December 2, 2017 – Saoirse Ronan / U2 (S43 E7)

Before we start, I just wanted to say hi, everybody! I’m Matt, and I’ll be your reviewer for the evening, and also some future evenings. I was never a frequent commenter on Stooge’s blog and have existed along the outskirts of the online SNL community, but I’ve been a frequent observer, and I’m pumped (and just a lil bit terrified) to step into the ring! Working on this project with all of these other amazing writers, and being able to carry out the legacy of Stooge’s work, is an opportunity I feel so lucky to be a part of. I look forward to meeting all of ya!

SPIRIT OF TRUMP’S PAST
sins revisit Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) a la A Christmas Carol ghosts

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— While I have been watching the show weekly for the past decade and am as fatigued by Trumpwin as any person could possibly be, I haven’t been watching along with Stooge’s reviews. It’ll be interesting to see if engaging with this cold open in a vacuum will cause me to respond to it more leniently.
— Baldwin is milking the hell out of that face he makes when playing Trump as he’s “thinking on the past year” (second screencap).
— The cold open reveals itself to be a parody of A Christmas Carol, because when SNL doesn’t know how to create a cold open, it conflates satire with parody. At least it allows for a change in direction.
— I feel that having Baldwin impersonate Trump making fun of that handicapped reporter isn’t reading as any less questionable than Trump doing it himself.
— Nice enough walk-on from Cecily’s Melania Trump, one of the few impressions in these cold opens that generally works.
— A weird, crowd-pleasing, and poorly-aged cameo from Kate’s Hillary Clinton as “The Ghost from Christmas Future.” Kate also appeared at the top of the cold open as Kellyanne Conway; while we haven’t quite hit the point where she takes over countless unwarranted political impressions just because she’s Kate, the favoritism is pretty clearly growing.
— Overall, far from the worst cold open for this era, but nothing good either.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
host sings a tricky song meant to clear up the pronunciation of her name

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— Fun to see Saoirse hosting the show after she previously appeared in the audience of the Gerard Butler episode from Season 35 (visible during the inaugural “What’s Up With That?” sketch).

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— Saoirse: “It is so great to be here hosting the St. Patrick’s Day episode of Saturday Night Live!”
— Leslie makes a fun walk-on, though the joke of her cousin being named “Inertia” is pretty hacky.
— I’m not usually the biggest fan of musical monologues (even if I don’t loathe them as much as Stooge or most people), but I really enjoy the conceit of this one, and Saoirse’s overcomplicated tune about how her name should be pronounced is pretty catchy.
— Kate, upon getting Saoirse’s song right: “Of course I got it, I’m fluent in nonsense. It’s my sixth season, do you know how many raccoons I’ve played on the show?” Nice little nod to Kate playing a raccoon in that “A Magical Christmas” sketch from the S40 Amy Adams episode, even if she’s only technically played a raccoon once.
— Fun walk-ons from Aidy and especially Beck, who’s always great at playing himself as a dopey goon. His interjections in the final rendition of the song are fantastic.
STARS: ***½

FLORIBAMA SHORE
Floribama Shore- young drunken idiots intend to ride out Hurricane Irma

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— I love all of the character introductions in this sketch, especially Mikey’s “My name’s Kyler, and I’m a piece of s***!” and Heidi’s “My name’s Epcot, I was born in the Chinese part of Epcot Center. My favorite food is gum!”
— Fun, small detail of Luke’s character being 41. This is also his first big sketch appearance, having co-written it with office-mate and future cast member Andrew Dismukes. This episode is actually one of two this season that would’ve prominently featured him, but there were a handful of late cuts (even this one was shortened by a minute and a half between dress and live) and his other big sketch in this episode is… one we will get to in a bit.
— Hilarious reveal after the spat between Heidi and Aidy’s characters that both of their fathers are Hulk Hogan.
— Chris gets great mileage out of playing the one straight man who is freaking out about shooting the show during Hurricane Irma.
— Fantastic moment with Luke suddenly being gorily struck in the chest by a stop sign.
— Luke, post-impalement: “I HAD PRE-MARITAL SEX! WHAT IF HELL IS REAL?!”
— Underrated, fantastic sketch, and a great display of Luke’s skills as a cast member.
STARS: ****½

ACTION 9 NEWS AT 5 – EYE ON PHOENIX
explosion brings attention to (MID)’s odd presence at American Girl Store

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— A spiritual successor to the great “Matt Shatt” sketch from the S42 premiere, though this is a bit of an odd sketch considering that character would later be brought back in the S45 J-Lo episode.
— Some humor from Mikey alternating between trying to hide his obsession with American Girl Dolls and going on detailed digressions about them. I feel like this sketch suffers in how it retraces too much of the original, though (down to Kenan as the reporter and Cecily, Beck, and Leslie as newspeople). This era of the show leans a lot less on recurring characters so much as recurring concepts, and it can be a bit of a mixed bag even if this one is enjoyable as a standalone piece.
STARS: ***

WELCOME TO HELL
“Welcome to Hell”- music video highlights the impact of bad male behavior

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— One of the final female-led musical ensemble sketches of this era, and a rare non-Kelly/Schneider one at that.
— Aidy: “Oh, this ain’t a girl group, we just travel in a pack for safety.”
— Saoirse: “My dad gave me a pink gun, so… there’s a lot there.”
— The writing alternates between biting satire and basically stating truths about the subject matter, but I appreciate the piece a lot as a whole. There’s a nice, cathartic feel to it and, along with the Debette Goldry pieces, it’s interesting to see SNL’s commentary and shifting focuses at the beginning of the #MeToo era.
— The cutaways to Melissa are pretty fun, though I wish she could’ve gotten greater involvement in this sketch given how musically-inclined she is. Wouldn’t be the first time that poor Melissa is kept at arm’s length from one of these sketches, though at least she gets to join in on the final chorus.
— Leslie’s walk-on here feels a bit like damage control for the sketch’s central conceit, though I also get how she would look a bit odd being involved from the start.
— Solid moment listing everything that has been ruined for women, including walking and vans.
STARS: ****

RETURN COUNTER
Kmart clerk (MID) fields a series of unreasonable customer complaints

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— There’s a shockingly large amount of ensemble sketches in this episode, and I really appreciate how much it feels like there’s a conscious effort to balance roles out across cast members, especially given how as the cast grows more and more bloated in this era, ensemble sketches become less and less common.
— Kyle is fun as a guy at the return counter loudly trying to return Magnum Condoms for not being big enough for him.
— The audience seems very uncomfortable at the scene between Chris and Saoirse as his abrasive girlfriend. While I’m not fully against it, it does feel kinda distracting given the whackier vibe that the rest of the characters in this sketch have.
— Cecily is fun as a white trash woman trying to cancel Mikey through Facebook Live. (“That’s racial discrimination!” “Racial? You’re white!” “You don’t know that!”) I recall that her phone was actually recording the scene and that it was posted on SNL’s social media somewhere.
— Kate’s chewing scenery as an old woman character, but Cecily re-entering the scene and saying that Mikey killed her gave me a good laugh.
STARS: ***½

THE RACE
(KYM) regains confidence to literally run errands for boss (Greta Gerwig)

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— Ooh, a Kyle/Beck pre-tape I’ve always loved that I feel has slipped through the cracks of their oeuvre.
— The aesthetic and mood of this pre-tape feel like some weird, ‘90s TV/direct-to-video movie, a well that Kyle and Beck surprisingly haven’t pulled from a ton outside of here.
— A Greta Gerwig cameo. While she has a connection to Saoirse, having directed the movie that she’s hosting the show to promote (Lady Bird), it’s definitely an unexpected person to make an appearance, and indeed her cameo is met by a lack of clear recognition from the audience.
— The sketch’s hook of an office pecking order being dictated by how fast you can move is so stupid and specific, but everyone’s commitment and the more low-key nature of the writing is selling the HELL out of it.
— The shots of rips in the characters’ pants representing gruesome injuries is hilarious.
— Saoirse: “Who’s to say you can’t run fast again?” Kyle: “And risk getting another hole in my pants? I’d rather fucking kill myself.”
— Beck, Chris, and Alex’s characters running off in a single-file line is such a fantastic detail.
— I love the incredibly short training sequence, consisting of Kyle walking down the hallway in a straight line once.
— Another great detail in this sketch, with the gun Saoirse’s character firing to commence the race being actually loaded.
— Saoirse being revealed to be a ghost, and Kyle being relayed that information by a bootleg Mac and Me puppet, is such a perfect ending to the scene, and I love how Greta’s character addresses it in a very deadpan way after the fact.
— Overall, one of my favorite forgotten Kyle/Beck pretapes.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “American Soul”

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— Matt: Interesting to see the performance prefaced by an animated sequence narrated over by Kendrick Lamar, which almost salvages the performance from being a modern-day U2 song.
— Blue: My U2 fandom was waning by the time this SNL performance came around, but I still found time to watch these performances the day after they aired. I don’t remember them much, though.
— Always a band for theatrics, U2 opens with animated imagery of the song’s featured guest, Kendrick Lamar, performing the spoken-word interlude that opens this song. A very well-done sequence.
— Bono announces himself with a megaphone. Somehow that seems fitting.
— There’s a certain “heaviness” to the recorded version of this song that’s not present here. Probably a poor mixing decision.
— The recorded noise at the beginning gets cut off abruptly via a subtle cue from Bono. A fade-out might have suited the performance better.
— Is The Edge providing live backing vocals? I can’t tell if there’s a mic set on him or not. Either way, the backing vocals are mixed far too low.
— Okay, there’s definitely some pre-recorded vocals on the chorus. Speaking of the chorus, I always felt “You and I are rock and roll!” was a pretty lazy lyric. Especially considering U2 had previously used that line on their last album.
— And there’s a shot of Edge singing. Still wish his vocals were mixed higher.
— Whoa, the short spoken word section before the final chorus came out of nowhere. I don’t remember ever hearing that before.
— Something felt lackluster about this performance. Maybe because I’m so used to the recorded song, maybe because the song’s not a very strong offering in the first place. I do like the main riff and the onscreen imagery, though. Bono’s voice also seemed to be in good shape, which is not always the case nowadays.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
Theresa May (KAM) directs low-key Twitter shade at other world leaders

Greg & Shelly moved beyond Kama Sutra to injurious sexual positions

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— Che has a weird stumble here where he seems aware that he misread one of his punchlines and then murmurs it out very weakly, though he recovers from it pretty well.
— The debut of Kate’s Theresa May impression.
— I’m not sure how much I can comment on the politics or accuracy of this piece, but I enjoy Kate’s Theresa delivering very chaste and succinct messages of disapproval towards Trump and other world leaders as vicious social media take-downs. The written material is a bit one-note on paper but Kate is doing a good job of selling everything in a very understated fashion.
— I like Colin describing every week’s new batch of outed sexual predators as like having to announce Powerball numbers.
— Michael: “According to a new study, dogs are smarter than cats, but I dunno, I’ve never heard of a cat falling for the peanut butter trick.”
— The second and final appearance of Mikey and Leslie as the Duncans.
— The use of visuals for Mikey and Leslie’s one-sided sex positions is adding a nice new layer to the bit. I’m enjoying this outing as much as their last, though it was probably smart not to do any further segments.
— A commentary featuring Luke Null as a Suits superfan angry that Meghan Markle was leaving the show was cut at dress rehearsal. More on all of that later.
STARS: ***½

BACHELOR AUCTION
pool boy Chad is inexplicable hit at bachelor auction; John McEnroe cameo

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— It’s worth noting that it was recently stated in an interview that this wasn’t originally a Chad sketch at all but was made into one later into its development. While that risks over-saturation with the character, it certainly feels like a novelty seeing Chad appear in a live sketch where he gets to showcase more personality than usual.
— I like the structure of this sketch a lot, with each of Chad’s “secret talents” causing the women bidders to become more and more enamored with him.
— I love everyone standing and bidding five hundred thousand dollars in unison after Chad does his impression of Jim Carrey as the Grinch.
— Kenan appearing as an eccentric millionaire who bids ten million to have Chad cleaned and taken to his lounge got mixed reception when this episode came out, if I recall correctly, but I’ve always thought it was an amusing twist.
— Incredibly random John McEnroe cameo, but he’s always fun on the show and it’s amusing enough seeing him copy Chad’s “doink-doink” dance.
— A solid sketch overall. Considering that the Chad formula can get a bit stale after a while, I appreciated SNL fashioning a truly unique sketch out of the character which, up to this point, I’d consider his best return appearance.
STARS: ***½

LATE FOR CLASS
on his first day of school, (LUN)’s jerky behavior is a miscalculation

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— Hoo boy, one of the most divisive sketches of the past decade and Luke Null’s most notorious sketch appearance in his one season.
— God, the pain of watching this sketch feels a lot like the fake-out in the “Jheri’s Place” sketch from the Dave Chappelle episode, but it feels even more difficult to watch. Whereas that sketch’s opening comes across as lame and sloppy more than anything else, the complete lack of audience response to Luke’s (deliberately) unlikable character feels ghastly, even knowing the direction it’s about to take.
— Luckily, Kenan immediately wins the audience’s favor back like an old pro, setting this sketch back on the right track with the reveal that Luke’s character did all of this on his first day of school without knowing who anybody in the class was, or what the class even is.
— Kyle’s character dryly clarifying that he’s wearing a yarmulke, not a “yarmulke-dot-comica,” gave me a laugh.
— Alex steals this sketch as the janitor who tells Luke’s character that he can find his wife at New Haven Cemetery, and I love his deathly stare at Luke as he exits the classroom.
— Decent reveal that the name of Luke’s character is “Brody Chode,” and an alright ending with Beck’s character.
— Okay, so we definitely have to talk about the circumstances of this sketch. A large part of the issue is that this is Luke’s first major role in a live sketch, and by this point in his tenure, he has not earned the audience’s trust ANYWHERE NEAR enough to make it through the opening two minutes without it reflecting roughly on him. And it’s really shitty because, as Luke would reveal in a Reddit AMA, he was far more involved in sketches during the episode’s dress rehearsal, including an Update piece directly before this sketch in the rundown, which allowed him to make a better introduction to the audience and for this sketch to land more confidently. Despite the fact that he performs this incredibly well, and despite that the sketch was penned for him by the Day/Seidell writing team (way to screw the newbie over, by the way), it was cited as a frequent example for how ill-fitting of a cast member Luke is. Plus, even if I think the sketch itself is great and appreciably conceptual for this era of the show, it’s a massive flaw for what’s supposed to be a Luke Null showcase sketch that Luke goes from playing an unlikable douchebag to the straight man of the scene who never gets to actually win back the audience or get any laughs. Fuck SNL for burying one of their first-season cast members like this, honestly; all of that makes this one feel like a bit of a bummer to revisit.
— So in summary and in summation, #Justice4LukeNull.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get Out Of Your Own Way”

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— Blue: Bono makes it clear he’s addressing the song to America. U2 have always had a knack for twisting personal songs into something outward-looking and more far-reaching.
— This song has always had a very comforting sound to me. The layers of backing vocals (most pre-recorded) add to that effect.
— Much better mixing on this one. The bass sounds full and heavy.
— Even the vocals are sounding better (though Bono doesn’t quite reach the lowest notes). Edge’s singing in particular is strong.
— I kind of want another guitar on this song to keep the full sound when Edge takes his solo.
— The return of the megaphone. I never understood why “American Soul” and “Get Out of Your Own Way” were played in this order, when Kendrick Lamar’s verse links the two on the album, and Bono is reciting his verse which was already played at the beginning of “American Soul.” Must have been the desire for an attention-grabbing opener.
STARS: ***

AER LINGUS
Aer Lingus stewardesses (host), (CES), (AIB) make preflight announcements

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— I liked Cecily and Saoirse going on a long spiel about the word that “Aer Lingus” sounds like before Cecily directly says the word is “cunnilingus.”
— Is there an Irish stereotype involving dogs? There is a TON of dog focus in this sketch, and it’s working quite well for me, though I’ve never heard of any correlation between the Irish and dogs before.
— Aidy’s brief appearance as another stewardess announcing all the food on the plane to be potatoes is hacky, but Aidy is charming enough to sell it pretty well.
— Kate’s air traffic controller: “The dog on the runway was the captain’s dog. I knew it was him by his soul, and the information on his tags.”
— A bit of an abrupt ending.
— When this sketch aired, it actually attracted a fair amount of controversy for being offensive and “racist” against the Irish, to the point that Aer Lingus made a tongue-in-cheek tweet about it and Saoirse would have to defend it a handful of times, revealing that she wanted to do at least one Ireland-themed sketch in her episode. Personally, I thought it wasn’t too bad, though it was far from special.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode that I’ve always thought was pretty under-appreciated, with no bad sketches aside from the cold open (and even that was at least a bit creative). Saoirse was a wonderful, committed host who melded with the cast wonderfully, especially in the episode’s many ensemble pieces.

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Race
Floribama Shore
Welcome to Hell
Late for Class
Bachelor Auction
Weekend Update
Return Counter
Monologue
Action 9 News at 5 – Eye on Phoenix
Aer Lingus
Spirit of Trump’s Past

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

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TOMORROW
Vax Novier pens his first write-up, and the S43 #MeToo wackiness continues with fourth-time host James Franco