Selena Gomez (and Steve Martin) can’t energize a less-than-inspired episode of SNL
The Only Murders In The Building star didn't quite kill in the confines of 30 Rock
TV Reviews Steve Martin
The former child actor and Disney star Selena Gomez has achieved recent critical praise in a certain lane: She has a dry, deadpan comic delivery that has made her a beguiling part of the comedy Only Murders In The Building, able to hold her own against SNL veterans Martin Short and Steve Martin. But this affect can read as low-energy in certain lights—she gives Aubrey Plaza vibes sans Plaza’s occasionally manic spark—so Gomez is not the most obvious choice for live sketch comedy. But you always want to see SNL give a host the chance to stretch themselves and break out. This week, there was added potential because of the possibility of cameos from Gomez’s Only Murders costars Steve Martin and Martin Short. In this episode, we only saw half of that duo (fair enough, but in less-than-stellar material) and although Gomez had a few strong moments, she didn’t quite soar on the show, partly because of the writing, partly because of her tendency to come off a bit recessive in sketches.
What killed
In her monologue, Gomez was more appealing than strictly required. She demonstrated some sharp comic timing, even hauling out a rock-solid Miley Cyrus impression. The show deserves points for self-deprecation—Gomez ultimately claims she’s come to SNL looking for love, as cast members Colin Jost and Pete Davidson respectively found with guest stars Scarlett Johansson and … Machine Gun Kelly (heh, good one). So cast members line up to volunteer. The twist was nice: Punkie Johnson showed up to shoot her shot. Unfortunately, Gomez’s quick Cyrus impression was almost the evening’s highlight. If she didn’t have the studio audience eating out of her hand by the end of the monologue, Gomez had them willingly singing along to the Barney theme song. But the night’s trajectory was bumpier from there.
A Netflix show about Japanese toddlers who are tasked with doing errands for their parents and abandoned on public transportation—yes, this is an actual thing—was the solid construct for “Old Enough,” in which a woman (Gomez) asks her childlike long-term boyfriend (Mikey Day) to pick up a few things for her, without her help, if he can stop playing video games. I’m not going to hoist my dudgeon about the premise that adult men can be utterly inept at basic errands when they have a partner to lean on—although men-as-babies is a comic premise as old as time, hey, truth is truth. It’s always nice to see the show use a topical peg to say something about modern relationships. Day meeting fellow “toddler” Kenan Thompson on the street was a choice bit. Although Gomez’s deadpan delivery can become an overplayed hand, it worked well here: See her wine moment.
Another talk show sketch? Well, not exactly, as “A Peek at Pico” had an unusual share of strong character beats. It’s also nice to see the chronically underused Melissa Villaseñor take the lead. Here, she and Gomez play the hosts of a hyperlocal L.A. show that’s essentially a coastal inversion of “Bronx Beat,” the Amy Poehler-Maya Rudolph franchise that occupies a special place in my heart. “Pico” isn’t as thoroughly rewarding as that classic, but both Villaseñor and Gomez get some distinctive moments (look for their discussion of what’s sad vs. cathartic). There are fun bits for Mikey Day (as the correspondent they keep cutting off in boredom), Heidi Gardner, and Chris Redd. Gomez, in particular, registers strongly here. Too bad the rest of the night didn’t give her more character material to run with.
“Intuition” was more Fun With Relationships, as Punkie Johnson and musical guest Post Malone show up as angels of doubt rapping on the shoulders of a couple (Gomez and Redd) to sow seeds of insecurity about their partnership, convincing her to follow a “catch-his-ass-recipe” and him that she’s seeking out “dude nudes.” It was a nice showcase for the underused Johnson, who raps impressively, and Malone is solidly amusing. File this also under funny because it’s true.
Post Malone is not to everyone’s taste, but I’m a fan—he’s a clever lyricist who knows how to use hooks to assemble impressive, sometimes stunning, pop architecture. Both of his performances were excellent, particularly the first, “Cooped Up,” which featured Roddy Ricch. This presentation style for SNL musical guests is ideal—just put talented people front and center with a working mic instead of wasting time on set pieces and backup dancers that don’t add.
What bombed
The cold open addressed the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial. Except not really; it was mainly concerned about testimony that Heard once defecated in Depp’s bed. Specifically, the judge (Cecily Strong) wants to see all the video evidence of Depp’s housekeeping staff individually showing up to make this discovery. The sketch doesn’t take this premise to anyplace weird or interesting; it was essentially four minutes of fecal synonyms and dull reactions. Another demerit: Kate McKinnon opened things up with an impression of MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that sounded nothing like Wallace and lacked a point of view (and the show did Wallace additionally dirty by misspelling her first name in the chyron). Wallace isn’t the most dramatic anchor on air, but every newsperson has tendencies that can be amplified into comedy. Yet there was no attempt here on the page or in performance. I have said my piece about scatology as a source of SNL’s humor before, so I will just this add this: There are a million places the show could have gone this week without premising four minutes of live nationally broadcast comedy on people staring at a pile of shit.
Steve Martin shows up (!) in a pre-taped piece in which Gomez is the host of a “Inventor Documentary” about the inventor of novelties like the whoopie cushion. As usual, Aidy Bryant brings it and more as the man’s long-suffering wife who is the inspiration and frequently victimized test case for his novelties. Unfortunately, fart gags predominate. High-school-level writing made this a waste of time for all concerned. (Man, I wish I had the guts of the writer who had access to the comic talents of Steve Martin and delivered him a script premised on flatulence.)
“Three Daughters” had such a clever premise, and they blew it in the final 30 seconds. Kenan Thompson presents his daughters (Ego Nwodim, Gomez, and McKinnon) to a prince as marriage material. As the trio go down the line, answering their suitor’s questions, it’s clear he’s judging them by comedy’s rule of threes. What is the last one’s problem? Something must be wrong with her; he can’t figure it out. This is a slow burner that was more of a chuckle than a LOL, but it was a fresh and fun meta concept, and then they revealed the third sister’s gown has a cutout revealing her ass. Sigh. It’s no revelation that SNL has always had a problem ending sketches, but it’s better to just drop the dead donkey instead of hauling out a prosthetic butt.
Stray observations
- The show deserves points for trying to take on a topical pop-cultural moment in “Irish Play” (in this case, photos of Take Me Out star Jesse Williams’ onstage nudity being leaked), and it starts out well. In his pre-show remarks, Off-Broadway stage manager Kenan Thompson warns the audience that the show they’re about to see contains a penis, and it better not end up online. But the premise swerves into an approach straight out of a ‘50s variety show: everyone is out sick, so all the understudies have parts, and they can’t remember their lines. We rejoin 2022 too late, as Bowen Yang shows up onstage an hour early to announce that he has fluffed and must do his frontal nude scene immediately. This was an air sandwich—a good premise, a sharp moment at the end, and a bunch of generic business in between. Gomez seemed stiff and self-conscious, despite the accent work.
- “Weekend Update” was anemic again this week, as flat jokes were interrupted by another visit from Kyle Mooney’s Baby Yoda (we’ve really seen enough there). Michael Che came off best, getting in two good lines on abortion and Kevin Spacey’s return to acting. (Although I’m convinced no one can do better Spacey burns than Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner in Difficult People.)
- Sarah Sherman got another “Update” segment as a correspondent who wildly favors Michael Che and lives to denigrate Colin Jost. Sherman absolutely killed in her first appearance last fall—it was one of the most electric “Update” debuts in recent memory—so it’s no surprise the show has tried to repeat the feat. Her second try replicated the format to lesser effect, so this one sent her roving into Jost’s dressing room. This time, the burns weren’t that searing, and Sherman fluffed a joke by dropping a photo. She recovered, but this premise has pretty much retired itself.
- Aidy Bryant deserves special mention—and perhaps dispensation—as the hypersexual Bratz doll who comes to life to counsel her suburban teen owner through a parental divorce: “We watch over you every day, like God, but slutty,” she says, and confesses she has designs on the kid’s dad. She was the best thing about a sketch that was otherwise as middle-of-the-road as its setting.
- Despite a strong monologue and “A Peek at Pico,” Gomez came off as somewhat flat throughout the evening. I would’ve liked to see more opportunities to see her give herself over to character as she did in “Pico” and the Bratz dolls sketch.
103 Comments
I’m curious. Did you delete my comment where I pointed out that you referred to Kenan Thompson in the ‘Old Enough’ sketch as Chris Redd?
I was under the impression the policy of the writers of this website was to credit the mistake and amend it rather than delete the responses. I’m certain it was an honest if unsavoury slip up.
Since no one can find this article as of 8:25am Gotham time, I’ll have my say. SNL gets a modicum of humor out of a ridiculously pressurized workplace. The execution always has sloppy moments due to exhaustion, I presume. No other NY- or LA-based show of any type – live, recorded, on-the-street – is so poorly executed. Might as well be shooting in Moline.
There’s no show like it anywhere. They need to weed out the cast
There’s no show like it anywhere. They need to weed out the cast
SNL gets a modicum of humor out of a ridiculously pressurized workplace. The execution always has sloppy moments due to exhaustion, I presume.There was an SNL documentary some years ago where Lorne Michaels said the show doesn’t go on because it’s ready — the show goes on because it’s 11:30.
He has said that a lot. A Lot.
I think this was a solid enough episode that happened to have one of the worst fucking cold opens I’ve ever seen.
The cold open felt like they made it up about fifteen minutes before the episode started because they didn’t have anything else to go with
It’s not even a proper Johnny Depp thang like where’s the hearsay? Where’s the hearsay? Where’s the hearsay? Without that then there’s no point in doing a Johnny Depp skit.
Christ it was long. And not funny.
Lordy, this was such a half-assed episode. Sarah may have flubbed, but she brought ENERGY, the only bright spot for me in the entire evening.
If Che does indeed leave after this season, Sarah would be the obvious choice to replace him on Update. She and Colin have good chemistry and I think her loud, brazen energy would bring something fresh to the segment.
I don’t think I could handle that loud, brazen energy yelling at me all through Update every week. She can bring the energy but she’ll need to way tone down the loud.
She showed some real talent when she accidentally threw the picture, couldn’t find it, and rolled with it somehow crafting it into the sketch as part of the joke. That’s hard to do real time to make an obvious screw up still funny. It reminded a little bit of some Conan O’Brien bits where something didn’t go as planned and he just adlibbed something just as good or better.
I loved how you could see panic in her face for a second or two when she realized what happened but then rallied and kept in going. That must have been terrifying
Only good part except the news is letting Sarah go a little crazy, make a mistake and still keep going.
This was the worst episode in recent memory….I mean, they do a ton of shows, and it seems almost cruel to review every ep for that reason*, but damn…not a lot of redeeming stuff in this one.*I say this as a perennial SNL defender, who will go to bat for most seasons, accepting that even the ‘classic’ episodes were full of duds that folks forget.
Sherman has really grown on me. Even in the Bratz sketch playing straight man she’s kind of bonkers in a funny way.
It was difficult to see, but there were bubbles emanating from Kate’s butt at the end of Three Sisters. Knowing this, the sketch will suddenly become incredibly funny to you.
Dude, you gotta lay off complaining about the juvenile/physical humor. It’s obviously something the show has decided to go with for the medium, if not long, term. That gives you two choices: you can hate it, in which case you’ll be writing a hate review every week, or you can learn to live with it. And hate reviews aren’t fun for anyone: reader or writer. If things are heading in that direction, you should give someone else the assignment. (Though I honestly hope you all take the other option, since outside of the weekly gripe about fart jokes, your reviews are solid and enjoyable to read).
It could be worse. He could spend the entire review ranting about how the entire episode wasn’t hammering Trump as an apology for him hosting.
And hate reviews aren’t fun for anyone: reader or writer.
Speak for yourself. When something really sucks, a scathing review can bring a lot of joy.
“…hate reviews aren’t fun for anyone…”Please tell that to everyone recently lamenting the end of the weekly Dennis Perkins parade of things he wishes the show was about instead.
Holy shit you must be such an insufferable douche.
this website is foundationally built on hate reviews.
The Pico sketch was entirely based off of a story Melissa put on Twit a few months ago. She was in a grocery store (I think) and someone famous had tragically died that bummed out a ton of people (coulda been Norm or Bob, I forget). Anyway two old Latina ladies were right next to her and the one lady’s response was, “That’s sad.” Melissa thought is was a hilarious response in that the lady was sad, but said it so casually.Pretty cool for her that (finally) she got one of her premises to show, and that it was so early on in the line-up. So…yeah, The More You Know. Or something like that.
It was a fun sketch, I was glad to see Melissa get some airtime. I’ve been listening to a lot of SNL-related podcasts and interviews lately and everyone seems to have someone that they write with or someone who writes for them. I could be wrong, but I don’t get the sense she is ever teaming up with any other cast members. With such a huge cast it’s got to be hard to be heard if you’re on an island.
I was so happy to see Melissa in a sketch so early in the show it didn’t really matter what it was. So it was a bonus that it was really funny and Selena Gomez was fairly strong.
You had ONE LINE, Post Malone. ONE LINE.
Every time I see Steve Martin, I stop laughing…instantly.
I have to ask, what (of anything) have you seen from Steve Martin?
Did the show run long? It went to commercial as usual after the 10-to-one sketch and then right on to the next program. No good night and end credits.
Generally agree that the sketch comedy format, or at least these particular sketches, were not ideal as a showcase for the low-key comedy stylings of the lovely Selena Gomez. Also maybe they could have had her in fewer sketches & then she could have had more big moments? I dunno
Please let this be the last I have to hear about the stupid Depp trial. It’s been everywhere the past two weeks and EXHAUSTING. Not only fights in my online communities, but real life shit.WHY
The people I know posting about it on FB are pro-Depp and it appears that Amber Heard is a massive liar.
Other than that, whatever.
same. But they are ferociously defending him which is sooo gross.
the zeal with which his stans defend him is startling and a little scary. I’d love to understand why Americans seem so susceptible to cultism. I went on FB and posted a comment about why this trial was happening given the outcome of the UK trial and his cultists fucking POUNCED on me when I made what I thought was a valid (and non-trolling) point. Holy fucking shit, you’d think I had said that Pirates of the Caribbean wasn’t great LOL. Their responses had a similar format of a seemingly innocent and rational response followed by insanity, e.g. “well the UK courts have a different definition of libel and also YOU’RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE JERK WHO WANTS TO FUCK AMBER HEARD” LOL.
It’s hardly an American affliction. British tabloids. European and South American soccer fans (who form actual roving gangs to fight supporters of other clubs). People are weird.
He’s now “Saint Johnny” to these ignorant dipshits.
She is not
also did you hear that she shit on his bed? LOLfor a split second I was mentally congratulating SNL on not covering this literal and figurative “shit show” and then not only did they “cover” it, they did so in the lamest, unfunniest way possible. Hopefully they got this turd out of their system before the finale next week.
The extent the public has been subjected to Depp’s attempting to poison Heard in the public eye is obnoxious. It’s everywhere. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth, lying, exaggerating, and I do not care at this point. I think they’re both at least partially full of shit and we’ll never know who was 60% full of it and who was 40%.
Johhny Depp is on trial? What did he do?
WOW that was a bad epoxide, started playing a game while watching it, because it was dragging to bad.The Bratz dolls really they used Aidy as one of them, it is getting really old using her for a the sexual stuff.Never seen a movie except spring breakers with Gomez, that little kid can’t act.
I love it that we are now culturally at the point that we can complain about overusing the sexuality of naturally curvy actor.
IF she is curvy than a Turkey is lean
she is another “celebrity” that it feels like “they” WANT us to accept as a celebrity regardless of how we feel about her or her utter lack of charisma (and until we accept her they will keep ramming her down our throats). She doesn’t have a good singing voice, and the attempts to spin her off as “sexy” when she will always look like a 12 year old girl are super cringey, and now we’re supposed to buy that her flat delivery are actually part of her “style” LOL.
SNL has 7 women on it’s cast, and she seems to be the lead in all the main parts.
Selena was low energy on the episode. She seemed bored.
Mikey Day is better then exasperated normal guy in every sketch. A lot like Bennet and Mooney’s “What’s Up SoCal” shorts, I think the Pico sketch lands WAY better if performed in front of an LA audience because everyone nailed it including Gardner. I always thought the Bronx sketch got energy from a NY based crowd that probably contained women VERY similar to the ones that Maya and Amy were impersonating.
Day is like Parnell or Beck, the straight man somehow never gets old. He has his lane and it suits him well. He may not be the funniest guy ever, but he can absolutely make a dull sketch less so.
I come here every week just to see if it’s true, but I swear to god EVERY TIME I think “wow that SNL sucked” it’s got an A or a B here, and every time I think “that wasn’t half bad!” it’s got a C or a D here. We have wildly different tastes, apparently. This can’t just be me.
DUDE me too!! every time. I think this writer has a very strange comedy taste. The article basically says that Steve Martin was averse to a fart joke which makes no sense.
Same here. I hated last weeks show and enjoyed be this one.
I liked the “Bratz Dolls” sketch but went to sleep right after. I think Sarah Sherman kept that one interesting for me.
I don’t get the hate for Sarah Sherman’s Update bit. She’s been hilarious every time she’s on, and she brings the chaotic energy the rest of the show is lacking. This might have been my favorite bit she’s done so far. She needs to be moved up to the main cast asap.
There’s a perception among guys in their 30s and 40s that SNL is all about sweaty coked-up dudes doing accents, when really the beating heart of the show has always been self-aware Jewish women mugging directly into the camera.
As a coked up guy in his late 30’s, I resemble what you are saying.*trips over an ottoman*
Dick Van Dyke?
Jane Curtin is a Jew? 🙂
Jane Curtin left the show 42 years ago. Let that sink in for a moment.
I am not going to let that sink in and you can’t make me.
Is it though? At one point they went roughly 20 years without a Jewish woman on the cast (there were a few Jewish men during that time though).
Her update bit also had a new twist this time with her touring the studio, so I don’t get the idea that it was a generic rehash of an already told joke.
I have to give some credit to whoever programmed the robot that hosted this week, it looked exactly like Selena Gomez! It’s unfortunate that it couldn’t be programmed to recognize basic human speech functions and how to read cue cards properly, but one thing at a time. Actually it seemed to be a theme for SNL, as the Vintage episode was hosted by Val Kilmer from 2000— he was so bland and robotic that I’m pretty sure I actually heard him read a stage direction out loud (“picks up drink”). I am not making this up.Did anyone catch what the announcer said at the end of that three princesses sketch, after Kate mcKinnon winked at the camera? I heard him saying something but the studio audience was so enamored to be in Kate’s presences that their squeals of delight completely drowned it out.
Couldnt they have given Gomez an espresso or something? No energy sucks whatever energy is there right out. This girl has like a 100 million followers so I’m sure ratings will be good, and Instagram is flooded with remarks about incredible she is. Also, the writing was lacklustre. Fingers crossed they give Natasha some meaty material.
Selena did great given her health. She has Lupus which can be quite draining. Stress and the medications to treat her condition can cause a lot of fatigue.
She has also had a kidney transplant and is on anti-rejection meds.
Not to be a big fuckin’ jerk but given all that, why the fuck would they want her hosting something so stressful and in need of energy?I like Selena, btw, no hate on her. Just seems like a bad fit, especially rn.
SNL’s producers are not exactly known for making the best decisions. Plus, she and her team likely underestimated the stress of doing the show. She was likely doing fine all week, then the fatigue hit.
An older friend of mine has Lupus and she has long stretches of being energetic and raring to go (with more energy than some half her age), but when the fatigue hits, it hits.
Omg! Didn’t know, how sad…..
Her face barely moves.Even her lips.
As someone mentioned I guess she has lupus.She sounded to me like someone who is suffering from allergies. As someone who has bad allergies that get fine when it gets really cold (cause that kills all the shit that causes them) I stop taking the pills during the winter.The past two weeks have been terrible trying to readjust and taking the pills again. When I go into work I’m pretty much a zombie. In a few weeks I’ll be good after taking the pills again. But man am I in terrible shape right now.
Having watched every episode of Selena+Chef, this is how she sounds all the time. Also that is a fantastic show, and the most suspenseful show Selena is on.
Her eyes are completely dead. The cover photo of this article really captures it.
How can you write about comedy and think that Steve Martin would be opposed to a fart joke?
In fairness, is this the face of a man who would stoop to such base humor?
…are you sure you want an answer to that?
I’ll fully admit my grades for humor are a bit low these days, but this episode killed it. It wasn’t an A+ (for those AVCers that know what I’m talking about) but I’d say at least a B+. There is never, ever going to be a front to back SNL where you are laughing. It’s sketch comedy. It’s 90 minutes, plus music that tends to fall flat (or you just ignore, like Post Malone) and now, pre-recorded bits that are either great or just plain background noise. Forgetting about the “musical” “guest” it really was a solid B+. And I don’t get the hate on Che and Jost. They’re not bad, they have good chemistry, and seem to play off each other enough to provide proper banter. I also get that, well, some folk may not get it. That’s ok. I’m surprised they still work for me as a WU team. To go back in time, it would be interesting to see Bill Hader and John Mulaney as co-hosts of WU. It would either be a disaster or the best ten minutes of the week.
1) WTF is up with the formatting on this site? I can barely read articles without the sliding ads taking over half my phone screen. Then there’s the the ads that are so heavy the reboot the page to the top of the article. Other times the page is so heavy it freezes the page and I have to refresh. Finally, half the times the comment section doesn’t appear so, again, I have to refresh. 2) If gays hade to put up with the over used cliche gay guy (I don’t even remember his name), you can put up with baby yoda. I like the character.
IDK much about Post Malone, but that first song was the worst song I think I ever heard on SNL, the lyrics are so so corny, the song has no meaning, about toast and stacks and hoes and pills and what? people still like auto tune???
Agree, SKIP.
Yeah, I have to agree. To be honest this is the first time I’ve knowingly listened to a Post Malone song and I didn’t detect any clever lyrics or “stunning, pop architecture.” That affect-less half-rap, half-singing style that’s been popular for a while now (not sure how it’s officially described) is pretty monotonous and with all the processing it’s hard to pick out the lyrics. It just kind of sits there and goes nowhere and does nothing.
stunning pop architecture! STUNNING!
Stunning, as in “how is this a recorded song??”
He was better before he became famous, when he went by Ante Malone.
Ths was a weak episode, but we can’t really blame Gomez for it. The writing was just bad. Most of the skits really didn’t have a conclusion, as if they weren’t fully formed ideas to start with. I did like “Old Enough” and “Baby Monitor,” but the rest of the skits were pretty forgettable.
Dear SNL writer and cast, we get it your crushing on colin jost we however are tired of hearing about it. Also please screen guests to see if they bring anything to the show. This maybe the 3r guest this season that was Doa. You’re writing and cast isn’t good enough to cover this, quite the opposite. Yes it was a surprise that Gomez who, was so charming in the cooking show was a void,
Gomez is appealing and charismatic. That’s it. She plays the straight foil in a show produced by two comedic geniuses (a role that could easily be filled by a million other actresses). Somehow, that qualified her to host SNL. Add to that a cold open that was essentially a 5-minute poop joke, and we got one of the worst episodes of SNL in decades.
How much appeal is “strictly required” in a monologue?
7
By God, he’s right. It’s 7.
I thought Selena Gomez was as interesting as Jake Gyllenhaal, which is no compliment at all. She’s literally Just Fine, but not funny per se.Kyle Mooney is still awful and I was shocked: he’s married?!
First of all, this reviewer’s weird squeamishness about fart noises should disqualify him from reviewing comedy. To dismiss the delightful Steve Martin / Aidy Bryant filmed piece as “high-school writing” underscores this person’s incompetence at the task of evaluating humour. The premise in that film was beautifully developed, as Bryant as the inventor’s wife was shown being the inspiration for all the classic gags. The one in which her eyeballs popped out was especially good.Anyway, again the show unforgivably ignores Aristotle Athari. In the opening bit during which various cast members offer themselves to Selena Gomez, Athari should have been there instead of James Austin Johnson. (By the way, it seems that the act of getting Johnson’s name wrong is something of a running gag; it happened also in the Five-Timers’ Club sketch.) Athari would have been a better fit in between Kyle Mooney and Punkie Johnson. I cannot emphasise enough how much I want to see more of him. I hope that the show brings him back as a featured player next season (when fellow featured player Sarah Sherman will presumably be a regular cast member), and that it makes better use of him.Before I saw Only Murders in the Building, I doubted whether Gomez could keep up with giants such as Steve Martin and Martin Short. But she does an excellent job in that series; so it is no surpise that she fit right in performing alongside the other great sketch-comedy performers in Saturday Night Live’s magnificent current cast. The comment that Gomez appeared “stiff and self-conscious” in a sketch is so far off that it makes me wonder what show the reviewer was watching.Gomez excelled in every sketch she appeared in. She killed nearly to the extent of fellow musical performer Billie Eilish, who, in her hosting turn earlier this season fared far better than anyone could have imagined. It’s always a treat when we discover that a musical performer has a talent for comedy. This reminds us that SNL has revealed the considerable comedy talents of other musicians such as Justin Timberlake, Mick Jagger, and Paul Simon. Of course, it doesn’t work every time; we saw some severe limitations when musical stars such as Adele and Lizzo tried their hands at sketch comedy.The best sketch was the “Irish play”. In that sketch, Gomez did a wonderful job playing a character who annoys Kenan Thompson’s director character with her inappropriate Australian accent. And Cecily Strong, a true master of accents, was typically brilliant with her Irish accent and her character’s total unpreparedness. This gave Kenan the opportunity to play another flummoxed character, which is always golden.Finally, let me close by noting that Aidy is damn sexy. Those legs!
Agree about the fart/poop joke stuff. Is scatological humor always funny? Does it always work? No, and no. Just like any category of joke, sometimes it’s funny and sometimes it’s not, but you can’t go into it with a baseline of “scatological humor = not funny” every damn time. He doesn’t even evaluate the actual joke.
I think I come off as an SNL apologist, but this episode was actually a bit of a letdown for me. A lot of the writing seemed tired/half-assed and this was a rare miss for me this season. I only really know Selena Gomez from Only Murders in the Building and enjoy her there so I was looking forward to this episode. Also, given that she has years of being an entertainer, I thought she would be able to do more. Instead, they gave her a whole bunch of ensemble work and none of it was great. I did get a few laughs (the Punkie/Post Malone video was good), but overall, a lot of “meh”.Also, I thought the Pico sketch was kind of cringe-y. I’m not from LA (other commenters have pointed out that this one might be more of an LA thing) and if the whole premise of the sketch is some women saying “that’s sad”, I am not sure that is enough to build on. I like Melissa, but that one didn’t work for me.
SElena’s voice was so flat I couldn’t understand her part of the time…..
Selena is one of those stars you insist is going to improve. She is very cute, very beautiful, and does not seem unpleasant. But she is stiff. She’s mostly there, but not quite. That’s just how I have always seen her: held up by the more talented around her.
SNL half the time is just going around looking for half assed talent with the biggest social media presence. They still get quality actors, but picking someone like Gomez is a Hail Mary ratings grab. She was terrible and sucked the energy out of the room in every skit she was in.
I hear Kyle and Pete are leaving. Oh boy