January 27, 2018 – Will Ferrell / Chris Stapleton (S43 E12)

by Anthony

GEORGE W. RETURNS
George W. Bush (WIF) reminds America that he was a really bad president

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— Always great to see Ferrell’s Dubya.
— Some tepid laughs at first, but Ferrell always makes it work with this impression.
— Great turn with Bush announcing he’s come to remind Americans he was a really bad president. I especially love how he describes his presidency as “like, historically not good”. That’s a phrase that’s oddly stuck with me over the years.
— Good biting line with Dubya’s “who has two thumbs and created ISIS? This guy!”
— Dubya’s use of the word “economer” is another phrase that has stuck with me since this aired (in fact, the two phrases I mentioned almost convinced me to bump the grade here up half a star, but I concede those moments are probably only be special to me).
— The bit comparing Pence and Cheney is really strong.
— Some of Dubya’s malaprops tonight, like “Trump synthesizer” or “Fire and Furbies” (instead of Fire & Fury) are pretty lame.
— Leslie’s performance here is actually a good representation of her tenure as a cast member to me. She badly stumbles over her very first line, which is frustrating in a way her (seemingly) lazily rehearsed performances are. However, her Edith Bunker impression mere moments later is hilarious and wins me back over to her side. Which is pretty much how I feel about Leslie overall: I wish she put in a bit more effort to the technical aspects of her work, but in terms of pure laughs you can’t ask for a much better cast member. I feel similarly about Farley in his last 2 seasons (though, to show how dramatic the fall off was for Farley in those last two seasons, I’d say Leslie’s nowhere near as messy a performer as he was in 19/20, while also being nowhere near as polished a performer as he was in 16-18).
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
concussed & bleeding WIF sings nonsense about being excited to be on SNL

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— Will’s affable announcement that he hit his head on a steel beam made me laugh.
— I feel like we could get a bit more makeup on Will here to indicate his injury than the little line of red paint he gets here. It doesn’t have to be some grotesque Massive Head Wound Harry-esque effect (though I certainly wouldn’t complain) but what we get feels a little weak sauce.
— A musical monologue like this seems like a waste of Will’s talents, but at least we have the concussion angle to make this a little more interesting.
— Bit more makeup now with a gaping wound on the back of Will’s head (good reveal of that with Will’s little spin).
— This is getting a bit more fun now with Will messing with audience members and acting increasingly loopy.
— A solid laugh from Will randomly singing the Men’s Warehouse slogan.
— Another big laugh from Will introducing an audience member played by writer Sam Jay as Lorne. That’s followed by another big laugh when Will promptly labels Lorne “the rudest man in show business!”
— Funny line from Will thinking Matchbox 20 is the musical guest (surprisingly, they never were).
— A solid monologue. I think a bit more could have been done with the premise, but Will sold it well, and, as I mentioned several times above, there were a solid amount of laughs.
— “You guys do too many song monologues, you know that?” “Yea, we know.”
STARS: ***½

CLOWN PENIS
Clown Penis (WIF) is less skilled than his fellow ace jet fighter pilots

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— I remember really not caring for this sketch when this episode aired, but I’ll try to go in with an open mind.
— “Clown like the circus, penis like your penis.”
— A decently funny description of why Ferrell’s character chose the name Clown Penis.
— As a side note, some of these Serpas descriptions really don’t give an accurate representation of the sketch huh? Just something that always bugged me a little. In his defense on this particular sketch though, it’s a bit hard to see what the overall purpose is. The interludes with Ferrell being poor at flying are kind of funny but disconnected from the main premise. The problem is the main premise isn’t heightened much beyond its initial idea of “wouldn’t it be funny if a pilot in the air force had a silly/dirty call sign?” Once the joke of Ferrell’s name is introduced, and you get his justification for it, you can feel the sketch struggling to justify its existence past that point. This is indicative of a problem I have with some of the Seiday sketches, as they sometimes never escalate past “characters react to odd person/thing.” Which feels more like some people’s idea of what sketch comedy is than what it actually is.
— My fellow reviewer Matthew reminded me this isn’t SNL’s first “Clown Penis” sketch, as there was the “clownpenis.fart” ad with Chris Parnell from the Season 25 premiere. I MUCH prefer that sketch, and a big part of the reason is because it doesn’t make the mistake this sketch does of trying to get multiple minutes out of it’s silly premise.
— After this sketch aired the Air Force actually issued a statement clarifying that a pilot wouldn’t really have that call sign. As far as I know, however, NASA never issued a correction to any of Harry Caray’s claim, so we can still assume the moon is made of spare ribs.
STARS: **

THE HOUSE
movie night leads to drama for (BEB), (KYM), (WIF), (TRM)

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— The third and final installment of this recurring sketch.
— Two minutes in and, while I’m still getting some laughs, I’m finding this to be too similar to the two previous installments. 
— Hilarious random Tracy Morgan cameo.
— Pretty solid tag at the end. The kid cursing was a little broad for me, though.
STARS: ***1/2

COMMERCIAL SHOOT
old couple (WIF) & (KAM) flubs lines during restaurant commercial shoot

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— Oh boy. This looks like it’ll just be an excuse for Will & Kate to mug for a few minutes. Watching this after the end of Kate’s 9th season, I doubt I’ll have much patience, but I’ll try to keep an open mind again.
— Not a particularly inspired premise.
— Yea, I’m not getting any laughs from Will’s repeated wrong attempts at saying the line “baked in a crispy pastry crust.” And as expected, we’re getting quite a bit of mugging from Kate (though not quite as much as I was worried about).
— Okay, I chuckled at Will saying “baked in my bra in and ass”.
— Oh look at that, Will’s character was able to say the line right when the cameras weren’t rolling. I’m sure he’ll be able to nail the scene this time then.
— Repeat my sarcastic bit about not being ahead of the joke for this part for where Kate takes over from Will as the one to try to say the line.
— Will and Kate saying “Yahtzee ISIS queef” in unison was… something, I guess.
— Overall, God, what a lazy and predictable sketch. 
— Apparently this is sketch is inspired a real-life video of an elderly couple having trouble repeating the phrase “baked in a buttery, flaky crust”. Watching the actual video, it’s far funnier and more charming than the sketch it inspired. I originally had this at *½, but if it can’t even top the video it’s mocking, I don’t see it’s purpose at all really.
STARS: * 

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS 
(WIF)’s atheist interjections spoil fellow flight attendants’ safety rap

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— The Southern accents make me wonder if this is an Anderlette sketch, though I can’t find that information online. I know for a fact Anderson co-wrote the reality stars sketch later tonight, as that info is online (and also because come on).
— It’s sad that the beatboxing from Luke here is (if I recall correctly) the only real showcase of his musical skills we’ll see this season.
— Lmao at the reactions of the two extras in the front row in the third screencap above.
— Not super sure about this premise, but I like everyone’s performances here.
— I like Leslie as a passenger on the plane getting into Ferrell’s nihilistic outlook.
— While I appreciated what this sketch was going for, I can’t say it really did all that much for me. Boy, this is a disappointing first half for an episode hosted by an SNL great (though Ferrell’s weirdly only had one above average hosting outing IMO, the season 34 finale).
STARS: **½

NEXT: FOR MEN
antiperspirant stops the sweat of men accused of sexual harassment

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— SNL continuing to mine humor from the #MeToo movement.
— Alex is especially good here at playing a mix of smarmy and creepy.
— Probably not the best sketch to comment on actors’ looks, but Alex and Melissa both look great in their red carpet attire.
— Pretty good button with Beck’s announcer being outed as a predator.
— A solid satirical piece. While not especially funny, it was certainly well written and produced.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Midnight Train To Memphis”

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— Anthony: Given that Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson are just about the only guys in modern country I can stand, this was actually one of my favorite recent country performances on the show.
— Blue: I always thought of Chris Stapleton as an acoustic country guy, so this rocking electric intro is pleasantly unexpected.
— This is reminding me a bit of Jack White.
— Nice bassline! Love how it doubles Sturgill Simpson’s guitar licks. They’re locked in well with each other.
— Sturgill sings the second verse. I prefer Chris’ voice, but he’s not a bad singer.
— Chris is really digging in on those gritty vocals.
— That was awesome! Not at all what I expected.
Stars: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob Silj laments that voice immodulation is not a respected disability

teen Bailey Gismert (HEG) ports emotion-laden movie reviews from YouTube

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— Michael’s Stephen Miller jokes are hilarious.
— Unexpected but completely welcome return from Jacob Silj, an underrated character from Will’s tenure. This is this character’s first appearance since Renee Zellweger’s episode in season 26.
— Ferrell seems to be playing Silj as more stilted than abrasively loud this time around, but it’s still mostly working for me.
— Pretty good interaction with Silj and Che now after a racist comment from Silj.
— Great ending to Silj’s commentary with him suddenly having a normal voice out of nowhere. As far as I can remember, this bit was never used in any of his original commentaries, surprisingly (I mean, Futaba got this punchline out of the way in his first sketch – not that I want to praise Futaba too heavily).
— After Jost says “go Giants!” in regards to the then upcoming Super Bowl between the Eagles and Patriots, I laughed at Che chuckling to himself “go where?”
— The debut of Heidi’s teen movie reviewer Bailey Gismert.
— I’ve always been a bit mixed on this character. I think the characterization from Heidi is very strong and specific, but in service of a bit I never find particularly funny.
— Maybe it’s because it’s the first installment, but I’m actually finding this particular installment funnier than I usually find these.
— The crying bit is really funny/impressive, and was one of the first things I remember Heidi doing that made me really take notice of her.
— Heidi’s delivery when Bailey stresses over having to bowl with her dad is especially funny.
— When Heidi stumbles over the word ‘Quebec’ she does a good job keeping the mistake in character and making it seem like a realistic part of Bailey’s hysterics.
— Always been a bit mixed on the gag of Bailey saying something controversial right as her segment ends.
STARS: ****

REALITY STARS
reality TV stars (WIF) & (CES) get ugly for camera at friends’ barbecue

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— Pretty funny look for Will and Cecily’s characters.
— From the get go, Cecily seems to be having trouble not breaking as this character.
— Yea, this mostly seems to be an excuse for Will and Cecily to be super broad. And as I mentioned, in the “Flight Attendants” review, this is a VERY Anderlette sketch.
— Matthew came in clutch with another bit of info here, letting me know this sketch was originally going to be in the Jimmy Fallon episode from the previous season with Jimmy in Will’s role, but was cut.
— By the time we get to Cecily’s confrontation of Kate & Aidy (especially in the third to last screencap above), the three of them appear to not even be trying to keep it together. Will doesn’t fare much better when he gets involved.
— I did laugh at Will threatening to hit Mikey with his dog.
— Overall, this didn’t particularly work for me, and the corpsing made me care for it even less. I tend to run hot and cold on breaking, and in this sketch it landed more on the frustrating / distracting side to me than the endearing side.
STARS: **

DINNER DISCUSSION
three couples’ conversation tiptoes around sexual politics of Aziz Ansari

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— This feels like a Che piece. Like the South Park guys, he has a tendency to focus his satire a lot of times on people’s reactions to important issues rather than the issues themselves. And like the South Park guys, I often find his results extremely hit or miss. We’ll see how it pays off here.
— The women being equally uncomfortable to the men seems like a bit of an odd detail. The #MeToo movement is certainly a very dicey subject, and I understand why anyone would feel nervous about saying the wrong thing, but in my experience women are much less worried about that when it comes to this particular topic than men.
— The dinner party’s reluctance to talk about Aziz Ansari is giving me some solid laughs.
— Will’s repeated “oh no”s when Beck is about to say a particularly controversial statement are funny.
— The ridiculous things the couples are doing in reaction to Beck’s statement are pretty funny. Some decent surreal humor here.
— The couples’ horrified reaction to Kenan bringing up race was funny, and should have been where the sketch ended.
— The montage of crazy reactions feel like it’s trying too hard, especially by including time lapsed footage of a decomposing fox.
— Bit mixed on both the #MeToo pieces tonight. Thought this had a few more laughs while Next: For Men was stronger satirically.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hard Livin'”

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— Blue: Another smoky Southern rock track that Chris et. al. are killing.
— This band is so tight and talented.
— Having a hard time concentrating on this review when watching Sturgill play.
—Chris is holding his own, taking the first guitar solo. Love the way it ended on those hard, metallic sixteenth notes.
— I was expecting a full solo from Sturgill, but he only played a few notes on the outro. I guess the first song spoiled us.
STARS: ****

OFFICE BREAKDOWN
(WIF) gets defensive after confusing Crate & Barrel with Cracker Barrel

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— Lot of material for newbies tonight. Sigh. It feels weird to long for the ‘good ol days’ of a season from 3 years I’m pretty lukewarm on, but here we are.
— Not sure about this premise. Lotta iffy premises tonight.
— Will’s repeated offended interjections are only mildly funny, but I’m getting more laughs out of them than I have from a lot of the material tonight.
— I like Will now throwing wild accusations at his co-workers to try and embarrass them.
— There’s an odd energy to this that I enjoy. Apparently this is a collaboration between Julio Torres and James Anderson, two wildly different voices that I find tend to actually go down surprisingly well together.
— After Will walks off with the water cooler jug, I got a huge laugh out of him just squatting outside the door and staring at his co-workers.
— I liked the reveal at the end that Will and Cecily’s character are married.
STARS: ***½

CHUCKY LEE BYRD
box set features classic rock & roll of pedophile Chucky Lee Byrd (WIF)

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— Our third #MeToo sketch of the night, though this one is more tangentially related and doesn’t directly bring it up.
— Apparently this was written by Che and a lil baby Dismukes.
— Pretty funny parody of the weird trope in classic rock to sing about teenage girls.
— Some pretty risky humor for this era, but it’s paying off well.
— Beck’s doing some solid work here as the oblivious salesman. And credit to Kate, she’s playing his baffled partner well (though not as well as someone like Kristen or Aidy would, SNL’s two champions of quiet indignation).
— Lots of laughs from the list of Chucky’s B-Sides.
— The gag of the girls ages in the lyrics getting progressively younger is possibly in poor taste but is making me laugh.
— Interesting to have a late reveal in this sketch that Will is Beck’s grandpa after the previous sketch ended with the reveal of Will being Cecily’s husband.
— Funny reveal that these songs are all from the 80’s.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A slightly below average episode, and a disappointingly forgettable one for Ferrell. While I don’t mind that the recurring characters and cameos from Will’s era were, for the most part, kept to a minimum (in fact, one of the only things I actually do really like about this episode is it’s quieter nature for an episode hosted by an alum and that it’s mostly about Will interacting with the new cast) what we got in their place just felt a bit too low energy, with a mix of over and (mostly) under written sketches. The night started and ended well, but a lot of what we got in the middle felt off.
— I’m not sure where it would rank with Ferrell’s hosted episodes. His S34 outing is far and away his most successful. Despite appearing in the middle of such a flawed season, I’d call his S30 episode my next favorite. After that, it gets a bit harder to figure. His S37 episode has the highest highs and lowest lows of his remaining 3, and his S45 is the most frustrating one (as I’ll get into a few months from now in John’s review of that episode, since he’s very graciously agreed to let me write a guest review for the cut sketch “Cast List”, a favorite of mine). As it stands, I’d certainly call this one his most forgettable at least.

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
George W Returns
Weekend Update
Chucky Lee Byrd
The House
Office Breakdown
Monologue
Next: For Men
Dinner Discussion
Flight Attendants
Reality Stars
Clown Penis
Commercial Shoot

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

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Want more Will Ferrell content? Check out our breakdown of his Best Of special here.

TOMORROW
Matthew takes a look as Natalie Portman returns 12 years after her hosting debut.