Claire Foy may be funny, but Saturday Night Live doesn't give her much chance to prove it
TV Reviews Recap
“I am positively starved for context!”
“I’m not an actor, I’m a [hacker, astronaut’s wife, and goddamn queen] star!”
Claire Foy is an actress on the well-deserved rise, with her turn as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown currently vying with her version of Lisabeth Salander, and that woman married to Ryan Gosling in the American public’s consciousness. So, inviting her to host makes sense, even if none of those roles, or, really anything she’s ever done that I know of, mark her as a comedy powerhouse. And that’s okay, too—sometimes a great dramatic actor brings an unexpected energy to Saturday Night Live, livening the place up with the spark of character work that a more overtly comedic sensibility might not. (As uneven as the episode was, see Liev Schreiber’s outing from a few weeks ago.)
But SNL either didn’t cater this episode to Foy’s talents, or those comic talents simply weren’t there to begin with. I’m inclined to go with the former explanation for this deeply disappointing episode, since Foy was decent late in the show, when she actually got a character to play in the Good Morning Goomah sketch, putting on a Long Island Sopranos accent alongside Kate McKinnon. Her best showcase of a poor lot, the sketch saw Foy, McKinnon, and Aidy Bryant creating a trio of vivid characterizations as their long-suffering mafioso mistresses let slip the various self-delusions and catchphrases (“face-to-face is for the wife”) they employ to get through their days of being “pulverized from behind” by the likes of Pete Davidson’s gruffly abusive visiting a-hole.
For the most part, though, Foy played it straight in a deadening series of indifferent-to-exhausting sketches where she was simply part of the scenery. I like when SNL brings in an unlikely host (professional athletes excepted, please, forever), but sometimes—again, either through bad writing or a simple mismatch of sensibilities and talents—it just doesn’t work out. In the early-episode WWI epistolary sketch, Foy’s clueless responses to trench-bound husband Mikey Day’s increasingly confused and frantic missives don’t really take off, mainly thanks to her delivery. It’s not a great sketch or anything—it really only comes alive when Kenan Thompson’s unexplained visitor pops in for a guest author spot—but the escalating absurdity of both the wife’s incomprehension and the baffling details she drops between the lines (she appears to be on trial for murder) could work with a more energetic and focused performance on her end. It put me in mind of Miranda Richardson (an acclaimed British thespian and unexpected host pick who did work out), and her similar-minded sketch consoling war-wounded WWII hubby Mike Myers with the gradual reveal of the increasingly silly things she’s been up to while he was convalescing. (Including the fact that she did, in fact, marry Hitler at one point.) Of course, Richardson—an intense, little known British actress then promoting The Crying Game—is also certifiably funny, too.
Weekend Update update
Jost and Che mumbled, stumbled, and underwhelmed. My one real laugh came with Jost’s impression of a Russian pimp’s Craigslist ad and its similarity to Donald Trump’s description of his latest Russian misadventure/light treason as “very legal and very cool.” (“We never kill you, only sometimes.”) Jost shanked some jokes pretty hard last week, though, and continued to come at material in the wishy-washiest way, coming to the defense of First Lady Melania Trump’s widely-mocked nightmare-red tree display by calling out the fact that Americans are buying inflatable Minion and crapping Santa yard displays for their homes. Sure, he called Trump’s tableau akin to “jagged teeth in the blazing hot mouth of Satan himself,” but there’s a deadening whiff of privilege to Jost’s mockery that’s becoming more and more evident of late.
Che has his own blind spots, but at least he’s generally consistent in his targeting, here comparing Trump’s continual dismissal of every hanger-on’s betrayal (Michael Cohen this week) with that of his cousin’s consistent choice of weak-willed baby fathers. “Oh, honey, it’s you,” is about as good a summation of the Trump mindset when it comes to surrounding oneself with the worst of the worst as it gets. Still, while he joked sharply about Trump’s assurances that “safe tear gas” was used on migrants by government forces at the Mexican border (saying wait ’til black American protesters hear that exists), he also never drew from the well of satirical outrage other comics have when it came to the images of tear-gassed toddlers hitting the public consciousness. Call it “safe satire.”
And, look, I get that George H.W. Bush was all pally with the show back in the day, and that the guy just died. But trotting out a clip package of the Carvey-Bush comedy act only reinforced how watery SNL’s presidential parody is when you get right down to it. As Americans, we are constitutionally mandated to rehabilitate the images of the recently deceased, but a quick glance past the hagiographic news reports of Bush’s legacy reveals a whole lot of people unwilling to forget some of the very real and historically inconvenient bullshit. Willie Horton, Clarence Thomas, self-servingly pardoning his Iran-Contra cronies, playing the “un-American” card against opponent Michael Dukakis’ immigrant heritage, proto-Palin Dan Quayle, and (considering that Bush died on World AIDS Day) his complete, conservative-pandering ignoring of the AIDS crisis—if you’re going to proclaim your political relevance, then this cuddly, somber sendoff only reinforces that, for Saturday Night Live, celebrity and access trump comic truth every time.
Leslie Jones came back as herself, always a fun time. Here, wearing a no-sex, Ghostbusters-style T-shirt (with a too-visible removable strikethrough), Leslie bemoaned her age, exhaustion, and bad knees as she proclaimed herself retired officially from sex. Brushing aside longtime lust-object Jost’s entreaty that she is still “beautiful, talented, and funny” (“Lies!!,” she screamed), Jones finally came around—but not before pretty hilariously going after Che (physically) for comparing her unfavorably to other 50-ish celebs like Halle Berry, J-Lo, and, perhaps most woundingly, Judge Judy Sheindlin. Jones attempting to scratch past Jost while screaming, “Fire him, Lorne!” was easily the most energetic laugh of the night.
Beck Bennett was brought on as an expert whose laid-back, “freethinking economist” was only supposed to be insufferable as a joke. (Jost eventually just wheeled him off camera, but not soon enough.)
Best/worst sketch of the night
There is no reason you can’t do a successful Willy Wonka movie sketch, I suppose. I mean, who knows where great comedy ideas come from, right? And if you think up a fresh, funny angle on an element of a 47-year-old movie, then I salute you. I do not salute whatever the hell this was. “Charlie’s grandparents all sleep in the same bed, so what if two of them start having sex” is the sort of non-premise that could only, conceivably, be pulled off if everyone involved found some deep, dark well of comic performance that the sheer, lazy stupidity of the gag became part of the gag. Here, it was all unfunny chaos, as Kyle Mooney and Aidy (mostly offscreen) thrashed and moaned and thumped the bed while everyone else yelled incoherently over the loud banging. (I think Pete Davidson’s Grandpa Joe said something about what’s going on smelling like cabbage, but I’m not going back to confirm.) McKinnon, as Charlie’s beleaguered mom, had a few funny lines about their meal of bread and, for dessert, “memories of bread,” and the whole thing was supposed to be a big, broad, cast-corpsing riot. But it was just embarrassing.
The Netflix ad would like to remind you that Netflix makes a lot of original programming, which it does, so that’s . . . accurate? The joke that there are shockingly few actual movies on this streaming platform at least felt satisfying to a writer whose beloved video store job disappeared a few years back thanks to the seriously mistaken public perception that they could get everything we had on Netflix. (Choke on your new reality, suckers.) And the idea that the new business model is “infinite scrolling,” wherein shows are greenlit so fast that users’ recommendations will never, ever end is not a bad one. Plus, I laughed at Kate McKinnon’s old lady being the one, single Netflix fan of something called Kennymeade Depot. Peak TV is for everyone!
In another filmed piece, Foy and Davidson played two teen kids of divorce whose “second Christmas” wishes with dad turn out to be a predictably depressing nightmare of broken futons, Jimmy Buffett, and a new girlfriend who demands to be called by her first name. The star here is Aidy, selling the premise by belting out a broken home carol about how, sometimes, rules aren’t really a bad thing.
It was in the last half-hour of a dog of an episode that, at least, some of the cast got a chance to shine. The Staten Island talk show sketch was some fine caracter work from Aidy, Foy, and McKinnon. I especially liked the touch that McKinnon and Foy’s tough-talking mistresses have designated hugging pillows for when their married lovers’ wives inevitably start banging on their doors and calling them whores. And the Home Shopping Network sketch worked because Cecily and Aidy just took hold of the premise and shook it in their jaws, comedically speaking. Maybe it was just cathartic (see: dog of an episode), but hearing Strong’s would-be pitchwoman (who forgot her teeny-eyesight-ruining creations in her Uber) moan out curses like “Oh, my dog-balls life!” and “Eat my ass to hell!” just got funnier and funnier. Especially when Aidy rolled in on her mobility scooter as Strong’s smug, unsupportive mother—who’s also there to pitch her own, more conveniently sized ornaments.
“What do you call that act?” “The Californians!”—Recurring sketch report
Morning Joe, Trump is back.
“It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report
Alec Baldwin is back everyone. Try to contain yourself. Fresh from his latest real-world bout of hotheaded assholery (referenced in a throwaway line in his second Trump cold open of the season), Baldwin trotted out his Trump for some more uninspired buffoonery. I don’t know what else to say at this point about these guaranteed forced-laugh and recognition-applause cold opens—Baldwin’s Trump is a mediocre conception and the sketches unwaveringly just list off the week’s Trump-ian outrages without much insight or originality. Here at the now-happening G20 Argentina summit, Cecily’s Melania dreams of taking hold of an incarcerated Donald’s money in a hot bath, Beck Bennett’s ever-shirtless Putin and alum Fred Armisen’s Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman share elaborate “reporter-murdering dictator” handshakes, and Ben Stiller pops by once more as the totally headed-for-prison Michael Cohen, unable to quit his former client and benefactor, even as he prepares to spill even more dirty secrets to Robert Mueller’s investigation.
And Kate McKinnon continues her quest to portray every other male member of the Trump administration, as her bat-winged Rudy Giuliani plays on the loose-lipped Trump attorney’s whole incompetent, doddering Nosferatu vibe. Oh, and then everyone comes back out for a song, because Saturday Night Live apparently thought Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip was actually a pretty great show. I don’t know how many times I have to make that joke, but, Jesus, SNL—there are other, better ways to end a political sketch than with a half-clever parody song. Move on.
And, casting their eye over the political and media land/hellscape, the SNL writers once more dipped back into a lukewarm take on Morning Joe, the inexplicably popular morning talk show from now-married pundits Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. (And perpetual third wheel Willie Geist, as ever played here by Mikey Day, looking green around the gills at the hosts’ on-air canoodling.)
McKinnon and Alex Moffat are fine as the hosts, their approximation of Brzezinski and Scarborough’s banter and cutesy flirting a pair of decent comic creations. But there are about three jokes in these sketches. Joe plugs his terrible dad-rock band, Mika rolls her eyes and repeats what Joe says, and guests’ analysis is inevitably interrupted by Joe’s self-important blather. Kenan had a funny bit as Elijah Cummings, noting that he presided over the hosts recent wedding because, as a black man named Elijah, he’s automatically an ordained officiant. And Foy’s serious BBC correspondent, realizing that she’s not going to get a word in, starts blurting out “facts” about Donald Trump being a gay werewolf, just to see if anyone’s listening. It’s cute and irrelevant, which is a conscious choice for Saturday Night Live to make.
I am hip to the musics of today
Anderson Paak (or Anderson .Paak depending on your relationship with your copy editor) was pretty great. There aren’t enough percussionist-vocalists in my life, and his first number was a straight-up smooth-funky groove, complete with a guest verse by kendrick Lamar. And, alone in front of a smoke-swirlin scrim in the second, Paak showed his performance chops in a few other dimensions. Cool.
Most/Least Valuable (Not Ready For Prime Time) Player
Aidy gets the MVP spot tonight, cemented by her rip-roaring first line in the Christmas song that ended the show.
The new kid hazing of Ego Nwodim continues, but shunting full cast member Melissa Villaseñor into also-ran status in that same song alongside featured players Nwodim and Heidi Gardner was just some cold, cold shit. (She did have a decent turn as newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, though, brushing off Fox News-fueled MAGA trolls’ death threats as nothing compared to riding the 6 train.)
“What the hell is that thing?”—The Ten-To-Oneland Report
And, hey, speaking of SNL’s penchant for musical satire, the “Christmas wish from the women of SNL” saw Aidy, Cecily, Leslie, and Kate joining in a heartfelt, verging on desperate carol beseeching Special Counsel Robert Muller to, for the love of god, bring them something good for the holidays. Before we get to the meat of the matter, it was plain weird that a sketch from “the women of SNL” started out by excluding Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Melissa Villaseñor, right? Sure, Cecily and Kate are good singers, and Aidy can tear into a song in character like nobody’s business, but the move sidelined three cast members for no real reason, having them shuffle in halfway through the song. As for the joke itself, the concept that so many people are pinning their hopes for an end to the entire Trump nightmare on this one, long-gestating report is solid ground for satire. Cecily’s mid-song breakdowns about not being able to take any more anxiety medication (“They won’t let me!”), and the lines about just needing something—anything—to sustain some hope comes across in the actresses’ performances. If there’s a real criticism, it’s that the song just never finds a higher gear as it goes on—musically, this should have been a show-ending showstopper, and it wasn’t.
Stray observations
- Bennett’s Putin, blowing off Trump for new BFF MbS: “I prefer presidents who don’t get indicted.”
- Joe and Mika’s safeword is “partisan politics.”
- Day’s soldier husband, baffled by his wife’s latest letter: “And why would you call it Word War I?”
- “You’re watching AMC, where X-Men is a Christmas movie.”
- Next week: Host Jason Momoa (who has heard all your Aquaman jokes), and musical guest Mumford & Sons.
228 Comments
It’s pretty rich for Colin Jost of all fucking people to do a segment on entitled, carefree white dude. Jost is like a smirking golem of white privilege.
Isn’t that what we wanted for all our comedy? White guys from Harvard who say things like, “If we didn’t go into comedy, we could have cured cancer.” (An actual line from a book about The Simpsons.)
Well, some guys who graduated from Harvard are funny, but Jost and his respective generation are definitely the cut-off point, old sport.
Privileged how? His career is based on kissing ass to the mob. Once he falls out of the Lorne Michaels family tree he is nothing.
Let’s bring back: #canceljost
Saw this suggestion the other day but it does sound like it could have used Olivia Colman, who has spent sometime doing sketch comedy and is amazing at it, take over the show halfway
Olivia Colman is pretty much great at everything.
And since I’m grousing, fuck any love for George Bush Senior. Thousands of gay men died because of his inaction, but his dumbass gets to live into his nineties. His family is scum.
Only one response to that, Xample1:
You’re scum.
you must REALLY hate Muslims then
but Dana Carvey used to do a funny impression of him so that cancels out every negative thing he did ever for some reason I don’t quite understand
And SNL is totally the right place to bring up all those negative things.
Now do Muslims
Your forgetting his role as Director of Central Intelligence and his role in the destabilization of most of Central America to assist corporate interests who didn’t like Marxist governments coming to power. The political extra-judicial killings through Central American in the early 80s were the ripple effect of Bush’s decisions.
Correction: The entire Bush family is EVIL scum.
https://www.tbo.com/opinion/columns/How-Barbara-Bush-broke-a-shameful-national-silence-on-AIDS_167447698
Eh, I’d put this one somewhere in the mid-to-low B range. Not all that memorable sketch-wise, but Claire made for a damn fun host and it was nice seeing Kendrick Lamar pop in out of nowhere during Anderson .Paak’s set (which was fantastic, by the way).
But please, writers, if you’re gonna get all the ladies of this show together, make it fucking count. That half-assed rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You” about the Mueller investigation was about as tired and lifeless as Lorne himself.
yeah, that end song was horrendously done. And I agree with the reviewer that it was made more weird that they just conveyer belted in the other women halfway through.
Forcing actresses/singers/comedians into constantly being political must be a bit tiring week after week, by my estimation.
Who says they’re forced? If it gets up the noses of red-hat MAGA freaks, I’m all for it. Trump is a treasonous crook and fraud. If those MAGA Trump snowflake fans are “offended” by a brief skit, good. And fuck them. The truth hurts. Your assertion that creative SNL actresses and comediennes in NYC were somehow “forced” to do this skit is ridiculous.
I just naturally assumed they were forced to at gunpoint.
Mm, already got that dumb wrong point, my good MwFuller. Read it the first time. “I was only saying what I was saying.”
there’s no way you’re older than 12
I didn’t really get them saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays at the end. They have two more live episodes before Christmas right? And it is only December 1st. Still a little too early for the Happy Holidays to be thrown out.
Not if you’re Jewish.
I hope to hear at least one “IO SATURNALIA!” on December 17th!
There is no reason you can’t do a successful Willy Wonka movie sketch, I suppose. I mean, who knows where great comedy ideas come from, right? And if you think up a fresh, funny angle on an element of a 47-year-old movie, then I salute you. They did a much better one a couple of seasons ago, where Charlie brings a Golden Ticket (with +1 for the factory) home to discover his grandparents aren’t actually bedridden. Charlie gets way better jabs in than anything in tonight’s sketch:
Mooney’s animalistic screaming did make me laugh.
It’s crazy that Pete Davidson has now played Grandpa Joe more than once on SNL.
Well, he’s got similar facial features with Jack Albert.
He’s got the body for it.
The best Wonka sketch was with Al Gore as Willy’s Brother.
The best was the one with Al Gore playing Willy Wonka’s brother (or cousin or some relative) who was also his accountant who assumed he would inherit the factory and chews out Wonka for just handing over the family business on a whim to a complete stranger with no experience running a large company.
This skit was hilarious.
Claire Foy was impressive in the sketches that…gave her anything of note to do. At best, they gave her a decent accent reel. And these days, the only sketches that I halfway enjoy are the weird ones. I dug the WWI sketch. It had a good button. I liked Dad Christmas, the Mistress Talk Show—the pillow hugging was a nice touch—, and even the HSN one had me chuckling. But god, I’m so tired of the toothless political jokes, like the song at the end or any of their Trump jokes, and Weekend Update is just dire. Also, I know that Kate McKinnon is very talented, but…maybe she doesn’t need to be, er, everyone? Villaseñor, Gardner, and Nwodim are all talented, and Villaseñor is a senior cast member at this point. What’s even up with that? Did she piss someone off?
Mistress Talk show. Are the people who wrote this aware that the Italian Mafia as it once was no longer exists. All that goomba bullshit ended when Gotti went away.
That one was one of the repeatedly least-funny shows in a long time.
Having said that, the letter-writing sketch had a nice idiotic progression, and the Wonka sketch, well…that was the kind of Nth-degree silliness that I find SNL truly excels at these days. I like those senselessly idiotic displays of mayhem.
I realize now I used idiotic twice. (shrugs)
How moronic.
The Wonka sketch could have been plenty funnier. However, I liked the growing absurdity of that letter-writing sketch, I do indeed reckon.
I’m getting tired of sketches that might have worked really well if they were written a little better or acted a lot better. (Maybe this really has been a problem for generations of SNL, but I don’t remember it from, say, 15 years ago.) The timing in this one seemed off. I laughed a good bit, though.
The letter sketch and the Dad Christmas sketch made this episode far better than the last, by far. There was literally nothing funny about Steve Carell’s episode.
So now we’re complaining that SNL didn’t go after Melania’s Christmas tress hard enough? This is the thing you’re concerned about the Trump administration getting away with?In an unrelated note, while “Dad Christmas” was mildly amusing, as the needle moves about what kinds of stereotypes of various groups are acceptable in comedy, maybe it’s time to start retiring “men suck as parents”.
Im furthest from Dad of the year but I agree. If there’s one thing I am teaching them is that a decent amount of apathy is not at all a bad thing.
I think the complaint was not really about letting her get away with anything. It’s more that Jost responds to criticism of one of the richest and most prominent people in America by reminding us that we should really be calling out middle and lower-middle class people for their tacky decorations. Something like that.Kind of like deflecting criticism of Amazon by saying that New Yorkers have no right to complain about the cost of rent a couple weeks ago.
I think the complaint was not really about letting her get away with anything.They’re Christmas trees dude. What exactly do you think she’s getting away with?
Check the comment at the start of this thread. I was responding to that.
It’s more that Jost responds to criticism of one of the richest and most prominent people in America by reminding us that we should really be calling out middle and lower-middle class people for their tacky decorations. Something like that.
yeah, being mad about not making fun of the tree thing is weird.
Being mad about not shitting on a dead president, also weird.Or not, here.
Around here, anyone who isn’t a hard left is nothing short of Satan.
Around here, anyone who doesn’t believe that their dick is being constantly and consistently sucked enough by the staff is the REAL victim here.
I’m not left enough for this site, and I’ve learned to accept it. Also, based on how angry most people who are far left or right are, that’s probably a good thing for me.
Seriously. What does the reviewer expect them to do – recite a list of his transgressions as president? Compared to the Presidents before and after him, GHWB was milquetoast. If this guy was a reporter in the ‘60’s he’d be like “This just in – JFK shot in the head and dead, but is this really a bad thing? I mean think of Bay of Pigs and the escalation in Vietnam.”
Hahaha….no. Making fun of men will never lose traction.
WHite men are horrible shits
I only know Claire Foy from the awesome “Going Postal” adaptation, but until I find out she’s murdering puppies dressed as Hitler she gets a lifetime pass. She is fucking perfect in that film.
I forgot that she was Adora Belle Dearheart
(professional athletes excepted, please, forever)Peyton Manning can come back any time he wants. Eli Manning cannot.
Peyton and I personally thought The Rock was good.That Peyton Manning video where he’s rifling the ball at youth players is still one of their funnier videos IMO
There hasn’t been anything this funny on this show in about 5 years.
that video was the first time I thought Peyton Manning had any personality at all. Well done.
The Rock was awesome, but I don’t classify him as “professional athlete” anymore – he’s moved fully into “actor” territory imo
he has now… but his first couple times hosting (2000, 2002) he was fully wrestler The Rock. Scorpion King didn’t come out until 2002.
Let’s be real though, a professional wrestler is at least as much actor as it as athlete.
Eli’s stupid touchdown dance sketch is kinda fun though!
Jost seemed half asleep during that weekend update. Also, they really need to stop giving sketches to the same three cast members.
I love how they kicked off Pharoah and Killam on the half-assed excuse of “we need to make the show fresh by removing some more prominent cast members” and now if you’re not McKinnon, Aidy, Kenan or Cecily you are basically relegated to not doing shit.
they literally hired an impressionist and Villasenor gets nothing to do. I was thinking that maybe Sasheer Zamata leaving and Vanessa Bayer getting an Emmy nomination once she left SNL would be a wake up call, but nah. better get more Pete Davidson in, a dude whose only value is leveraging his personal life in bit monologues. value which, let’s face it, has diminished to nothing ever since Ariana Grande dumped him.
one day, McKinnon, Kenan and Cecily fill fuck off from SNL entirely to have TV shows or film roles, Trump will no longer be President and this show will get no ratings for two seasons. because by then, the other cast members will fuck off too, even those who get something to do. because I sure as hell won’t believe that, say, Aidy Bryant will get elevated to main star once everyone else leaves despite her talent. unless we get a presidential candidate that’s larger, since this is about all Colin fucking Jost can do as a writer.
it’s infuriating. not even because of SNL’s current quality, because even in its best years that shit could vary within one episode. but the amount of talent-wasting that’s been going on for a while now hurts. I feel like an idiot for liking the Trump-Clinton season of SNL, because now we don’t get anything else.
hot take: mckinnon is an insufferable theater nerd. her shtick has gotten old and her impressions are all the same.
Dumb take. The “insufferable theater nerds” on SNL are the people whose names you have difficulty recalling two seasons after they leave, the ones who you think, when you read about how some famous comedian failed their audition for the show, “They didn’t get on but [flips open the Unabridged Encyclopedia of SNL Cast Members at random, stabs a finger on the page] Denny Dillon did?” [waits for the last Denny Dillon fan to show up, raise hell]. They’re the ones who did a few improv classes with UCB or Second City and think that they’re good to go. McKinnon isn’t above doing a shtick when she can’t get a handle on an impression, but she put more work into Hillary Clinton, and hit the target way more, than, say, Chevy Chase ever did with Gerald Ford, which is about half of his SNL work.
she’s incredibly one note. She just does the same voice for everything.
Yeah, I’m starting to reach my limit with her. I was never a Wiig fan because she was always too look-at-me, and McKinnon is moving in that direction of late.
Her Rudy, Sessions, and Graham are all just walking around with bug eyes and a silly voice. A woman playing men’s part is not all that shocking.
Melissa V. has improved, but however good her impressions are, she’s not a great actress. Sasheer Zamata was much better and it was a bad call booting her off.
Melissa V actually is a good singer, though, so you’d think they would utilize her much more in that area throughout the show.
Yeah. Blame everything on Jost. He is co-head writer and there is a writing staff on 20 (?) people or so plus the cast, This show sucking is a group effort.
I blame all these problems on that dastardly Brooks Wheelan.
They were doing a much better job then of using the cast on hand. I’m pretty mad about Sasheer and now Ego being squandered. (I know nothing about Ego’s talent, but Sasheer—as evidenced not just by SNL but by her appearances elsewhere–was wonderful.)
‘they really need to stop giving sketches to the same three cast members’That odd ‘women of SNL’ sketch to me reads like there are some turf battles going on between veterans and newbies. And I think it’s time to clear out the veterans: McKinnon is late-Wiig ubiquitously annoying now; and while Keenan Thompson is still pretty good he’s used too often as a crutch to punch up weak material…
Keenan sucks. Every character he does is a slight variation on his Steve Harvey.
Keenan often makes me laugh though.
I could see that. I also think the writers room needs a reshuffling. The writers clearly favor certain cast members a lot
KENAN REACTS
That sketch threw me. Four of them come out and start then suddenly the others are standing there. If it was the Women of SNL have them all out there getting time and space equally.
McKinnon should have been a one-season-wonder, as those constant bug eyes of hers really get my goat something fierce. However, all SNL ladies should fear the wrath of Heidi Gardner.
Keenan is easy to overlook, he’s dependable, been there so long he’s like part of the furniture. But I’ve seen when an episode is doing badly, he can manage to step up his game, amp up the funny. It’s the worst episodes where Keenan does his best to save it. Props to him for that.
Yeah I absolutely agree with this; he’s been a Hartman-esque glue for the past decade-ish now (albeit with a much narrower comic range than Hartman). But the part couple of seasons it seems like his entire job is to rescue weak sketches, which lets the writers continue to coast: why bother writing something funny when Keenan can wring out some laughs?
Good Morning Goomah sketch, putting on a Long Island Sopranos accent alongside Kate McKinnonAhhh, the always recycled Coffee Talk when they’re out of ideas.coming to the defense of First Lady Melania Trump’s widely-mocked nightmare-red tree display by calling out the fact that Americans are buying inflatable Minion and crapping Santa yard displays for their homesNot so much a defense as it is a “you don’t have room to talk.” But it’s pretty odd you’re offended they didn’t make fun of her. I also disagree with your take on Bush. I wasn’t a huge fan of his, but after reading your take, am I left to assume you’re going to do the same to Clinton and Obama when they die?Leslie Jones came back as herself, always a fun time.Not at all a fun time. She’s really, really unfunny.Melissa Villasenor deserves better. So does Ego Nwodim. This show is wasting two of its funniest women because they want to shoehorn a one-note Kate McKinnon into every role. Hell, if you can’t find space for two black women at the same time, then get rid of Leslie Jones. She’s nowhere near Ego’s level when it comes to funny.
I disagree that Cecily Strong is a good singer. Remember that super warbly and awkward rendition of “To Sir, With Love” she did for Obama? I think she’s a good-to-great sketch performer but she’s not a good singer. I wish they’d stop letting her just do weaksauce karaoke and call it a sketch.
Man, I forgot how cringey that To Sir With Love was.
lol. You know its an epic fail when even libtards don’t like the love song to Barry.
That was scarier than The Exorcist, and also, much less funny than The Exorcist.
To Sir With Love was absolutely terrible, and with no jokes in it either. At least the Mueller Christmas song had humor or at the very least, attempted humor. There’s similarities in that they’re both political, but the Christmas song was much better.
For sure it was better, and actually had jokes. I’m just saying she’s not especially any better at it than any of the other cast members.
She’s fine when she’s just participating in a number with the rest of
the cast, but when she’s unaccompanied she always sounds warbly and, as Randy Jackson would say, “pitchy.”
I don’t get why they keep giving her these showcases. Last week it was the Thanksgiving song sketch *and* the “G.P. Yass” sketch. The week before that she got her own verse in the “Unity” song.
Then again Perkins also thinks that Leslie Jones is funny, so who can truly judge one’s tastes?
So I started following Melissa Villasenor on Instagram and her voice is pitch-perfect. She is also part of the main cast. When I think of them relegating her to the featured players verse for this song it makes me straight-up irate. I wonder who made this decision?
Meh, I didn’t find this episode much worse than any this season. About the same for me, a B- or C+. The audience didn’t seem into some of the jokes for some reason – there was actually some really clever writing in the Mueller song but no audience reaction.Baldwin back as Trump was a disappointing way to start the episode. Especially his stupid throw-away meta joke about punching people for parking spots. Calling yourself out for being a bit of an asshole doesn’t make you less of an asshole, and it certainly doesn’t make for humor.
I think Cecily deserved MVP. She was amazing in the HSN sketch, especially because it was a character that you KNEW was going to go off the rails as soon as the “forgot” reveal happened, and it was just a matter of anticipating HOW she would go off the rails. I loved it, though, again, the audience didn’t seem that into it?
And where was Chris Redd?
He was in a filmed Steve Urkel bit.
I read a great piece somewhere, the other day, about what a crime it is that Gardner and Redd are being squandered. If they got down to no more than 8 cast members and they were two of them, I’d probably be happy.
I haven’t been able to watch SNL the last few years for several reasons, but on big glairing one is Colin Jost, taking over head writer duties from Seth Meyers is a daunting task but the show hasn’t really recovered from him leaving.Jost is really is tanking the quality of the show the last few years, and it hans’t been this disjointed since the end of the Jim Downey era when Phi Hartmann, Chris Farley and those guys left and. I don’t think it will ever get as bad 81 again, that just isn’t possible, and even then they had brought back Michael O’Donahue to help right the ship, and having Eddie Murphy also save the show for good measure. But that is in itself the issue, SNL is not really as subversive as it once was, and really suffers for it. Was browsing the other night watched Chappelle Show for the first time in a while, and holy hell did that show changed the narrative, (and feel old now that it has been 15 years since that debuted). After 40 plus years like NYC, it’s changed from the gritty and dark place with character to a post Giuiani/Bloomberg sheen gloss of neon signs and very little risk
the show needs a culling. get rid of half the cast, clear out the writer’s room, and get rid of jost. it’s amazing to me that the material they’re putting out passes as acceptable in their minds. i suppose when you have a writer’s room full of smarmy ivy league pricks who think every bit of content they produce is gold, you end up with horribly unfunny, unpolished, one dimensional skits…. a problem which compounds when half the cast are basically amateurs who can’t deliver lines to save their life.
After watching these clips, I can’t help feeling that the cast members looked very uninspired by the material. Half of them couldn’t stay in character or get their lines right:/
I mean, hasn’t the show had pretty strong ratings for the last few years? It appears something is working for a lot of people, no? If my show had such incredible ratings, I wouldn’t run around firing everyone as you’re suggesting.
They have had co-head writers for some time now. So any problems at that position can’t be only placed on Jost.
It’s more fun just to blame Jost, since he is eerily unlikable in his eternal blandness.
#canceljost
#jostdoit
the 1994-1995 season, the season after Hartman left, the first season Norm was in, and the last seasons before Sandler and Farley were fired was the third worst season in the show’s history. The show is still world’s better than that season.
Bad writing can be overcome sometimes on the strength of the players, Kate MacKinnon is still the one of the greatest ever in the show’s 40 plus, Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong and Leslie Jones are great, Kenan just lives in 30 rock now, many of the newer ones I haven’t seen enough to to give an opinion onAs for this era I am unsure when the downturn started, Vanessa Bayer and Bobby Moynihan leaving was a big loss, but i think the downturn started really started when Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader all left at the same time, their last sketch together is a personal favorite with the Punk Rock band and had Carrie Brownstein, Steve Jones, J Mascis, Kim Gordon and Aimee Mann join them on stage. While there has been good stuff since 2014, it just felt like the consistency has been off
I believe Jost just oversees weekend update and that is one of the consistently funny sections of the show, although last night’s was relatively weaker installment.
Fey was the worst head writer
Am I the only one who was slightly offended by Armisen portraying a Saudi person? To be fair, I am offended by anything Armisen and don’t exactly appreciate that Saudi prince either but surely this is not really any different from blackface?
Isn’t Fred Arminsen jewish, i.e., simetic? If so, it wouldn’t be that far off to have him playing a Saud, would it?
He’s a lot of things, at least in ancestry – but nothing close to anything Arabic. But even if that were the case – there are more actors out there who can portray that prince dude without having to actually darken their skin (which almost by default would also be an actor with less chance of appearing prime time or in a lead role instead of Fred Everywhere Armisen).
Did he darken his skin for this?
Did he darken his skin?
He’s half-Venezualan.
he’s also a bit of a dink.
Saw Fred on “Finding Your Roots”. He’s half Korean.
wtf? how would him being jewish make him “not far off” from being a Saudi?
Arabs and Jews are both Semites (a term which has zero to do with religion, even if Americans apparently are unaware of this fact).
Both semitic races? I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Israel, but when you’re in Jerusalem and you cross from the Jewish to the Arab sectors, you’ll notice that everyone looks awfully damn similar.
you’re a fucking moron
And you’re a low-class loser who can’t capitalize or punctuate, so I figure I’m still doing better than you.
No, this is blackface:
i mean he literally did blackface when he played obama so
It’s SNL. Armisen played a Japanese woman and Adam Sandler played Bill Cosby, and the world didn’t end. I will agree with you, however, that perhaps SNL should at least attempt to employ a talent of Middle Eastern descent as a featured player if they intend on doing this in the future.
Armisen plays whatever race they tell him to play.
He wasn’t wearing “Arab face” makeup. It should offend you that a cast member wasn’t given that role but instead given to some former cast member who doesn’t really do much now (i know he plays guitar on Seth Meyers’ but acting wise he doesn’t do much). They could have put anyone not already in the skecth to give them air time. The joke was about MBS being a murderer not about what he looks like.
Nope. MBS may be a murderous tyrant, but browning up someone to play him is never a good idea.
MBS may be a murderous tyrant, but browning up someone to play him is never a good idea.This sentence may be the single best representation of the baffling, vapid and squalid politics of our times.
The Saudi royal family is too rich and powerful for there to be the element of punching-down that would make it “not really any different from blackface.”
The Saudi royal family is too rich and powerful for there to be the element of punching-down that would make it “not really any different from blackface.”
Interesting. So, one could darken one’s face to portray Idi Amin, but not Desmond Tutu. You can apply prosthetics to look like President Xi, but not a generic Chinese person. This is a weird loophole but okay, i’m with you.
I thought that was Tim Meadows in light-face, then I thought maaayyyybe Robert Downey, Jr.
Armisen is rather problematic in nature.
Really?
but surely this is not really any different from blackface?
That reflects a lack of understanding of blackface.
No, I honestly don’t give a shit how impossibly rich spoiled royal Saudi autocrat prince Mohammed Bone Saw was portrayed. The person who ordered the torture, murder and dismembering of a journalist with US residency and protection. Fuck him to hell. Your concern trolling is really boring. Arimisen is of Japanese and Venezualan descent, whatever, go have a wank at how “problematic” you found a silly comedy sketch was. On behalf of a guy who ordered a journalist dismembered alive. Unbelievable.
Yes, you are literally the only one. And that you’d compare this to blackface is stunningly offensive.
Except that I am not. If only on Twitter there are many people who feel the same – and I am sure elsewhere too. As someone belonging to various minorities which are often parodied (including an ethnic minority) I am quite bothered by my comparison being called offensive – as it has the same basic traits, especially when compared with more contemporary cases of blackface.
So dude playing a Saudi is “blackface” but hey the Italian prejudice in this show is okay?
lmao yes, the saudi prince deserved better
Nah, we only get offended when white people do black face. Everyone else is cool.
I think the difference between portraying someone of a different race or ethnicity and blackface is the painting of the face black. I’m not 100% sure on that, but it seems logical.
you’re offended by anything Aremsian> what?
I just find him – and most of the characters he portrays – terribly annoying and he pops up everywhere constantly (which is the same for many SNL alum – most are fine comedic actors but it’s just overkill and don’t give others a chance to shine).
It absolutely is different than blackface based on the historical precedents that caucasians have set by appearing in such makeup acting out the worst parts of slave culture and our general racist attitude towards any skin color other than white. That’s the biggest reason blackface is not ok for whites in any circumstance, ever. Even a mixed-race person like Armisen. I think he does a great impression of Obama but that’s absolutely not a reason to put on blackface.
(professional athletes excepted, please, forever)Wrong.Athletes have been some of the best hosts this show has ever seen, and given the diminished quality, they should probably consider more of them. Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, The Rock, LeBron, even Tom Brady, who I hate, did an amazing turn.Whatever you have against sports stars, you shouldn’t let it bleed over into your reviews.
Charles Barkley (first appearance) and Joe Montana were both excellent as well. On the other hand, Wayne Gretzky.
I remember Barkley but not Montana or Gretzky.It’s usually a comedy goldmine when they pick hosts that aren’t in the entertainment business. Entirely out of their element but making the game attempt, and usually at their own expense.Wish they would do it more.
How can you not love ‘Wakiki Hockey’?
Montana was hilarious, because the writers played to his strengths (likable, just had a concussion) and came up with sketches like this. Heck, even Chris Evert got some good stuff in her turn as host.
He’s going upstairs to masturbate.
Nancy Kerrigan is a finger on that other hand as well.
In Barkley’s most recent hosting stint, he was “turrible”.
Micheal Jordan in the Stuart Smalley sketch was pretty funny..
And let’s not forget O.J. Simpson.
No, seriously. He was pretty funny in a parody of Saturday Night Fever.
I’ll always remember him as Nordberg.
I love it when comments start with “Wrong.”
I love it when comments start with “Wrong.”
You do not love it.* So, wrong.
* also you do not love it when comment end with “wrong”
The Rock was FUCKING HILARIOUS.
Nick-itrol. Giant Human Monkey Baby with Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell’s leg breaking getting humped by the Rock.
Wasn’t John Cena on it at some point too?
Women are funny! Claire is funny! Now say something funny, Claire. G’head…
Men are funny! Men comedy writers are funny! Now write something funny, SNL male writers (filling 18 of 20 SNL writing positions). G’head …
Is Claire the only woman in SNL history?
There was that Pat girl-or-guy, but that always confused me.
Doctor Who used the World War 1 confusion just a year ago
What does this show need to do to get an F rating? Every week the review is how terrible it was, then ends with ‘I give it a C’
just started 6 weeks ago and I’ve gotten 2 check for a total of $2,200…this is the best decision I made in a long time! “Thank you for giving me this extraordinary opportunity to make extra money from home. This extra cash has changed my life in so many ways, thank you!”Visit site: https://tinyurl.com/yd7zck5g
Don’t you think that a bad host can bring the whole show down? Don’t forget, Claire Foy was there for the entire week, sitting in on the writing sessions and rehearsing. If the cast and crew realize that nothing that they are doing is working and nothing that Foy is doing is funny, wouldn’t that bring the whole show down? I didn’t see the show and I’ve never heard of Claire Foy before this article. But it sounds like she was a really bad choice for host.
Steve Carell’s episode sucked harder than this one, so I feel pretty comfortable laying the blame at the writers’ feet.
Foy was excellent in this episode. Perkins is off. The writing is the problem here.
Why are these reviews so long for such a bad show?I watched for Claire Foy. I haven’t seen First Man but she was great in Unsane and with that performance should be considered a leading contender for Best Actress. If she is as good in First Man as is said she should be a shoo-in.Was this the shortest opening monologue in SNL history? I was glad none of the cast dropped in for a cameo but it did seem short. No references to any of her roles in any sketch? No First Man send up with a cameo by Gosling? No Girl bit? Nothing? Seems odd. The cold open was terrible. The entire episode seemed liked a throw away episode. Why is Mikey Day in every bit? Why are Pete Davidson and Aidy Bryant still on the show? And Kyle Mooney?
As a Daredevil fan who had to endure it JUST being canceled on Thursday for no reason other than corporations fighting with each other over who gets to make more money, the Netflix sketch was particularly bad timing for me.
Bush’s body isn’t even cold. There will be weeks and months and years to debate his legacy. I applaud SNL for a brief tribute to the man the day after he died.No person is perfect and all politicians have flaws. It’s telling that people from both sides of the aisle who agree on almost nothing else are paying tribute while Internet trolls are virtue signaling and call Bush a war criminal. Seriously find one president who did nothing wrong or controversial. Washington owned slaves and killed Native Americans. Adams was a rightwing religious fanatic. Jefferson raped his slaves and illegally purchased Lousiana so Napoleon could afford his conquest of Europe. Madison facilitated the above land deal, owned slaves and started the War of 1812. Monroe advocated nationalism and isolationism and facilitated the War of 1812. I can go on…
But what to do with poor Luke Null? Too crazy for Boy’s Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town. The child was an outcast!
#CancelJost
I get tired of political skits and jokes that say nothing and have no meta-irony or subnarrative. Trump is bad…but he’s just a current fixture of long running problems. Glorifying Jeff Bezos showed us all how unaware SNL and its writers are of the tenor of the country. The room is damn cold, put on a sweater. Unless you’re an Ivy League grad, then I guess it’s pretty warm.
Bezos is just as bad as Trump and may actually be damaging America more than Trump is. Millions of people have lost jobs because of Bezos yet people worship him like he’s some great savior. He runs a flea market.
You know, Amazon is such an amazingly useful invention that I really, really want to not hate Bezos so much. I’m not succeeding in the slightest, because he seems pretty interchangeable with your basic comic book supervillain.
I’m not sure what you were looking for from Foy in that WW1 sketch but I thought her delivery was perfect. This sounded to me like you wanted her to mug to the camera more or be zany, but her performance was perfect for a character who replies to long, heartfelt letters with one or two words in reply.
“Sounds dreadful. Love, Margaret.” I thought this sketch was funny in its evolving complexity, and Foy was indeed enjoyable. Mikey Day was quite good too. Mikey almost giggled at one point, but yeah the delivery was perfect. The unnecessary thing was “She joined the German Army!” at the end which, duh, we had already got that, no need to spell it out, writers. Otherwise, I really liked that sketch.
I actually thought it was one of the best skits of the season! But I laugh easy and really enjoy SNL. I agree that telling not showing seems to be a problem for this incarnation of SNL.
It was the best of the season, by far. My wife and I were belly laughing.
I thought that skit was far and away the best one of the show.
She should have turned to the camera and reminded everyone that as bad as WWI was, Trump is worse. She was totally not woke!
I just wanted to take a moment to send you my support, sir.I cannot imagine having to write a lengthy and penetrating review of this abysmal episode. Just watching it was torture enough.Thanks for your service.
Did YOU actually work at a video store? I LOVE video store personnel. I have never met a grumpy one 😀
“Foy’s clueless responses to trench-bound husband Mikey Day’s increasingly confused and frantic missives don’t really take off, mainly thanks to her delivery.” / “…the escalating absurdity of both the wife’s incomprehension and the baffling details she drops between the lines (she appears to be on trial for murder) could work with a more energetic and focused performance on her end.” Her detached / deadpan tone was the entire joke / point of the skit. You are literally criticizing the skit (and Foy’s performance in it) for not accomplishing what it ( / she / the writers) did not set out to do, and completely ignoring what it / they did set out to do (and accomplished) with it.
I can’t be friends with anyone who didn’t like that sketch.
Ha – my wife and I were cracking up at it.
Claire Foy may like crackers, we don’t know. Frankly, we don’t want to know. It’s a market we can do without!
I’m guessing Mikey Day wrote the WW1 sketch, since it pretty closely echoes this:
Anderson Paak (or Anderson .Paak depending on your relationship with your copy editor) was pretty great. There aren’t enough percussionist-vocalists in my life, and his first number was a straight-up smooth-funky groove, complete with a guest verse by kendrick Lamar. And, alone in front of a smoke-swirlin scrim in the second, Paak showed his performance chops in a few other dimensions. Cool.How’s that relationship going?
SNL has taken the weird track of having Trump be the pathetic straight man in his own administration full of bizarre, broad, evil characters. He has no punchline. He’s the most competent, stable man in the room and that’s very not the case.
Look at what they’ve done well. Spicey. Jeff Sessions: Opossum Man. Kellyanne Conway as IT in a sewer. Don Jr. and Eric. Giuliani/Nosferatu. Perpetually Shirtless Putin. The problem is that these all need a straight man to play off off and that seems to be Trump, which in turn makes him seem normal instead of like… well they could have gone a number of ways. Straight self-serving evil. Conman out of his depth.
It’s just so weird seeing him portrayed as self aware and somewhat together when half of the photos and videos of this last weekend could have been scored with the end credits to an episode of Veep.
Good points. But Baldwin does indeed makes Trump seem like a dunce, with a pouty mouth that looks like an anus. I hear you, they could go deeper and darker, but we should remember it’s just a light comedy show, and it’s Lorne’s SNL. He doesn’t do deep, nor does he risk upsetting powerful people in any real way.
Maybe my mood things are on an upswing, but I really enjoyed this episode. I thought it was maybe A- minus. There was a lot of good stuff, and I liked the “Letters from WWI” sketch a lot, it was clever. It was a good episode, which is always welcome.
Beck Bennett on Update was the highlight of the entire show. His cadence killed me.
Ive really enjoyed the past few seasons. That WW1 sketch had me cracking up.
“Trump is a gay Mexican werewolf”Apparently being gay and/or Mexican is to be considered a negative quality.
“Trump is a gay Mexican werewolf”Apparently being gay and/or Mexican is to be considered a negative quality.
“Trump is a gay Mexican werewolf”Apparently being gay and/or Mexican is to be considered a negative quality.
You. Are. Wrong. This is the best episode of SNL this season. This is almost a classic. I will come back to this and reply to myself if I disagree with myself after I read what you have to say but…you are missing it. And that isn’t even noting that Kendrick Lamar was on it so they’ll watch it in 200 years. The dark ass QVC sketch was fucking gold. K be back in a few sex. Wait did you notice no cue card eyes tonight, like almost at all, and a C-. Right. I read kinda and skimmed this review. I don’t see the point of reading these reviews anymore. I’m just pretty not seriously boringly fighting how much this site sucks now…I can’t expect better. I have things to do, I’m not wasting my time telling people who are getting paid how they can do better when they are shilling for Riverdale and whoring it out. Whatever I’ll look at it and complain or not next week…but I’ll forget this…and I have things to do…this was somewhere where I kind of reviewed things that were important to my life, hopefully helpfully to myself. but this is pretty garbage now.
I’m with you. The Staten Island Goomahs was brilliant, HSC, Willy Wonka also pretty damn funny and the WWI sketch was one of the best of the modern era. The cold open was good, and I got a chuckle or two out of the Netflix piece as well.I think this reviewer bases his tastes week to week on how they handle the politics. In this one they brought back an alleged criminal, didn’t criticize Melania’s Christmas decorations enough, and acknowledged the death of a former Republican President. There was no way they were going to win this one.
The Netflix sketch just played as weird to me as they have been on a spree of canceling shows lately (particularly content they don’t own but have been licensing from other studios, such as Daredevil). So the timing of this sketch was just off. The concept was funny and the show parodies were fine, but it would have been more timely a few years ago when the perception of Netflix building up its original content actually met the reality of it (and, of course, everyone was making the joke of how easy it was to get a Netflix show greenlighted).
Really, though, Netflix is trying to focus on programming that it actually owns (like Stranger Things), rather than buying outside content (as a Family Matters reboot would be). The sketch is all too willing to blur the distinction for the sake of the joke (if the writers even understand it to begin with).
At this point the SNL writers are just taking old Josh & Laura Zimmerman sketches and turning them into Morning Joe skits. The writing on this show is so damn lazy it’s as if they are trying to get fired in order to collect unemployment.
“Good Morning Goomah” brought back memories of “Coffee Talk.”
Cecily & Aidy’s mother-daughter act definitely deserves some return appearances.
Perkns had no problem with Bernie, who refused to call bigots bigots and he gave HRC a “superpredator” pass
Ever since they lost Seth Meyers, the writing has been atrocious. There’s no hook to any of the sketches, they just keep circling back to a dumb joke that isn’t smart enough to be funny for a 5 minute sketch. It just keeps getting worse. The writers rely too much on lazy stereotypes and Lorne Michaels is too much of an arrogant narcissist to switch up the formula. I actually enjoy the majority of the cast, they’re just given awful material with not enough time to prepare
This show has developed a serious Kate McKinnon problem. She’s talented, but she leads way too many sketches, and in doing so, her characters end up far too similar. The newer people in the cast really need to be given a chance.
I’m convinced that I read that Miranda Richardson is a “little known British actress”.To which address would you like the Blackadder DVDs posted? You goddamn heathens!
I don’t have broadcast TV so SNL is enjoyed by me by waking up sunday morning and browsing clips on Youtube from the night before. Something I got a feeling of from this one… it felt exhausted. Even the weekend update segment felt like everyone involved was just low energy and reciting lines. The cold open felt a bit too obvious – I mean, come on : singing “Don’t cry for me Argentina”? That’s just to most obvious thing to stick into that bit.I did kinda like the War in Letters skit. But then again… Keenan Thompson can reliably spice up even the blandest sketch on the show with only a few lines. Beyond that everything I saw just felt like the show decided to phone it in this week. Some weeks there is an energy and some weeks there isn’t and this was one of the latter.
coming to the defense of First Lady Melania Trump’s widely-mocked nightmare-red tree display by calling out the fact that Americans are buying inflatable Minion and crapping Santa yard displays for their homes. Sure, he called Trump’s tableau akin to “jagged teeth in the blazing hot mouth of Satan himself,” but there’s a deadening whiff of privilege to Jost’s mockery that’s becoming more and more evident of lateSo, not completely eviscerating the First Lady and making fun of the typical American 2018 holiday display is “privilege”?the sketch saw Foy, McKinnon, and Aidy Bryant creating a trio of vivid characterizations as their long-suffering mafioso mistresses let slip the various self-delusions and catchphrases (“face-to-face is for the wife”) they employ to get through their days of being “pulverized from behind” by the likes of Pete Davidson’s gruffly abusive visiting a-hole.It’s wonderful to see that negative Italian stereotypes are not only still prevalent in SNL but widely regarded as “vivid characterizations” instead of the hurtful, prejudiced depictions they are.
This isn’t a fully developed though but…SNL seems to have no POV, and none of the actors are strong enough on their own to create a POV around themselves. Like its politics are garbage because they’re playing that safe moderate lefty stance where they can’t really criticize democrats and they don’t actually attack the substance of anything on the right. Trump, dumb! Sessions, evil! Here’s an intentionally unfunny song about our love for Obama and HRC! Fuck dudes, just shit or get off the pot rather than maintain blandness. Or maybe (more likely) it’s just that the writers and producers suck and Lorne Michaels needs to retire.
considering my comment is appearing on the AVC it should be understood that it isn’t fully developed
I haven’t finished watching all of the sketches of this episode (seems like I accidentally saved the best for last with that Goomah sketch), but I largely agree with the review here. The one place I strongly disagree is with Jules. I loved how insufferable he was, and how much Bennet dedicated himself to that character. I’m interested to see if Jules becomes recurring. He isn’t as good as Strong’s “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party,” but I would say he is in a similar camp.
I’m starting to wonder if you even like SNL at this point. Each week your review is coming across more and more like Comic Book Guy “Worst. Episode. Ever” rants. Plus you mixed up Long Island with Staten Island halfway through your review.
I might be off on the age but I think anyone over 11 is supposed to be outraged about every episode of SNL
It’s tough to outrage anyone anymore unless you are really bad at what you do. In that sense, SNL is on par with the president.
“coming to the defense of First Lady Melania Trump’s widely-mocked nightmare-red tree”Damn. Sounds like Jost is a real fascist. I too was outraged by the redness of the trees. I mean, what possible association does the color red have with Christmas? Ridiculous!
Beck Bennett as Jules on WU immediately made me think of Gene Wilder from Willy Wonka in his appearance and somewhat his demeanor. So it was pure serendipity that the following segment was a Willy Wonka send-up. I, for one, would love to see Beck do more Gene Wilder, because I think he’s got him straight on.
unclear lines ruined some good bits, i couldn’t hear the name “mueller” & thought the women were singing about “mother” until the photo came down. the lyrics sounded clever but i couldn’t always make out the words. (& my hearing is very good.) the “memories of bread” for dessert line was the biggest laugh for me. the clips of carvey doing bush didn’t do what you thought they did, dennis. dana didn’t do any sharp satire of bush back in the day, he was as toothless as chevy’s “ford is clumsy” routine. the “morning joe” bits are tired, there’s nothing new there. the best piece was the “dad christmas.” sad but also funny.
These reviews become more insufferable to read lmao
Aw, I disagree with Dennis. This was a pretty funny episode overall. Even Baldwin’s Trump had some energy.
I have begun to suspect that this critic has it in for Republicans. Any time a Conservatives is shown in a positive light on SNL (e.g. George H.W. Bush, Rep.-Elect Dan Crenshaw), the reviewer goes on a rant against that person’s politics.
haha idk why i come here to read these reviews because i clearly have different taste than you. I think Aidy Bryant is the worst person on the show. The Dad Christmas sketch was a total mess from a sketch writing perspective. Like… was that a commercial for a product? What’s the product? Who was Aidy Bryant suppposed to be.why not just do the song? Aidy Bryant wants to sing you a christ mas song.And how do you not mention how amazing the WW1 sketch. Easily the best of the night
Honestly. Just watched the Willy Wonka sketch. Absolutely hilarious. My wife and I were crying laughing. First article I’ve read by you and I am convinced you suck as a human.