeing Taylor on the show (or anywhere for that matter) and I know she lives in New York and all but having her come on JUST to introduce the SECOND Ice Spice performance (and I know they're supposedly great friends and all and Ms. Swift is nothing if not extremely supportive of her friends) may have been the most baffling way they used a "big get" cameo in recent memory. At first, I thought she may have backed out of a planned sketch cameo between dress and air but now I'm starting to think the show wanted to have her on but were afraid of a massive applause break throwing off the whole shows timing causing sketches to be cut or drastically edited.

He's Just Pete - You know, I honestly still haven seen Barbie but thankfully I've read enough about Ryan Gosling having done songs for the movie that this monologue didn’t quite go over my head. Still, I would say this was preferable to another Yo! Pete Raps ditty or a sequel to Three Sad Virgins with Ice Spice. My only real complaint us that I thought the black hoodie/BDE dance number could've been edited out (along with maybe the crash at the end and the brief Ye memlntion but screw it they way they pulled that off made me giggle). I did like the acknowledgement up top from Punkie and Dismukes of the questionable nature of Pete hosting...really at all as well as the magazine shot of Pete dating Lois Griffin and Devon as "Black Pete". It was a great change up from people's pre-concieved notions of what this particular show was gonna be that we got this instead of another "Chad" pretape, that's for damn sure. B+

Wired Autocomplete Interview - Um, did someone resubmit a sketch that got cut from the table read for Jonah Hills' 2018 episode? No? Wait, what's that? This sketch was based on a recent real life incident? Well, Ok, then. I've never seen a sketch before that I could describe as "SNL parodies a type of viral YouTube video that Casey has never seen beyond the thumbnail" but they pulled it off expertly! I did like how this quickly escalated to light absurdity and then ended it at the exact right moment. C+

Trudy - Well, I felt like this didn't really go anywhere but I liked it a bit more than I liked a lot of Heidi-centric sketches from previous seasons even if it didn't seem to go anywhere interesting besides just having a random burst of Farleyesque physical shtick out of nowhere. C-

PDD: Princes Of Comedy - This might have been my favorite piece of the night. I loved how the child actors playing Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall, J.D. Higgins and Big Mart-Mart Herlihy really sold the hell out of 90s/00s Def Jam comedy that (even by its own admission) does NOT hold up. I even appreciated Pete referring to Ben as "Ice Spice" and the self deprecating cameo from a shockingly but like not THAT shockingly aged looking these days John Mulaney (possibly included here as a nod to his Home Alone 2 bit from "New In Town?"). I also loved Big Mart-Mart roasting that white preppy dude in the audience who was the only one laughing at Mulaneys' quicksand bit. I especially loved that frank and lively Lunchables joke that almost sounded like it could've only aired once before bring replaced in all reruns by a grim, seeious Jim Downey voicover telling us how this nearly cost them all their jobs. My only complaint is that the but where Ches' grandma wanted to meet Ben "Smoke Dawg" Marshall felt super telegraphed to me. A-

Update started out a bit rough but picked up some stream quickly enough. The only joke from the first run I liked was the Bob Menendez one just for its sheer strangeness. Sorry, Colin, but "peoole be postin' some weird ass takes on Israel/Palestine" is not a particularly fresh or unique observation. Bowens' Christopher Columbus commentary may have been the most bland and uninspired  thing I've seen from him in a long time. It's like he just put his George Santos and Jafar from Aladdin commentaries in a blender. It's something I might have preferred to see delivered by Michael Longfellow, but even that might not have put it over for me. Thankfully, there was just enough to this to keep me from tuning out completely like I did with Jafar. Ches' subtle reaction to being forced to read that line about Boygenius off the cue card was pretty funny too. Fortunately, they saved this Update after that with that run of Russel Brand/Ebony Alert/New Jersey/Spirit Airlines jokes even if those were followed by some noble (and maybe one less than noble) failures. Thankfully, they ended on a high note with Kenans' Neon Deon commentary. It may have been a little repetitive, but it I appreciated it as a Coloradan who went to CU Boulder nearly a decade ago and as enough of an SNL nerd to appreciate a deep cut shout out to perhaps the most harmlessly ridiculous moment from Deons disastrous season 20 episode. C+

Space 2044 - Immediately, I got bad flashbacks to that other spaceship sketch from the season 33 Bon Jovi episode where Kristen Wiig couldn't find her purse Thankfully, I was able to convince myself to give this a fair chance and I ended up only disliking this slightly less than some other recent Bowen-centric sketches in recent memory. I do like how glammed up Heidi was even if it seemed like a season 20 level near waste of money and resources on something that barely worked for a cast member who had minimal lines and wasn't even the main focus of the sketch. C+

Grandmas' Bean Farm - Even if it's this late in the episode, it's nice of them to give us a low-key "more 'funny strange' than 'funny ha-ha'" sketch centered around an Andrew Dismukes character. I liked how this seemed to more successfully go for what Amy Schumer went for in that Matzo Ball soup sketch from her episode last season. Also, it was nice to finally see Squirm amd Troast pop up on screen. I was starting to get concerned for Ms. Troast as I realized mid-Update that we haven't seen her. B-

Glamgina - Good to see a sketch Squirm got to lead near the end of the show. I liked this just fine for it's scattershot nature (how they managed to shove every female cast member and Kenan in there so haphazardly was silly enough for me). Still, it felt a little unambitious by Squirm standards (especially with previous scatalogical/vaginal material I've seen her do on and off this show). C+

Roadhouse Bar - This started out promising enough, but it got a little too repetitive once Pete showed up and they started doubling down on the talk of selling feet/genitalia pics online. I'm still glad to see they're giving Dismukes two sketches per show. D+

Well, the 49th season of SNL has officially begun. Next week, one time musical guest Bad Bunny makes his double duty hosting debut. Now, this guy may be a more intriguing host than Pete because he's not a cast member who's coming back not so long after ending their eight year stint on the show. Granted, he has appeared on the show as a musical guest before and cameoed in a sea shanty sketch I barely remember but I do remember his cameo in Kenans' Big Papi Covid Cooking Show sketch from one of the season 45 At Home shows. He held his own pretty well there. I may have to rewatch those along with the Simpsons short he did for Disney+ before Saturday but my point is, Bad Bunny is a host I can go into the show with little to no expectations for. He'll likely be a decent host as long as they don't have to cater the whole show to him and his image or brand like they did with Megan Thee Stallion last year (and even her I've come around on since my main take away from that show was that she seemed to be more heavily promoting her own mental health foundation than just her music and she turned in a strong performance in that substitute teacher sketch). See you then!

Oh, and before I forget...my friend Jon Schneider of The Saturday Night Network has been doing a new Patron Podcast where he counts down their fan voted list of the 50 greatest cast members of all time. Be sure to catch the next installment of it because I will be on it. In fact, I was also a part of their countdown of the 20 greatest SNL impressions of all time earlier this summer but apparently I just plum forgot to promote that on any of my socials. In case you missed it, here it is.

Also, my friend and fellow reviewer Blood Meridian has just been upgraded his own site. I'd advise all of you reading this to check out his reviews here simply because I admire his dedication to his craft and vice versa. 

See you next week!

Ana De Armas/Karol G (04.15.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This show met my expectations and defied them all at once. I ended up coming around on Ana De Armas and she was the wonderful host I expected her to be. The show fit her like a glove. They knew exactly how to write for her and she was clearly overjoyed to be there. They also made some changes to the shows established format which, while exciting to see at first, didn't quite distract me from some of the pacing issues that resulted. The show felt uneven since they gradually went back to some of their old writing tropes and began recurring previously established thin premises from the previous era that should've left behind. You'll see what I mean by all this in a moment when the review of the actual show starts proper. Still, the sheer levels of energy made up for this, and while I can already see it was a divisive show to some, I certainly had fun watching it. There was a nice cast balance tonight. While nobody seemed to get shut out if the show entirely, JAJ and Dismukes seemed to have each only made one appearance all night. Anyway, let’s just start since there is a lot to break down tonight.

First Warm Day Of The Year Red Carpet Show - Wow...what the hell was the cold open in dress, and how badly did it bomb for them to scramble and bump this up top? Still, I say that with love as it's a shrewd choice and a very welcome change of pace to open the show with this. It's truly gratifying to see a light, breezy, non-topical, not too long cold open that doesn't actively drain the shows' energy up top after years of our pleas for such a thing seemingly falling on deaf ears. The JAJ/Mikey Longs and Devon/Punkie pairings are my favorite so far. Kenan & Sarah kinda overshot whatever they were going for, and it didn't really work for me. I did like how they made Ego/Dismukes and Marcello/Day into their own separate mini-runners in this. I also liked that this was accessible and not too much of an inside joke for another "weird/obnoxious New Yorkers we saw in the park" sketch. B+

Monologue - Nice to see Ana address the language barrier in a charming and not too self effacing way. I know when I drew comparisons to previous hosts in last week's blog, I mentioned the names Sofia Vergara and Gal Gadot, but she immediately seems more in control and at ease than those women. Part of me doubts that the "beg your pardon/acting class/Robert Deniro" stories are true, but the way she carried herself in this monologue left me not thinking too much about that. This felt a little long, but I think they gave Ana exactly what she needed here. She was the perfect host to bring back the "sincere personal monologue" trend. B+

The Dome - Well, Joe (or Bill whichever one of you this applies to), there goes your "Margot Robbie hosts the season finale" theory, but your "this is Mikeys' last season" theory still absolutely holds water for the time being. Maybe Mikey knows who the last two (as of right now tentatively) scheduled hosts of this season are but obviously can't reveal them. Either the last two hosts are men or Ana De Armas is the last host this season who is a glamorous, beautiful Hollywood actress or Mikey is operating under the assumption that the upcoming writers strike is definitely happening. Either way, I can see why he had to do this now instead of the finale. He had to strike while the iron was hot (pun somewhat intended). Anyway, this was a nice way for them to Trojan horse a third Matt Shatt on us. I appreciated how this was different from both of the previous Matt Shatts, but I was still a little disappointed with the setting for this one. When I saw that this was a game show titled "The Dome" for some reason I was half expecting a parody of "The Wall" (which is inexplicably still on the air on NBC right now) so I was hoping to see some physical challenges just for the sake of a drastic change to the Matt Shatt formula. Sadly, this never came to pass and I ended up just setting myself up for failure. Still, the multiplying nipples got me. B-

American Girls - Even though SNL has been doing too many American Girl based sketches lately (which is something I've never been deep into the lore of but thankfully didn't need to be for this) I did like the very grim and detailed "writerly/gallows humor" nature of this sketch, but it seemed to have some serious pacing issues. It seemed like it was absolutely dying with the audience during each moment when Ego (who seemed like she should've been carrying this sketch), or Molly, or Sarah weren't delivering their lines. C-

Young Spicy Sessions - When you really break it down, this was basically the most overused, played out sketch trope in recent SNL history ("inappropriate responses to a seemingly innocuous prompt") but this more than got by on sheer charisma. This was one of Egos' better showcases in a while, but Devon was really the glue that held this together. He seemed completely in his element here, and I liked his line "you leave my Corolla our of this." I also got a kick out of the implications that he may have a learning disability and should be on a watchlist for drugging women. B-

Spanish Transfer Students - Even if this felt like an inverse of the inner city school sketch from the Megan Thee Stallion episode but with Mikey Day doing his usual Mikey Day shtick added in, it was perhaps the perfect vehicle for both Marcello AND Ana (and Karol G). I did like how lived in and sincere they made this feel without it coming off too "pandery." Still, it felt like it could've been tightened just a little. B-

PDD: Hangxiety - This was pretty much the Please Don't Destroy take on the "Holiday quick cuts" trope we've been seeing reoccur since season 42 but the performances along with the lack of saccharine family get together "cutting the tracle" vibes put this over for me. John Higgins and Chloe opening fire got the most laughs out of me along with the interactions between Heidi/Bowen and Ben Marshall/Mikey Longs. They probably should've rethought the ending with Mikey Day, though. C+

Update was, once again, mainly worth tuning in for the commentaries. I didn't even mind the Discord jokes (they didn't apply to me or anyone I interact with on Discord), but I kind of wish that leaked document scandal wasn't the context for the first ever mention of Discord on SNL. The only other jokes that stood out to me were Che's Tim Scott/Rat Czar/missing alert system and Josts' litter campaign jokes. Kenan as Funky Kong turned out to be more fun than I was expecting it to be. I mean, the visual if Kenan in a gorilla suit was a little...unsettling...but by the time he got to "booty cheeks/titty meat" and had possibly genuinely botched that "Monkey Kong" line I was as fully on board with it as both Jost and Che seemed to be. I liked Sarahs' meditation expert a lot. It may have just been an excuse for her to burn Jost again but less elaborately and more in character/less as "Sarah" but I was just relieved to hear Colin set up this commentary with the phrase "with mental health struggles on the rise..." and NOT see Bowen come out (Mikey Longs would've been a'ight, but maybe he needs to slow his roll for a minute). The true highlight of this Update was Molly Kearney as Molly Kearney. They delivered the same type of sincere personal political statement that Cecily (and at one point Aidy) pulled off successfully but did so in a less harrowing and confessional and more flashier and showier but also more positive, encouraging, cohesive and uplifting way (both literally and figuratively). B+

Lisa From Temecula - Well, I guess we willed this one into existence whether we meant to or not. I have to admit, I was a bit more into this one than I was the first one (maybe because Ego affected a much goofier Kenan-like voice and the breaking was a bit more under control despite what appeared to be Egos' best efforts) but this still appears to ve suffering from Debbie Downer syndrome while lacking variance at season 35 levels. C+

Enter Stage Woof: Acting School For Dogs - There's no way in hell you can convince me this WASN'T a leftover script from a Cecily/Aidy sketch from season 45 that got cut at the table read. This felt like the first sketch all night that Ana De Armas was truly an odd fit for, but I will say Chloe handle the inevitable mishaps like a pro and Punkie had the funniest lines on the whole sketch. C-

Nail Salon - After the last few character showcases Bowen has given us, it's nice that we got something that was more reminiscent of his "choking victim poster" sketch with Scarlett Johansson from season 45 (even if it's delivered with the hamminess that season 48 Bowen can't seem to leave behind for very long). I honestly didn't mind his midwife sketch from a few weeks ago, and this felt like a slightly scaled back version of that.I didn't hate that random Family Guy-ish Twilight reference, but it felt a little too forced. C+

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)
6. Ana De Armas/Karol G (04/15/2023)
7. Molly Shannon/Jonas Brother's (04.08.2023)
8. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
9. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
10. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
11. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
12. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
13. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
14. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
15. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
16. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
17. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
18. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that may not have been the ideal season finale for me...but there was fun to be had. The next announced episode doesn't sound like my ideal episode to even..
air or exist but I'm still holding out hope that the WGA can successfully negotiate another contract to get the pay they deserve and to give this season the proper finale it deserves (as of this writing the final two hosts and musical guest lineups of May have yet to be announced, so...who knows?) Barring the possibility of another Writer's Guild Of America strike, Pete Davidson will make his hosting debut in two week's time. That's right, Pete Davidson will be the first of the departing class of 2022 (less than a full year after he left to be exact) to return to the show (for a full length hosting gig, not just a surprisee unannounced cameo). For some reason, the words "TOO SOON" keep flashing in my head like an old, unprogrammed VCR constantly blinking "12:00" over and over again. I honestly can't say I can see how he would even fit into the show now despite the minimal changes made since his departure (mostly because he barely let us see how he could still fit into the show in his last season since he had multiple different reasons not to be there for his own personal well being) but I will say the trailer for his new Peacock series "Bupkis" looks...decent, so...if he had to host so soon at least it's to promote something that looks worth promoting. (Wait...a cast member hosts for their very first time just to promote a Peacock series? This might be just like the Will Forte episode from last season all over again! That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either). Oh well. See you then!

Molly Shannon/Jonas Brothers (04.08.2023)

Okay, here's my review. Some people were a bit lower than me on this episode as a whole. They were underwhelmed by it but it worked just fine for me simply because I went in to it with the most tempered expectations possible (which you can easily do when a well loved cast member with a distinct performance style who had a decently long tenure on the show returns...see, that's the nice thing about alumni hosted episodes...especially when said alumni has previously hosted). As expected, Molly Shannon was a perfectly pleasant host whose charm and warm personality shined through. Even if the post Update half of the show started to crumble, she was able to put pretty much all of it over on her part. No cast member got shut out of the show entirely, but both Mikeys' felt underused (in fact you'd think we might see more of Mikey than we did given that he and Shannon previously worked together on the American remake of "Kath and Kim" which incidentally aired on NBC around the last time she hosted) but Dismukes and Punkie made big comebacks. Anyway, let’s begin.

Trumps' Last Supper - Well, I was expecting this to be a JAJ/Trump open. I was foolish NOT to think they'd make it Easter themed. After all, this is the second time they've done such a thing since JAJ joined the cast. All I can say is, aside from Molly's Judas and JAJs' "get very violent and start a war" line and the slight meta nod at the end, this did absolutely nothing for me. C-

Monologue - Well, I was expecting Molly to do SOMETHING at the top of the show to bring up the energy level. If she couldn't find a way to pull off a Mary Katherine Gallagher cold open like she did back in '07, a charming musical number with shades of 'Leg Up!' was the next best thing. I liked all the cast cameos (especially how they got BOTH Molly's to chat briefly with each other while all but ignoring the elephant in the room). Shorts' cameo was a nice touch. B-

Vincent's Valets - Even though this felt completely telegraphed, they had me right from Dismukes and JAJs' first interaction. Shannon and Kenan added some fun dark vibes to it. I did like how blatantly Kenan made Devon break. B+

Jeannie Darcy: Selective Startage - I do love how one of the only recurring characters of Molly's to appear in both her hosting stints is by far one of her most obscure to casual SNL fans. The basic level of anti-humor here still worked for me (even if this did seem a bit similar to that fake trailer for a fake Dave Bautista standup special that Netflix actually did tweet out last week), and I liked how they took the pics out of what an overblown "event" Netflix made thst Chris Rock special out to be (even if these could've worked better as two separate sketches). Ego's Arsenio and Punkies' Wanda were pretty funny (even if Punkies' impression could've used a bit more work). I honestly could've done without Chloes' Sarah Silverman, though. It felt like too much of a cheap imitation of Melissas' Sarah Silverman. I did like the meta Tesla joke at the end, though. B-

Office Baby Shower - While I'm not normally one for extended fart jokes, I do appreciate how committed this was to its own gleeful stupidity and I think that we can all agree that Molly Shannon is really the only sketch performer with the warmth and likable personality necessary to put this over. Honestly, the way the ending came across as botched would be my only point against this sketch. B-

PDD: Molly 2K23 - I thought the idea behind this was fun and clever, but maybe the PDD boys breezed through this a bit too fast, and something felt missing? Watching it over again, I liked the details of the commencement/death battle/skateboarding/daughter talk levels , and I did the rap at the end. I will also say I do like how they tried to throw in subtle references to MKG throughout the show to make up for the fact that Molly can't really play such a heavily physically comedic role anymore, though. B-

Year Of A Thousand Men - At first, this seemed like it wasn't going to work for me at all. The obligatory Nick Jonas sketch cameo almost cemented this for me but I just couldn't get over the tired premise of "one person being humiliated beyond belief in front of a crowd" that felt played out roughly a decade ago. What ended up turning this around for me was seeing the play-within-a-sketch catch up with the sketch chronologically in real time. C+

Update was pretty underwhelming. We're back to Che getting the lion's share of the better jokes (specifically his MTG/Murdoch/Pope sex blessing/YouTube prankster/Vogue cover jokes), but at least he and Jost seem to know how to play off each other well (and I'll give it to Jost for that DeSantis joke). Bowens' Jafar was something I completely tuned out of. I immediately could tell this wasn't for me, but I liked the dumb revelation that DeSantis apparently got married at Disney in real life. Punkies Angel Reese commentary was entertaining. I wonder if this was the shows' way of making it up to her for cutting her Brittney Griner commentaries over the past two seasons? Heidi's new character just barely got by on sheer goofball energy and Wiig-like mugging. The reveal of her being Che's assistant felt like an inside joke that they didn't care if the audience was in on or not. C+

Drug Commercial Shoot - This felt way too unfocused and slapdash for me. I appreciated Kenan trying to add some silliness to it, but it just seemed to veer this more and more off track. Ego and both Molly's were really the best thing about it. C-

Sally O'Malley - Well, just when I thought she was going to leave this character back in mothballs...here she is. Considering this was also the second "obligatory Jonas cameo sketch" of the night, it seems doubly odd that this was buried so late in the show. I guess Jonas brother's fans from their early days either don't have problems staying up late or just...won't stay up or stay in at all and will just catch this online if it pops up in their social feeds. This also felt a little too rushed and confused to me (especially given how overly long the previous Sally O'Malley sketches always felt to me) and it lacked an ending (not the sketches' biggest problem, I know) but kudos to Molly Shannon for finding SOME way to sneak in whatever physical humor she can give us here. Also, there is one elephant in the room we should be addressing tonight. Shouldn't Sally O'Malley at least chronologically be 73 or 74 by now? I mean, yeah, it's a sketch, and that may not HAVE to be canon. Sketch and cartoon characters are probably the last types of fictional characters that should age in any way but I had to brung this up not just because Shannon is now 58 in real life but also because 50 is no longer considered...well, not just "that old" necessarily but it's not an age where it would be considered outrageous to have an active lifestyle. In fact, Patton Oswalt would be the first to tell you that heavy exercise and an outdoor lifestyle would even MORE be encouraged once you turn 50 (well, at least low impact hiking if nothing else). Maybe this was the Jonas brother's "safe choice" for a sketch to cameo in that wouldn't alienate some of their more Christian fanbase that stuck with them (it was clearly just an excuse to get some cheap laughs by wearing goofy outfits) or maybe the Jonases just wanted to do this because it's a sketch they grew up watching with their parents but either way...they probably should've switched this around with the Jeannie Darcy pretape between dress and air so this could've been earlier in the show where it would’ve made sense. C+

CNZen - Hmm... modern day CNN coverage of Trumps' indictment/arraignment being channeled into a meditation app for bland centrist Colbert #Resistance liberals. This one seemed like it was going to be a bit of a thinker. What this was missing in conceptual coherence it quickly made up for execution. All the cast members playing current CNN anchors did great jobs in this. I especially liked the inclusion of Sarah as Wolf Blitzer and JAJ as Lindsay Graham. Molly Shannon does have the perfect voice to pull this sketch off. I do wonder who wrote this because it seems almost like a Che concept but more focused and almost as pointed as some of Che's Update jokes about, just...certain types of white people in general. I mean, it may not have been as pointed as the "Trump Addicts of America" pretape was from the season 46 Adele episode, but at least this targeted a different type of person who "makes hating Trump their entire personality" and did so at a time when the stakes were substantially lower. C+

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)
6. Molly Shannon/Jonas Brother's (04.08.2023)
7. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
8. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
9. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
10. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
11. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
12. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
13. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
14. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
15. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
16. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
17. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, aside from a new "Delicious Dish" that episode pretty much gave me everything I was expecting. Next week, Ana De Armas makes her hosting debut. Given that this would be another female host for whom English is not quite their first language (I had read that she had to learn her lines for "Blonde" phoenetically) I would expect this to be another strange episode in the same vein as Gal Gadot Circa 2017 or Sofia Vergara Circa 2012 (hey, I wonder if Andy picked that one for him and Jon to review BEFORE she was announced? I'm sure it's just a coincidence). I would hope she could defy those expectations because from what little I have seen of her acting, she seems to be able to hold her own. Still, she doesn't seem like the ideal pick for "potential final host of the season if another strike DOES happen in May." Oh well, see you then and Happy Easter!

Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)

Okay, here's my review. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a successful episode but not one that exactly blew me away. Quinta Brunson turned out to be a great host who certainly showed up to put in work but she blended in with the cast more than I expected (perhaps her time on "A Black Lady Sketch Show" was what helped her the most here). Surprisingly, this turned out to be a great night for JAJ of all people, but he's been ingratiating himself into the show for some time now, so that's to be expected. I agree with whoever has dubbed him the "backbone" of the show. You would expect Ego, Sarah, Heidi, and Punkie to have as good a night as JAJ did just given the way the show has been going but they still had their moments as did everyone else and thankfully no one got shut out of the show entirely. Anyway, let’s get right to it, shall we?

Trump Bopz - Well, it may have been a little too long and not every joke landed with me but at least this was the most outlandish and absurd "left field" framing device for a JAJ Trump cold open we've seen so far. I did like how their obligatory Trump indictment cold open was just a wild free association off the horrifying real life fact that a former president is plugging a new single by an actual group calling themselves "The J6 Prison Choir" who just sampled him. I'd go as far as to say this was more reminiscent of Tony Atamanuiks' "President Show" on Comedy Central than SNLs' typical approach to Trump sketches since his presidency (mostly because "President Show" was known for its flashy musical numbers). Plus, now I can name precisely one (1) song by Ice Spice. C+

Monologue - Unlike the cold open, this monologue was quite a bit different from what I was expecting. Quinta did make a sincere personal statement, but it was less about her connection to SNL and much more about her much more personal connection to education and the public school system (after a series of asides on how black women deal with sudden fame). I was half expecting various "audience members" or cast members to ask Quinta various questions about how to solve problems at their own local schools (mainly because this monologue made me flashback to those of Paul Reiser, Kerry Washington, Lena Dunham) until I realized we are well into the era of solo host monologues dominating SNL. It showed less energy and eagerness to please than it did laser-focus and wanting to educate (pardon the expression) the SNL audience on a cause that is near and dear to this host. I guess it's on me for expecting a bigger and showier monologue. I didn't realize her character on "Abbott" was the sincere, earnest voice of reason, and this monologue showed me how much of a real place in Quintas' life that came from. B-

Cocaine Bathroom - This felt like a very one-note, tired premise, but the casts' commitment (Marcello, Quinta, Dismukes, and Kenan in particular) put it over for me. Longfellows' Camouflaged Black Tar Herion Guy was genuinely my biggest laughs of the night. B-

I Was A Bridesmaid - This was more unexpectedly deep niche humor that I was not the target audience for (and not JUST because I still haven't been invited to a wedding in my life nor would this be what I would be a part of if I were). In fact, I'd say this felt more like something Baroness Von Sketch Show would've done (and I'm not just saying that because Molly reminded me quite a bit of Jennifer Whalen in the most decidedly feminized role they have been given on this show so far). They used JAJ and Squirm quite well in this, though. C-

Couple Goals - I do love how this took a dark turn toward exploring a very grim and specifically detailed premise. It had an unexpectedly great payoff. Quick side note: Is it just me, or did anyone else get the impression that when the camera cut to Devon and Ego in the audience as Kenans' parents that it was supposed to stay on them much longer but either there was a miscue or a major change was made at the last minute? C+

Traffic Charades - Honestly, the most notable thing about this sketch was the directing choices that were made. Visually, this felt like a season 32 sketch. Sadly, it also felt like it was written during season 39. Shockingly, Chloe may have been my favorite part of this sketch. I'm sorry to say I'm not as high on this sketch as everyone else seems to be. I recognize it had some decent writing. Maybe this is one of those things that would need to grow on me over time, but I don't know when I would find myself watching this again. C-

Update was carried by sheer audience energy tonight. Thank God Che pulled his biggest prank on Jost yet because his Trump jokes were real duds. Still, he made up for it with his biggest all-time break and that Christmas card joke. It's about damn time that SNL finally did SOMETHING to break its own format for an April Fools episode. Longfellows' David seemed like an attempt to top himself in terms of "character" character pieces like Dilbert and Punxsutawney Phil. This didn't quite live up to the high bar that granit head turn set, but still... good effort even if not everything worked. Marcellos' "short king" commentary was another great shortca..er, showcase, excuse me, for Marcello but it's very weird to me that he ended up getting to do this the week that the only person in the building shorter than him is the host. B+

Time Midwife - Well, this may have seemed far too thrown together at the last second for it's own good but I'm glad this turned out to be another writerly, detail heavy sketch instead of just another hammy Bowen showcase. His breaking near the end nearly ruined it for me. Kudos to that child extra for getting one of the last two laugh lines. C+

Penis Brothers - Great time for an insanely cartoony Squirmcase with an assist from Quinta. Sarah must've been watching a lot of Kids In The Hall lately. It's obvious her two favorite characters are Bruce McCullochs' Cabbage Head and Dave Foleys' AT&Love boss and thought it would be fun to combine them into the SAME character Make no mistake, I say that with love. B+

PDD: NY Street Eats - This was Please Don't Destroys' strongest outing to date. What especially made this work for me was how unafraid they were to gleefully plumb the absolute depths of their characters' sheer stupidity, ignorance, and cowardice. Marcello, Quinta, and Punkie made the absolute most out of their parts. A-

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (04.01.2023)
6. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
7. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
8. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
9. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
10. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
11. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
12. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
13. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
14. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
15. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
16. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that may not have been as greater than the sum of its parts, but it was still a good show. Next week, Molly Shannon returns for her second time hosting in only 16 years. This is sure to be a great week for the current cast, but I am more curious to see how Molly might adapt to the current show. How might she be able to take a less physical approach to characters like Sally O'Malley and Mary Katherine Gallagher in 2023? There's no doubt in my mind that another Delicious Dish reprise would make the most sense (hey, if Will Forte could host last year to promote the MacGruber series on Peacock than Ana Gasteyer certainly deserves a chance to at least make another brief cameo to plug American Auto) but will they feel forced to top themselves in terms of homespun faux-raunch and search for the next "Schweddy Balls" or "Dusty Muffin" or will they be willing to scale themselves back towards the more dry subtle absurdities of the earlier installments? Maybe Molly could surprise us by going the route Ferrell and Sandler did just a few years ago, giving us a show full of (mostly) original non-recurring material. The possibilities are endless, and we'll certainly see what happens next week. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer like I did for Ken George Jones, PLEASE let me know!)

Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)

Okay, here's my review. This episode of SNL was a little uneven, but overall, it felt like the show was headed back in the right direction. Jenna Ortega proved to be a dynamic host who proved she belonged on that stage immediately. It was clear from the beginning the show knew exactly how to use and play to the strengths of (given all the creative control she took on the set of "Wednesday" she was probably glad to tell the writers exactly how to use her in sketches and what her strengths were as an actress). Honestly, it was nice to have a host who didn’t bring an "off" vibe to the show. It's nice to get back to hosts who aren't just relying on their own overconfidence and actually have the performing chops to be on the show. Plus, no one felt shut out of the show completely (although a little more Punkie, Squirm, and Longfellow and a little less reliance on Mikey wouldn't have hurt). Anyway, let’s break it down, shall we?

Access Hollywood Oscars Red Carpet Show - Well, we get another left field cold open that was, unfortunately, too scattershot for its own good. Still, I really liked how they used Marcello, Molly (their Brendan Gleeson was the sole highlight of this), Dismukes, Devon, Sarah (minus the Chuck Schumer tag at the end), Kenan (he had funny enough dialogue to make up for his disappointing Tyson) and Longfellow (yeah, I could tell that was him as Del Toros' Pinocchio). The only things that didn't work for me were Heidi as...well, Heidi, Mikey as Colin Farrell, Bowen as Santos (played out) and Chloe Fineman as Kate McKinnon as Kristen Wiig as Jamie Lee Curtis. C+

Monologue - Already, this monologue feels halfway between Aubrey Plaza and Selena Gomez (in terms of material and how much faith the host had in delivering it). Still, Jenna bought the exact right energy the show needed at this point. I'll admit that Facebook/TikTok joke made me laugh even though it sounds like a lone that would’ve gotten cut from an episode of "Velma." I liked the "happy, extroverted people" joke, too. The only part I could've done without was Armisens' cameo, which just made me feel...uneasy on multiple levels. I was a little nervous when Jenna named "The Californians" as her all-time favorite sketch, but thankfully, I realized how many more cameos they would need besides Armisen to pull off another one of those. Now that I think about it, I could've done with less reliance on her old toothpaste commercial. Also, as someone who has watched this show in their infancy, I can never imagine someone being "too young" to watch the show. C+

School Vs. School - Hmm...I'm torn between thinking this sketch didn't go far enough with its premise of "Not! X-Men cause chaos on a college competition game show" and thinking "the over the top acting from Jenna/Mikey/Molly justifies it's short length because they left it with nowhere else to go". I mean, it's been decades since I've seen any of the X-Men movies or even one of the cartoons. I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure if the acting in the movies really is that over the top so maybe this would've landed better with me if I was a bigger X-men fan, I dunno. One thing I'm NOT torn in is Kenans' rambling about Covid butt swabs could've been cut way down. I'll add that Jenna Ortega is definitely the right host for this sketch (as I could see her taking this exact role in an actual movie in an alternate universe). C+

PDD: Roadtrip - I really didn't know what to make of this. It just felt like four different sketch ideas crammed into one (and at least two of them felt like ones we've seen before, unfortunately). Still, I like that they tried to add some dark vibes to this. I just wish it had felt a little more focused, is all. I will say that JAJ as Billboard Jesus gave me my first genuine laugh in this. C-

Parent Trap Remake - From the moment Armisen walked in, I knew this was going to be a challenge, but thankfully, I've seen worse sketches than this one where Armisen plays inappropriately brash characters. Plus, Fred and Jenna do have a decent enough chemistry to make this work. C+

Ridiculousness - Now, this DEFINITELY feels like something the show should've just done in say...season 42 and been done with (which they kinda did if you go back and watch the Kristen Stewart episode) but adding Jenna Ortega as the one who just adds intense and horrifying personal anecdotes makes this worth putting on the air in 2023. This is honestly the thing that got me fully onboard with this episode. B-

Varsity Valley - I definitely liked the premise of "high schoolers being somehow oblivious to the insane chaos happening in the literal background of their unfunny romantic mellodrama." That's much more fun to watch than something where we just see Jenna and Marcello having a weird interaction. I didn't much care for the completely telegraphed ending reveal of Mikey being Jennas' Dad, but I did like him shoving Dismukes taser down his pants. I'd say if any of these episodes' pretapes could be used as a bargaining chip by the post production editors to get paid and otherwise compensated what they're worth and avoid the April 1st strike, THIS would be it. B+

Update was once again more worth tuning in for guests than jokes. The only ones that stood out to me were Che's Trump/DeSantis/great great grandchild jokes and Josts Rite-Aid/shower eating/RuPaul jokes (more swap vibes, at least...and we got a callback to something from earlier to make up for the callback we could've gotten during last weeks update that ended up getting cut). Molly, as a crusty, old closeted anti-LGBTQ Republican was something I wasn't sure I wanted to see at first, but then I realized she bought some things to this role that Aidy wouldn't have. Plus, this is not the first time in this episode let alone this season that Molly has played cisgendered men on the show and I liked both their Brendon Gleeson and their Terry Bradshaw just fine (...yeah, you guys understand why I'm extremely hesitant to use the word "drag" here, right? OK, good... moving on). JAJ, as himself just filling time with impressions on Update, was a nice touch. This feels like something the show only does once in a certain number of years. Even if the Adam Driver/Kyle Ren thing may have just been taken directly from his audition tape and I could see him getting some flack for the Jay-Z voice, I liked seeing this just for how he made it impossible for Jost & Che to not break. B-

Exorcism - Well, with this host, this sketch seems pretty much like a given. It's good to see another Ego/Kenan sketch, but this one didn’t really do much for me. It honestly felt a little too predictable and didn't go anywhere. C-

Soul Booth - A musical sketch with a JAJ/Dismukes pairing as the centerpiece that involves lots of shouting. I liked that part of it WAY more than I liked Bowens' wild over acting. B-

Now, my latest ranking of the season so far...

1. Aubrey Plaza/Sam Smith (01.21.2023)
2. Michael B. Jordan/Lil Baby (01.28.2023)
3. Dave Chappelle/Black Star (11.12.2022)
4. Steve Martin & Martin Short/Brandi Carlile (12.10.2022)
5. Keke Palmer/SZA (12.03.2022)
6. Jenna Ortega/The 1975 (03.11.2023)
7. Travis Kelce/Kelsea Ballerini (03.04.2023)
8. Austin Butler/Lizzo (12.17.2022)
9. Jack Harlow (10.29.2022)
10. Pedro Pascal/Coldplay (02.04.2023)
11. Woody Harrelson/Jack White (02.25.2023)
12. Brendon Gleeson/Willow (10.08.2022)
13. Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar (10.01.2022)
14. Amy Schumer/Steve Lacy (11.05.2022)
15. Megan Thee Stallion (10.15.2022)

Well, that's a nice course correction for this season. Next month, Abbot Elementarys' Quinta Brunson makes her hosting debut. She's another name who has been overdue to host since the beginning of this season. She's definitely got the chops to host SNL, so I'm excited to finally get to see her. However, I still have to make up my mind as to whether or not I would watch live if the post-production editors strike does indeed happen that night. Some have said that even watching makes them feel like they are crossing a picket line (and that would make me feel like a big hypocrite for very personal work related reasons I cannot get into here) but to each their own I suppose. Still, I would like to take this opportunity to state that I personally wish the SNL post production team the best of luck in their negotiations. I hope they get everything they are bargaining for. I wish the same for the writers as well as I understand they may have to go on strike for similar reasons in two months. See you then!

(...and remember, I am still taking applications for guest blogger, so if you want to write your own guest post like Blood Meridian did or if you want to submit your own fan mailbag question for me to answer like I did for Ken George Jones, PLEASE let me know!)