Jack Harlow tricks and treats on the Halloween edition of SNL
While a mixed bag, the episode had sharper political sketches and a pitch-perfect Pixar pitch
TV Reviews Jack Harlow
For the second time this season, Saturday Night Live hosting and musical guest duties merged, this time led by rapper Jack Harlow. Coming off a second album, a world tour, and wrapping work on his first film, a remake of 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, Jack Harlow, I must confess, is not someone I knew much about. I was fully convinced he would lack the charisma of someone like Megan Thee Stallion, who could be both an engaging host and musical guest. Despite my ignorance and apprehension, Harlow proved to be an affable host charming his way through a slightly self-deprecating monologue. Like all the hosts this season, Harlow proved to be eager and adept at sketch comedy and met all the hosting demands. Also, like the other hosts, he was momentarily betrayed by poor sketch construction.
Best sketch of the night
Comedy is at its best when it has a foot in reality. Juxtaposing the absurd comedy of pitching a Pixar film with the the sobering reality of an AA meeting is the the perfect petri dish for hilarity. The sketch has levels, an instantly relatable premise, and activates audience engagement. The key of its success is that the Pixar pitch is absolutely terrific and should be made into a feature film as soon as possible. Every additional comment adds to the initial joke and Harlows deadpan delivery of “I drank recently, by the way,” before expanding on his screenplay idea was a potent pitch-black punch of dark comedy. Every turn the sketch took felt natural that even an out-of-left-field cameo from Tom Hanks felt absolutely essential.
Worst sketch of the night
One of the most disappointing sketches of the night had to be “Bartenders,” because it should have been an easy laugh. Anchored in physical prop comedy, watching two inept bartenders smashing glasses and spilling liquids should have been funnier. It revealed how lazy SNL can be at times. First off, there was no characterization or motivation to the bartenders, aside from a brief expository mention that they had served the group years earlier. Furthermore, the physical and prop comedy needed to be bigger. If you’re going to go broad, you have to go BROAD. There was a disconnect between all the actors on stage and it almost seemed pointless having anyone sitting at the table. Going back to one of SNL’s most physical performers – Chris Farely – all his manic movements were rooted in a character. Seeing “Bartenders” on a night with the return of “Drunk Uncle,” produced a longing for more character comedy in sketches.
Worst Halloween sketch of the night
It was kind of hard to pick the worst sketch of the night. The most frustrating part was that most of the worst were pointless Halloween sketches. Granted a Halloween sketch is necessary for the SNL before Halloween, but if you can’t come up with funny ones then you don’t need to do that many. “Red Carpet Halloween Show” was dull and “Cell Block 666” felt like a lame attempt to introduce Halloween IPs as well as make more use of Tom Hanks’ appearance with David S. Pumpkins, but it was the “Halloween Wedding” one that was the worst. The premise of a wedding held on Halloween sounds promising, but this sketch reveals it’s one-note joke far too early and never moves beyond the costume or the way they keep pronouncing “Joker.” It’s one of those SNL sketches that you can immediately tell will take way too long to go nowhere, even a cameo of Jeff Probst felt pointless.
Best bipartisanship sketches of the week
Though SNL skews left with its point of view, it’s at its best when making fun of both political parties. Two sketches took on our two-party system to explore the failure of candidate choice. The cold open perfectly mocked the bizarre cult of personality that has taken over the recent Republican senate races. Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong stood out for their fully realized versions of Herschel Walker and Kari Lake, respectively. Later on the show took on the Democratic party and its lack of personalities and an engaging consensus candidate in the form of a horror film revolving around Biden’s intended second-term run for the White House. It was exact and equal opportunity political comedy.
MVP of the week: Cecily Strong
No surprise here. Cecily Strong has finally made her triumphant return to SNL after a few weeks away on stage in Los Angeles. Appearing in multiple sketches, the episode was a great showcase for Strong. She even made “Red Carpet Halloween Show,” somewhat bearable. Her range really stood out in her chilling performance as Kari Lake, a placid opportunist who enjoys sending salads back, and the unhinged musical weirdo during “AA Meeting.” Those two performances would seem like polar opposites, but both soar with Strong’s unyielding dedication to character, which is sometimes lacking in recent SNL.
Stray observations
- I wonder what the plan was for when Jack Harlow went into the audience. It felt a little awkward and without a punchline.
- I spent most of the first third being annoyed by Ego Nwodim’s absence. I spent the second third thinking she deserved a week off after being in so many sketches. I spent the last third thankful she appeared. They should do The View again.
- So many cameos.
- With the Elon Musk and Ye jokes in “Weekend Update,” I kept thinking they should really start using this kind of material for sketches. They are the perfect blend of pop culture and serious issues colliding, which was once the point of SNL.
- It felt like a missed opportunity not to show what a Yeezy-Pillow Guy collab might look like.
105 Comments
Time to start a petition to get The SPR3 booked on SNL!
The SPR3 is a pretty clunky band name.
I concur! It stands for “The Samuel Powers Rhythm 3″ and being named after Dustin Diamond’s character from “Saved by the Bell” does not improve the situation at all. Of course, when we formed the band 19 years ago we certainly didn’t think it would last this long.
Can anyone tell me who Chris Farely is? I remember loving a guy named Chris Farley on SNL and in movies but this Farely fella doesn’t ring a bell.
Came here to get in before the endless “Farely” typo posts., but of course I’m too late
I Farely noticed it.
He’s famous for doing a motivational speaker character who loved in a fan down by the rivet.
I miss Perkins.
Your cast listing shows Seth Meyers as Weekend Update anchor and Don Pardo (who died in 2014) as announcer.
CASTThe Saturday Night Live BandThemselvesDon PardoSelf – AnnouncerDarrell HammondVariousLenny PickettSelf – BandleaderKenan ThompsonVariousSeth MeyersWeekend Update Anchor
And Darrell Hammond as a cast member, instead of as the announcer.
Oh boy, they’ve now stuck a “both sides” guy on SNL recaps, at a time when the GOP is more overt than ever cozying up to white supremacists. Listen closely and you can hear the slow turning in their graves of the original AVC writers many years from now.
Yeah, was thinking that as well when I saw “it’s at its best when making fun of both political parties.” Really? Is it?But hey, props for correctly using both “it’s” and “its” in the same sentence.
Yes, it actually is. Adults should be able to tell the difference between criticism like “Herschel Walker and Kari Lake are batshit lunatics, how can you vote for these people?” and “The Democrats are old, out of touch, and this is a scary thing.” This is not an equal level of criticism. One is a professor grading your paper and asking how you even made it out of high school, the other is saying your work needs improvement and you need to tighten things up before you fall behind.
I don’t miss AVC reviews blasting SNL for not just going “TRUMP IS BAD!”
Hey, Rob Schneider is commenting on AVC articles now! Hi Rob! I loved you in…….well….nothing. Never mind, moving on.
Funny you should say that since I had no problem with the Hallelujah sketch.
Their takes on Fetterman and the stroke were insulting and dangerous- it wasn’t that bad and people recover functionally from strokes at this level all the time. It’s better people are honest about recovery than shamed and encouraged to hide medical conditions (cough cough Trump). The horror movie was… ok but a lot of their political stuff was lame and poorly thought out
and people recover functionally from strokes at this level all the time.Aubrey Plaza.
To be fair, they’d be forgiven for thinking that’s what the commentariat wanted after years of their griping after Perkins for being too pro-left.
Moynihan with the perfect witch hat toss
“Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong stood out for their fully realized versions of Herschel Walker and Kari Lake, respectively. Later on the show took on the Democratic party and its lack of personalities and an engaging consensus candidate in the form of a horror film revolving around Biden’s intended second-term run for the White House. It was exact and equal opportunity political comedy.”LOOKS LIKE THOSE CLOWNS IN CONGRESS HAVE DONE IT AGAIN. WHAT A BUNCH OF CLOWNS.Republican candidates are imbecilic, incompetent, pants-shittingly insane, and represent existential threat to our democracy, but Democrats aRe OLd anD BoRInG. Thank god we have some equal opportunity comedy to point that out.
It’s not SNL’s job to get Democrats elected.
There’s something called a ‘straw man argument,’ and I think you just nailed it.
Isn’t that the implication of comments like this? That any jokes about Democrats apparently represents a “false equivalency” (it doesn’t, but people love to use that phrase), which is not what is needed to defeat fascism.Only my experience, but I saw a lot less of that reaction in the Trump/Clinton sketches in 2015/16. Those sketches certainly went after both of them, but I don’t think most viewers really believed that Trump was going to win. Now? Every joke about Democrats is undermining the cause.
It’s also not SNL’s job to run interference for the GOP by presenting a false equivalency between the two parties.
It’s SNL’s job to do satire, and satire that’s too chickenshit to tell things like they are has no value. “Both sides” comedy is the most spineless form of humor there is, which is why it rarely works.
I’m always compelled to ask what “both sides” means to you? Are you arguing that SNL takes as many shots at Democrats as at Republicans (really, really don’t think so), or that taking any shots at Democrats at all constitutes “both sides” comedy?
I think he’s complaining that they aren’t as hard on Democrats as they are on Republicans… I believe he’s saying “old and boring” isn’t as harsh a criticism as “existential threat to our democracy.” But it’s not SNL’s fault that Democrats aren’t an existential threat to democracy. They’re just too old and boring to stop the existential threat to democracy.
I dunno, the horror movie about 2024 was kind of great in that it’s the perfect encapsulation of basically the same sort of conversation I’ve had with friends over and over again. I think every Democrat has had that same conversation and same thought horrific debate.
Pointing out that there are funny aspects of individual Democratic politicians and candidates is not somehow an endorsement of Republican politicians and candidates.
The one thing I agreed with was specifying Cecily and Kenan as doing good jobs in that one, conspicuously leaving out Mikey’s not-even-trying Dr. Oz “impression.” I swear he used to do actual (at least attempted) celebrity impressions instead of just falling back on the same squeaky voice he’s used for the past several celebs he’s done impressions of in his last few cold opening appearances.
For just a second, I thought that was actually Kari Lake doing a cameo.Like a Sarah Palin thing.
You sound like the guy who used to write the SNL reviews. Glad he’s gone.
Surprises the David Pumpkins isn’t the worst sketch because it’s the exact same fucking sketch as last time. They changed almost nothing. I kept thinking they may throw in a twist or something new but it was almost beat for beat the same just with less funny cast. Leslie Jones dancing with the chainsaw was needed
That’s something I have never understood about the (for lack of a better name) “recurring sketches.” It’s not just that they employ a similar premise, but that they are beat-for-beat exactly the same. Another example was the recurring bit about Kate McKinnon being abducted by aliens/angels/what-have-you. It was hilarious the first time—mostly because of the corpsing. But each time it was reprised, I knew there would be a line in which McKinnon would have rhyming euphemisms for her orifices, and the surprise was gone.I’m all for bringing back Mr. Pumpkins, but why not put him in a different context? Heck, they could resurrect the recurring sketch about the weird spook ride animatronics, and have David crash in.
I think the best (worst?) example of this was Cecily Strong’s stock romantic comedy character. It worked great as a single sketch, but then they brought it back a second time, and it felt so pointless because they said all they needed to say about the character the first time.
If they were gonna turn a Tom Hanks sketch into a recurring bit, I would’ve much preferred “Mr. Short-Term Memory.” Such a catchy theme song!
David S. Pumpkins in The Californians.
It’s not always the case that repeated sketches are poor – some of the recurring Update sketches of the past (Stefon, for instance, or the recent Influencers) followed identical templates but brought enough novelty (and clever performance) that they were usually enjoyable. However, this really was just the same sketch again but with Bobby Moynihan fluffing his choreography and slightly less amusing sound effects. With no element of surprise, there just wasn’t really anything there.
Some recurring sketches can work well, but it needs to have a premise that lends itself to very different possibilities. First thing that comes to mind is Chance the Rapper’s Lazlo Holmes, the ESPN reporter pulled from his regular Knicks beat to cover first E-Sports, then Hockey. Both of those were funny, and could use the same basic premise but without rehashing the same jokes.
Yeah, people tend to shit on some of the recurring characters this show had years ago, like Pat or Rob Schneider’s “making copies” guy, but back then they knew how to write those sketches so they were different every time— in this one he’s riffing on people’s names while they use the copier, but then in the next one he’s having an existential crisis when the copier is removed, in the next he has competition from a guy who sings peoples names, and in another Steven Seagal is dangling him out of a window. They didn’t all work, but at least they changed it up. These days, the thinking seems to be that the audience will be so thrilled to see the character again it doesn’t matter if it’s the exact same sketch as last time.
I agree. David S Pumpkins needs to just die off.
I kind of wished they brought in a cameo of Kevin Roberts, seeing as how similar in concept he is to David Pumpkins.
For lazy recycling nothing can top the recurring Seventies sketch called “X Police” that reused its entire script word for word aside from changing character names.
Spot on. I thought maybe they put a twist on the ending we were all expecting after rerunning the whole thing. Nope, not even that. What a waste. A shoutout for the makeup and costume teams for that sketch, though. Freddy and Pennywise looked really good.
I said it in another comment, but they also totally blew any sense of surprise by featuring Hanks and Moynihan in sketches IMMEDIATELY proceeding the DSP sketch. I believe it went AA sketch, Update, and DSP in that order. As soon as the scene opened, everyone knew right away what was coming and it spoiled the payoff. Should’ve been done way earlier, before the AA sketch.
Waiting until 12:30 to put on the David S. Pumpkins sequel? Dick Ebersol would be turning over in his grave.
Especially with the quality of the rest of the sketches. We turned it off before then. Yeeesh. The true horror
My presumption is that the Pixar sketch was written to make more use of Tom Hanks’ appearance as David S. Pumpkins, not the other way ‘round. Hence the otherwise inexplicable reappearance of Bobby Moynihan as Drunk Uncle.I literally had been thinking the other day that we were due for a return by David S. Pumpkins, but that it wouldn’t be as good without Moynihan as one of the beat-boy skeletons. And yet I didn’t put two and two together until the sketch started…mostly because the episode was otherwise so joke-free that I mentally checked out.
You say “Comedy is at its best when it has a foot in reality.” and SNL is “at its best when making fun of both political parties.” The reality is that going after both parties equally lets the openly corrupt, bigoted, anti-science world threatening one off the hook for the appearance of being fair. And then the Bushes and Trumps get a lot of people killed. Maybe just go after politicians when they do shit worth going after them for and not just for “balance”.
Not to mention the worst they could say about Fetterman was to make fun of his stroke, which was lazily reaching for comedy at best and cruel downward punching at worst.
SNL does not need a “both sides” approach. It needs to merciliessly skewer republicans and leave the democrats alone. Period. We’re in a fucking crisis situation where evil lunatics are actively trying to dismantle democracy. The democarts are the only ones fighting them. it really is that black and white. Fuck SNL.
It’s a comedy show, not a pundit show.
doesnt matter. noobody should be attacking democrats now. Its not the time.
What makes you think SNL has that much impact?
“Its not the time.”When is the time? Democrats don’t get a free pass just because they are the only other option at this point. They need to be held accountable for their mistakes. It won’t do anybody any good to keep letting them off the hook or they’ll never improve. And they do need to fucking improve. If we end up with another hundred year old white guy president in a couple of years…a lot of folks are gonna be pissed.
Yes. RIGHT NOW THEY GET A FREE FUCKING PASS. THEY DO.
the party of democracy vs treasonous, dangerous evil criminals? Yeah they get a free fucking pass.
That just sounds like a real white person comment. lol I’ve had this conversation with another friend of mine who is a well-to-do white man (not saying you are, but he is), and he says the same thing. The Democrats have been letting down people who are not white and people who are not well-to-do for a pretty long time. I’m not saying they aren’t at least better than the Republicans, but if all we ask for them is that they are better than the Republicans, we still won’t be getting much, and they’ll keep not giving us much because we aren’t asking for shit and we’ll continue to vote for them as long as they don’t work to actively overthrow democracy. Of course I’m not saying we shouldn’t vote for them, since they’re the best we have at the moment, but I can’t say they’re above criticism and being held accountable.
No, its not a white person comment, its common sense, which a lot of people seem to NOT HAVE. They keep thinking this is politics as normal. Republicans have to be kept out of office NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. Even if what you say is true, whats your plan? Whats the solution? Put republicans in to teach democrats a lesson? Thats insane.
Yeah, again, to quote Gus from the “Office Space” episode of Psych, you’re talking like a real white guy right now. It’s “common sense” when agreeing with you restores society to something that worked great for you. But when someone else is identifying the ways it didn’t work for them, they’re “NOT HAVING” common sense. “NO MATTER WHAT THE COST” works for you because the cost isn’t one you’ll have to pay. I’m talking about what wasn’t working for oppressed folks. The cost is to us, not to you, so you have no reason to care about the cost.“Put republicans in to teach democrats a lesson?”I mean, I literally said that I wasn’t saying not to vote for Democrats in this instance, but why let a little something like reading what a person actually said get in the way of “common sense.”
ok, thats true, fine. But if youre not saying that i dont know what you think a good plan would be.
Well if your hopes for the establishment of a full, fair, and free democracy in this country are resting on a stranger on the internet coming up with the plan and somehow getting the rest of the country to go along, then you might as well give up now. All I’m saying in this conversation is that telling people they can’t levy fair criticism on anyone whose behavior needs criticizing ain’t it.
Maybe the democrats should have campaigned better and not alienated 1/2 the country, (remember basket of deplorables), they may have had more allies and may have stopped Donald Trump from reaching the Whitehouse. It doesn’t matter, it is a myth that the democrats are better than the republicans, the system is broken. Both sides votes to send 60 billion and counting to The Ukraine (voted the most corrupt country in Europe), with little to no oversight. That money could have helped homelessness and other social issues. But American politicians are not interested in helping their own constituents.
Thanks for weighing in, Foreignbot.
I jump into the comments thinking the liberals (which I am) are acting like a bunch of whiny brats and then shit like this comes along. Hillary Clinton sucks, a lot, but she was right about the people she was calling deplorable. Instead of getting upset with her, conservatives should have done a bit of self-reflection and thought about the type of people they were hitching their wagon to. Fox News? Donald Trump? And now the right has become a festering trash heap which mocks a man who was attacked in his own home by somebody who’s been radicalized by the conspiracy theories they’ve fomented in the name of a few more votes.
So, yeah, those “deplorables” have really shown the world how they definitely didn’t deserve that label! Solid work.
She had nothing to lose by calling them out. People in here think any of em were going to vote for her anyway? Like some dude somewhere thought “yeah, Hilary had my vote, but she insulted me, i guess Trump is better.” They can GTFO of here.
“basket of deplorables” was AN AMAZINGLY RESTRAINED DESCRIPTION. The problem is “deplorables” is too fancy a word for most people. She shouldve said they were a pack of stupid assholes. She was right. And the people she was talking about were never going to vote for her no matter what. She lost because of the electoral college-not because the majority of americans didnt want her, because they did.
I think the American public saw her for the war monger that she is. Electoral college, get out of here….
Still was a better choice than trump, and the one who the american people picked.
get out of here, what? ITS TRUE. SHE FUCKING WON. MORE AMERICANS WANTED HER. Shes not presidnet beacuse of the electoral college. thats it.
Lol, I love debating with hardline democrats. They always embarrass themselves. If you don’t like the results of the election (Jeez who does that sound like?) the electoral college is the system you currently have to decide elections. Anyways, enjoy today, I’m sure the democrats are going to do very well… /s
B-? Nah. This was an A episode. Drunk Uncle alone was enough to boost it up, David S Pumpkins was extra scoops of ice cream. But beyond those, this episode had some of the best material of the season. And much to my surprise, Harlow was actually pretty good host and threw himself into just about everything that he was given. Maybe its because I set an incredibly low bar for him, but he performed well.
the Pixar pitch is absolutely terrific and should be made into a feature film as soon as possibleDo we know who wrote this sketch? They’re sitting on a potential gold mine.
I thought the political movie trailer sketch was the best of the bunch.
One political party is a millenarian death cult, and the other party has boring candidates. Thank God SNL found time to mock both sides!
With the Elon Musk and Ye jokes in “Weekend Update,” I kept thinking they should really start using this kind of material for sketches. They are the perfect blend of pop culture and serious issues colliding, which was once the point of SNL. With the Elon Musk and Ye jokes in “Weekend Update,” I kept thinking Musk has been an SNL host and Ye a musical guest. Will SNL ever have them back on?
That Joker sketch read like Jeff Probst just wandered in off the street and the writers had to make up a sketch for him to be in so he’d go away.
Yeah, that was kind of a unnecessary non sequitur that added nothing.That being said, I thought it was a funny sketch. Far from the worst.
Yeah, I thought the Pumpkins sketch was the worst. I know the Joker sketch was stupid but Dismukes and Gardner sold the hell out of it.
According to Reddit, Harlow is a huge Survivor fan and Probst invited him to Fiji while they were filming a season (not sure if it was the current season or a previous one). So Harlow returned the favor and invited Probst to SNL this week.
As a Survivor fan, I would also just be up for Probst hosting an episode of SNL.
lmao the Perkin heads are getting mad because this reviewer isn’t an msnbc lib
proved to be an affable host charming his way —> proved to be an affable host, charming his waythe the perfect —> the perfectpetri dish —> Petri dishHarlows deadpan delivery —> Harlow’s deadpan deliveryEvery turn the sketch took felt natural that even an out-of-left-field cameo —> Every turn the sketch took felt (so?) natural that even an out-of-left-field cameoChris Farely —> Chris FarleySeeing “Bartenders” on a night with the return of “Drunk Uncle,” produced a longing —> Seeing “Bartenders” on a night with the return of “Drunk Uncle” produced a longingthe SNL before Halloween —> the SNL before Halloweenreveals it’s one-note joke —> reveals its one-note jokethose SNL sketches —> those SNL sketchestoo long to go nowhere, even a cameo of Jeff Probst felt pointless —> too long to go nowhere; even a cameo of Jeff Probst felt pointlessRepublican senate races —> Republican Senate racesmade “Red Carpet Halloween Show,” somewhat bearable —> made “Red Carpet Halloween Show” somewhat bearable
Can Trae do all the SNL reviews for now on? It was refreshing to not have a page and a half screed because SNL didn’t hit the ‘repuglicans’ as hard as they’d like.
Okay, this Harlow guy; I’m not familiar with him but he’s doing just fine, I’ve got no problem with the guy, seems like a talented dude, but why did Awkwafina get the struggle session treatment and not him? Isn’t he doing pretty much the same thing? Did everyone finally decide cultural appropriation is a really dumb thing to get all worked up about?
Does anyone know why SNL is region-locked on YouTube? This is how I watch the show.
I’m going to say “NBC streaming rights”, which is close to just shrugging my shoulders but I think it’s correct. That is, NBC has sold, to broadcasters in other countries, the right to broadcast the show, but with the stipulation that no other outlet in that country be allowed to stream the show.
Universal Studio Group is a distinct legal entity from NBC. The former produces the show, the latter buys the rights to distribute in the US. Since NBC only broadcasts in the US, they only buy US rights and cannot provide international streaming.
Jack Harlow fully floods my basement.
I thought this was a pretty strong episode, with the weakest link being the opening sketch. Pronouncing “Joker” a certain as a joke feels like one of those things that is kind of funny at 4:30 am when everyone is loopy, have one more hour to submit a sketch, and convince themselves that this is funny. It went from an F to a D+ with the whole voting on whether he gets to wear a costume bit, but still bad. Other than that, I enjoyed the episode. Harlow seemed laidback but engaged. I actually like the Halloween red carpet sketch. The Pixar one was good and even Jack Harlow flirting with Whoopi on the view made me chuckle. David S. Pumpkins was a nice return, though it would have been better if they ended it differently from the first one.
Honestly, the more they said “Joe-ker,” the more willing I was to just go with it. I would have aired the David S. Pumpkins redux immediately after the opening monologue, and moved the bit into last sketch of the night territory (moving The View sketch & Sarah Sherman’s surprisingly-good Joy Behar impression up). Guessing they felt the need to bring out Surprise Guest #1 a little earlier than that.The number of guest cameos tonight – even the return of Drunk Uncle on Weekend update – tells me that SNL was a bit anxious about having Jack Harlow in a starring role (particularly in comparison to Megan Thee Stallion just an episode ago). While I mostly skipped over his musical performances, I actually thought he did well as an actor, though I guess already having filmed a movie probably helped a bit on that front.
I said the same thing, regarding the cameos. It really seemed like they did not have a lot of faith in Jack Harlow and if bombed bad, at least people would be talking about the cameos. But I think he actually did a pretty good job as host.
I agree, they completely blew the David S. Pumpkins reveal. IIRC, the order went: AA sketch with Hanks cameo, Update with Moynihan cameo, and then, immediately after, DSP, with the same set up as every other time they’ve done it. As soon as the scene opened, it was obvious what they were doing since both guest stars had already been shown. I think Hanks’ and Moynihan’s cameos would have been just as effective if they came after the DSP sketch, but it didn’t work in reverse.
Dudes, people do not care what was on Saturday Night Live, what the hell year do you think it is
One party is actively trying to dismantle voting rights, engages in open discrimination, cozy’s up to white supremacist’s, celebrates a man breaking into a home and attacking the husband of a politician, and celebrates a man having a stroke.but ya, lets make sure a TV show makes fun of both sides……
I had never even heard of Jack Harlow before he was announced, generally the host+musical guest privileges are only given to major veteran stars. His music didn’t convince me that anyone will remember him in 2 years time and he absolutely shouldn’t have been given 3 songs, but he did a great job with everything he was given as host/actor and he clearly has a great management team that was able to score this gig for him without really having the cred to pull it off.
“Going back to one of SNL’s most physical performers – Chris Farely”Chris who? Is Chris Farely the baby of Chris Farley and one of the Farrelly brothers?“I spent most of the first third being annoyed by Ego Nwodim’s absence.”Now listen, I did too, but you don’t get to spend weeks of your reviews complaining about Cecily’s absence, and then when she’s back complain about Ego’s absence. That was always going to happen. With Kate and Aidy gone, Ego and Cecily are the leading ladies, and since Cecily has seniority she’s going to get the majority of the leading lady sketches when she’s there. I like Cecily too but she needs to retire already.Anyway, Jack Harlow did a surprisingly good job. I didn’t really know who he was (I am not hip to the musics of today), and I thought his monologue was dire, but he relaxed a bunch during the sketches and did pretty well.
Vintage SNL this week was Jon Hamm and Coldplay from ‘08, and it might have been the best episode of this century. You’ve got the sex offender Halloween sketch, the best Vincent Price sketch, and Jon Hamm’s john ham, so three all-timers in the same show. Plus “Ras Trent,” probably a top 20 digital short, two A-holes visit Mad Men, a better-than-I-remembered cold open, and the added weirdness that Amy Poehler was in labor while the show aired.
Strong review man. Lots of growth shown between this and your previous ones. Especially glad you mentioned how it was fairly punching both political parties. Something Dennis wouldn’t have done. Keep it up.
they need to let that unfunny asian fellow go. he hasn’t done a funny thing yet and he’s been on the show for what feels like ten, maybe twenty years. end this travesty, there has to be another funny gay and/or asian somewhere to fill that quota
He did solid. The AA meeting was pure gold especially “I drank recently by the way” and yeah some other sketches fell flat but overall a decent episode. Sarah is hilariously annoying as Joy and the view sketch was funny too. I give it a 6.8/10
They are the perfect blend of pop culture and serious issues colliding, which was once the point of SNL.
SNL: “Cheezburger, cheezburger, cheezburger!”