First-time host John Krasinski scores as 2021's first Saturday Night Live shines
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
“So government doesn’t work and, frankly, I regret not taking that gun.”
“I’m not an actor, I’m a[n action hero and not just a Jim Halpert] star!!”
For the first Saturday Night Live of this year of please-god-let-it-be-different, 2021, I’m here to paraphrase Stefon. This SNL had everything: a host who threw himself into sketches; the return of Li’l Baby Aidy; a political but not impression-driven cold open; a genuinely weird ten-to-one sketch; Bowen Yang as Fran Lebowitz; and that thing where everyone seems to be having a good time and even the mediocre premises are lifted up by the sheer professionalism on display.
The first of three first-time hosts coming up to kick off the year, John Krasinski made his mandatory “This is a dream come true” monologue statement feel just a little realer than is usual, as the onetime Office star turned super-buff spy guy and horror auteur brought the enthusiasm of a guy who’d always dreamed of doing a thick Philly accent alongside Beck Bennett pitching discounted submarine sandwiches. The recipe for a great SNL host is elusive. Can’t-misses miss, and seeming stiffs can be pleasantly surprising, the show’s eccentric and multifarious demands separating merely those who are good at hosting Saturday Night Live for hard-to-define reasons, and those who aren’t. (That’s not a helpful description, but its really that singular a gig.)
Krasinski’s a great SNL host, for the following reasons applicable only to this case. He’s comfortable on camera, and in front of a live audience. He’s willing and able to hop into different characters, and there’s always the sense that he’s invested in both the performance and in landing the sketch as a whole. I can picture him in the writers’ offices pitching in as to how he can better bring a piece to life. He adapted his talents to the needs of the comic logic of each sketch and never seemed to be just bulling his way through something for the sake of it. Yes, even when doing a love scene with a rat and a cockroach puppet on his head.
Of course, John Krasinski might have just swanned in, alienated everyone, given Kyle Mooney a wedgie with his new action hero muscles and left. I have no inside information. But the guy sailed through tonight’s 2021 opener not so much like a pro as like a cast member who’s poised to break out into a movie star. Yeah, come back any time, big guy.
Best/Worst Sketch Of The Night
All hail the return of Aidy! The second season of Shrill is very good and all, but we missed our Aidy something fierce over these first nine episodes. Pairing her up with BFF Kate McKinnon as a barely closeted lesbian couple on a GSN throwback episode of Supermarket Sweep was like a lovely, silly holiday present found behind the radiator after finally taking the tree down. At their best when their obvious real-life affection can shine through a prism of weird, desperate codependence, the duo made their Kris and Gina (they of the one-bedroom Vermont home filled with medically unsound rescue animals) another of their memorable doubles acts. With blandly smiling host Krasinski happily oblivious to the pre-Ellen bond of his star contestants (present and past, including Ellen and Portia), the sketch is all Aidy and Kate channeling their unspoken bond through their “gal pals’” simpatico devotion and produce-guessing acumen. (Aidy’s Kris reveals she has a doctorate in “grocery riddles.”) As with their Dyke And Fats, Kris and Gina’s placid veneer finally erupts in an explosively catharsis when, after Kris takes a spill on their way to find some bonus blueberries (damn those bad ankles), the mishap turns into a passionate declaration of both love and their barely concealed contempt with having to put up with so much bullshit. Kraskinski’s attempt to hurry the pair along is met with Aidy’s Kris screaming in pent-up, go-for-broke righteous fury, ‘You shut the hell up and let me talk to my FRIEND!!” Welcome back, Aidy.
On Update, Jost deadpanned about a lot having happened since the show was last on the air. (There hadn’t even been a white supremacist, fascist coup incited and planned by the outgoing president and his anti-democratic GOP accomplices yet!) And, gazing over the still-smoking landscape of the first four weeks of 2021, I’ll admit to a little trepidation on how SNL would come out of the gate without either of its rickety Trump or Biden celebrity crutches to wobble around on. But overall, tonight’s episode was about as comfortable as it’s been in years with folding real world chaos into the everyday reality of sketches. The currently unraveling Game Stop stocks (sorry “stonks”) story got plenty of airing tonight, and the talk show Zoom call sketch managed the historically difficult task of constructing a strangely substantive framework around a sketch that was funny on its own. The fact that nearly all TV interviews are conducted remotely is overripe for gags about interrupting toddlers, animals, and the like at this point, but I got the giggles pretty early on when homebound stock expert Krasinski’s home decor crept into the background. Unspooling with finely calibrated comic escalation, the joke that Krasinski has two Village Of The Damned-style creepy twins who’ve festooned his Zoom background with terrifying artwork is enhanced once the little darlings show up, in the form of Kate McKinnon and Mikey Day. Premise overselling is a Saturday Night Live sin that the sketch avoids nicely, the kids’ bottomless weirdness (“Why did we like it, father?,” they ask in unison about seeing porn on the neighbor boy’s phone) played off expertly by Krasinski’s dad as just kids being kids, even as Cecily Strong and Beck Bennett’s in-studio anchors get more and more wigged out. (“I hate that she said my name,” Bennett’s pundit stammers after Kate’s twin takes sonorous issue with him disagreeing with her father.) And, hey, you’ll come away with at least the talking points about the whole Game Stop thing.
Similarly, the “COVID bubble” game night sketch seemed about to go one way, but then swerved into an increasingly loopy series of reveals (literally everyone involved in the suburban trust pod was involved in the aforementioned white grievance terrorist attack on the Capitol) that landed with equal parts comic and satirical force. That everyone among the three couples (except for Heidi Gardner’s undercover fed) was secretly not only breaking pinkie-swear quarantine but taking part in a seditionist attack on a democracy that didn’t go their way for once is the sort of premise that could sink under too heavy a touch. But everybody involved (Krasinski, Gardner, Aidy, Beck, Kyle, Cecily) was playing a distinct character (instead of there being one wacky person and a roomful of people pointing out how strange that one guy is), with the piece putting effort into every comic turn along the way. That a “normal” white suburb actually serves as a warren for rabid conspiracy kooks and hidden white supremacy, again, could emerge as an obvious comic idea, but loading the sketch with people who are each funny in their own way keeps our attention zipping back and forth. It’s energizing. There’s Gardner’s shock at each successive arrest. (“But it’s Brad! Sweet, angry Brad!” “Not crazy Goldie and dishonorably discharged Keith!”) And then there’s the immediate resignation of every arrestee, accompanied by a request to just grab that one, immediately identifiable article of terrorist active wear. (Cecily’s desire to put on her cape that celebrates her “Southern heritage” is thankfully denied.) There’s a lot of very ticklish (not to say incendiary to notoriously fragile but necessary white SNL viewers) material that’s going to inevitably get turned into sketches this season, and I have to say that—for an episode at least—I’m impressed.
“The Loser” features another fine turn by Krasinski, as a jock big brother whose stirring defense of his put-upon younger sibling only reveals a whole lot of very gross and/or disturbing reasons why Andrew Dismukes’ little brother should be, if not shunned, then watched pretty closely. SNL’s done this sort of comic switcheroo filmed piece before, where the school age victim turns out to be the author of his own torment, and I can’t say it’s my favorite form of punching-down comedy. The joke here rests on both Krasinski’s un-ironic defense of his brother’s gradually revealed, increasingly unpleasant traits (I did laugh at the concept of charcoal underpants for his “medical gas”), and the elaborate grotesquerie of Dismukes’ maladies. (That inverted foreskin thing sounds rough, indeed.) But while taking the wind out of an after school special’s message of unwavering loyalty and tolerance is fine, the sketch plays out in increasingly ugly piling-on. (“That’s been there all day!,” beams the proud Krasinski, deflecting the bullies’ assertion that their cruelty has caused Dismukes to crap his pants.) Everything about the bit worked for me except its underlying sensibility, I guess.
“Blue Georgia” never quite found a joke other than the switcheroo, too, with the Georgia diner’s denizens all espousing progressive values to the surprise of visiting New Yorker Pete Davidson. It was cute enough, and Kenan and Aidy were especially funny, with the snap finally coming once a health inspector mentions that nobody’s wearing a mask. “Now that’s Georgia!,” Pete signs off in his best Looney Tunes impression, although, as the sketch mentions in passing, “Stacey Abrams country” is a lot harder to pin down these days.
Lest fresh was the TV theme songs sung by the main character sketch. The impressions were all good, though (Cecily’s Julie Andrews is amazing singing the non-existent expositional verses of the Bridgerton theme), and Krasinski busting out what he swears is the true Office theme song (“Scranton! Scranton, Scranton, Scranton…”) is pretty funny.
Weekend Update update
Stealing Update is a long and storied tradition, and Bowen Yang’s already proving himself master at it. If you didn’t know you needed Yang as newly-minted Netflix celebrity Fran Lebowitz, well, join the club. Now, nobody’s here to say that beloved humorist and author Lebowitz isn’t hilarious, but the joke that Kyle Mooney’s Pretend It’s A City co-star Martin Scorsese finds every cranky New York observation coming out of Yang’s mouth shriekingly funny is about as eloquent a takedown of “a fixture” as I’ve seen in a while. And while, again, nobody here is saying that fashioning yourself as the only sane voice in a world gone mad and crabbily making half-jokes about it isn’t their cup of coffee, the worshipful dynamic here epitomizes the ossification of fandom into idolatry in a way that’s actually, you know, funny. And Yang’s clearly having a blast, his Fran responding to Michael Che’s question about how the city is doing emerging in eye-rolling, unreadable vehemence as, “Oh, I love it. It’s the worst. It’s disgusting. I’ll never move.” And here’s to Kyle for turning his muppet-like, guffawing, wordless Marty into a pitch-perfect wall for Yang’s Fran to lob worn tennis balls at, right up to him ripping off his own prodigious eyebrows in hysterical ecstasy.
Jost and Che returned freed from Trump jokes and thus free to shift their passing focus to Trump enablers, both in congress and storming the halls of congress. It’s going to be an adjustment for everybody, sure, and here’s to the pair broadening their target gallery, for all our sakes. Tonight’s episode saw the show picking out another rotting, racism-riddled piece of low-hanging Republican fruit in the form of actual Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Cuckoo Town), which, okay, is understandable. Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong did far better with more time to work on the QAnon nutjob in the cold open, but Jost’s callback to Greene’s video-captured rant about the California wildfires being caused (stopped?) by “Jewish space lasers” fit squarely in the genre of jokes sort of writing themselves. Still, guys, write better jokes. Jost did branch out to Greene’s fellow Republican conspiracy buff Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), drawing a comparison between the need to punish violent criminals who plotted a coup and punishing the violent neighbor that beat the shit out of Rand Paul that should draw the intended performative conservative ire on the Sunday talk shows. Update going forward will have to live without the guaranteed obvious punchline that was Donald Trump, but guaranteed punch lines are, as we’ve seen both on and off TV, incredibly tiresome.
And speaking of laughable right-wing figures who are about to be sued to smithereens by Dominion Voting Systems, Beck Bennett had a lot of fun playing noted television pillow pitchman and actual presidential advisor on whether or not to declare martial law, Mike Lindell. Again, now that Trump’s out of office, here’s to the hope that there will be fewer such too-broad-for-Veep figures cluttering up our attention spans, but, with the bombastically boneheaded Lindell still working overtime giving the hard sell on GOP voter fraud lies, at least Beck got a big, fluffy character to sink his teeth into. As with Kate’s opener (it’s coming), the most potent part of the bit is in Jost merely confirming that some of the most over-the-top details of how an admitted “former crack addict” and pillow salesman had the ear of the actual United States president on matters touching on the future of democracy are 100 percent true. “That was just a standard pillow meeting!,” protests Bennett’s Lindell upon Jost asking why he was seen entering the Oval Office with a list clearly reading “martial law.” Again, though, the fact that Bennett’s created an energetically loopy characterization enlivens the piece considerably, Lindell’s widely touted former crack habit emerging as perhaps not quite as settled as he’d like people to think. Is that slanderous? A cheap shot? Perhaps courts will decide—once they’ve finished that whole Dominion thing.
“What do you call that act?” “The Richmeister!”—Recurring Sketch Report
Just to break up the flow, Cathy Anne made another welcome return trip to Update, this time telling unwilling neighbor Michael Che her thoughts on that whole white supremacist coup attempt. Cecily Strong’s had her own mini-hiatus this season, but she came back, well, strong tonight. Cathy Anne always works better than I think she’s going to, Strong’s solid conception of the downtrodden but indefatigable New York loudmouth making Cathy Anne’s ramblings emerge with added dimension. Those who gripe about SNL’s so-called political point of view both overestimate how “radical” SNL has ever been and underestimate how a cast and writing staff can flesh out an admittedly left-of-center sensibility through characterization. Cathy Anne might be a drug-addicted, dumpster-napping dirtbag, but, in Strong’s portrayal, she’s especially good at spotting bullshit when it’s raining down to her level. When Che asserts that she has to have been shocked to see heavily armed terrorists storming the Capitol, she responds, “Oh, do I? I’m not shocked, okay? These are white supremacists! Listen, when someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” As much as Beck Bennett put into his Lindell, it’s Strong’s conception of a lowest-rung woman with literally nothing to lose and no one to please that makes the stronger piece in practice.
“It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report
Dong-dong, the Trump is, well, not dead, but gone from Saturday Night Live at least. And, with Jim Carrey’s attention grabbing but equally underwhelming Joe Biden also departed for more lucrative pastures, this first SNL of the Biden era found a blessedly sweet spot of character comedy and politics in the cold open. Kate, as herself, anchored a show-opening talk show called What Still Works?, a conceit that allows her to run down some top stories of the day freed from the straitjacket of meticulous wigs and indifferent satire the show’s been trotting out for four-plus years. Having Kate be Kate is an inspired touch, following up on the all-too-relatable energy of her Dr. Wenowdis bit(s) by injecting her own pandemic-pinging last nerves into an interrogation of the likes of Cecily Strong’s Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-4chan), Twitter and Facebook CEOs Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, and Pete Davidson as one of the guys throwing the stock market into turmoil.
The attitude is everything. Kate’s rightfully beloved, her big star status yet relatable enough for us to identify with her patiently bemused repeated questioning of Greene’s actual elected status. “People can Google you and it’ll say she’s a real member of the U.S. government?,” McKinnon purrs in mock-confusion, a tack that pays off time and again throughout the eight-minute opening. (But, man, does time fly when you’re not watching Alec Baldwin’s Trump.) So non-confrontationally dry is McKinnon’s line of questioning that nobody really gets angry, their matter-of-fact answers only underscoring the absurdity of, well, everything. Plus, Kenan got to come out as a recently vaccinated O.J. as Kate’s proof that even the accelerating vaccine rollout isn’t working all that great. O.J. jokes aren’t necessarily anything I’m clamoring for at this point, but Kenan’s wonderful, Simpson keeps doing things, and, while it’s hard to fault a system that provides a COVID vaccine to a 73-year-old man from a higher-risk demographic, it’s also hard to to sympathize with Kate’s fuck-it-all smile as she pronounced, “All right, so, the vaccine rollout—it doesn’t work.” Rolling out Krasinski as Tom Brady to show how something that clearly does still work in 2021 is supported by, as Brady confesses “almost no one” only cements Kate’s audience-surrogate near madness, although the resurrection of Brady’s continued smug Trumpiness does at least provide some insight there. Honestly, if Kate wants to do this every week, I’m down.
I Am Hip To The Musics of Today
Machine Gun Kelly awkwardly and half-heartedly hops up on his drummer’s bass kit during “My Ex’s Best Friend” and then carefully tosses his guitar offstage. (No crash, so presumably to a game roadie.) And if that’s not as try-hard cringe-worthy as, say, dancing on the conference table of a bunch of bored record execs, well, it’s the sort of rehearsed and market-tested mini-shenanigans that comes to mind whenever I hear the phrase “pop-punk.” Still, and at the risk of drawing the ire of Eminem, I sort of liked Kelly’s two numbers tonight. Especially the emotive (not to say emo) angst of “Lonely,” which sounds like the track playing over the series finale of a really good CW show. I’m fairly sure that’s a compliment.
Most/Least Valuable Not Ready For Prime Time Player
We got Aidy back. And Cecily. So hard not to pick them. But then, Kate destroyed, and set herself up as a serious show-opener candidate. Bowen Yang did Fran. Andrew Dismukes was all over the place, too. With everyone back on board, it’ll be interesting to see how the roles get parceled out from here on. (But welcome back, Aidy.)
Didn’t see Chris Redd at all. Maybe he’s off working on Kenan’s show. Plus. he was really funny in Scare Me, on Shudder. He’ll be fine.
“What the hell is that thing?”—dispatches from Ten-To-Oneland
Just when you’re looking at the clock ticking over to 12:57 and thinking that another SNL is going to end on the comedy anticlimax of a final musical performance and some awkward band vamping, along comes a sex rat. Before then, I thought we’d have to settle for the admittedly odd and character-based sketch with Krasinski and Beck as a pair of old school advertising pitchmen desperately trying to recapture the salad days of their national sandwich chain. You know, before some young whippersnapper comes in with the idea of an all-protein salad (which is just a heap of cold cuts, you guys). Oh, and because their last big idea was for a commercial spokesman who turned out to be a truly terrible human being. And, honestly, this would have made a fine ten-to-one bit, especially with Krasinski and Bennett both tucked into their heavily accented characters’ brash overconfidence, their prosaically over-explanatory jingle the company chose not to use, and their shared delight that the old “We’ll kill ourselves if you fire us” play still works. Kenan leading a board meeting is always a good idea, too, his exec here blurting out a firm, “No! Stop it!” upon the duo hitting on the idea of bringing said disgraced sandwich mascot back. (I could name the chain, but screw product placement, and, besides, Community did it much better.)
But what do you know. Three minutes left and SNL treats us to 2:56 of true weirdness, as Chloe Fineman admits her sexual encounter with Krasinski’s date was pretty wonderful, even if he insisted on wearing his huge stovepipe hat throughout. Now, I didn’t know exactly where this was going. I’m not god. But I definitely wasn’t expecting this setup to turn into a Ratatouille scenrio, complete with Kyle Mooney as a sex expert Remy, steering Krasinski by his hair. Nor, I have to confess, did I see it coming when Remy whipped off his own little hat to reveal Aidy as a cockroach named Bugatouille with a Sopranos accent (and Paulie Walnuts’ hair) whose only skill is telling the difference between a DVD and a PS2 game. Then again, I wasn’t looking for the camera to pan to Pete Davidson as sex critic (through binoculars) Anton Ego, typing away in awed appreciation of the man-rat team’s lovemaking skills, or his expressed intention to head down into the subways with “a bag of shredded mozzarella” to lure and capture his very own “sex rat.” Now that’s a ten-to-one sketch. Or maybe only a three-to-one sketch.
Stray observations
- Here’s to whichever writer came up with the name “Centipediatric” for the name of evil twin Mikey Day’s multi-bodied baby sculpture.
- Some are suggesting that heaping scorn onto fringe dipshits like Greene is only feeding their potential in this social media-driven shitshow called modern political discourse, but Strong nonchalantly offering Kate, “Gun?” upon sitting down was deeply funny.
- Krasinski’s monologue whipped out the fake audience questions bit, but at least Kenan was there. “I got a question—kiss Pam!”
- Ego Nwodim’s asker doesn’t like the new, buff Krasinski. “Jim is soft.”
- Corporate synergy aside, as the Peacock streaming ad stressed, we are all watching an ungodly amount of The Office during lockdown. Kiss Pam.
- Speaking of, that Wayne’s World reunion commercial for a leading food delivery service somehow lured Mike Myers and Dana Carvey into their old costumes again. So look for that during the Super Bowl, if that’s your thing.
- The in memoriam title cards featuring former SNL hosts keep coming. RIP, Cicely Tyson.
231 Comments
I hate everything about Machine Gun Kelly except every song I’ve heard off his new album.
The only things I know about MGK are a). he likes wrestling and took a hell of a powerbomb from Kevin Owens) b). he was pretty good as Tommy Lee in The Dirt and c). he’s with Megan Fox. All that seems pretty awesome.
He makes Pete Davidson look jaaaaacked.
Which is why during the goodnights he tried picking up Pete in a hug and both of them tumbled off the stage. Pete must have a good 300 pounds on the guy!
I was really jarred by those very nice, pretty songs. I’ve got no clue what he’s churned out in the past, but the songs he did last night definitely were not what I’d always imagined he was putting out. Based on whatever his whole thing is.
Same. If your choice of clothing and hairstyle is more interesting than your music, you’re doing it wrong.
I’ll never not think he’s a 1980s New Jersey hair metal band when I hear the name.
Uh oh, here come all the people who are deeply offended that Krasinski said nice things about the CIA and dared to sell his show for money.
Thanks preemptively pissed off guy!
*bows*
I really thought the Internet would increase out knowledge that actors are not the actual people they play in the magic box. It seems to have made it worse
It’s made most things worst except navigating while driving and answering random fact questions.
Memes are pretty cool too, but otherwise, yeah.
I assume most actors are really Republicans because of taxes. Maybe they say a few things their priviledge lets them say and give to some causes here and there, but money talks.
I also generally don’t look to actors, athletes, authors or performers of any kind to provide my political northstars.
Some people will just never want to know. The internet’s not gonna change that.
What still works? The show’s insistence–despite all evidence–that McKinnon is funny and that Strong can play more than one character.
I didn’t think this show was all that—the writing felt a bit obligatory, like they felt the need to offer the broadest possible take on every single thing that has happened since the last show—but oh man was it refreshing to go an entire show without them leaning on the crutch of “surprise” cameos for easy audience applause. A cold open where the biggest surprise guest star was the host? Unheard of! At the same time, the audience felt really like lackluster, I thought a lot of the jokes throughout deserved better laughs than they got. Also, I don’t think the Loser sketch is really “punching down” in any real way. Nobody has, like, inverted foreskin. I don’t think it’s really making fun of anyone, I think it’s just taking a cheesy, formulaic premise (“standing up to bullying! changing bullies’ minds!”) and taking it to its most absurd place.
Same. I thought the ep was perfectly fine and loose, and benefited hugely from no surprise “woooOOOoo” guests, and no political cold oepn. That said, I don’t need to see Krasinski again. Yep, he’s perfectly comfortable and game, but that didn’t translate to being funny even once.
Yeah, I liked the guy in the Office and he seems like a nice person but he was mostly just…there. Don’t get me wrong, the material was stronger than it’s been for a while this episode, but I doubt that’s got much to do with Krasinski. Is being up for it the only bar a host has to vault to get a warm review?
Given how many guest hosts haven’t even cleared that?I’ll allow it.
I am usually the SNL defender and am a Krasinski fan—thought the sketches were fun and mildly amusing, he did fine and THRILLED to see Aidy again, love Bowen as Fran, but would have to agree about obligatory writing–wide and less biting than it could have been. Still liked seeing him and not a bad first effort, he was certainly game for anything. Maybe the second time will be a charm?
I think some of this might have been about as biting as modern SNL tends to be, outside of the occasional Trump jab on Update or random outbursts like Jost’s Neutromony video or the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing cold open. Having such an openly nihilist cold open, no rictus grin style distractions or attempts to have meme faces about how shitty everything is; the Beck Bennett broadside against the “My Pillow” moron, which was tame by most standards but was much rougher than modern SNL tends to get (so much so that I saw some people who were unhappy with the show mocking his crack years…I mean, I guess I should feel that way, but my heart is just too small at this point). It could still get more biting, and to be honest I hope it does, but the show of the last 10-20 years is often just too glossy and pantomimish to dig as deep, and has also become much more cautious on all fronts. Ideally, once Jost and Che leave and Lorne steps back more, and some of the more people-pleasing cast members who are in their 9th, 10th, 20th, etc. seasons leave out, the writing may sharpen up, the focus will get tighter, and the performances will match the sharp pen.
There are ebbs and flows going back decades—early middle and late cast evolving changes. I am much more accepting while recognizing there comes a time when they need to switch out the old for a fresh start. As far as host material–I think they do their best work when there is a clear, strong personality who is game for whatever ideas are pitched but also embodies a writer’s sensibility and adds in some sharp ideas. The worst weeks are with people like Wiig who ends up rehashing the same old stuff and thinks that will be enough, and it was tiresome for the most part.
The Bowen-as-Fran bit actually inspired us to watch the first episode of “Pretend It’s a City.” Gotta tell ya, the “Update” bit was barely parody — throughout the real documentary Martin Scorsese is chuckling, laughing, guffawing at everything Fran Liebowitz says.That, and Fran standing inside a model of Manhattan like a despondent Kaiju, just wishing she could go full Godzilla on the place.
I watched some of the actual Fran/Marty combo on Netflix. I enjoy his positivity, both their personalities and I like her snark… Bowen was hilarious—I hope he ends up with a couple of rotating characters and they use him more. He has the Aidy talent of making you laugh by being bombastic and ridiculous!
the supermarket sweep skit was the most perfect welcome back party for aidy, i loved it
As soon as I saw her after so many months it was like seeing a Unicorn! Loved it.
Just going by the clips here (and skipped the monologue) I’d say he did well. He nailed the keep-it-moving energy on the Supermarket Sweep sketch without once stumbling on his lines (and he got more lines there than Kenan does in any of his game shows). Same on Subway.
I have no problem with his energy, he has a great presence and was game for whatever they asked him to do, and hella fun to watch. He has performed live before and seemed pretty committed to the bits, with an earnest energy. But they end up writing around him in a generic way, and my favorite hosts bring their own stuff to the table, and more of an edge to the material. I enjoy him and just felt like maybe will be better if there is a second time…
It was an extremely mediocre episode for me. Not awful, but nothing stood out at all–I’m pretty surprised by the B+
I’ll disagree with you a bit—they might have saved that lame opening monologue if they had shown Jenna Fischer in the crowd like “I would have kissed him” but no. Heavy italics on might.
I don’t know about anyone else, but starting with “Centipediatric” and basically through almost the entirety of whatever those creepy twins were doing and the reactions therein — my wife and I hadn’t laughed at SNL like that in quite some time…
same in my house, i loved that skit
I was really hoping the twist to the MeinPillow guy bit would be actual Jane Krakowski turning up.
This just makes me wonder how she never hosted SNL. According to IMDB, she made one uncredited appearance in character as Jenna Maroney in the Tracy Morgan episode in 2015, and that’s it. Seems bonkers.
Right?! All that work with Tina Fey (and Tracy Morgan for most of it) and no hosting!Looks like she’s in the thing Cecily Strong was off filming, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
You know while I can usually gauge almost any celebrities level of fame she seems to be unchartable, like I have no idea if she’s famous on the level of hosting SNL or not. I wonder if that has something to do with it.
If this had been one of the era’s when more NBC people were brought in as hosts (like the mid/late ‘90s), I think she might have been, but by this time Lorne and the booking people seemed to move away from that, with a few exceptions (like two My Name is Earl people hosting about a year apart). It’s a shame as she would have been a fun host.
I remember that appearance– and in the goodnights, Morgan called her “Jane Karofski.” Like, he forgot the name of a woman he worked with for seven years??
I’d be willing to bet that it was some kind of a joke, whether an inside joke between them, a joke referencing 30 Rock, a joke referencing his brain injury, etc.
MeinPillow guy. Lol.
I would not be surprised if John Krasinski voted for Trump twice and is a lifelong Republican. I’m only basing it on him being in that awful even by Michael Bay standards directed Benghazi movie and the way he attacked Venezuela while promoting Jack Ryan. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and I liked A Quiet Place but he’s got right wing energy.
So you’re basing it in a couple of roles? Do you think Keifer Sutherland is a racist Marine? Richard Dreyfuss is a right wing Senator? Alan Rickman a German terrorist?The people in the magic box in your basement are actors, you know
Counterpoint: James Woods was a dick in Contact.
Yeah, sometimes little acting is required.
The last time I heard James Woods was not a dick was…Videodrome…?
You mean, Keifer Sutherland isn’t a Racist Marine? But his Dad has such awesome Supervillain energy!
Yeah but that’s offset by the fact that their Canadian 😉
We’re gonna be takin’ over the world now, eh?If that’s okay by y0u, I mean….
And, I must deeply say I’m sorry for my typo with “their/they’re” 😉
I still love Donald Sutherland’s career trajectory from playing blissed out hippies, professors, and counter-culture warriors to scheming face of military/corporate/political evil.
Yes, yes and yes. I’m joking btw.
He’s an actor that choose to portray soldiers in films and tv shows about how the military saves the world. That is a political decision in itself.
Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, and Jeff Bridges have all played soldiers.This is lame. Plus, all but like three actors in Hollywood really have less choices than you seem to think.
Did you watch Jack Ryan? I’m not sure how can you play that character in an apolitical way. It’s CIA propaganda.
It was when Clancy wrote it. It was when Baldwin, Ford, Affleck and Pine all played Jack Ryan.Go tell Wendell Pierce to his face that he is a Republican stooge. Let me pop popcorn first
Of course Clancy writing novels about how a CIA analyst saves the world and becomes the president of the U.S. is a political act. The fact that other (not republican) actors choose to play that same character doesn’t change anything. The CIA kidnap, torture and murder people around the world on a daily basis, that’s not conspiracy theory, it’s facts based on CIA’s own released files. If you chose to play a CIA agent as a hero that saves the world against evil islamists and venezuelans you’re doing your part on whitewashing the image of a really evil organization. Even if you vote Democrat.
By the way, “On Sunday, May 15, 2016, Pierce was arrested and charged with simple battery for an alleged attack against a female Bernie Sanders supporter outside Atlanta Loews Hotel.” So I won’t tell Wendell Pierce to his face that he’s working on a CIA propaganda show.
He’d probably physically assault me like he did that woman for supporting Bernie Sanders. Is that the kind of thing you’re so excited to see?
Come down from the cross, the both of you. The wood can be put to better use.Good luck solving the world by bad-mouthing an actor for playing a role from behind a screen name. I’m sure you showed the CIA.
So do you support Wendell Pierce assaulting that woman or not?
No. But i still think you wouldn’t accuse him of being a CIA stooge
That’s not anymore a political decision than it is for Christian Bale to play Dick Cheney, or Gillian Anderson to portray Margaret Thatcher, and it’s disingenuous to imply it is. Actors assume the role of other people. It’s silly to insinuate that only jingoist actors would or should choose to portray a soldier in a movie, however bad the movie may be.
Movies and tv shows are not objective. Bale credited Satan for inspiration on how to play that piece of shit Cheney, Krasinsky is putting his talents to makes us believe a CIA analyst is some kind of hero. That’s political to me. Same as Bale’s role.
That’s political to you? Who or what an actor uses as inspiration for playing a part? Bale using Satan to play Chaney was political? What if he’d based his character on a rabid Rottweiler? Would that have been bestial? Was it the character that made it political, or was it the inspiration? Instead of political, wouldn’t using Satan have made it heretical? I’m not sure you know what you’re talking about.
Well, if filming a movie about a real life politician is not political to you, I don’t know what else can I say to further my point, really.
No, it’s not political. It’s a biopic. It’s a movie. Somebody wrote it, somebody produced it, somebody acted in it, and somebody released it in hopes of making some money.According to your logic, any movie ever made about any politician, for any reason whatsoever, was political. Do you include monarchs? Emperors? Dictators? Are movies about Queen Victoria, Castro or Napoleon political? What about judges, mayors, sheriffs? Many of them have to run for office, too. That’s politics, isn’t it?
Biopic is a genre. I’m talking about what the movie says. Do you really think a movie about a dictator can be apolitical? I think we have fundamentally opposite views about art.
Do you really think all movies about political leaders are meant in influence people and voters, change national policies, and affect international relations? That none of them can just tell a story, recount an historical event, or be a character study? That an actor can’t chose a role based on what it gives them to do, how it tests their skills, how different it is from what they’ve done before, how interesting the character is?LincolnDarkest HourThe King’s SpeechDownfallThe Motorcycle DiariesPattonElizabethThese films are not political. Something like JFK is, however. Movies like that are basically propaganda, meant to convince audiences to believe something because they’re being told to believe it, and to not draw their own conclusions. Those movies usually have zero subtlety, little subtext, and clearly have an agenda.This has nothing to do with art and everything to do with you assuming there’s an agenda to every film concerning politics.
Yes, and I’m sure Lu just loves hearing you say that… How, really, is using Satan as inspiration for a role, political? Just choosing to play a role is not political. The actor choosing a role for political reasons? Sure. Unless you’re going to label every actor that has ever lived and ever taken a role not playing themselves political? We aren’t the ones who get to decide if an actors decision to do something is political, only they can. Doing all of that may be political to YOU, and that’s great, I guess. If it isn’t to Bale, then whether you feel it’s political is irrelevant. It wasn’t political to him, and he’s the person making the decision to play the part. If he chose to play Batman, he did so because that was cool, not because batman is a Liberal, and I doubt you’d find many people that would make that argument.
In complete fairness, at the current moment there are probably a lot more roles available to working actors requiring them to portray heroic soldiers/police officers/secret agents/general members of the establishment, etc., and a lot less involving them portraying, say, heroic neo-Marxist anarchists overthrowing the established capitalist order and establishing a perfect egalitarian utopia where from each their abilities and to each their needs. Not saying this is exactly right or fair, but you go where the work is and all.
Right but there are very few movies actually directly based on a right wing conspiracy theory/talking point like Benghazi and told from the perspective that the right wing take on what happened is true. To equate that with generically “playing a soldier” is disingenuous
Okay….but Jackie Daytona is DEFINITELY a Regular Human Bartender….right?!
One time I saw him without a toothpick in his mouth, and I tell you, there was something really off about him.
Alan Rickman is that good of an actor that I believe he’s actually a German terrorist. And a potions master at a school that shall not be named. And an actor pretending to be an alien. And a shithead of a United States President. And, for a brief period, a very verbose caterpillar.
Yes.
From an article 20 things you may not know about John Krasinski.9. He Is A DemocratJohn is a long time supporter of the Democrat party and he has publicly backed the party on a number of occasions. He supported Bernie Sanders in his bid to become the presidential candidate for the party at the last election. He also held a fundraiser for Elizabeth Warren alongside Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to support her bid to get elected to the Senate.
Glad to be wrong but he does give off moderate Republican vibes. Now Chris Pratt…
…Chris Pratt is an actor who has never publicly declared himself to any political party, so why not put your energy into fighting the millions of people who have openly declared their fascism?
because gossiping about celebs political beliefs is good wholesome fun that makes me momentarily forget that I’ve been having panic attacks almost every time I leave my apartment for nearly a year because of a pandemic
On an aside, I totally feel you about the panic attacks. 🙁
On an aside, I totally feel you about the panic attacks. 🙁
I honestly think some people haven’t forgiven Pratt for Star-Lord messing up the fight against Thanos.I am not kidding
Easily his most egregious sin. Five more seconds, dude!!!!!
Well, someone had to be the Boromir to make the story move.But I never remember hearing about Pratt’s church until after that scene. The Internet was a mistake.
Ugh! That’s like… work, dude.
I have zero love for the Religious Right — but is Pratt really a Christofascist?Or is he just a complete chowderhead?
He’s part of a super right-wing church that hates gay people. My initial reaction to learning that was “So he’s a Christian?” which apparently annoyed a lot of people (a lot of people on the Jezebel boards don’t love me)
I knew he was part of some Christian sect — didn’t know they were homophobic. Yikes.
Wow you’re a special guy huh?
My mom and Jesus sure think so!
He’s associated with a right wing evangelical church that other right wing celebrities go to
It doesn’t take a lot of energy to note when a celebrity is in the wrong. Belonging to a church and openly pumping it up despite its very problematic history with LGTBQ discrimination is very bad, and i doesn’t deserve a pass because there are worse people out there too.
He made one tone-deaf-as-hell comment about representation for “guys like him,” which might not make him a gun-toting, Trump-voting fascist, but is enough for me to give him a side-eye.I still love The LEGO Movie.
Chris Pratt is a doof.He’s also married to a Kennedy, who publicly trashed Trump and endorsed Biden.
“Married to someone who doesn’t like Donald Trump” is not exactly worthy of praise on its own.
90% of the Pratt hate is assuming he’s a Trumper, because he goes to a weird, “Love the sinner hate the sin” church, rather than being a Unitarian or mainline Protestant.He met his current wife at that weird church…and she’s a Trump-hating Kennedy.
Wow he’s married to someone who doesn’t support Trump. What a progressive hero!
Hah! Never accused him of being one.Dude’s definitely that prototypical white moderate who says he “hates politics,” in order to avoid effecting meaningful change.(As opposed to folks like DR Darke and Glenn Greenwald, who active oppose any change that isn’t explicitly designed for the benefit of mediocre, bourgeois, cishet, white men).Just pointing out that the church everyone hates him for clearly leans more Francis (“Divorce, pre-marital sex, and non-hetero relationships are all sinful…but Jesus still loves you!”) than Falwell, haha!
I don’t really agree with your premise. A lot of the Pratt stuff is strictly based on his refusal to denounce his church/church leaders’ anti-LGTBQ stance. His statement on it was basically “Well they treated me fine so there’s nothing wrong.”I had no idea who his wife was. Even so, just being anti-Trump isn’t a high enough bar to excuse anyone.
His statement on it was “They’re as anti-divorce as they are anti-LGBT. I got divorced. They still loved and supported me.”He’s definitely a doof, for thinking those are comparable…but the good type of religious Christian sees no conflict between the statements “You’ve committed a sin” and “I love you and God loves you.”The issue is Pratt not getting how damaging it is to hear your identity be called sinful, rather than your choices…because he’s a doof.
I’d argue the issue is that he’s an incredibly powerful man who doesn’t understand that his experience might not be universal, even within his own church. Much less how the right to get a divorce isn’t exactly up for grabs anymore, and is therefore not the same sort of issue when it comes to lobbying, the influence of churches/church leaders, etc.
Goes to show ya never know — I’ve pegged Krasinski as STILL Ready for Hillary….Thank you for the correction, Bob Sacamano.
As opposed to someone like yourself, who proudly worked to get Trump elected.
I’m sorry if your Traitor Qween Hillary Brain is so fevered you can’t see, even now, how Joe Biden is nothing but Trump with better table manners.Or are you still making excuses for them dragging their feet on the $2K Stimulus checks Biden swore we’d see Day One if he got elected…?You are truly pathetic, and I am still a BernieCrat.
I’m always so confused by how to respond to kids like you.Should I loathe you for being an insufferable, Glenn Greenwald gobbling twat whose pathetic paroxysms of white male inadequacy have literally cost thousands of lives?Should I laugh at you, for being a caricature of an incel Twitter warrior, who definitely rages at how all of your kindness coins mean you DESERVE goodies from sex machines?
Or should I pity you…for being so, so, so dim?If you hadn’t latched onto Bernie, you’d be jerking off to photos of Lauren Boebert, and praising her commitment to TRUTH!
You know what you can do, Call Me Carlos the Dwarf? You can STFU.
I support the Left — you support the very people who gave us Trump: Not Bernie Sanders, not Me, But Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the NeoLiberal DNC that lies through its teeth about everything from “$2K Stimulus Checks on Day One” to “Listening to the Science” on both COVID-19 and Climate Change.You are truly loathsome in your whiny Mimosa-Sucking, Vag-Hat wearing, willfully blind petty pissiness — just like your Corrupt Qween.
Bahahahaha.The pathetic, impotent white male rage!ALLLLL the pathetic, impotent white male rage!You’ve far more in common with Marjorie Taylor-Greene than John Lewis…you sad, strange little man.
Yeah I had to find out once you mentioned that, but I just couldn’t believe a guy that would put that “Some good news” show would be a dickhead.
I’m irritated that Republicans have successfully normalized this “Democrat Party” bullshit. I remember when pettily dropping the “-ic” was just a bit of right-wing talk radio trollery.
Bullshit. I hate to be like source? but why not link it if you’re going to post it?
This is the link, I have no idea how reputable the source is, but it can probably be verified that he donated to Bernie. https://moneyinc.com/john-krasinski/
It says “supported” not donated so that could mean anything. Otherwise it all looks pretty dubious to me. Garbage clickbait article
Ok, well you seem hellbent on pegging him as a Trumper, so there is nothing I can help you more with.
See?
In his defense, the items on John Krasinski’s bucket list include “Make movie for dads” and “Make TV show for dads”.Up next “Make music for dads”.
Is his dad John Bolton?
And his uncle is Michael!
I celebrate his whole catalogue.
I’m sure you got it in one, Modusoperandi.Also “Make it With Black Widow Mary Poppins!”::stop looking so smug over there, Jost…!::
I was a Krasinski fan through it all, even hatewatching Jack Ryan, but something about that “Some Good News” business raised my alarms too. I guess it’s innocuous but it was like watching a video of a high school friend who’s now in a brainwashed cult.
Yes, how dare he provide a wonderful experience for a 9-year-old girl who missed Hamilton. That bastard!
Its already been clarified below as to where “Jim” stands, but I really doubt a true Trump supporter would be part of a show with so many skits ridiculing the former regime.Especially “Blue Georgia”.AFAIK, Chris Pratt hasn’t come out as a definitive Trump guy, and besides, his only SNL appearance was year before the Trump plague was unleashed upon this nation.
Amazingly there have been politicians and political movements even before Trump came on the scene
The secular area of the Right Wing known as Trumpism didn’t really exist prior to 2015 when he came down that escalator. Sure, he had a small following for his random birther and other rants on his frequent call-ins to Faux News, but nothing close to what we’ve seen over the past 4 years.
Right but my point is it’s weird to use being pro or anti Trump as a metric for who’s conservative or liberal when there’s a long tradition of right wing politicians predating Trump. In fact, Trump is quite a recent permutation of conservatism that was initially thought to be sort of at odds with it in some ways.
Regardless of whether he calls affiliation to the red team or the blue team, he’s been doing enough surveillance state stooging in recent years that he’s shown that his political beliefs are idiotic at best and extremely gross at worst.
Some of y’all really love looking for reasons to be upset.I don’t know how Krasinski votes and until/unless that gets made public, I choose not to care.
You are not allowed to be a Republican in Hollywood. They will stop giving you rolls and ruin your career, or in most all cases, it wont even get off the ground if you’re on the right. You are not allowed to be anything but a Liberal in Lala Land. It’s a perverse society where these actors are stripped of thinking for themselves or anyway that opposes the people who run these studios.
I think there’s evidence to suggest he may be a small “c” conservative in that he believes in family values and patriotism. But the evidence from the past fourto five years (longer really) is that these are no longer Republican values and certainly not Trump/MAGA values. I know he has a penchant for playing soldiers, but I think he may genuinely respect the public service element of serving in the military – again, not a Republican value; they seem to believe public service is for chumps. Bottom line, if you told me Krasinski was Republican, it would mean he was a time-traveling Republican from a point in history when the entire party hadn’t gone completely insane. And as many have noted (and you acknowledged), he held a fundraiser for Elizabeth Warren.
Yeah he’s almost certainly a conservative. He chose to do the overtly right wing Benghazi movie and his bootlicking pro-CIA views that he expressed during press for the Jack Ryan show, which itself is basically CIA propaganda. My guess is he’s semi-closeted about it for the sake of his career
Tere are some Republicans who aren’t the antichrist; perhaps he is one.
Really fun show with a couple of strong sketches. It also hit me how much I appreciated the different feel of the cold open, especially that Greene interview evem if the questions reflected a very uncomfortable reality.Having written that, I was initially somewhat worried how I would be able to handle Krasinski in those kinds of sketches as there is a certain sensibility in the action roles he’s been doing during his career reinvention. Still, fortunately it never felt too bothersome for me or detracted in anyway.
The CNBC/creepy twins sketch also indulged in one of favorite SNL tics, the random, one-off hostile joke designed to get a laugh during the necessary but tedious introduction/exposition stage of a sketch.“Thanks for having me. I’m glad I could find time to make it.”“Shut up Walter, you have nothing else going on.”
Those always get a laugh out of me because even though they happen enough to be a trope I’m still never quite expecting them.
yeah, i’m always excited when snl skits get weird and that might be a modern classic of a weird-ass snl skit.
This sketch was too self aware. They should have simply played it totally straight.
Fuck this guy
Well everyone’s got their fantasies.
Hey Perkins – No mention of MG Kelly and his buddy Pete Davidson tumbling off the stage together during the goodnights? Even Belushi managed to stay onstage for the entire show (as far as I can remember).
I saw that and then it cut right to commercial.And speaking of MGK and Davidson being buddies, I thought it would be a given that they’d do a filmed rap piece together. Davidson has proven musical skills and MGK has proven acting skills. Seems like a missed opportunity for a classic right up there with “Lazy Sunday.”
Pete is a big enough voice at the show at this point that I assume he and MGK didn’t want to do anything along these lines, rather than being turned down.
“Didn’t see Chris Redd at all.”Yes, you did. He was part of one of the SUPERMARKET SWEEP couples, w/Ego Nwodim.
To be somewhat fair to Perkins, Redd (and Nwodim, and the other contestant couple) had extremely little to do after their intro lines.
identifying Marjorie Taylor Greene as a Jew by using Mary Louise Parker’s accent for her that’s not going to get anyone who looks like her killed is it? anyway images on the videos are people in the United States of America who came in on forged papers who are recognisable from pictures or films of World War II criminals either Nazi or Soviet since the US ones aren’t usually identified as war criminals and who the fuck can tell the difference between the Asians the image on the Cathy Anne on the Capitol Insurrection video is the obvious one because women are better long term agents because after a certain age people just don’t notice them that’s Rebecca Ferguson’s character being searched in the back of the automobile before she’s thrown from a moving vehicle whoever it was looked a little like Keri Russell’s character in The Americans when she was older and thinner the clothing is one of those cheap looking 1970s Soviet bloc gymnast tracksuit jackets in white the map in the background indicates she was probably living in New Mexico before you murdered her
“Horror auteur”? Ehh…I like “A Quiet Place”, but let’s not get carried away
It wasn’t just the casual “Gun?” offer, but the way when Kate refused Cecily gave this perfect annoyed, “Fine, suit yourself,” eyeroll.
I’m sorry, but did the writers really think Remy’s name was Ratatouille? Or were they worried people wouldn’t get the reference?Also, I’m disappointed how little effort they put in transforming Krasinski into David Ruprecht. You can’t be David Ruprecht without an absolutely hideous sweater.
Shhh, you want to get sued?
The Shinning
I was actually impressed with the detail work because they got David’s later host look right (he stopped wearing the sweaters in his last few seasons and started wearing shirts and ties not far off what John was wearing). The set was way, way off, but then I guess they could not come close to getting the look of an actual grocery store. (they had a fun cut for time pre-tape with Melissa McCarthy in 2016 that parodied the show, and that seemed to be filmed in a real supermarket).
I could ignore that stuff if the writing didn’t have some clunky lines.“It’s Jeopardy for food.”“Let’s get the most famous part about Supermarket Sweep… the little quiz about grocery items.”These awful jokes break the fourth wall just to explain stuff that never needed explaining.
I’m surprised when SNL doesn’t have at least a few cheesy, clunky lines. I guess it doesn’t faze me much at this point.
the mccarthy one was great!
Remy’s the gourmet cook. This is his brother Ratatouille, the sex rat.
People have thought the shark in “Jaws” is named Jaws for 45 years now.
It’s Bruce,
I know, but not in the movie. Quint doesn’t say, “I’m gonna kill Bruce.”
He also doesn’t say, “I’m gonna kill Jaws.”
That would be correct.
Big Ben is the bell.
Wait til you hear what people think the monster in Frankenstein is called.
I don’t buy John Krasinski, action hero, either. Instead he just looks sort of doughy but on the top half.
More laziness from the SNL writers: Supermarket Sweep reruns from the ‘90s currently air on Buzzr, not GSN. (And I was expecting at least a fleeting mention of Leslie Jones given her current gig when she’s not popping up on MSNBC.)
Chris Redd was in Supermarket Sweep.
I try hard not to be a straight guy who makes remarks about any lesbian being hot…but…for some reason, when Kate said “I’m Kate McKinnon as myself” and smiled, I completely fell in love. (She seemed so…happy to be herself?) I’m not proud, but it’s the truth.Also, trivia point: are Krasinsky and his wife the first married couple to host separately?
Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher? Although they weren’t actually married during any of their hosting gigs.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer GarnerMatthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica ParkerMichael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-JonesAnna Faris and Chris PrattTom Green and Drew BarrymoreScarlett Johansson/Blake Lively and Ryan ReynoldsAshton Kutcher and Demi MooreRussell Brand and Katy PerryRyan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon
Wow, that’s a lot. Thanks.
I love that Kenan was right on the edge of losing it during the entirety of the Subway sketch. His little grin was so close to breaking but he held it in like the pro he is.
The first half hour was so godawful my entire family gave up and went to bed.
This was a very C/C- episode. With all of the sketches you figured out the premise within 30 seconds, there were no unexpected twists for laughs, and then performed adequately until the sketch concluded.
The “Loser” sketch doesn’t show up on demand for me. Did that happen to anyone else? SNL should boot the monologue unless there’s a comedian who can write their own stand up material. This was the laziest “I’m so glad to be here. I’ll take questions that aren’t questions” hack that’s played 1000 times before. All topped off with a kiss between two dudes played for laughs. In 2021. Hardee Har. Just dire.
I think short, simple monologues can also work. This one felt very much like needing to get Office references out of the way.
His monologue was just so bad. But then the entire episode was exhausting and listless. No enthusiasm. New administration but, wow, it’s almost like you know nothing is going to get better.
Yeah, I was getting serious “Vogelchek Family” vibes when Krasinski kissed Pete Davidson and the audience lost thier damn minds.
I think, as a gay, it was less HAR HAR TWO DUDES KISS as much as it was HAR HAR OH NO DONT KISS PETE DAVIDSON, THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER LIFE CHOICES, JIM….. ERM. JOHN.
I’m gay, and I would kiss Pete Davidson.
I’m not, and would also kiss Pete Davidson. Not so much recently (thank goodness) but that guy always looks like he needs a little extra love.
Same, I would hug him though not kiss
would you hug him with or without tongue
????Lol. That’s just goofy.
i think you just leveled up, Bread
Is that a good thing? I liked your comment and was having fun with it;)
dude, it’s great, you’re level 3 now, you can cast Invisibility
I also was extremely unimpressed with the opening monologue (to the point that I almost waved off of the entire show but decided to give the first sketch a look, and that “Blue Georgia” barely kept my interest) and frankly wondering “why John Krasinski?” because as far as I can tell he has nothing to plug, but then I remembered NBC has its Peacock streaming service which is LOADED with The Office that I assume isn’t selling as well as they had hoped, and there you go.
Also it was something of an IOU – he was supposed to host last March before everything…you know.
…went to shit? yeah I know. Well he was a smiling, familiar face, I shouldn’t complain too much about that.
the framing might have been a little weak, but I’m always down for cast members of The Office to point a mirror at the bizarre, cultish obsession over The Office.
Yeah the monologue was weak. Too bad because I thought the rest of the episode was unusually strong by recent SNL standards
Agreed. Should have gone with the tried and true parade through backstage but it’s all Office. A Dwight asking a question would have been a good start…Hacky shmacky; it would have been more entertaining.
If any SNL deserved a C/C+, it was this episode. I was whelmed by most of the skits and underwhelmed by the rest. The cold open was funny, but went on too long. Weekend Update was…there, I suppose. The monologue was so “been there, done that,” it literally could have been ANY host who has been on A Long-Running TV Show. (and John Krasinski really needs facial hair–otherwise, his face looks like a potato)
Overall I thought this was a decent, middle-of-the-road episode, with no big highs or lows. I was pleasantly surprised at how they managed to use most of the cast (the first episode this season to have all cast members present), even if Lauren Holt and Punkie Johnson still aren’t getting enough chances (at least Andrew Dismukes finally is). I’m not overly interested in John Krasinski (he seems to be very polarizing these days), but he was a game host, likeable, and able to blend in while still having a real presence. He even made the lazy, ‘90s type Q&A monologue charming. (speaking of which, I was not offended by the hacky “men kissing lol how shocking” bit, but it just does not work when you have men who are clearly very chastely putting their faces together without even opening their mouths…if that was down to COVID, they should have scrapped it, and if it wasn’t, they should have watched Kyle Mooney’s kisses sketches [like the one he did with Beck Bennett in Jon Cena’s episode] for pointers).
I know some are upset about SNL lampooning Marjorie Taylor Greene and saying they are normalizing her. I did not get that impression (I thought they played it pretty straight in just having her there to show how awful she is) but I can understand the concerns. My general opinion about political material on SNL is that while I know SNL has a very long history of political sketches and jokes, some good, some terrible, the show eventually began to taken a hollow “both sides” approach which (in my opinion) is woefully out of place in recent times, and has also been reluctant to write tough, harsh pieces or to really be outspoken against the worst dregs in the system. This detachment also led to increasingly lifeless cold opens, with the Oval office address pieces that became more and more tedious, finally moving toward what we have in recent years – checklist pieces that resort to goofy faces and no real point of view beyond muddling through what they think they are supposed to say to get a headline.
In that sense I thought this episode was a step forward. There were a number of sketches which talked about what had happened politically in the last month, from the Georgia races to the insurrection, instead of cramming everything into a 15-minute cold open and letting it hang loose. The cold open in particular felt much more focused than these have been in quite a while, with a strong backbone performance from Kate and good work from everyone else (my favorite was the return of Alex Moffat’s Zuckerberg, a terrifyingly giddy robot). The FBI arrest and Blue Georgia sketches weren’t as strong – the former was too padded and the latter kind of screwed up the ending and didn’t do enough to make the point more clear – but they still had good moments. What I think would improve these in future (beyond tighter writing) is if SNL can ever get back some of the more down-to-earth performance style that has been so hard to find on there since the early ‘00s, give or take a few geniuses. Premises like these (especially Blue Georgia) are much funnier with subtler cast work. The non-political sketches were more of a mixed bag. The news sketch was one of the best “wow lol something crazy happens on a newscast” in several years, thanks to changing the approach up from being about incest or funny name jokes and allowing more interplay with the cast. Mikey and Kate were great as the creepy twins, while Beck (the real MVP this week) was great in his increasingly frightened reactions to them. The Subway sketch was nothing memorable, but did have a fun double act with Beck and John (in his one character piece of the night). Supermarket Sweep was pretty much the same Kate and Aidy sketch as shown a million times, but it was well-performed enough and I did appreciate the nod to the “best friends” of the old show (and the correct styling for David Ruprecht). I think I liked the return of the ‘weird’ 5-to-1 format a little more than I liked the Ratatouille sketch (which seems to have maybe come from Adult Swim anyway,, although Pete gave the perfect ending.My main disappointment was in the pre-tapes, which continue the warmed-over feel they’ve had these last two seasons. I can understand why, given how many involved in them over recent years have left the show (Julio Torres, Dave McCary, etc.) and others are not far behind (Beck, Kyle, Pete), but “lackluster impression parade” and “umpteenth piece about someone inadvertently being humiliated and having crap jokes” have been done too many times. I did enjoy Chloe’s Kim Cattrall impression (and Pete), and I thought Andrew Dismukes added a different style to the bullied and embarrassed teen role, but, eh. I still think Jost and Che are doing a steady job at Update, but I feel like it’s time for them to move on, especially if it means I don’t have to see Che riling up viewers with yet another “edgy” transphobic joke. It was good to see Cathy Anne again, even though it feels like she had already said anything she had left to say. Bowen and Kyle were also a hoot as Fran and Scorsese – Bowen continues to try new things, while his pairing with Kyle is the type of unexpected pairing that helps make the show more fluid with some people in the cast feeling so boxed in. My favorite part was the Mike Lindell appearance, which tapped so well into Beck’s mania and petulance.
“speaking of which, I was not offended by the hacky “men kissing lol how
shocking” bit, but it just does not work when you have men who are
clearly very chastely putting their faces together without even opening
their mouths…if that was down to COVID, they should have scrapped it”
Yeah—that really didn’t deserve a cheer or anything. 😛 I’m sorry—comedians were doing that 20 years ago and back then I guess it was shocking for TV, but not remotely now (*no one* kisses, at least romantically, like that—it can hardly be even called a kiss). Anyway….
As for COVID—during the bows they all have masks on—then shouldn’t they also not be hugging everyone (Machine Gun Kelly insisted on a bear hug with John…)
SNL has had a steady course on the m/m kissing path. In the ‘90s this was often treated as something perverse (the first time we saw it happen, Alec Baldwin went from kissing Phil Hartman to kissing a dog) or giddy in some sort of weird screechy homophobic way that made up most of Chris Kattan’s tenure (kissing a man [usually Will Ferrell] and then one or both of them would shout-shriek OH MY GOD, WHAT DID I JUST DO????). As time passed, Seth Meyers took over the show and while there were still lazy gay jokes, they toned down the idea of the grossness – even the notorious “kissing family” sketches became more gender-balanced when Seth was asked whether they were meant to be homophobic. This era’s m/m kissing I tend to associate with Bill Hader, who, like John and Pete here, kept his mouth very tightly closed at all times, which is fine as I don’t really see that as homophobic as I never felt his work during or after SNL was homophobic (and it did nothing to make me enjoy the Stefon bits less), but always reminds me I am watching a straight actor playing along. The one exception was when James Franco hosted, because…I guess this was in his lengthy “wink wink” phase, leading to him essentially making out with Will Forte (probably one of the more tolerable Franco moments). Two of the last m/m kisses of recent SNL times were more in the makeout frame – Franco and Mooney, and Mooney and Beck Bennett. So seeing them revert to the Hader-era style was jarring, and on top of that, not particularly funny. I guess it was a quick way to get a headline.
When SNL had Trump hosting during his campaign they fell into the trap of thinking nobody could possibly be taking him seriously, but here we are. I feel like the same thing is happening with Greene. It’s so easy to discount her because of her sheer ridiculousness, but anything that gives her an ounce of credibility at this point (even acknowledging her existence) is dangerous because of how many equally stupid people there are out there.
I do have mixed feelings about her being acknowledged, but she is a national news story every day, and they played her in a very low-key manner (basically just there so Kate could point out various examples of how awful she is), so I feel like it’s different from how they handled Trump. Hopefully that will be her last appearance on the show.
The in memoriam title cards featuring former keep coming. RIP, Cicely Tyson.I really wish SNL Vintage had run the Cicely Tyson episode as a tribute. Talking Heads were the musical guest.
Cicely. Tyson. And. Talking. Heads. In February 19-fucking-79.
Any news on whether Pete and MGK are okay after taking that tumble off the stage trying to act like teenage goofs?
The full goodnights are on SNL’s Twitter account – they were fine.
Damn.
shocked to see how high this ranked i thought this was the worst episode in like 2 years.
I thought he was really great in Wandavision last week.
This show needs to have been another casualty of 2020.
I’m bad at keeping up with music (getting old), but was MGK like, very different 5 years or so ago?
Is it me, or does Kate come across as very wooden and boring when she’s not playing a lunatic with crazy eyes and/or a ridiculous accent? Of course Perkins’ general stance of “Kate did a thing and it was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen and we are all richer for having seen it” would suggest otherwise, but in the cold open she just seemed bland to me.
do the cameramen know the order in which the lines are being delivered and by whom? it seems every week they’re panning to the wrong person multiple times over the course of the show. could be a covid thing/lack of rehearsals, or it could be that SNL is falling apart and they can’t even attract mediocre support staff, let alone mediocre writers or stage talent.
Tomorrow, I turn forty. Today, my adorable kitten died and I had to work long shifts at two jobs. Yes, I know I am lucky to have two jobs, one of which actually pays money I can live off of. But this last gasp of my thirties still felt like a kick-to-the-balls kind of day. All this to say that 2021 does not yet feel substantially different from 2020.
Dude that sucks about the kitten, we lost one suddenly a couple of years ago and it still kind of hurts a bit. (I mean, he was like 5 years old but still.)
I’m sorry to hear about your kitten.Having said that, consecutive years don’t really tend to feel different all of a sudden in January.
A ‘white supremacist fascist coup’…Yeah. There’s no hysterical exaggeration here.
correct me if i’m wrong, but i think the t-shirt Bowen was wearing at the end credits was the Vroom Vroom t-shirt, vroom-vroom being a Charli xcx song produced by SOPHIE, who passed away on Saturday.
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Man, it felt so good to watch an SNL that didn’t open with Alec Baldwin doing a bad Trump impression. Baldwin did a lot of great work on SNL and was a rightly revered host, but his Trump was not good.Did Andrew Dismukes get more screen time this episode than the entire combined screen time of his previous time as a cast member?Also, this episode, like all episodes, and possibly all things, needed more Heidi Gardner. And it wouldn’t bother me if they brought back Vanessa Bayer next week to make some Totino’s for her hungry guys.
watching this reminded me how much I wish they could talk Carell into hosting just once a year. I don’t get the sense he’s that busy these days. I appreciated Krasinki’s “gameness” for the sketches but he’s kinda limited as a comedic actor.
Counterpoint: this is one of the worst episodes of SNL in recent memory.
I’ve been a loyal AV Club reader for going on 20 years, and I have only started commenting recently because, I feel like something needs to be said:This website takes this stuff, far too fucking seriously.This is Saturday Night Live we are talking about. A show that, if we are being honest, has never really lived up to its billing as a cultural touchstone. Yes, it used to be much better than it is now, but are two wild and crazy guys or the Church Lady really all that funny? From a cultural perspective, the musical guests are probably a more interesting aspect of the show. I sure as hell remember Jeremy Irons saying “ladies and gentleman…FISHBONE!” or Harry Dean Stanton kicking me over to the Replacements, more than I can recall the specifics of a Charles Rocket sketch.Dennis, you wrote so many words (so many words!) about a show that doesn’t have respect for the audience and has devolved in a 90 minute celebrity circle jerk. Stop trying to imbue it with gravitas, and either call it for what it is or move on to something else. You are a damn good writer who wants so much for his favorite shows to live up to their billing. SNL will never be that, and it is time someone broke it to you.As for the commenters, no one is paying you to watch this shit. Admit it is total hate watch in which case, have fun. You are also better than this.SNL hates every one of you and thinks you are an idiot. There is so much better programming that doesn’t talk down to you, or is at least in on the joke of how bad it is. You all deserve better. You don’t have to watch everything, and not everything has to be important. Sometimes it is just bad, and sometimes it treats you bad. SNL is both.Rant overHave a great week
This was an ok episode for me, it had some moments. MGK as the musical guest…what can I say to that? Thank god for the fast forward button on the remote. Wow did his whole “look” stink of “hey I’m edgy and a bit punk! But I like pink so I’m relatable also!” Barf!
John Krasinski looks like he’s lowkey morphing into Ben Affleck.
Please consider this a sincere question rather than a challenge, but: can you expound a bit on “notoriously fragile but necessary white SNL viewers”? Like, are there actually cases where actual viewers, of the actual show (as opposed to, say, single-issuers who read about a skit on social media and created a teapot-tempest) rose up in protest against the content? I’ve watched the show since its inception and I really can’t think of examples without going back 30 years to the Dice Clay/Nora Dunn thing, and even that was more internecine than audience-driven. Clearly there have been times when the writing staff was behind the curve and it’s only recently that cast diversity rose above tokenism, but again I don’t know how you put that at the feet of the viewers.
This was one of the worst SNL episodes I’ve ever seen. Top to bottom, even though you can usually at least guarantee a laugh or two from weekend update if nothing else, this was absolute trash. Krasinksi gave such a terrible performance in every sketch that I cannot believe I ever thought he was good in anything.I hope this isn’t an indication of how boring SNL is going to be under Biden, lol.
Probably just me, but Myers and Carvey in the WW gear looked off putting…they are appropriately showing their age and the costumes accentuated that to an unfair degree. I’m not pining for another Wayne’s World bit in the least. (Nor am I pining for a fourth Austin Powers, Mike!)
There were numerous gaffs during this episode, like Beck Bennett having to manufacture a door bell that never rung, the camera that pointed wrongly to Heidi and Kyle, then the messed up graphics during Jost’s news bit. I guess the layoff made them all a little bit lax…
I think I must have watched a different episode, because outside of the Kate McKinnon opener the whole episode was just not good. And I say that as someone who is a huge John Krasinski fan…
Can’t wait for jack ryan season 3. John is a great talent*