Jonathan Majors fits right in on an uneven but ambitious Saturday Night Live
And Taylor Swift brings the house down—right on that actor who dumped her
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
“They make us shout, ‘How dare you?’ at our TVs.”
“I’m not an actor, I’m a [Marvel, Western, indie, cable] star!!”
Sometimes you get what you ask for. Over my time reviewing Saturday Night Live around here, I’ve made plenty of observations—some might say complaints—about SNL’s more unfortunate recent tendencies. And while nobody’s saying that the more propitious changes made in these first six episodes of Season 47 are a direct capitulation to these, let’s call them, demands, well, they’re not saying that. That would be stupid. But I’d like to imagine that SNL has made some of these shifts (in sketch variety, casting, ringer deployment) at least partly in response to the, let’s call it, constructive criticism the show’s received over the last few years.
Let’s go to the scorecard on tonight’s low-key but intermittently very funny episode. Intriguing, unexpected booking? Check. Jonathan Majors is about to become a huge freaking deal (of the sort only bestowed these days on the star of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie), but he’s the sort of actor a larger than usual percentage of SNL’s audience will have had to Google in preparation for the show. And if Majors wasn’t as comfortable in the host role (or, indeed, most roles) as one of last season’s other template-breaking, white-audience-baffling guest hosts, the Lovecraft Country and The Harder They Fall star slotted into the position as well as most other dramatic actors do. Majors was used sparingly in ensemble sketches, and paired more than once with Kenan Thompson, who, among his innumerable gifts, remains SNL’s human comedy safety blanket.
Going down the rest of the card: A bracing lack of recurring characters? Check. Not a famous friend of Lorne’s in sight to suck up oxygen desperately needed by an over-full and attention-starved cast? Check. A continued vacation from game show and talk show sketches? Okay, there was one talk show, but Strange Kid Tales was pretty delightful, and functioned more as a Kenan delivery system, which is always a good thing. Toss in some genuinely impressive work from some unexpected sources and a show-stealing mega-performance by Taylor Swift, complete with accomplished mini-movie backing, and the episode, while not blessed with the most natural live comedy performer as host, was top-to-bottom unpredictable. I’ll take that over waves of recognition applause and the same old crowd-pleasing rehashes any night.
Best/Worst Sketch Of The Night
The Best: Let’s stick with Kenan, as he and Majors anchored Syfy’s latest supernatural talk show, Strange Kid Tales, as a pair of guys understandably freaked out by their parade of child guests, all bringing along their tales of real life horrors. Look, the idea of a child innocently dropping the observation that there’s a man in red that only they can see is reliably creepy as hell. It’s something to do with kids’ tendency to blur the line between guileless imagination and straight-up premeditated nightmare fuel that leaves you with one of two equally queasy options. Either they’re fucking with you, or there’s a lady who comes into their room and sings at night that you can’t see. [Pauses to shake out the heebie-jeebies.]
Kenan and Majors are naturalistically hilarious as they, professing their distaste for their TV gig from the jump, greet every twist and turn in the visiting kids’ tales with visceral rejection. Majors is at his most comfortable here (see: Kenan as security scene partner), but man, does Kenan Thompson excel at filling out a wisp of a character with snatches of a relatable inner life, as his co-host can’t help but express his obstinate objection to these kids’ spooky-ass anecdotes of blankly accepting communion with the spirit world.
“Man, I do not like this show!,” Kenan’s host exclaims partway through, but a TV gig’s a TV gig, even when confronted with a little girl named Coraline who sees her dead grandmother in the corner at night. “Imaginary friends are ghosts!,” he cries, before shutting things down. The specificity of Majors and Kenan’s reactions are what makes the “scared guys are scared” joke really work, though. “He knows the name of the ship!,” Majors states with alarm as a little boy in a blazer and tie explains how he was shot down in WWII “when he was old.” Nuh-uh. As Majors’ host blurts upon first seeing the little weirdo, “There’s nothing behind his eyes!”
The Worst: The royal matchmaking sketch was an ominously flat post-monologue leadoff. It hid Majors among the lineup of suitors vying for the unimpressed hand of Chloe Fineman’s queen, but nobody was especially energizing. Majors just just didn’t pop with comedic presence all night, and his entrance as the armor-clad and unfunnily named Prince Howie The Conqueror, only got amusing once it was revealed that Howie was just some guy trying to cheat on wife Ego Nwodim. (Majors’ underplayed embarrassment in the face of Ego’s disdain was the funniest thing he did all night.) Punkie Johnson fared best, her boldly up-for-anything lesbian commoner finally winning the queen’s hand—or at least a potential bi-curious makeout session once the queen gets tipsy. Still, for the first sketch out of the gate, this was alarmingly flimsy stuff.
The Rest: The Audacity In Advertising Awards suffered the same lack of urgency. It’s not a bad idea—having Majors and Heidi Gardner’s ubiquitous pitch-people (“I signed a hundred-billion-year contract!,” Gardner’s Flo from Progressive beams) single out companies’ penchant for tone-deaf mercenary pandering lands a few blows. Energy giant and ocean-despoiler BP wins for an self-congratulatory ad about a fisherman wiping down an oil-slicked dolphin, sending Andrew Dismukes’ intern up to play scapegoat. And the wrenching online heart-to-heart between James Austin Johnson’s finally out of the closet father and Kyle Mooney’s tearful adult son elicits Majors’ co-host bantering blankly, “Wow, that must have sold a lot of Facebooks.”
I can appreciate the premise, eschewing as it does tiresomely timely specific newsworthiness in favor of a broader and more off-center target. “Don’t you make landmines?,” Flo imitates viewers watching companies put on hot-button commercial mini-melodramas about, for example, “two undocumented lesbians getting prison married.” Again, I want to encourage such writers room and sketch-selection tendencies, but this one, like the queen sketch, simply lacked a driving comic dynamism to go with the premise’s potential.
On the other hand, those Please Don’t Destroy guys are officially getting the call-up as SNL’s official new Lonely Island. The pre-taped bit—in which the guys’ excitement that Pete wants to do a music video piece with them fades at the realization that they are to be the “Three Sad Virgins” of the video’s title—is a coronation. After being slotted into the latter half of several shows this season, this comes second after the monologue, and the way that the song singles out each member of the writer-performers by name announces the show’s desire that people tell the trio apart for future reference.
According to Pete’s lyrics, John (Higgins) is the “loud but not very smart” one, Ben (Marshall)’s the one with fart-breath, and Martin (Herlihy) has a weird penis. (And, yes, two of the three are SNL legacies, if the names Higgins and Herlihy sound familiar.) Making themselves the butt of their own jokes is not a bad strategy, here allowing the PDD guys to play up the nerdy, absurdist sad-sack vibe they’ve been cultivating for themselves. (That was my real doctor!,” Herlihy exclaims in bewilderment after Pete claims that the song isn’t really about them.) Throw in a coffin-nailing bridge from musical guest and superstar Taylor Swift, crooning sweetly about how they’re “gonna die alone,” and this functions as the group’s official knighting as core members of the Season 47 team.
As for the night’s pre-tapes, I liked Man Park equally well, a commercial pitch for a place for friendless-but-for-their-girlfriends guys to go walkies and sniff some butts (metaphorically speaking). The phenomenon of men in relationships investing their emotional well-being solely in a partner is, again, an off-center but well-observed premise to hang a sketch on. Ego Nwodim complains that boyfriend Pete Davidson “rockets information at me for 25 minutes straight” as soon as she steps in the door. This sees her joining New York’s beleaguered women in dragging their stay-at-home mates to a fenced-in area where their constitutionally awkward feints toward male camaraderie can find a superficial but important echo chamber of their peers.
“Marvel?,” one timid male of the species ventures, before a chorus of “Marvel! Marvel!” welcomes him to the pack. The joke that “masculinity makes intimacy so hard” might come off as hacky if not for the little details, like one male pair’s tentative introduction of the touchy debate over who is the GOAT resulting in an immediate bond for life. (“Michael Jordan or Tom Brady?” “How about Bo Burnham?” “Will you be my best man?”) “Men are taught that it’s weak to rely on each other,” pronounces Heidi Gardner’s proud girlfriend sadly, admitting that it might just be tougher to be a man than a woman, before demanding that that be struck from the record. Hey, at least guys can bond over IPAs and the driving, manly insecurity of “Mister Brightside.”
The Broadway benefit sketch succumbed to SNL’s reliance on a particular joke structure. (I call it the “Hey, those strange people are acting strangely—isn’t that strange!” construction, and at least Mikey Day didn’t get saddled with the thankless role of increasingly bewildered gawker this time.) Bowen Yang and Cecily Strong are a match made in stage heaven, as their long-idled troupers trot out their catty, cocaine-addled banter to the mounting discomfort of parents Kyle Mooney and Aidy Bryant.
Aidy’s character has fond memories of her parents taking her to watch Brick and Blythe’s show biz patter, a memory Aidy finds increasingly disturbing as she realizes she’s brought her young daughter to see two dissolute vipers (and Majors’ window-climbing dancer) snipe at each other about how they hate everything except their shared love of nose candy, blow, toot, and other old-timey terms for coke. The payoff that the little girl loves songs like “Everybody Today Is Doin’ Drugs!” sees SNL continuing this season to actually bother with endings, which I can appreciate, but, apart from Strong and Yang’s obvious love of hammy stage types, this was another sketch that just never took off.
The Bone Thugs-N-Harmony commercial was, like the once-popular harmonizing rap group itself, the sort of pleasantly forgettable thing I’ll find passably entertaining should I ever hear it again. (Or maybe I’ll just be thinking of when Key & Peele did a better version.)
Weekend Update Update
Once again, it was the correspondent pieces that stole Update. There’s an ongoing right-wing coup fomented and encouraged by a major political party going on, but Che and Jost did only passing work in ragging on seditious Republican taints on American democracy (or just taints) like Steve Bannon, Josh Hawley, and book- and mask-banning Texas Governor Greg Abbott. They’re solid enough one-liners, but if Update wants to coalesce around a coherent satirical strategy, now’s the time to buckle down and do it. Or they can just goof around about e-bikes and Vin Diesel. Either way.
After five episodes where it looked like featured player James Auston Johnson was going to run away from the field, fellow new kids Aristotle Athari and Sarah Sherman both had outstanding showings here. For Sherman, it’s about time, as the internet sensation’s loyal fans have been vocal in their understandable concern that the bracingly weird Sarah Squirm would be smoothed out, homogenized, and otherwise wasted on Saturday Night Live. Appearing as herself to give her impressions of her time on the show, Sherman immediately introduces some danger into Colin Jost’s night by saying, of the ridiculous vulnerability of live TV, “I could say something right now that could ruin my life, and yours.”
She doesn’t do that, instead going in for a running gag taunting Jost with cancellation for some perceived on-air creepiness. “Self-proclaimed nipple expert Colin Jost caught mansplaining live on television,” is just the sort of thing that could bring a guy down, with Sherman gleefully holding court for for her three, long-overdue finest minutes of the young season. Poking Jost is traditionally Che’s thing, but Sherman makes merry sport of turning her supposed behind-the-scenes rundown of the ins and outs of being a featured player into a full-on, on-air mockery of Jost for the sort of things he’s probably not guilty of, but sort of feels like he is. Hilarious and most welcome.
Aristotle Athari emerged from his own featured player shadows a few episodes ago, and he kills it again tonight with another character that seems like something the comic’s been just waiting to spring on us. The setup about artificial intelligence is a throwaway, as this is just a showcase for Laughingtosh 3000, Athari’s astoundingly well-realized stand-up comedy bot. This could have been deadly stuff (rather than killer stuff), if not for Athari’s minutely observed take on just what such a creature would sound like, and for how fully committed he is in the character.
With James Auston Johnson’s gift for impersonation and Sherman’s signature edgy weirdness, it was looking like Athari’s unassuming regular guy was going to slip away into one-season nothingness. But this is his second show-stealer, and I’m finding myself thinking that it’s a real horse race which of these new faces will make the strongest impression when it’s all said and done. Robot-comic might have gone very badly indeed, but Athari turns his three minutes into a precisely calibrated little showcase for his own brand of finely inhabited strange.
It’s the concept of a robot actually learning as it progresses that makes Laughingtosh 3000 so compelling. That a robot comedian might exhibit the clipped, stuttering speech pattern and eerily incomplete approximation of human interaction of an early simulacrum prototype is one thing, but it’s watching this uncanny creature ape our mannerisms with only the merest flicker of self-awareness that makes him so mesmerizing. Jost cuts Laughingtosh 3000 off before he can reproduce a necessarily bloodless approximation of our penchant for “Black people vs. white people” humor, but, honestly, with only our example to extrapolate from, Laughingtosh’s material couldn’t be much worse. Athari’s a comer, and a stealthy one.
“What do you call that act?” “Uncle Roy!”—Recurring sketch report
As with the monologues this year, there’s been a blessed restraint on SNL’s part from going to the well. Majors’ makes six straight monologues without a gimmick, musical number, audience Q&A, or celebrity drop-by. And, as with most of the episodes this season, it was all new premises. Not all of them worked, but I’ll restate my assertion that I would rather watch Saturday Night Live try out new ideas and fail than have to smile grimly through yet another warmed over bit that halves its entertainment value with each successive retread. I’ve never gone into a show wishing for another go-’round of a hit sketch. (I’ve got no more than five examples from the show’s entire history that prove the rule.) But I’m always going to grade for degree of difficulty when the show lets its writers try out something new.
“It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report
As mentioned, new go-to political impressionist James Austin Johnson retreated into nondescript character parts tonight, so we got Aidy Bryant kicking things off as her cheerfully pandering Ted Cruz. As when the still-absent Kate McKinnon trots out another of her male political impressions, this one’s not particularly lifelike to the Texas Republican and perennial right-wing troll. Still, Aidy clearly has fun mocking a person who routinely stokes racist division and predictable white grievance when not fleeing his constituents as they freeze to death, so I’ll allow it.
This time out, Cruz essentially served himself up to SNL like a particularly gamy Thanksgiving turkey, with the noted not-defender of his family attacking venerable children’s institution Sesame Street, and, more specifically, the very notion that Big Bird would, by feathery example, encourage kids to get the approved and life-saving COVID vaccine. Fleeing to the current furthest reaches of the conservative media (and outright conspiracy lunacy even Fox News won’t touch), Newsmax, Aidy’s Cruz presents his own children’s TV bloc (alongside the network’s White Power Rangers), Cruz Street.
Taking aim at Sesame Street’s longtime teachings of “numbers and kindness,” Cruz touted his (gated) street’s adherence to most dangerously nutty tenets of fundamentalist conservatism. It allows SNL to at least spotlight some of said lunatic fringe’s latest outrages, as Cecily Strong’s perpetually gun-toting Marjorie Taylor Greene (an actual sitting Republican congressperson) boasts of her (real-life) practice of publishing the home phone numbers of Republicans who dare vote for a single Democratic policy initiative. “Pussy,” Strong’s MTG snarls at one of the show’s child actors when he declines to handle her loaded AR-15, before proudly noting that those lawmakers have been swamped with death threats from MAGA cultists.
The sketch’s six minutes aren’t as funny as they are pointed, serving mainly to expose just how far into authoritarian white nationalism a major political party has openly sunk itself. The show is sponsored by the letter Q, naturally, with Greene running down just how perilously bananas that conspiracy cabal has gotten, before exiting with the chillingly succinct, “I represent America.” Pete Davidson dons a bald cap and munches untested supplements as former Fear Factor host and current bloviating, self-blowing bonehead Joe Rogan, advising the show’s vaccination-stricken off-brand Big Bird on how to deal with the (medically disproven) side effect that his “doink don’t work.”
I have no idea what Alex Moffat’s Bert and Mikey Day’s live-action Ernie are doing there, except to freak me out and make tiresome gay jokes, while Aidy’s Cruz tries to spin the couple’s love into something more palatable to the show’s over-65 viewers. And Chris Redd is stuffed into a garbage can as the unimaginatively ripped off Oscar The Slouch, embodying every white stereotype of the scrounging underclass. Again, if SNL merely serves to remind everyone on national live TV that a current GOP censorship strategy is to, as Cruz notes happily, swarm unsuspecting school board meetings to bully bureaucrats into banning all mention of institutional bigotry, that’s a bolder public service than the show traditionally provides. Just a shame it’s not funnier.
I Am Hip To The Musics Of Today
Perhaps Jonathan Majors never stood a chance, as this episode is likely to be remembered mainly for Taylor Swift’s emotional, stirring, ten-minute performance of her newly re-recorded breakup anthem “All Too Well.” Apart from the buzzy real-life origins of the song, Swift’s performance, complete with her accompanying short film (starring Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink being ghosted by Teen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien), is a true heartbreaker, the on-the-nose timing of some punctuating snow, wind, and autumn leaves only underscoring how central to the night this performance was going to be.
Nobody needs me to sell Taylor Swift as a singer-songwriter, but I can say that the lacerating lyrics to this one keep on yanking this listener’s emotions to tatters for all ten of those minutes. I’ll dare to say that Swift was a little pitchy at times (come at me) during the marathon performance, but I’ll always take a rougher live rendition than a canned, guide-tracked, and pre-packaged one. Again, it’s a great song and performance, irrespective of just which faithless movie star “All To Well” is about, and the format-breaking length of the number here suited the occasion that Taylor Swift is having. There are some “where were you when?” SNL musical moments, and this is right near the top.
Most/Least Valuable Not Ready For Prime Time Player
Kate’s continued absence only serves to expose what a weird, unwieldy enterprise this 21-person cast is engaged in this season. It’s providing a bracing meritocracy in theory, and featured players like Athari, Sherman, and James Auston Johnson (along with the Please Don’t Destroy guys, bringing the total effectively up to 24 people) have intermittently seized their moments.
That’s leaving some second-tier players in limbo. Punkie Johnson continues to work her way into the mix, but rarely in a meaningful capacity. Melissa Villaseñor has never been used properly, her off-season outburst at her perpetual and baffling misuse on the show still right on the money. Heidi and Chloe are a few steps ahead, their ability to inhabit characters with immediacy their strongest attributes. Dismukes keeps popping when he gets a chance, and Redd is fully established by this point, as is Ego. Moffat, Day, and the Beck-less Mooney fill out everyman roles when not wheeling out a character they actually can do something with.
That leaves the all-stars in Aidy, Cecily, Kenan, and Pete, all of whom chose to stick around for another year, and rewarded for their loyalty. And while it’s occasionally intriguing not to know who’s going to get to work that week, it’s also contrary to a perhaps overly nostalgic conception of the show as a true ensemble. The number of cut for time sketches each week only hints at how much unused material is produced by so many comic minds all jostling for stage time, and it continues to keep this iteration of Saturday Night Live from developing a coherent identity. Not looking to get anyone fired here—the show’s cast is set at 21/24 for the season. But too often I’m left with the uneasy feeling that I’ve just watched a show with no center.
“What the hell is that thing?”—Dispatches From Ten-To-Oneland
Majors was most comfortable in his very last sketch, a nicely oddball number about a middle-aged pastor and his wife announcing to their congregation that they’re not only opening up their marriage, but that its the congregants from whom they’re preparing to choose as bedmates. Ego Nwodim is effortlessly in charge of the sketch, driving the couple’s blithely upfront campaign for some spice, with Majors’ white-haired preacher eagerly along for the ride.
Ego’s become a quiet all-star herself this season, both here and in the queen sketch bringing an underplayed authority that serves to anchor sketches that otherwise might evaporate. Here, telling her parishioners that she and her husband have enjoyed “24 beautiful years of marriage—and also last year,” Ego’s half of the ready-to-swing couple makes their choice not so much a target for mockery as a wryly amusing and affectionately human bit of inappropriate weirdness. Rebuffing Kenan’s game organist in favor of Kyle’s “weird but in a sexy way” choir member Travis, the couple finds their assembly more than willing to give it a go, leaving Ego to lay out some ground rules with confident forthrightness. (“Positions we enjoy include missionarily—list is over. You know, we are pastors.”)
Unlike, say, the theater sketch, this ten-to-one bit is free to let the weirdness infect everybody involved, with the congregation’s own kinky readiness revealed in a gentle wave of silliness. I’m not the only one intrigued by the couple’s roleplay of “baseball manager and umpire in a fight,” right? Regardless, while it’s not the weirdest the ten-to-one spot has ever seen, the sketch’s character-based comedy is certainly welcome.
Stray observations
- The advertising sketch has an In Memoriam segment for dead streaming concerns with silly names. But the put the very-much alive Tubi on there, which makes no sense. Sure, it’s an appropriately dumb moniker, but Pete Davidson’s got a new show on Tubi, for crying out loud, and my wife and I are currently pandemic-bingeing 1970s British horror series Thriller there. Don’t you take away my Tubi.
- Lots of child actors onstage tonight, with serious props going to the little girl who finished the spooky kids sketch dutifully alongside Aidy, and then threw a triumphant fist-pump and a bow as soon as the camera pulled out. Look for that kid to make the main cast around 2033.
- I knew that commercial Emu and his annoying human companion were married.
- As Jost puts it, “Never break up with Taylor swift, or she will sing about you for ten minutes on national television.”
- Jost notes that the middle ‘K’ in recently indicted Trump crony Steve Bannon’s name “stands for three ‘K’s.”
- Sherman, sporting a bright jumpsuit-and-suspenders ensemble notes that she looks like “Chucky went to Sarah Lawrence.”
- Next week: More Marvel, as Shang-Chi himself Simu Liu hosts, alongside musical guest Saweetie.
155 Comments
Dennis Perkins gives this episode a B- because Kang wills it.Kang is nothing if not modest.
Yes, master.
Compliance should be rewarded.Have a star.
I get now why they didn’t have Taylor do double-duty, which she is otherwise more than capable of. That performance must have taken a lot out of her.Wish they’d let Jonathan Majors cut loose a little more. He’s maybe the most talented, versatile actor going right now. He seemed absolutely jazzed to be there, and I enjoyed that they had him, a well-noted Army brat (even before he mentioned it in his monologue) hosting the show two days after Veterans’ Day. I hope they bring him back for a second spin; he was clearly getting comfortable with it by the end. And he was not an overt cue-card reader!B- is underscoring this by at least two notches.
I was really impressed when she hosted…I was going to say “a few years ago,” but it’s probably the better part of a decade ago at this point. Anyway, I thought she was great then, and I’ve been surprised she hasn’t done it again since. Maybe she just decided it was too much work, which I can certainly understand.
I’m guessing that support for all these re-releases has her time pretty well accounted for, and hosting is a week-long exclusive commitment.
2009 apparently! wow
He also, while in New York, participated in Arts in the Armed Forces’ annual Broadway performance, on Monday night. I’ve been going since 2014, and they usually read one play, but Adam Driver said they decided to go back to their original format of a selection of monologues. Majors was the only member of the group to do two scenes.
I don’t know why, but I kinda liked the fact that Taylor didn’t change outfits after her song and was wearing the same black body suit from her performance. (Unlike Ed Sheeran who had to switch sweaters and Jordans twice last week). I don’t know why I pay attention to these things.
I do think Jonathan was able to enjoy himself more by the end. I wish they had given him more pre-tape material where the live format wouldn’t have been as restrictive – weird they just had the one. Other than the 40th anniversary special, this is the first time Taylor was even in one sketch since 2009. I had assumed she never would again, but I’m glad she did, as she has pretty good comic timing.
While I overall I enjoyed the episode, I felt this episode really struggled with ending the sketches. Like it’s a common issue with SNL, but here it really came across that they had struggled with figuring out how to end some neat concepts.Having written that, that Please Don’t Destroy sketch was absolutely stellar and I think it’s a really good signal that SNL is boosting their sketch resources to the degree that they are. What is actually really great about them is that while the Lonely Island comparison is reasonable, it also feels very much their own thing instead of trying to do Lonely Island.
This is the first episode of SNL in a while that truly gave the spotlight to the new guard. JAJ was pretty lowkey this week, but he already got so much exposure since the season began, so it’s not an issue, especially if this means giving Aristotle, Please Don’t Destroy and (finally) Sarah Squirm more screentime. If a big chunk of the cast headliners were to announce next year that they would quit, I wouldn’t be too worried about the show’s future, as long as they bring another group of freshmen that’s at least as talented as this year’s.Also I am a sucker for musical guests that fully embrace the silliness of the sketches that they cameo in, and Taylor did a good job in the PDD sketch (besides having a stellar performance)
And I think this might be the episode with the most amount of Punkie Johnston since she began, minus her one Weekend Update guest spot.
Why is it impossible find this review from the front page? I ended up having to google it
I tuned out from TayTay when she started singing and I started playing Angry Birds. I was shocked when i looked up minutes later and saw that she was still singing and it was snowing! Guess i shoulda paid attention this time.
A performer worth their salts gets your attention. When she starts up I go into snooze-land. If anything, you’re just guilty of being a normal human.
Yeah, like…I get why Swift resonates with some, but I get absolutely nothing out of any song I hear from her.
Oof. Jonathan Majors seemed to struggle. There was more than one awkward pause where he must’ve been reading off the cue cards.C-
Dude… they all read off cue cards. Painfully. There’s this uncanny valley-ness to the last 10-ish years of SNL where everyone’s blocked to look right at the camera, only sliiiiiightly off like they’re taking a selfie and looking at themselves. In long shots (like last week’s cold open), there are people sitting next to each other, talking to each other, yet staring fixadedly at random locations that very much aren’t each other’s eyes. It’s disconcerting but we deal. Majors didn’t always get through his cue cards seamlessly but let’s not be disingenuous here.
Buddy, I don’t know what to tell you. I know they all read off of cue cards, but for the most part it rarely bothers me. Majors’ long pauses bothered me, and I was giving context someone else probably would’ve jumped in to add: that he was probably stopping to read cue cards.
I blame that on poor direction more than the actors not being able to read the cards. In Jonathan’s case I think it was more nerves than anything else, though.
Time to fix Dennis’s review (once again):-The SYFY sketch wasn’t just about “two scared guys acting scared”. It was an extrapolation on how Black folks get genuinely terrified at the thought of the paranormal. This is why it is the best premise of the night (which isn’t saying all that much, either way). Have you never been to a black movie theater, dude?-Speaking of that sketch, aren’t you always complaining about how using animals in a sketch is going for a cheap laugh and distracts from the main premise? Kids are no different, and they did it twice this week.-On the subject of twice, this is at least the third time this season they have used the same, rather tepid joke twice in two different segments of the show. This week it was a lame Bird Bird vax throwaway. Once in a sketch, and again on WU. It’s like they aren’t doing topic redundancy checks this year.-Since I’m mentioning recurring things you always bitch about, not only was the product placement rampant this week in the awards show sketch, but did you not notice how Pete meticulously framed the bag of Funions in the PDD bit? That wasn’t unintentional, and it wasn’t for the sake of the concept. -Circling back to Big Bird/Ted Cruze. It wasn’t Ol’ Teddy trying to make “the Gays” more palatable to old people, it was speaking to the fact that there is a segment of America that refuse to acknowledge homosexuality exists at all. The B+E gay stereotypical portrayal was intentionally over the top on purpose, that’s why they were “tiresome”. As someone who slobbers so much over the talent of the pretty one-note comedy skills of Bowen Yang all the time, I’d have thought this wouldn’t need explaining.-One last thing about the cold open, I’d bet the farm that MTG still identifies as a woman. It’s still okay to call her a Congesswoman. Lighten up.-(this one isn’t for Dennis) Taylor Swift is super talented, no doubt there. She’s also a media powerhouse, probably the most powerful woman in all of music and thus explains why she got to do whatever she wanted for her segment. That girl gets “all the clicks.” That being said, I just don’t get it. I like a few of her songs, but every time I see her in an interview she just comes off so bland. Then again, I despise pickles and I think eating eggs as a stand-alone food is gross. To each their own. Good for her.-(back to Dennis for a final thought) Your reviews are exhausting, my man. This shouldn’t be the case for someone who’s job is to review what’s funny and highlight it. I wonder if you’ve ever actually been to a real comedy club like The Cellar in NYC and witnessed what real comedy is, actually free flowing comedy, detached from coporational obligations and such. My gut tells me you haven’t. You probably should. It’d do you a world of good (and probably help you to understand that WU is really the only remotely funny part of SNL anymore).
Minor quibble, but you really think white audiences were baffled by the sight of Regé-Jean Page? From Bridgerton?? The “wine mom” demographic would like a word with you.
Yeah, that was a strange take.
I don’t even watch that much TV and know who he is, and that he’s central to some very high-profile shows. His selection as host made perfect sense.
The audience also screamed like banshees for a good chunk of that episode, so they knew him.
A few thoughts:Please Don’t Destroy, please stay on this show a while. Best use of the digital short format since Lonely Island. Sarah Squirm brought the house down. They didn’t have Majors in a lot of sketches, huh? Why not? He was game and pretty good for someone not raised on sketch. He struggled a bit but seemed overall just a charismatic dude. Finding out that ten minute song was about a 3-month relationship sent me into a spiral. Pretty good performance, though. But damn, dating Swift is playing a dangerous game, huh? Never know when the extended cut might be released.Aristotle’s robot impression was great, but I think it suffered in comparison to Sherman’s bit. Should’ve saved it for another night.
Also, god damn it, I hate this website’s layout. The ad makes it impossible to read the content. How does it only seem to get worse with time, y’all? You’re doing a disservice to the writers, editors, readers, and commenters.
The worst part is that the ad will disappear for ten seconds or so, so you scroll back up in order to see more of the screen, and then it comes back and blocks what you’re reading. And it’s the same ad, over and over again. I don’t think that repeatedly exposing someone to the same message several times a minute is going to make them more likely to buy a product or patronize a service. Not that that matters anyway, since the ad is for Google, something that has approximately 100% brand awareness, and that nearly everyone uses all the time.
I’m not a Swift fan so this probably colours it, but her willingness to open an ex up to her crazy fans makes her seem like a psychotic narcissist. I mean… 3 months? Ten years ago?
The song was written and released originally in 2012, and she’s now been in the same relationship for over 4 years, so the Taylor Swift breakup song is now a retro throwback.
Right, but if it’s about an identifiable person and you know a contingent of your fans have a certain rabidity, it seems really irresponsible just as a human being. I wouldn’t drag my ex on Facebook though, nevermind with the kind of platform she has. But whatever, “art.”
You might be overthinking this a bit. Yes it was a pretty raw performance but I don’t get the impression it’s still directed at [name redacted] personally. He might get a bit of social media nastiness but I’m not concerned for his safety.
Meh, she’s still performing songs for people half her own age.
She’s re-recording a ton of her old stuff so she can own the rights to it. This is just one of those songs. (Google “Taylor Swift” “Scooter Braun” for explanation.)
I can’t even say “can’t stand her” because I still wouldn’t know one of her songs if I heard it. Beyonce was digging hard (and sometimes dirty) in her songs about love by the time she was 31. Swift always makes me think of a tall female version of Ed Sheeran.
I made this exact point to my teenage daughter who is a Swifty and it was meant with an uncomfortable silence LOL. I’m less worried about the psychotic fans (although they still worry me a bit) and more just the idea that here’s seemingly ANOTHER guy she’s carrying a torch for 10 years later enough to make a fucking little movie about the experience. If I teach her anything I hope it’s to leave the past in the past; the best thing you can give an ex, even if they really fucked you over, is silent indifference.
I doubt she is still “carrying a torch” for Jake Gyllenhaal. It is a fan favorite song her old label wouldn’t let her release as a single So now she finally can since she rerecorded the album.
besides re-recording the song she also made a movie about the whole experience, AND showed it during her SNL performance, which she definitely didn’t have to do. If that’s not carrying a torch I don’t know what is LOL. She’s an artist so she’s going to have emotions about things in her life and want to express them, but 10 years is a long damn post-breakup time, like if I were Jake Gyllenhall I’d think about getting a TRO LOL.
She’s been in a steady relationship for like 4 or 5 years. It is a fan favorite song she had never been allowed to perform in its entirety ten years ago and the video did the song justice. She is promoting the rerelease of that album and the old label never let her make it a single so now she has the power to do it.
I think it’s kind of weird to assume that just because the song was (likely) originally inspired by a particular relationship that means her decision to expand on the creative work now is fueled by emotions for that same ex as opposed to a desire to create.
I have a friend who was married to a narcissistic asshole for ~17 years, had 2 kids with him, and she left him about 7-8 years ago and has since remarried to a much better guy. When I brought up the ex a few weeks ago to ask if he had remarried she had genuinely forgotten his name and she finally had to ask her son to remind her, and she was not trolling. I don’t think my assumption about Taylor Swift’s feelings about her ex 10 years after a 3 month relationship is unreasonable at all LOL.
My point is that the fact she continues to use the song she wrote as a jumping off point for more creative work is not, in fact, evidence that she feels much of anything for this guy at all.
I feel like if someone forgets the name of someone they were married to for even 17 days they may have some kind of drug and/or memory problem. (especially if kids are involved)
LOL no I can vouch for her, not a druggie at all, not even much of a drinker, and she has shown no other memory problems. She has just moved on from the guy, her kids are grown and she is happily married so she has no reason to interact with him. On the “mentally healthy” scale I’d put her behavior closer to “normal” than making a 10 minute movie recalling a 3-month relationship from 10 years earlier.
To each their own, but IMO….Giving the fans what they want, when what they want is a song even based on something from years prior, is very different from carrying a torch. Otherwise, I dunno, do you think when Fleetwood Mac toured ‘The Dance’ that every performance was about how they hadn’t processed their emotions from the ‘Rumours’ era 20+ years prior? When Eric Clapton released a video for ‘Layla’ just five years ago, was it still a matter of trying to win the love of Pattie Boyd? Where do you draw the line?I get that 21st-century emergent artists have genuinely psychotic fans who exhibit deranged behavior on social media, but as Swift herself pointed out, her fans are the ones who requested this song be released as a single AND have a music video, something her old studio nixed. I’m not big on fan service as a concept, but I get why she’d release the full version as both a thank you to fans and to demonstrate her full independence from her former corporate overlords.
Yeah, I have a couple of daughters in their 20s who are Swifties and they were super excited to hear a longer version of the song and one of them told me the online fan community was too. I can’t really call myself a fan but she’s a decent singer, has some great lines here and there in her lyrics and her music is fine.
The song is about Jake Gyllenhaal pretty sure he will be fine. But they dated when she was like 19 and he was 28 and that does seem skeevy to me. She just rerecorded the album so she could have the rights to the songs she wrote and originally the label wouldn’t let her have it be the full ten minutes she wanted it to be and this was her first chance to perform the whole thing.
(I’ll add that Taylor’s marathon performance was great, and so was her appearance in the PDD short. I’d love to see her host soon.)
When Sarah Squirm started out with the exaggerated delivery I groaned, thinking it was going to be some schticky nonsense, but she settled into a better natural rhythm, and then kept building with the Jost Cancellations, until I was laughing out loud, which as a sociopath I rarely do. I thought to myself “Boy I feel sorry for whoever has to follow that.” And then Aristotle’s premise initially seemed pretty pat, but man he really brought it with that vocal performance. So controlled and precisely realized. I do agree though that maybe he should have gone first? Either way, a good showcase this week for both of them, and the writing has improved this year to where (nearly) every sketch felt like it could have been a ten-to-one.
I think they used him about right. I agree he’s a charismatic guy and a good actor and I loved him in “Loki” but he was a bit awkward at doing live sketch comedy and reading the cue cards, especially for the first couple sketches. I don’t thin he was enough of a natural to be one of those hosts who dominates an episode
I saw on one of the podcasts which has info about the show that Aristotle’s piece was a late addition. I guess he was probably just glad to get it on the air. I thought he and Sarah were both very good but I preferred his appearance a bit more because it reminded me of the old performance pieces that cast members like Will Forte used to do. Both of them gave some fresh energy to Update which I would rather see over a familiar face breaking for 5 minutes.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when people say her performance was good. Those were not good vocals
This I 100% agree with. She’s not Bob Dylan bad, but it’s clear the reason she writes her own songs is because she’s a quite limited vocalist.
She was 20. He was 30. The original song was a sweet breakup song, now it’s a scorching takedown of a gaslighting asshole… who is still date 20-somethings.
I am almost 100% positive that the little girl in the Strange Kid Tales was also in the drop dead hilarious Macy’s kids clothing commercial they did in 2019.
I gotta say, the Strange Kids sketch really tickled me. People these days always try to seem like they’re “above” spooky shit, so it’s gratifying to see “oh HELL no” reactions.
Every article about ghosts and there’s some first-year atheist nerd pushing up their glasses to remind us, uh actually ghosts don’t exist
This show deserved higher than B-. I enjoyed all the sketches. I rarely enjoy half of them.
As when the still-absent Kate McKinnon trots out another of her male political impressions, this one’s not particularly lifelike to the Texas Republican and perennial right-wing troll.I seem to remember back in the early days of Trump’s administration, there was some scuttlebutt going around that all the female cast members doing impressions of Trump cronies was specifically to piss him off. That he didn’t like seeing his “best people” advisors being mocked by women. As Cruz is still firmly in Trump-world, I just considered that an extension of this policy.However, Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer is still the top of the heap of those impressions.I’m also kind relieved to see a less of Kate McKinnon – she was feeling very over-used. Let some other people in this cast get some air time, and let her enjoy herself in Australia for a bit.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I haven’t missed Kate McKinnon at all this season. She was a breath of fresh air in her early seasons, but probably should’ve left after her 2016 Hilary Clinton run. Since then, it’s been repetitious to the extreme.
I dunno about you guys, but I think Pete Davidson making some important decisions in his life (many hinted about) including moving out of Mom’s basement that he owns has made a huge improvement in his sketches. Even dating (the) Kardashian has likely led to a spike in available footwear.Good for him. Keep it up.
And he hasn’t broken egregiously in a while, which is a serious improvement. But they’ve also clearly made the move to put him exclusively in pre-taped bits, except the handful of impressions that aren’t lived in but guaranteed to get Gen Z emo college students wet enough to make up for his inability to act or keep a straight face.
I’m glad they’ve figured out how to use him because he CAN be funny but I really thought they were keeping him around almost out of sympathy and he was heading for some sort of spectacular public flame-out. He’s an odd duck but seems to have gotten his shit together and we’re now getting a look at why he was cast on the show in the first place.
When Pete isn’t there to do bad impersonations that will get headlines or to do the same raps he’s done 500 times before, he can shine. He was very good in the Man Park pre-tape, hitting just the right beats.
“Never break up with Taylor swift, or she will sing about you for ten minutes on national television.”Bah! Unless he’s playing guitar while she sings that song, Swift is but a pretender to the throne.
Taylor Swift’s song was impressive. On some lyrics, when you look in her eyes, you realize that if she didn’t have her talents as an outlet, she would have murdered several men by now.
This episode felt almost host-less. The monologue was pretty bad considering the host is a professional actor.
I had trouble understanding him. He was slurring his words, it sounded like. And that’s weird because I’ve never had that problem in any TV show or movie he’s in. Maybe he was just nervous.
Yeah he definitely seemed to be nervous at first, and swallowed some of the monologue. Though as he warmed up and dropped some asides (getting into the audience response) he improved. Though he was only really comfortable in the Scary Kids and Swinging Pastor sketches. In the others he was just a little too stiff and kept his pacing was off due to searching for the cue cards. Possibly because Bowen and Cecily and Kenan make it look so damn easy. I’d give him another shot to come back whenever Ant-Man 3 comes out though.
Though he was only really comfortable in the Scary Kids and Swinging Pastor sketches.
Then you haven’t watched his legs in the Scary Kids sketch. They were constantly shaking – even though Majors had barely any lines to speak.
I thought he was one of the most uncomfortable hosts ever and for an actor rather bad at acting too (worse than Nick Jonas who was just awkward).
I dunno. His Loki performance had the same vocal stylings/tics too. I thought then that it was a strange choice for the character, but after his hosting performance I think it’s less a choice and more his natural delivery. It was just off-putting enough to be memorable, so… yay?
There was a point in that Brodway thing where Jonathan came into the sketch and I realized I’d totally forgotten he was the host. I suppose that is one of the benefits of having a huge cast, as they can cover for the host unless it’s a really bad episode.This episode was one of those times where you’re reminded why for decades they would have the cast or writers all over the monologue. He was very uneasy, and considering how awful the cold open was, it wasn’t the best vote of confidence. Still, I am glad they are sticking with these short cold opens that just focus on the host, rather than Aidy, Kenan and some rando singing about how they get drunk on Saturday night, or whatever.
I thought the opening monologue was decent; the bit about being “re-educated in New Haven” with the “round-about way of telling you I went to Yale (jail)“ that probably flew-over most peoples’ heads had me rolling. That was a very clever joke, and I have to give him kudos for writing it himself.
well, after that showing i’d put good money on sarah squirm taking over weekend update in a few years. fit her like a glove.
I can see her regularly doing guest pieces, sometimes as herself and sometimes as oddball characters, but I’m 100% sure nobody wants to listen to that voice read vaguely funny news for 10 straight minutes.
Best part of the episode was the little girl who played Coraline celebrating after the sketch.Also, I feel like this is a GIF I will get way too much use out of
Agree. First thing that came to mind:
I LOVED that reaction. Kudos to her!Also, this season has had some WEIRD sketches and while they don’t always work…I like it.
Jonathan Majors is about to become a huge freaking deal (of the sort only bestowed these days on the star of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie)I just watched Lovecraft Country last week, and Majors was gonna be huge sooner or later, the MCU is just making sooner. And I’m all here for it. He’s great.
He was also excellent in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, if you are looking to watch him in more things.
What does “pitchy” mean? From the context I’m guessing it’s off-key, but I’m not familiar with this expression.
That’s what it means in this context and (professional musician here) though it wasn’t particularly terrible pitch-wise, it just wasn’t good. She was just vocally shaky, though I appreciate that she was singing live. She’s not a good singer. Or a good writer. But I’m clearly in the minority and she doesn’t need me to be a fan, so…caveat.
She’s not a good singer. Or a good writer
Prepare yourself. The hive is coming. If you need an estate planner, I know a guy
Ha ha, maybe you better hook me up!
The first slightly-off note I heard was pretty early on, which made me wonder if people who perform live these days do it intentionally to show they’re not using autotune or lip-syncing. I always have a positive reaction to hearing a slightly-off note at the start of a performance these days—“This is actually live! They’re performing without a net!”
No, that’s definitely not something a singer would ever intentionally do (and it would take herculean effort and skill). Like, ever. Plus, she was consistently just vocally weak, not off pitch.
It’s a polite way for someone to say “off-key”. Most times it is because the signer can’t hold the note steady. Taylor might be in need of a vocal coach to help her adjust as she ages. [that last part will get me flamed but it’s common for performers to have someone aid them in prolonging their vocal range.]
It’s when a singer or a musical performer has to hit a precise note and misses it just barely. In extreme cases, the performer then tries to course-correct back to it and wanders around it like a drunk trying to walk a straight line.
It’s a nice way of saying that she hit some bad notes. I noticed it too.
Doesn’t matter. She was incredible, and I say this as a middle-aged guy who doesn’t exactly listen to her music on a regular basis.
Yes, it does matter, in the sense that it’s the actual truth and that I can say whatever mildly ambivalent thing I want about a public figure.
I’m not a fan but I’ve seen her perform live on tv a few times and she is always pitchy. I saw her open for Tim McGraw like 10 years ago and she was adorable but pitchy as hell. She was like 16 so it’s understandable, but it’s like she hasn’t taken a voice lesson since.
I don’t know about you, but ten years ago she was almost 22.
Oh god I’m old. It was probably more like 15 years ago. She still had her long curly hair and her dresses and cowboy boots.
Professional musician who detests the meaningless term “pitchy.” An off-key singer is either flat or sharp; 99% of the time flat. As outerspaceexplorer notes, she could uses more work on breath support.
Bullshit that people who put too much weight on technical vocal perfection like to throw around (and I couldn’t even quote you any Taylor lyrics, so I’m not just fanboying here). Me, I always thought that Dylan’s greatest contribution was helping to devalue that kind of crap just as much as his songwriting.
Good, Dylan is a terrible singer. As great a songwriter and just all-around vibe the man was, even he couldn’t pull off the so-shitty-it’s-interesting thing, say, half the time. And by the time he was “old” he could pull it off never (parents took my sister and me to a Dylan concert in the mid-90s, almost ruined him for us, and them too).Tom Petty was much more reliable, but the highs weren’t as high.
Dylan was a special guest at a concert I went to about 20 years ago (can’t even remember the headliner) and it was rough. He sounded like a bad Dylan impersonator. Or Krusty the clown.
It’s not even really so much about Dylan’s own actual voice as it is about his influence, and the way he emboldened other artists to not care too much about their technical singing ability when deciding whether to sing their own songs or not. A totally positive development, as far as I’m concerned; not really a big fan of any “singer’s singer” type singers or heavily vocal-prowess-centric artists at all, I’m afraid.
(The “good” at the beginning of your comment makes no sense in context, btw. What’s it even a response to in mine?)
Typo. Was supposed to be “God”.Don’t get me wrong, I like Dylan, but he’s been completely unlistenable for 30 years, and was unlistenable a lot even in his prime. Fantastic songwriter, but I prefer covers of his work for just same everything other than Blowing in the Wind and Knocking on Heaven’s Door.Contrast it with another great songwriter who can’t sing, Tom Waits, where I’m on the opposite side of the fence. I love what Waits does with his voice, and I pretty much exclusively prefer his originals to covers.And I’m not disputing your point – I’m sure Dylan was a big influence on Waits.
“technical vocal perfection”You mean singing so it sounds like, idk, good?
Dismissed American Idol fan: not really, dumbass.
Adam Feldman, the Time Out New York theater critic, pointed out that Cecily and Bowen’s sketch was likely heavily influenced by Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson:
That’s what a ton of Cecily’s musical bits have been since she started playing upper-middle-aged Broadway dames. She did a beat-by-beat recreation of the Streisand version of ‘Jingle Bells’ and so on.
My big take-away?Child actors are better at not breaking than Pete Davidson.
That one kid with the “dead eyes” was great, full screen close up on live TV and he kept it up.
Aristotle Athari has been in basically two sketches this entire season, and both of them have been squarely in my wheelhouse. The Laughingtosh 3000 bit was so insanely tight. From the first seconds, it was clear that the studio audience was just looking for the punchlines, but I was riveted immediately by how well-realized Athari’s robot voice, mannerisms, and delivery were.Maybe I’m pressing my luck here, but I’d like to see an entire SNL episode built around stuff like Athari’s lounge singer and jokebot. Just one episode. Just to see how an entire show infused with that kind of conceptual weirdness and spot-on performance would land.
I was really wondering if they were going to give him anything to do. Every time I saw him he just played a waiter or someone sitting in a crowd. really nailed hi opportunity.
The character was really well developed and perfectly performed; I just wish that it had been funnier. It wasn’t bad, but it felt like it needed another week of rewrites to really nail down the comedy. He really inhabits these showcase pieces, but I felt like the humor in this one wasn’t quite there.
Say for me?
Can you link to the Melissa Villasenor outburst you mention in the article?
I thought this was a pretty bad episode. Highlights for me were Sarah Sherman’s Update desk piece, Strange Kids sketch and Three Sad Virgins. Jost and Che seemed off to me. The jokes weren’t landing for me.Normally I fast forward through the musical guests but since I was watching live, that wasn’t an option. I never got Taylor Swift’s appeal but I’m not exactly her target audience. A verse or two into the song, I’m thinking “Hey this is a pretty good tune and her vocals have improved A LOT”. I remember seeing her sing with Stevie Nicks years ago and her vocals were bad. Then there’s another verse, and another and another dozen or so verses. It went on for over 10 minutes and in those those 10 minutes I went from skeptical to kind of digging it to wanting someone to rush onto the starge and smash her guitar, a la John Belushi in Animal House.And the video playing behind her with the actors doing exactly what she was singing. It was like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure shows. “And then I put my scarf down” and she puts her scarf down, “Then he walked out and closed the door” and he walks out and closes the door, “Then I thought I shat my pants but checked and realized it was just a wet fart”. Anyway, in conclusion, NO Taylor Swift song needs to be 10 goddamn minutes long.
I thought it was fine, but am usually the biggest fan of WE and agree that this one seemed mailed-in. Other than Jost obviously adding his crack about Swift at the front end, where they had already posted a graphic for what became the second joke.But the man has a point, don’t jilt Taylor Swift.
Anyway, in conclusion, NO Taylor Swift song needs to be 10 goddamn minutes long.That’s what “people in charge of her” said ten years ago. But, I’ll say this, At this point in her life and career, she can do whatever the fuck she wants. She put the lyrics and music back into the song she was told to cut.I’m no Swift fan. I read a book during her song, looked up a few times. I thought her second (?) note was off.
I’m surprised that people liked Sarah. It was three minutes of her screaming and failing to smoothly complete a sentence. She’s too similar to Melissa, who I’m sure is nice but just brings an uncomfortable vibe with her. Aristotle was great. I hope he doesn’t languish like Mooney.
I don’t understand the comparison to Melissa, who (to my eye) has a completely different delivery, persona, etc.Sarah is OUT THERE and Melissa always comes across as a bit withdrawn (with exceptions when she cuts loose, e.g. singing impersonations of Gaga or Christina Aguilera.) I just don’t see how you would watch one and think of the other.
Oh i think their volume and speech cadences are nearly identical.
When Melissa started she did a voice a little closer (I think she later said this was a fake voice), but over the years I think she’s become more low-key. Kyle has always had his pre-tape work to fall back on (well not so much this season – he seems to have fully passed the torch), whereas Aristotle really does live or die by these stray pieces that get oncamera. Hopefully the positive reaction will lead to the show trusting him more.
It would be nice to see Aristotle’s weirdness get nurtured. SNL loves to take credit for the likes of Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig but it also doesn’t like to give unique performers room to breathe.
I laughed at Sarah Sherman’s bit…but it ran about twice as long as it probably should have.
SNL in a nutshell (well, sometimes). I did think it could have been cut down, although then Sarah’s style is such an odd fit for SNL that moments like this may be her only chance to establish herself with viewers. I do hope that she can move away from relying on the voice effects so much and let us see more of her.
I’m otherwise not familiar with Sarah – I would have liked her more if she hadn’t screamed the whole time. I have a limited tolerance for screaming. Partway through I just muted her.
Anthari’s bit was ok, but Mr Zed did it decades ago
Eh, they’re pretty different in most ways. Athari’s was more about the vocal performance than the physicality of Mr. Zed. Also the material is completely different, with Athari’s exclusively sending up 21st-century technologies.
Was going to post a comment regarding this comic and the reference. Just forgot his name. Of course search engine G would have resolved the problem. But Aristotle appears so far to be about to break out in a big way. More of him, pls.
That audience looks a little lost.
Wow, he’s good. (I mean his schtick, not his jokes.)
No Max Headroom, though…
You’ve overlooked the racial subtext of the Syfy segment. It’s no mistake all the spooky guests were white. See also Jordan Peele’s upcoming horror movie, which seems to similarly play on black folks’ socially conditioned fear and wariness of the horrific stuff white people are drawn to:
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Yeah, good point.
Holy shit. Don’t know if it was – but it posted three times :-[
And then each of those posts reposted twice! Go Kinja!
6 times, but who’s counting?
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Good point. Also, RE: Nope. Finally, something to look forward to. I still haven’t recovered from Us.
Athari’s look was totally Gigolo Joe, no?
Best Update joke was the one about the oldest man to hike the Appalachian Trail. “He’s dedicating the journey to the memory of his wife… who died a couple miles back.”
Hot take: “Three Virgins” is just a meaner and less funny version of “Jizzed in My Pants”.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “E. 1999 Eternal” is one of the best rap albums ever made, and one of the best records of the 90s in general. Forgettable. Hmph.
The Broadway skit hit for me, because it’s a fantastic parody of “Everybody Today is Turnin’ On” from “I Love My Wife,” with updated drug references. Actually, no, it’s a parody of that lost classic, but also of Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson’s amazing performance of it:
OMG. Thank you for providing this invaluable source material!!
It just put me in mind of taking my kids to see the Country Bears Jamboree for the first time.
The whole episode had me muttering ‘I must be getting old’ because all it succeeded in doing was mildly annoying me. Swift is talented… but the over-indulgent 3 chord breakup song didn’t “tear at my heart”. Every time she cranked her head back in faux-bravado was akin to Celine Dion pounding her chest. I get it, but yeah, clearly not my flavor. And 10 minutes of it? I appreciate the “not-normal” of it, sure. But the song itself is like the 19 minute version of American Pie. There’s a reason for radio edits — and I politely step aside and say fans of Swift got their prayers answered. Good for ya.
“That a robot comedian might exhibit the clipped, stuttering speech pattern and eerily incomplete approximation of human interaction of an early simulacrum prototype is one thing, but it’s watching this uncanny creature ape our mannerisms with only the merest flicker of self-awareness that makes him so mesmerizing.” … The most over-wordy, collegiate, thesaurus-laden sentence ever written for what was a single poorly-written joke stretched to 180 seconds. I’m sorry. To say THIS and “lounge singer that’s weird” as being anything short of “whatever” baffles me. Perhaps Athari and Sarah Squirm’s internet fame holds their potential, and these mildly amusing pieces are a complete disservice.
Last week’s “Cable Cancel” sketch had me wheezing with laughter. This week, everything felt only a step above fine.
Majors’ makes six straight monologues without a gimmick, musical number, audience Q&A, or celebrity drop-by.So… six straight episodes with actual monologues?! Unbelievable!Anyway, I thought the episode was mostly solid. The cast – especially the featured players – got to shine this week, but Jonathan Majors really just blended into the background. An unremarkable guest in an otherwise great episode.WU was definitely the highlight of the night, Aristotle already proved his staying power for me with Angelo a couple of weeks back, but both his and Sarah Sherman’s performances make it clear that we’re not getting another Lauren Holt this year – someone who was never given the chance to shine.
I kept wondering why I found sarah sherman weirdly attractive, and from that photo i just noticed how much she resembles Parker Posey…
as funny as Kenan’s sketch was, to me the best part was the introduction–”if you’re watching SyFy…why?” LOL
My first thought when the robot comic came out was Jack hiring Danny off the street on 30 Rock when he was busking as one of those living statue type people LOL
PDD is all nepotism, I knew something was off but couldn’t put my finger on it, thank you. That sketch was severely lame but Pete and Taylor sold it. Taylor was Dylanesque, which is my highest compliment. It was folk-singer level of inspired. Otherwise, I like these whacky sketches and the show with no center. Feels good to laugh at stuff that would be kicked out for ‘the big star entertainers’ in other years.
The 6’’3″ Pete Davidson was miscast as the 5’8″ Joe Rogan.
1. Totally concur on the host’s awkwardness and lightweight Live performance, compared to his TV series work, but I have to disagree about the “featured players”.2. The only one who isn’t utterly forgettable to me out of all of them is Sarah Sherman, and that’s only because she seems insanely weird and unpredictable, even before that sketch.3. The fake beard they put on Aidy Bryant when she does Ted Cruz is way more realistic-looking, attractive, and full than his actual pathetic beard.
4. The opening sketch was actually pretty funny, which you can tell by how all the right-wing pundits freaked out about it over the next 48 hours. At least it didn’t have yet another ridiculously bad Biden imitation in it, which they still haven’t really found anyone to get quite right after all this time.5. …too often I’m left with the uneasy feeling that I’ve just watched a show with no center.
I miss Kate so much!
The Laughintosh skit was the best of the night. Not being able to sexually satisfy a GPS was hilarious to me