October 6, 2018 – Awkwafina / Travis Scott (S44 E2)

by Matt

BRETT KAVANAUGH POST-GAME
victorious GOP locker room celebrates Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation

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— It feels refreshing, as always, to see a cold open without any cameos in these seasons of the show. Bonus points to SNL for finding something of a unique premise with the subject matter as well, reporting from the Republican “locker room” post-nomination instead of one of its usual cold open formats.
— The debut of Beck’s doughy-faced Mitch McConnell impression. While I enjoy his appearance here well enough, all of his subsequent appearances (especially once SNL starts grasping at jokes about him being a turtle) will probably play out to diminishing returns.
— An extended applause break for Kate’s returning (and very meh) Lindsey Graham impression.
— Cecily debuts her occasionally-recurring Susan Collins, one of her more solid impressions in these later seasons. I also love Kyle loudly celebrating her being their only “girl.”
— Aidy additionally reprises her Rachel Mitchell impression; given how much it feels like this cold open is pulling from the cast of last week’s, I’m very much enjoying how different the context feels. Even if it’s still just an okay cold open, that’s leagues above where my expectations are set with this stuff, and there’s some decent bite to this piece.
— Fun, brief appearance from Alex’s Chuck Schumer getting a nut tap from Joe Manchin (the one Democrat who voted yes on Kavanaugh).
— A very inspired background detail of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” playing in the locker room.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
Asian but not-rich host thanks Lucy Liu for inspiring her

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— Awkwafina: “I was gonna come out dressed like a water bottle, but… apparently someone did that last week.”
— This is the first of this season’s many solo monologues, a trend that will continue into present day to occasionally mixed effect. Awkwafina is coming off incredibly charming here, though, and I enjoy the conversational, comfortable tone she’s bringing to the material. This also notably marks the first bit of then-writer and future cast member Bowen Yang’s material to make it into the live show.
— A cute moment when Awkwafina acknowledges one audience member laughing particularly hard at one of her jokes.
— I feel like at this point I should mention why I was so eager to immediately jump at the chance to review this episode, especially considering its relatively low standing among fans of the show. This is an incredibly meaningful episode to me because it was an episode that I was fortunate enough to attend the live taping of through the standby line, and you can even see me in the audience here:

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— But the reason I went to see this show in the first place is because, as a Chinese-American, I felt like I had to be there for the first time I could see someone like me host the show since Lucy Liu almost 18 years before. I also couldn’t help but be struck by Awkwafina’s heartfelt recounting of how, when Liu hosted, she waited outside of 30 Rock just to be near the building when it happened. The fact that I could do the same for her, and that I actually got into the episode, was an experience that I will never forget; most poignantly, I remember tearing up a bit when that first photo bumper of her appeared before the post-monologue sketch, and how everything hit me at that moment. With that being said, for however deep my nostalgia for this episode is, I’ll try to evaluate it fairly, and while I have my biases, I hope to justify them intelligently. 
STARS: ***½

LATE NIGHT BATTLE
(host)’s squad wins dance battle by busting moves to game show themes

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— Kate seems to be making an interesting character choice as “Baby Tooth” in basically emulating Kyle’s voice and physicality, but it’s coming across as pretty fun and I like her lines.
— Kenan, as always, is able to sell any weird bit of dialogue, and I’m particularly tickled by his digression of their dance being served with a side of “amuse-bouche.”
— I find the conceit of the sketch, with Awkwafina’s dance crew dancing to classic game show themes, to be amusing but fairly one-note. I can’t help but feel like the material would work better if there was more organized choreography, because it feels like the stage directions lack the sort of commitment to make this one land as hard as it theoretically could. Some of the individual performances are offering laughs, though, especially Chris’, Kenan’s, and Leslie’s.
— Travis Scott makes a cameo at the end of this sketch, and against all odds, he manages to elevate everything significantly by being unfathomably committed, especially his amusing, erm, T-rex arm dance during the Match Game theme.
STARS: ***

CRICKET WIRELESS
Cricket Wireless customers are spared from Presidential alert messages

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— The material of this sketch is pretty low-hanging fruit, but I honestly find the sketch’s approximations of Trump tweets, relayed as presidential alerts, far funnier coming from cast members than Trumpwin. The format is allowing them to land for me pretty well.
— I absolutely love the presidential alert saying “September 11th was almost a month ago,” and Leslie’s bewildered and underplayed reaction of, “Is that even information?”
— The reveal of the entire pretape being an ad for Cricket Wireless, because their phones are so bad that they don’t even receive the alerts, is an inspired and perfect out.
STARS: ****

THE HIDDEN TALES OF EGYPT
The Hidden Tales of Egypt- (host) molds Cleopatra’s (CES) trademark look

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— Minor personal tidbit: I sat right above this sketch and spent the majority of it reading ahead of the cue cards. I was also bummed to discover that during the commercial break cut back to the studio, a piece of cloth suspended over the set for lighting effects completely obstructed me, haha.
— Fun, quick joke of a show on the History Channel called “World War II: Lost in New York.”
— The pun-laden dialogue is very hit-and-miss, but there are some enjoyable gags. I especially like Cleopatra ordering a vase that she was painted on “deleted” because it looks unflattering, as well as the way that Kenan threw it on the ground. With that being said, I don’t think the anachronistic nature of the sketch is something that has a ton of legs.
— Perhaps one of the more interesting notes about this sketch is the insanely quick make-up job that gets done on Cecily’s Cleopatra. SNL’s YouTube channel would later post a video about the make-up department showing how this was accomplished by frantically applying a rubber stamp fit to Cecily’s face during the sketch’s brief cutaway. 
— I understand what Alex’s appearance as Julius Caesar is making fun of but his bit didn’t land a ton for me.
— This one had its moments, but nothing to write home about.
STARS: **

TED CRUZ RALLY
at a rally, uncharismatic Ted Cruz (BEB) is a walking disaster

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— Beck takes over the Ted Cruz impression from Taran. His take isn’t any more compelling, though his casting feels right and I’m enjoying his conceptualization here as a horrifically uncharismatic black hole.
— A good gag with Cruz’s microphone falling apart in his hands, causing his voice to come through as heavily distorted.
— Another delightfully gross gag, with the confetti cannon shooting at a slimy lump of confetti that splats onto the floor.
— That’s all? I really enjoyed the direction of the sketch and all of its bits, but it feels like it went by way too quick and could have afforded to find more ways of highlighting Cruz’s lack of appeal. This could’ve been a real gem if it escalated some more.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, John Mayer & Kevin Parker [real] perform “Skeletons”

musical guest, John Mayer & Kevin Parker [real] perform “Astrothunder”

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— Blue: Hello, autotune. I guess it didn’t go out in the late 2000’s after all.
— Hello, Hofner Beatle bass, sounding very fuzzy.
— Hello… rotating carousel horse? Is that to make up for the lack of choreography or eye-catching visuals in this performance? (Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing—as I’ve mentioned before, sometimes flashy visuals detract from the actual performance of the song.)
— Here’s the second instance this season of “why not sing the pre-recorded vocals?” 
— I like the background “oh” part where I guess the chorus kicks in.
— Some of the synth work on “Astrothunder” is nice.
— Overall, this wasn’t really my thing; it bored me rather than entertained me.
— That was John Mayer on guitar????
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE
truncated Law & Order clip simulates cursory FBI probe of Brett Kavanaugh

text scroll lists words the GOP can use to fire up its base

Donald Jr. (MID) & Eric (ALM) are stumping for pa Trump before midterms

after his post-SNL rant, PED recommends Kanye West change his behavior

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— The fresh news of Kavanaugh being confirmed to the Supreme Court elicits boos from the audience, which feels pretty rare to hear. Colin and Michael are doing a great job of tearing into him as their opening salvo for this Update; I especially like Colin saying that although Kavanaugh got the lowest number of yes votes for a justice in history, “it’s also the most yeses Kavanaugh has ever heard.”
— I enjoyed the recreation of the FBI investigation on Kavanaugh using an abbreviated Law & Order scene.
— Michael repeatedly using Trump’s description of the “scary times” in America as a button on his own jokes is a lot of fun.
— A hilarious subversion of this era’s comically-quick list jokes, featuring an incredibly long list of buzzword concepts the GOP will use to fire up their base, including “Gender-neutral,” “Catheter discomfort,” “Barbie dolls with careers,” “Lena Dunham,” and “They don’t let you hit the quarterback anymore,” all set to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
— The return of Mikey and Alex’s Trump brothers, a bit that never gets old for me. Alex gets a lot of hilarious bits here, like freaking out over a fist bump explosion and repeatedly trying to tell an offensive joke his father told him (“He does all the voices”).
— While the puppet Donald uses to distract Eric isn’t the best toy from one of these segments, there’s something oddly charming about it, and I like to imagine that Mikey plays with his kids similarly to how he engaged with Alex here given the sort of warmth that the character beat has.
— Pete Davidson appears on Update for the second week in a row to discuss last episode’s Kanye West incident.
— Pete: “A lot of people thought that Che should be the one to talk about Kanye, but we discussed it, because Che’s Black, but like I’m crazy, and we both know which side of Kanye is at the wheel right now.”
— Along with Pete’s commentary on Staten Island from the S43 Chance episode, I’ve always found this to be one of his best and most charged correspondent pieces on Update, let alone one of the best things he’s done on the show. The SNL nerd in me is already on-board with him doing commentary on the batshit, back-stage antics from the previous week, but his commentary throughout the piece on mental health feels both scathing and deeply personal, qualities that Pete has always excelled at as a stand-up. This feels like Pete at his prime in this format.
— Great comparison between Kanye West as a musical genius, and Joey Chestnut as a hot dog eating genius: “I don’t want to hear Joey Chestnut’s opinion about things that aren’t hot dog-related.”
— Another fantastic analogy between Kanye and an airplane pilot announcing that the real him is flying the plane.
— A solid ending to Pete’s piece with his “Make Kanye 2006 Again” cap, and a wonderful correspondent piece to end this Weekend Update on a high note.
—Heidi’s Baskin Johns character was cut from dress rehearsal; she would go on to appear in next week’s episode.
STARS: ****

SO YOU’RE WILLING TO DATE A MAGICIAN?
So You’re Willing To Date A Magician- contestant (host) dislikes options

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— Immediately, Leslie (playing the host of this game show sketch) flubs the name of the game show, making her casting as this sketch’s anchor very questionable.
— The character details in this sketch are great, as are a lot of the characterizations. I’m especially enjoying Kenan, playing a magician who keeps requesting his props back, and Kyle as a hipster cabaret performer—spot-on casting for both of them.
— Awkwafina as the contestant: “It’s a cool party trick.” Kyle’s magician: “If only one could be… invited to a party.”
— God, right after Pete’s phenomenal Update piece, his acting in this sketch as a David Blaine-type feels super sloppy. While I’m prone to finding his and Leslie’s breaking to be charming on some occasions, it plays out too much to this piece’s detriment given how much of this sketch is detail-oriented, and how much breaking impedes on their line delivery.
— Alex and Heidi as an incestuous brother-sister duo is enjoyable, if the least thoughtful of the written characters.
— Awkwafina stifles her laughter patiently when Leslie starts to break a ton, a nice display of professionalism from a fairly unseasoned performer.
— Loved the reveal of Kyle’s magician being the waiter on Awkwafina’s date with Alex’s character. (“Waiting tables is my side-hustle, m’lady.” “It’s his main hustle.”)
— Weak ending. I actually think this sketch, as written, wasn’t bad, but the looseness of some of its central performances gave things a very sluggish feel. If those had been tightened up, I think this sketch would’ve landed a lot better.
STARS: **½

BABY SHOWER
at a baby shower, (host) is protective of oversensitive & childless (CES)

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— Alright, so here’s a very odd sketch. I feel like nobody likes this one, and truth be told, when I was in the audience of the live show, I didn’t like it that much either, considering it to be the weakest piece of the show. However, I became strangely determined to find some merit in it, and perhaps as a consequence of my weird, Stockholm Syndrome-adjacent relationship to it, I’ve fostered a greater appreciation of it than most, so hopefully I can speak on that.
— Awkwafina gets to do her most involved character work of the episode in this sketch, playing Cecily’s dog walker, Dee Dee. I really enjoy her performance in how lived-in it feels, using Awkwafina’s comedic energy better than most of the episode has, and I’m amused by a lot of her character details (like randomly holding a slice of pizza throughout the entire sketch).
— I got a good laugh out of Awkwafina’s character aimlessly trying to punch the bundle of balloons, and then ultimately throwing a flower out of a vase.
— Awkwafina’s blunt delivery of “Put that baby in the bedroom” is hilarious; something about the weird specificity of that line and her complete seriousness gets to me.
— Leslie breaking.
— While I fully get and will not argue against anyone who considers this to be another aimless Anderlette piece, I feel like this one works well enough as a character study that it’s powered by a respectable level of realism and direction, as well as strong performances from Cecily and Awkwafina. I won’t lie in saying, though, that if I were less personally-invested in this episode, I’d probably have a far weaker stance towards it.
STARS: ***

THE PUMPKIN PATCH
“The Pumpkin Patch”- workers (KYM), (host), (BEB) had sex with inventory

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— Another minor note from the live show: I recall quite a bit of the studio cracking up over Awkwafina’s weird little walk at the start of this sketch, but it doesn’t seem to have come through in the recording.
— An… interesting premise of Mikey accusing Kyle, Beck, and Awkwafina of performing indecent acts on jumbo pumpkins. I do like that the concept of the sketch quickly focuses more on their admissions of the acts they performed rather than evading responsibility, though.
— Chris, as always, kills with his brief reaction shot as the groundskeeper who “saw the entire thing.”
— Beck’s character getting distracted mid-discussion by a pumpkin with a gaping mouth gave me a solid laugh, especially with the hazy filter applied over the shot.
— Although a part of me wishes that Awkwafina’s character could have been more directly involved in the pumpkin-fucking shenanigans—a very incriminating sentence to type—I do like how her character repeatedly tries to make assurances about the situation that reflect even more poorly on Kyle and Beck, especially regarding how Beck wore a condom when performing the deed.
— I could have done without the “Happy Halloween from SNL” message at the end of this short (as if this could ever appear in a holiday special), but I did appreciate the mock-sentimental ending to this sketch, with Mikey filling their car trunk with extra-soft pumpkins.
STARS: ***½ 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sicko Mode”

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— Matt: Some really cool visuals in this performance. I believe it was the That Week in SNL podcast that commented that Travis’ musical numbers featured the sort of theatrics we were expecting out of Kanye last week, which I wholly agree with.
— Blue: This performance is starting off in a more interesting way than the last one, with a projection of DJ Screw on the back video screen performing the song’s intro. I like the ocean wave effect.
— The song sounds more interesting, too. Still not loving it, but it’s decent.
— Travis is now rapping while lying down on a rotating stage prop. What’s with this guy and things that rotate?
— I love the unconventional angle of the camera shooting Travis from the ceiling. Always fun to see something like that.
— Digging the holographic images.
— Oh, cool to see Travis actually playing something, and that synth is a great addition to the song. I’ll give him a pass on not singing the pre-recorded lines this time since he doesn’t have a free hand to hold the mic.
— I enjoyed this for the visuals more than the music, but since I liked the visuals so much, I’m giving it an extra star.
STARS: ***

WOMEN’S ROUND TABLE
Debette Goldry compares her film indignities to those of the #MeToo era

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— The fifth and (as of 2021) final Debette Goldry sketch.
— Awkwafina plays Sandra Oh, who would coincidentally host SNL later this season.
— A particularly funny bit with Debette saying that there were many Asian roles during her heyday, and that she played all of them.
— I never have a ton to say about these sketches, but I think they’re among the strongest recurring sketches in this late stage of Kate’s tenure, and although they adhere very strongly to their format, it’s a strong format with a lot of killer details.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode without many strong highlights, but nothing too frustrating either. Even with the lack of any particularly winning sketches, there wasn’t a piece that didn’t have at least a few respectable moments, giving everything a pleasant if forgettable feel. Awkwafina was a solid host who melded well with the cast, even though she wasn’t utilized as well as I would’ve hoped. I’d be interested in seeing her get another chance buoyed by stronger material, assuming she remains relevant across the near-future.
— It was interesting to cover an episode critically that I’ve attended. I feel like it can be a bit hard or potentially disheartening to look back on such an exciting evening and reach the conclusion that, against the context of the rest of the show, the one I attended wasn’t anything too special, that can’t take away from the fact that I had an absolutely lovely, spell-binding experience. (There’s another episode that I’ve gone to since, though I opted not to cover it because I’m interested in seeing someone else’s takes on it. I’ll give a not-so-subtle hint about it, though: JM/DB.)

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

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RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
Cricket Wireless
The Pumpkin Patch
Monologue
Women’s Round Table
Ted Cruz Rally
Late Night Battle
Baby Shower
Brett Kavanaugh Post-Game
So You’re Willing to Date a Magician
The Hidden Tales of Egypt

TOMORROW
Weekend Update veteran and Late Night host Seth Meyers takes the short walk back to Studio 8H for his first hosting stint, covered by Vax Novier