Saturday Night Live recap: Kate McKinnon brings the holiday cheer
The SNL great makes her return to Studio 8H for a spirited final episode of the year
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live’s Christmas episodes aren’t looking for cutting-edge or avant-garde comedy. They’re sketch-comedy at their most comforting, more wistful than weird, so it’s no surprise that the show would bring back one of its most beloved and reliably funny figures, Kate McKinnon, for this year’s holiday edition.
The SNL alum only left the show last year after season 47, though in post-COVID time, that’s about a decade, so it already feels like high time she should make her grand return to the show.
In doing so, McKinnon joins an illustrious group: she becomes the eighth former female SNL cast member to come back as a host, after Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Sarah Silverman. And more than one of those famously funny ladies also pays a visit to Studio 8H to help McKinnon & Co. celebrate the final episode of 2023.
Cold open: Don’t talk politics at Christmas
Yes, it looks like the writers learned after that controversial cold open last week, so this episode, we’re forgoing political commentary entirely.
Instead, we’re at the 95th Annual Christmas Awards, hosted by “two people from the E! Network you’ve never heard of” (played by Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang). Among the categories are “Most Disappointing Gift Given to a 10-Year-Old Boy” (Chloe Fineman’s Gam-Gam wins for buying her grandson pleated khakis instead of a Nintendo Switch) and “Most Unwelcome Uninvited Guest” (nominees include Cousin Mike’s new white girlfriend and a huge untrained bullmastiff.)
It’s not particularly funny but it’s inoffensive stuff, which is more than can be said for last week.
Opening monologue: Home for the holidays
Kate McKinnon kicks off her monologue by acknowledging how weird it is for her to be hosting the whole shebang instead of serving as funny support in the show’s skits and bits. (“I usually play the role of ‘Freak Next to Hot Person.’”) The actress-comedian gives updates on what she’s been up to since leaving SNL, including starring as Weird Barbie in the Greta Gerwig blockbuster Barbie and also injecting her cat with “subcutaneous renal support fluids.”
It’s a joy merely seeing Kate back on that storied stage, but things get better when a tiny piano is slid into frame and even better than that when Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph drop in wearing head-to-toe sequins (“We were just walking by!”), ready to harmonize to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It’s simple, it’s sweet, it’s the holidays—we’ll take it.
The best recurring holiday tradition:
This week’s “Weekend Update” sees the return of Colin Jost and Michael Che’s annual joke swap, a savage tradition in which they “read jokes live on air that the other person has never seen before.” And, as has become hilarious custom, most of the bits involve Che bamboozling the Very Caucasian Colin™ into saying racially insensitive punchlines against his will. This year, however, Mike ups the ante by having poet-author-activist Dr. Hattie Davis watch on as Jost sweats through zingers like calling his famous wife, actress Scarlett Johansson, “an even better black widow than Coretta Scott King.”
Colin gives as good as he gets, though, forcing Che to read: “Last month Beyoncé posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a chrome Versace dress and platinum blonde hair that many people online described as ‘too white…in fact, Beyoncé looked so white that I was finally attracted to her.” Good stuff.
The best sketch of the night:
Gird your loins: we’ve got McKinnon doing her best Brandi Carlile cosplay, earthily crooning behind an acoustic guitar in a field. What initially sounds like a silly country-folk song (“She’s wearing a bandana, she’s eating a banana / Her clothes are made of burlap, her horse’s name is Hannah”) soon enough turns into an ode to…tampon “farms” and the women working them. “Tampon farm, women making cotton, cotton for the tampons, tampons for the blood, tampon farm!” sings McKinnon and a slew of special guests, including Wiig, Rudolph, Eilish and former SNL writer Paula Pell. And in case it’s not already obvious, yes, we will definitely be humming this ditty next time we’re in the feminine care aisle of Duane Rade.
MVP(s) of the night: Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig
Rudolph and Wiig made several cameos throughout the episode, from the opening monologue to that “Tampon Farms” hit, but this album in-faux-mercial was the most gloriously giddy.
Not to be outdone by Cher and her new Christmas album (DJ play a Christmas so-oong), Swedish pop supergroup ABBA are back plugging their own holiday album in an in-faux-mercial, featuring “15 brand new Christmas classics and 85 holiday remakes of their existing songs” like “Santa Queen” and the “Chiquitita”-inspired “Frostitita.” It’s “perfect for everyone, from mothers to their gay sons!”
The rub is the “Fleetwood Mac of the cold” is being portrayed by McKinnon, Wiig, Rudolph and Bowen Yang, each sporting horrifyingly shiny holiday outfits and even worse wigs, which means that the quartet can barely get through the bit without breaking. Watching Kristen and Maya sing into each other’s mouths in terrible Swedish accents is the only holiday gift we could ever want.
Stray observations
- Not to be outdone by her pop contemporary Olivia Rodrigo from last week, musical guest Billie Eilish served up a stunning pair of performances this episode. The first, introduced by McKinnon and Gerwig, was a moving rendition of the Barbie ballad “What Was I Made For?” set against a backdrop of childhood photos of the show’s female cast members. And in case that didn’t make you weepy enough, Eilish and her producer-pianist brother Finneas were back for a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” fake falling snow and all.
- Saturday Night Live will return on January 20 with Saltburn–slash–Priscilla star Jacob Elordi as host and Reneé Rapp as the musical guest, in case you’re wondering why the nearest 12-year-old is screaming.
- Now that we’re at the last episode of 2023, who has been your favorite host of season 49 so far? Adam Driver? Timothée Chalamet? Emma Stone? Sound off in the comments!
99 Comments
I prefer my Kate without special guest stars. “They’re all dead”! Her Scottish vigilante taking aim at Santa was comedy good. Actually, laugh out loud funny.As was the annual joke swap. Dr. Hattie Davis was incredible.
And it doesn’t seem to be online yet, but Whiskers Are Us was another winner.
Solid jokes throughout the WE swap this year, but I mostly love how much these guys clearly enjoy doing this to each other.
I cracked up the entire time. The black widow joke hit best
Yeah that was gold – two targets at once!This may be the best tradition SNL has ever had.
Che making Jost say racist shit will forever be one of my favorite things SNL has ever done, and this year was his best yet. But Jost did score big with the being attracted to white women joke and “Y’all need Jesus!”Despite loving Kate I wasn’t all that thrilled with the rest of the episode except for Billie’s musical numbers and this Ten-to-One sketch with the cats.I think I surprisingly liked the Nate Bargatze episode most so far this year.
You know a show is really bad when the musical guest was the best thing on the whole show.
The Wiskers R We sketch was the best one of the night and that included the MUSICAL guest.
Some of the Weekend Update stuff was good so I will rate this this show a D+ at best.
Why is she acting like she’s old war buddies with Maya Rudolph, who left the show 5 years before McKinnon joined the cast?
Maybe they’re friends in REAL LIFE.
What if I told you people in Comedy know each other?
Why is she acting like she’s old war buddies with Maya Rudolph, who left the show 5 years before McKinnon joined the cast?Despite not overlapping as castmates, McKinnon & Rudolph have still been in a couple dozen episodes together. They were also both in the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler movie Sisters. At this point, she’s solidly part of the Fey/Poehler bubble that includes Rudolph & Wiig.
Absolutely! Once again, I’m not dissappointed by how wrong the AV Club gets their grade for an episode of SNL.I love Kate McKinnon and was really looking forward to this episode, but it was such a letdown.When Mulaney returns to show, he clearly brings a stack of funny sketches with him. Aside from maybe Tampon Farms, it seems that Kate didn’t bring any ideas of her own to the show.
My favorite too.
McKinnon is not funny and she dates racists.
sounds like wishful thinking
Before you criticize Weiss for the dating choices she made more than 15 years ago, just think:Do you want us judging you 15 years from now for the fact that you were an asshole today?
Assertions not facts unless you back up accusations like that. WTF are you on about here?
I’m guessing, but I think they are referring to the fact that KM dated Bari Weiss while they were both in college (according to Wikipedia, with a NY Times footnote.)But that’s just a guess as to what that commenter is referencing.
Oh yea. Bari Weiss— the famous liberal first amendment-loving journalist and female lesbian Jew and married mother. Yea— she’s soooo oppressive. LOL.
OMG I googled this lady and she’s totally nuts!
Her entire career is based around making excuses and spreading propaganda about the people of Palestine. McKinnon dated her because she is a racist who doesn’t see Palestinians as human beings.
You are really stupid if you think that is who Bari Weiss is. She’s a propagandist whose entire job is helping racists like you make excuses for the genocide of Palestinians.
And you don’t know the definition of genocide. Are you Twelve?? Go ask ask your parents what the difference is btwn defending yourself and watching your community put in ovens.
Shut the fuck up you genocide denying nazi bitch.
Awww damn I really was getting to love you!!! oh well— at least your BF’s cock tastes good, eh? If he agrees with your BS at least. If not, then he’s trash and deserves to be gassed like what you think everyone unlike you deserves.
Nice homophobia you dumb fucking nazi. I would beat your bigoted ass to death if you had the balls to say that in public. You don’t because you are a nazi coward.
So it’s not the ovens for me for you. You’ll just beat my ass. Yea. I’m a gay guy. If you think I’m a bigoted Nazi— then you have ZERO understanding of which side of the gas chamber ppl like me are on. And which side you are on.
You are a homophobic nazi idiot who supports genocide by telling stupid lies. You are a garbage person. I know exactly who you are you dumb narcissist. You are a common type of low IQ narcissist American.
Don’t take the idiots out of the greys.
I’m smarter than you and this dumb nazi bigot you make common cause with. Idiot.
She dated Bari Weiss you dumb fucking racists. It’s like dating Heinrich Himmler during the Holocaust. Everyone on this site is such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe a dipshit like you is getting upvotes for your stupid, uninformed comment.
Just stop trolling. Things are bad enough around here without your bullshit.
You just equated a modern Left-wing Jewish Journalist to Heinrich Himmler. Check yourself.
She’s not left wing you fucking dumb nazi.
oh man— you are really something else. If someone doesn’t agree with you they are a nazi>>? you know that that make YOU? Guess? then shove me into an oven. You fucking mental midget.
People that help israel genocide Palestinians are nazis you dumb fucking nazi.
Based on this commenting history, I suspect he’s mad that Kate McKinnon dated Bari Weiss in college. And yes, McKinnon’s 39 now, so that was a long time ago.
Reading your comment history I can tell you are a loser virgin.
The real winners are grown adults who care deeply about who college students date. That’s what everyone says.
You responded to my message because you got your feelings butt hurt because a stranger said something true about a bigot celebrity you like.
I think Ghostbuster is a pretty cool lady. Seh makes voices and doesn’t afraid of anything.
Fuck off she’s not dating you.
That joke where Michael made Colin go for a fist bump at the end was perhaps the most savage thing I’ve seen someone inflict on another without using an actual slur or straight up physical violence.
Che usually destroys Jost in these joke swaps but Jost finally really got a great one in with that Michael Jackson bit.
It definitely would’ve been the first one of these that Jost “won,” but bringing in “Hattie” to sit next to him probably tipped it back. The segment brings out the best in both of them.
I loved the fact that even after the segment finished when Jost tried to shake “Dr Davis’s” hand, she still shook her head.
I dunno, I thought that took some of the fun out of it
Eilish was charming and touching in both musical performances. The joke swap is reliably funny. The skits were mostly just kind of pleasant. My favorite mode of McKinnon is where she’s playing barely controlled manic insanity and except for the elf there wasn’t much of that. Except for the Meet Me in St. Louis bit, which felt off.
Eilish doing her whisper-sing thing for 3/4 of a song just never does it for me. I find her mostly boring.
I struggled with that early in her career too. Everyone was going crazy over her and I was like “wtf she’s just whispering, what am I missing?” Then I had a chance to hear her sing, like really sing, she has a downright beautiful voice. The girl can sing. I wish she would do it more because while I do like her latest song I would find a lot more of her work to enjoy if she really let loose.
My favorite McKinnon is when she’s playing an old woman, and we only got a little bit of that tonight.
How does this show get covered here like this. I’ve dipped in and out of SNL since watching it with my parents when it started and I wasn’t even old enough to go to elementary school yet and I’m just going to say that this show has never been good and almost never been funny. It’s had a few great skits over the last 40 years, mostly involving Will Ferrel, but even in those seasons the skits were still 70% garbage per episode. I tried watching a few episodes about three years back because people said it was so good. I think the only time I even laughed a little was during the news section which have generally been pretty good throughout the years, the rest was awful. Are there really still people that tune in every week and think it’s hilarious? I’m genuinely curious.
Cold Open: B- very cute and relatable characters most of us have knownMonologue D: I mean… I just don’t have the estrogen for this. It just felt like it was supposed to be cool for having cameos and shocking Kate McKinnon but mostly just felt like riffing. But I didn’t laugh.North Pole News D: I felt offended when this went on too long. Kate brought it and it was rad but after awhile it seemed like the joke was just to satirize how people grieve in the 21st century and it had a shitty feeling for me.Pongo B+: really clever and worth revisiting if they want to have more adventures with Pongo and The Mom Who Hates Pongo, they should totally go for it!Abba Christmas B: Basically this silly sketch is carried by the funniest thing I have seen in SNL this year, the face melding thing.Gift Opening: A: For me this is amongst the greatest concepts I have ever seen. The secret that few people admit is that many people feel self loathing when they give gifts, maybe they hate themselves for being poor, or not hip, or low intelligence and they worry about the adequacy of their gift and how it will come across. The thoughts the mom has are usually all inside and not expressed but thoughts many of us secretly have. Comedy is used to express truth and this sketch said a lot of truths. Billie Eilish: I love that song but it is too painful to listen too lyrically. Billie has really worked on her vocals and can now hit a nice range of high and low notes and isn’t really that “mumble princess” some have accused her of anymore. Serviceable Christmas cover on second song. Can she ever hit a note of a volume higher than 7/10 in her life? Stay tuned!Tampon Farm Song: A- If you lived through the Lilith Fair 90s this would be probably even funnier. I always have a problem with the audio on these SNL songs. It was a loving parody and I appreciated that. I wish Billie got a straight up verse that went into her lesbian coming out life a bit.Weekend Update: They found the perfect formula I think. 1.8 Republican jokes to 1.2 Democrat, more characters and jokes about topical issues outside The Beltway. I really enjoy WU lately. I heard the old lady wasn’t a real civil rights activist just an actress. What I enjoy the most is the feeling of stress release and freedom Colins jokes feel like, its like a holiday where a White person gets to actually joke about racial topics without cowering away but can really cut loose to the max. Ches jokes work in just making Colin as embarrassed as possible.Office Yankee Swap: F this felt fucked up to me but I am not sure if I took it wrong. If you put a funny toy next to a Black person they will gladly take it instead of fixing their problems! Hmm.Cinema Classics C+: This was okay for me man. It was mostly just shock value. I have to say Chloe Troast is astonishing, she looks unconventionally beautiful in literally the exact way a 1930s actress does, her hair, facial structure and especially expressions. Beautiful in a long dead and thought to be disappeared way that blows my mind looking at it. They have her sing so much because she is a superstar who demands to be taken in by Christopher Nolan if he does another historical movie.Whiskers R We B-: Meh, it was maybe the worst one but dammit, its impossible to dislike this sketch. Billies eyes are so beautiful. I love the subtext that Kate is trying to seduce the young intern! I sometimes feel bad for the cats though, they get pretty manhandled. I lost it during the cat swap, the confused faces on the cats were gold!Overall 2023 grade and episode grade B+ I had actual belly laughs this episode. I really think SNL might be hitting into some Silver Age or is it Bronze Age but these last few episodes have been so clever, funny, honestly, they really have something special with this cast. If they ever could break out of their shell and actually inhabit recurring brilliant characters then it would be up there with the Fey/Ferrell or other 80s and 70s eras. But yeah I loved 2023 SNL.
The Meet Me in St. Louis sketch was dire. When will SNL realize that movies shot before 1953 were in the Academy ratio? It’s such a simple thing to get right.
Yes, it was not very good. And they had “Judy” sing “White Christmas” instead, which I can only assume was to have not “Have Yourself…” follow another performance of the song.
Is my memory bad or did they actually get the Academy (or close-enough-for-jazz 4×3) aspect ratio right for the Casablanca one?
Best episode of the season. I’d go A-. All the sketches were good to great, even the cold open. And the Weekend Update joke swap always delivers but this one was an all timer.
Bad Bunny may not have been the best host, but his episode was the best of the year.
didn’t watch but did she do a hunch backed/bug eye thing aka her only bit??
I miss more versatile SNL players like a Chris Farley and Norm MacDonald.
I see what you did there
Her shtick has more variety than Belushi ever had.
The Kremlin shill here is unhappy about Kate McKinnon because she plays Hillary Clinton. But he’s so bad at the job of putting out Kremlin points that nobody would understand his comment at all.
If the woman playing the black activist was an actress, why couldn’t she have played it with a straight face? Would have been funnier; you’d forgive breaking if it was a real person, but apparently she wasn’t.
The fact that she was struggling not to laugh is the thing that makes you think she might be a real person, which adds to the discomfort. If she was super stern and serious, you’d know she was an actress, since there’s no reason why a real person who was easily offended would agree to appear in the bit. It’s way more hilariously awkward to have an elderly black woman who is being a good sport sit next to you as you read the jokes.
I get what you’re saying, but don’t agree.
She was playing it as someone who knew it was supposed to be jokes and trying to play along. It was clearly uncomfortable laughter. I thought it worked. She wasn’t “breaking.” The laughter was on purpose. She was there as an audience to jokes.
I would guess that the vast majority of the audience thought it was a real person, and so thought she was genuinely breaking, giving them a release valve that playing it straight wouldn’t have.
I’m sure the audience did think it was a real person, but it doesn’t follow that just because she was a real person she was “breaking.” A real person would also have found the jokes cringeably, funny and would have laughed uncomfortably. That’s laughing. That’s not “breaking.” “Breaking” is “breaking character.” She was laughing as a part of her character. That’s the opposite of breaking. That’s acting. Playing it with a straight face would not have been believable. A real person who didn’t have enough sense of humor to find something funny about the activity would never have come on the show in the first place.
Okay.
It was the night of the big eyebrows. It was an A!
The “I’m being forced into telling this racist joke” is funny, but I also recognize it as the biggest cop-out device imaginable. It mines all the uncomfortable/shock-value humor of a “forbidden” insensitive remark with this get-out-of-jail-free card of “Oh – I’ve been cornered into saying this” – the ultimate hedge. Clearly – 85% of the laugh is derived from the original mean-spirited/bigoted intent of the joke and about 15% is owed to the discomfort that Jost/Che experience in the coercive premise. The fact is, ALL racist jokes rely on the discomfort/forbidden fruit factor, and the culpable-giggles they elicit are tinged with shame – but we are laughing at the insensitivity and prejudicial intent nonetheless. In this way, a guy like Dice Clay can leverage the most misogynist, crude, demeaning put downs of women…cash in on the laughs…and then excuse it all by declaring, “Oh no – that’s this sexist, bigoted goomba character I’ve created who is saying all that, see the joke’s actually on HIM” – this after extracting laughs from the most hurtful impulses. I guess the question is, is a parody of a racist joke somehow guilt-free even though it functions in pretty much the same way as an intended racial joke?
It’s good to hear that, if you were in charge, Michael Che would have been protected from . . . a joke he wrote. I agree with you that there’s just too much humor in this world, and we should instead make sure to determine (with percentages, no less) whether jokes have “bigoted intent” before we laugh at them.
You didn’t understand what the previous person wrote. Mostly because they wrote it poorly. They’re saying Che and Jost are already protecting themselves, because they’re delivering racist jokes with the veneer of “we don’t really mean this,” while the audience is not laughing nearly as much as the “we don’t really mean this” part as the racism. He’s saying that by defanging these jokes within the joke swap premise, it’s really enabling them. Chapelle, back before he got scared of the idea of trans people being able to live without being oppressed, realized that the ironic/parodic racist portrayals of his show were not ironic or parodic to a huge segment of his audience, and it made him want to stop making the show. Michael Che, a hack who is up his own ass yet cannot look inward, has no such compunction and never will, though his likeliness to start making anti-trans jokes is high.
yeah I also got that. It’s similar to the kind of “politically incorrect” humour you see at the old Leisure Suit Larry games or Torrente films: audience laughs at the very insulting joke but feel good about it because they also laugh at who said it.
I understood it. I thought it was dumb.The idea that black people need to be protected from Barack Obama being facetiously called a “dodo,” in a joke actually directed at the white person telling it, is condescending in the extreme.
You didn’t understand it, as shown by your repeating your disagreement with a claim the original post never made.
That’s setting aside the fact that it’s a two person bit, so the humor is also coming from the dynamic between the two actors and how they’re baiting each other along with the audience. They absolutely go for shock value, and the whole thing probably won’t age well. But the bit is two characters literally putting offensive words in each other’s mouths, not a guy saying offensive stuff and then pretending it was ironic.
Your read on the ratio is really off. Somewhere between 50-100% of the humor in any given joke is mined from the visible discomfort of the guy delivering it. Like a quarter of the stuff doesn’t even really have a punchline if you don’t know that the guy reading it is a left-leaning television personality seeing it for the first time as he reads it aloud on national television. The Middle East joke is basically a sermon in almost any other context.
You see, there’s this thing called “humor” where we don’t automatically assume that the person saying offensive things actually means them. The Holiday Joke Swap has this premise built-in, because Colin and Che are writing jokes that are intended to sound offensive by their presenter.
It may be the only was in this day and age where you get something like the Black Widow joke, which was funny as hell. “Hattie Davis” (I’m pretty sure she was made up) sitting next to Colin and just staring disapprovingly also upped the ante nicely.
The best troll is Hattie Davis being fictitious
It’s funny when Che and Jost do the Weekend Update thing where they put words into each other’s mouths. But with such a wide canvas to paint on why is it ALWAYS RACIAL? With such a big opportunity to red-face your co-worker, it never goes further than, he’s a clueless white-boy with a famous wife, and he’s a black dude who’s attracted to Beyonce only when she’s wearing a blonde wig!Why not write jokes that make each other confess to unknown crimes, being secretly Republican, being a cuckhold, or how that guy they introduced to you as their brother is really your side-piece lover. Nope. Tired racial BS that has been overplayed for years.
Because Michael Che thinks the funniest things in the world are ironic racism and non-ironic misogyny.
“being secretly Republican”They make a joke about Jost being a Republican every other week, and in one of these joke exchanges Jost made Che say blue lives matter.“being a cuckhold [sic]”This isn’t funny because the joke in that case is that his wife is a cheater. The joke isn’t on Jost, but on his wife, which isn’t fair game.“or how that guy they introduced to you as their brother is really your side-piece lover.”This just isn’t funny. It’s 2023. It’s no longer hilarious for someone to be gay.“Tired racial BS that has been overplayed for years.”It sounds like you haven’t watched all of them, including this one. The MJ joke had nothing to do with race. Neither did the adult survivors act joke or the serving alcohol in theaters joke.
Yea. I’m gay. And I’ve watched every episode since the first George Carlin Episode. Sit down, Son.“or how that guy they introduced to you as their brother is really your side-piece lover.” “This just isn’t funny. It’s 2023. It’s no longer hilarious for someone to be gay.”But it IS funny for someone in 2023 to be that far in the closet. That’s the fukn joke. But you don’t really wanna understand my point do you? You wanna over explain why busting a guy’s balls for being an unknowing cuck hold ISN’T FUNNY!!!!!!! {whine!} Then come up with your own fukn examples!They literally put a Black actress next to Jost to portray a faux historic Black figure to stare, laugh and foster the same racial discomfort that is overplayed at this point in their, what, five year co-hosting update gig? There’s more ways to make each other embarrassed and awkward at this point, don’t ya think?
“I’m gay.”So? And I’ve watched every episode since the first George Carlin Episode.”And yet you seem to have missed some things nevertheless.“Sit down, Son.”My computer is at a standing desk, so no. Also I’m nobody’s son.“But it IS funny for someone in 2023 to be that far in the closet.”It’s not though. The joke wouldn’t be that he’s in the closet. The joke would be that he’s gay. That’s what the audience would perceive the joke to be.“But you don’t really wanna understand my point do you?”No, because your entire point is based on the faulty premise that all of the jokes are race related, which is provably false. If your point is based on a provably false premise, you’re right—I won’t understand it.“Then come up with your own fukn examples!”My own examples of what? Jokes that aren’t race-related? I don’t need to come up with my own examples—I provided you examples from the show itself. Examples which you said didn’t exist. But they do exist.“There’s more ways to make each other embarrassed and awkward at this point, don’t ya think?”I do think, and so do they, which is why the did employ other ways to make each other embarrassed and awkward, as I detailed for you above.
the show needed a whole lot more paula pell!!!!
“…eighth former female SNL cast member…”
Did I miss a headline?
That’s such a wildly unflattering header pic. Yikes.
I watched three sketches based on this review and none were particularly funny.Mom giving gifts.Paperless PostYankee Swap.And half of “Cinema Classics.”Not great.But Colin and Michael’s joke swap was pretty good.
I know she’s selling out (or at least, close to it ) big arenas, but judging by these two performances, she could have a great future in musical cabaret.(And I’ll be among the first to preorder “A Very Billie Eilish Christmas” album.)
I thought Billie Eilish did a great job in the whiskers sketch, especially wrangling cats with cue cards at the same time.The weird throughline to this season for me has been making fun of old people, and not just Biden lol, I thought the tiktok one in the Adam Driver episode was going to end with Martin Scorsese joking that his daughter committed elder abuse by putting him on tiktok but instead the concept really was just a cover to make fun of old people. But it’s been a pretty solid half season since the strike ended and even many of the younger cast are getting opportunities (it usually seems like the newbies get more stuff if the host is a returning cast member but we have seen a lot of Longfellow and Hernandez and Troast, not quite as much of Walker or Kearney. Hard to believe it is Sarah Sherman’s third season, but she is in as many sketches as anybody and usually gets one good weird one per episode…none quite as weird as I might wishmarryme
I love the Jost/Che jousts, and also when Sarah Sherman comes in to rip Colin a new one as well. Genuinely funny, and pretty biting.
Does anyone else here feel it strange – still – to have a blow by blow recap of an SNL episode, with no comments/value judgments of the humor ever interjected?Anyway, the episode was mostly horrible. McKinnon was out of sync most of the time, just not that funny. The sketches were tepid. Billie Eilish brought it beautifully, twice, and Update was the only funny bit.