October 5, 2019 – Phoebe Waller-Bridge / Taylor Swift (S45 E2)

by Matt

IMPEACHMENT STRATEGY
Mike Pompeo (Matthew Broderick) & others plot impeachment strategy

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— A lot of my peers don’t like how cold opens always begin with an applause break, and while I’m pretty ambivalent to it, that concept plays off very awkwardly here considering that the first line of the sketch is very long. Feels like Beck didn’t stop talking at the right time for it, as he pauses mid-line and ad-libs a facepalm while he waits for it to pass.
— Kate’s Giuliani continues to be an irritating presence shuffling through the same lame jokes as always.
— Beck’s Pence: “I’m supposed to be seeing the new Judy Garland movie with mother!” Did you guys know that Mike Pence is gay?! Hahahahahaha.
— Matthew Broderick is here as Mike Pompeo for… reasons. Look, I have nothing against the guy, and he’s certainly a more capable performer than De Niro, but there is literally no reason for him to be a part of this sketch. What cultural cache does he even have by this point? Seriously, who is this for?
— Ah, so apparently he was here to assist in the delivery of a limply-executed Ferris Bueller joke. The visual of that mannequin is haunting, if that’s at all to this cold open’s credit.
— Kenan debuts his seldom-seen Ben Carson impression. It’s nowhere near as memorable as Jay’s, but he’s trying.
— Oh, and he’s already gone. That was some pointless padding.
— Beck’s Pence makes a conversion therapy joke that Matthew’s Pompeo doesn’t even respond to. Solid writing as always with these cold opens.
— Another Ferris Bueller line from Matthew. Sorry, I can’t really find the will to actually say things about this sketch beyond what’s happening, which I already barely have the will for.
— Stephen Miller being represented by a snake puppet in a basket?? Is SNL actively trying to disrupt the illusion that it’s satirical?
— Oh my god, Kate’s Guliani is back in Joker make-up. I’m so tired.
— In a word: no.
STARS: *

MONOLOGUE
host explores how Fleabag & Killing Eve reflect her personal life

• 

• 

• 

• 

— I wanna get out of the way now that my God, I love Phoebe Waller-Bridge. As someone who was a huge fan of Fleabag, I was super excited when she got announced to host the show; it feels so rare to see a proper British comedian hosting the show rather than just whatever actor is attached to some big project, and her comedic/writerly instincts are on fine display here. She’s owning this monologue effortlessly.
— A fantastic run of jokes about how much psychopaths are “having a moment” right now.
— I love how quiet the room gets when Phoebe is talking about her and Andrew Scott’s efforts to find out why his “Hot Priest” character created “such a horn-storm.” While dead silence during monologues usually feels uneasy, there’s this outstanding sense that she has the entire audience’s full attention, which speaks to how compelling of a story-teller she is. I suppose this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, given that Fleabag started as a one-woman show and was, in effect, a very long monologue piece.
— “Back in the day, horny women were to be feared, and now they’re given Emmys.”
— Phoebe’s entire bit about how genitals are often just patiently sitting around and not being interacted with is absolutely perfect. (“Think about how many of them are in this room right now. Just think about all the genitals, all across America, sat on couches, right now.”)
— Overall, a fantastic monologue. Phoebe must’ve written this. I have to wonder how many new fans she made based off of this segment alone.
STARS: *****

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
What’s Wrong With This Picture- contestants impute absurd backstories

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— The return of this game show sketch from last season’s finale. While I can never give these sketches too much credit for originality, there’s something about their premise that feels very reliable; it’s the ideal sort of recurring sketch for this concept-driven era in that you can change all the variables while maintaining the same framework and the jokes can still land very effectively. (I get similar vibes from another recurring sketch in tonight’s show… but we’ll get to that.)
— Aidy and Kyle’s character intros are great; I especially like Kyle saying that he’s “armed and ready to play,” causing Kenan to deliver a very Kenan-esque, “Armed?”
— Another charming thing about the host being a British comedian without classical acting training? Phoebe’s American accent is, uh, not great. 
— All of the contestant’s responses are providing me with good laughs. This era’s always been good with one-liners.
— For some reason, the image with the saw in the fridge features another mistake: the bacon package is labelled “Bacoan.”
— Kyle: “Someone’s talking to her about evolution, so she’s closing her ears. I didn’t come from no chimp! I’m God’s little guy!”
— Funny little ending callback to Phoebe thinking that this is a dating show with Kyle.
STARS: ***½

LOVE ISLAND
Love Island- United Kingdom reality show oddballs feud & hook up

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— Phoebe hosting in the midst of the Love Island craze feels like it pencils such a sketch into the show a bit, doesn’t it?
— All of the character intros are great, as they tend to be with these sorts of sketches. Some of my favorites: Phoebe saying her dad is a boxer and her mother is a pub, Alex being from “Murder-Suicide, England,” and Chloe being “from the part of Ireland where the soil is bones.”
— Oh, this sketch is also our first chance to see Chloe doing some fun accent work, which she always excels at. The audience is a bit hesitant to laugh, but she’s making a nice splash as the sketch’s newbie player.
— “You’ve heard an English accent! You’ve heard an Irish accent! Now hear all the little weirdies in between!”
— The strange visual of Aidy’s character being a thumb with googly eyes when she wipes her make-up off is maybe a bit too absurd for this sketch, but y’know, points for unpredictability I suppose.
— Man, there are a lot of cast members in this, and while I’m having my fun with the piece, it feels like a lot of them are being rather ill-served. Both Chris and especially Alex feel like they’re barely in this.
— This sketch was pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be, but I always enjoy this era skewering trash reality television.
STARS: ***½

MID-DAY NEWS
anchors keep a racial scorecard of crimes reported during their newscast

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— A legendary sketch right here, folks! 
— After the very professional set-up, Kenan and Ego celebrating the suspect in an armed robbery story being white gets a big laugh. 
— Ego, someone who’s been by and large floating in the ether up to this point in her tenure, is absolutely killing it here with her funny interjections while Alex details a Ponzi scheme-related arrest. She and him have a great rapport, which is nice to see given how infrequently we’ve gotten to see either of them getting a chance at meaty work from the show at this point.
— The structure of this sketch is particularly great. I love the sort of domino effect at play with the news anchors slowly becoming more and more invested in treating their news stories as something of a competition in hopes that their race will end up with less reported crimes in the daily stories. Phoebe and Alex play comparatively straight roles here by design, but we already get a nice, early crack from Alex’s character here with his restrained cockiness over the reveal that a white-collar criminal was Black. With that, the game gets cookin’.
— Great inclusion from Chris as the weatherman, declaring that the incoming “Hurricane Chet” has a white name.
— I have no idea why Alex has become the cast member that the show seems intent on getting to dab or floss, but he sure knows how to accentuate his whiteness when he does it.
— The audience is getting really into this, and how could they not? This sketch really felt like a classic as it was airing, which is just about the most intoxicating buzz an SNL episode can give.
— A solid bait and switch when Phoebe’s story about a woman complaining about her welfare card turns out to be white, causing her to yell “Dammit!”
— Another classic bit where Alex and Ego mutually decide to veto a story about a Latino man.
— Kenan, exasperated by a news story: “A LaQuan?? Rock-climbing?? In Utah??”
— The ending bit with the last criminal being arrested “dressed as the Joker” is a bit aged by now, but given how evergreen everything else about this sketch is, I can’t complain. Also a great touch with everyone shaking hands amidst Kenan and Ego’s celebration; as incisive as this sketch is, I like how much it also prioritizes a sense of sportsmanship. There’s a nice, fun-loving energy that keeps things electric.
— One of the best sketches of this era, and a crucial turning point for Ego’s tenure.
STARS: *****

THE WAR IN WORDS
The War In Words- wife’s (host) cryptic letters concern WWII pilot (MID)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— Perhaps a controversial take, but as with “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”, I’ve found “The War in Words” to be an incredibly reliable recurring piece. It’s also the perfect sort of premise for Mikey’s exasperated straight man performance.
— While the first beat of these sketches is always the same by design, I still got a good laugh out of Phoebe’s brief “Thank you” letter to Mikey.
— A funny, dumb gag of Phoebe sending Mikey a “vast amount” of her hair when he asked for a lock. I also love how she spends the rest of the sketch with a very short, crudely-cut wig.
— Phoebe, after Mikey writes to her about a nurse tending to his deceased friend: “William: So who’s this French bitch you’re talkin’ to?! Your wife, Lydia.”
— Another great reveal when Phoebe sends Mikey a film of her hanging out with Adolf Hitler “as if [she’s] one of the gang.”
— An even better bit with Phoebe letting slip that Mikey’s father has passed away. Holy hell, this sketch is on a roll.
— And NOW it’s revealed that his father died from a broken heart due to the death of his mother! So fucking good.
— A cute touch with Mikey featuring his actual son as his character’s son that Phoebe sent to him.
— Of all the hosts to do this sketch so far (Claire Foy before her, and Carey Mulligan after), Phoebe is the most natural; it’s great to see this sketch handed to someone with defined comic instincts. That’s always made me feel like this was the definitive “The War in Words” installment.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lover”

• 

• 

— Matt: By default, the better of this season’s two musical performances performed against an inconspicuously green backdrop.
— Blue: I really like said green backdrop, and Taylor’s complementary outfit.
— Always an interesting choice to start the set with a ballad.
— The occasional breathiness of Taylor’s voice is irritating me a little.
— …Yeah, I had zero thoughts on that. Despite the unnecessary breathy delivery of some notes, Taylor was in fine voice. Her pitch was fine and she engaged well with the audience. Her playing was fine as well. The song itself was a decent love ballad, nothing that I find too memorable.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
Elizabeth Warren (KAM) highlights fundraising success & personal outreach

China government official Chen Biao (BOY) revels in his trade war role

Mort Fellner’s feel-good elderly stories turn out to be obituaries

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— Colin takes a dunk on Trump suggesting he’ll be forced to leave the office. We know how that paid off, of course—always makes watching these Updates weird once you exit the vacuum they were created in.
— A classic Che bit asking if, in light of his proposal to add a crocodile moat to the border wall, it’s okay to make fun of Trump: “You ever read Of Mice and Men? Remember how Lennie was really… strong? What if Trump is really strong?” (Of course, the idea that he’d withhold from making an edgy joke on a topic he has no place to talk about is laughable in and of itself… but we can pretend.)
— Also love how when Colin talks about how Twitter deleted a Biden Nickelback meme that Trump posted, Che interjects, “See? He’s strong!” to keep the bit going.
— Seeing Kate as Elizabeth Warren on Update is making me realize how strange it is that she’s only popped up so far here and up top the show to do political impressions. She feels very much displaced from the rest of the show despite often being seen as SNL’s big “star.” Given how successful this episode has been without her presence, it’s making me wish that we could see more of what SNL looks like without Kate altogether (which we at least got a nice taste of in the first half of S47)—not that she hasn’t done good work, but I want to see the show relinquished to people like Ego, or Alex, or Chris, all of whom have really made their presences known across the episode in ways that don’t feel common enough even now.
— Either way, Kate’s Elizabeth Warren is fine. It’s probably one of her most tolerable, well-performed characters; I like how the impression encourages her to be more soft-spoken, which adds a nice bit of dimensionality that we don’t often get when she’s playing the likes of Jeff Sessions or Rudy.
— I can’t tell if Warren saying that she likes BDSM—“bank destroyin’ and savin’ Medicare”—is supposed to be earnestly funny or deliberately lame, but it did tickle me.
— Alright, Che getting a call from Warren for donating $10,000 because he liked the story that she just deconstructed across her Update piece of having kinky sex with a young marine was pretty good. Always love those sorts of meta breaks on Update.
— Colin: “A new study finds that cats actually bond with people like dogs do, but they’re too aloof to show it, which is why I named my cat ‘Dad.’”
— The debut of Bowen’s Chen Biao trade daddy character!
— The fact that Bowen can start off this segment speaking fluent Chinese as a casual flex/power move shows how valuable it is to finally have an Asian cast member. It’s a minor thing, but man, that feels good.
— Bowen has already fully won over the audience less than a minute into his Update piece. How often do you see a cast member so fully-formed right out the gate, and with the crowd eating up everything they’re doing?
— Chen Biao: “We just waved our tariff on American soybeans, so save some of your tempeh for us, McKenzie.” Che: “Who’s McKenzie?” Chen: “I dunno, probably some sophomore at Vassar who, like, drinks out of a metal straw and it’s such a performance.”
— And just like that, Bowen became the show’s next big star. 
— Colin makes a joke referencing Pete’s absence from the show these first two weeks, which wouldn’t be notable if not for Pete going on-record about how betrayed he felt by the show making cracks at his expense. Pretty benign stuff though, really.
— Mikey’s supercentenarian character returns, having last appeared in the Don Cheadle episode.
— While this bit didn’t work that well for me on its first go-around, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying it this time. The joke is always the same, so it stops being about surprise and moreso the ingenuity with which Mikey can find distinct ways of reiterating the same joke, and he’s surprisingly great at that here. There’s a nice tug and pull with him and the audience in the direction of his jokes; it feels like he’s letting the spirit of Kazurinsky course his veins, and while he’s perhaps not that vicious, Mikey leans into it well. We rarely see him perform like this, so it’s a treat.
— Some fun physical comedy from Mikey’s random, delicate jabs at Colin.
— A particularly great joke run from Mikey regarding a supercentenarian who played with the Angels… baseball team, threw out a pitch and the umpire called… 911, but he’s alive and well… in our hearts. Whip ‘em around, Mikey!
— Another jab at Pete’s absence from Mikey as Update closes.
STARS: ****

ROYAL ROMANCE
Royal Romance- duchess (host) & Thunderstick (KET) were a ’70s odd couple

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— This sketch feels very similar to the “Wild Wild Country” sketch from S43’s Mulaney episode, what with Kenan’s skeevy character.
— Kate’s performance feels unnecessarily hammy.
— I got a guilty laugh out of Kenan’s blaxploitation movie poster for “Bitch, I Will Shoot You Right in the Face.” It’s also fun seeing Kenan do shitty karate a la a blaxploitation film.
— I’m not finding too much of the written material to be neither overwhelmingly good nor bad. It’s offering some laughs with its visuals and pretape content, and it’s certainly a more interesting vehicle for royal-related humor than those Prince Harry home video pieces, but I’m finding it to be merely okay with sparks of intrigue.
— Another funny clip of Kenan demonstrating how he would have sex with the women in the royal family on an ottoman.
— I suppose this sketch was too good of an opportunity not to make the joke of Kenan knighting Sir Mix-a-Lot.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Lenny Pickett [real] perform “False God”

• 

• 

• 

— Matt: Lenny Pickett! Hell yeah!
— Blue: Lenny Pickett providing an intro on saxophone! Awesome. 
— Lenny’s little additions throughout are adding a lot to this song. The beat, though basic, is nice too. (And surprisingly, it’s being played by a real drummer.)
— Once again, Taylor’s singing is spot-on.
— Another performance which I have very little to say about, except that this song feels atypical of Taylor Swift, and I didn’t really care for it.
STARS: ***

STATE LINE BAR
tough-acting barflies (KAM), (AIB), (CES), (host) still pine for (BEB)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— Seems like we’re ending the night with a piece firmly built around the show’s veteran female cast, which I suppose is fair enough; even if I can be worn rather thin easily by late-stage Kate, Aidy, and Cecily, they’re the women that run the show, and it was a bit overdue for them to get a more indulgent piece with someone like Phoebe hosting.
— To answer the question, “Can Phoebe do a white trash accent better than a proper American one?”—absolutely not, lol.
— Cecily’s voice sounds very similar to her Cathy Anne characterization.
— Up until Beck’s entrance as all of their exes, this sketch has been incredibly meandering, but I like the direction it’s taking with all of them approaching him to secretly plea for his love in between aggressive actions.
— Great delivery from Aidy, anxiously asking Beck if he’s checked her emails.
— I feel like this sketch shouldn’t be working for me, and indeed, some of my fellow writers expressed skepticism about my enjoyment of this piece…which I think is totally fair. But even if it’s not a sketch that’s super tightly-written, I think there’s a lot of fun in the loose, chaotic energy of it all; I’m usually not too big on Kate, Aidy, and Cecily chewing scenery, but this is so silly that it starts to gel for me.
— I got a big, guilty laugh out of Cecily sloppily smacking that guitar into Beck. Screw it, this one’s fun.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

• 

— Continuing the tradition of cast members pointing out featured players who get their big, breakthrough moment, Mikey points at Bowen during the goodnights. Aw.

CUT FOR TIME: TAMPAX SECRETS
Tampax: Secrets hide (host) from the embarrassing reality of female hygiene

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— There’s a pretty good satirical element to this piece—the idea that being caught with any array of gross or controversial items is better than being seen with a Tampon—but for some reason the delivery isn’t quite selling it for me.
— Oh look, it’s Melissa in a nothing role! Good to know that even in cut material she’s given very little to do…
— For some reason, a lot of the best gags in this sketch are blink-it-and-you’ll-miss-it sort of moments. I suppose that means it’s better to see it online where you can pause the sketch more easily rather than being broadcast on television, but it still feels like a strange decision not to highlight them further.
— I did get a laugh from Phoebe’s character announcing, “I better take this piece of dog poop to the bathroom!”
— Speaking of good, barely-visible gags: Aidy holding a box set of The Cosby Show.
— An alright ending with Phoebe asking why the unmasked Tampon was blurred in the commercial.
— This sketch was fine, and it wouldn’t have hurt the show to include, but it wasn’t anything too special. Feels like it could’ve popped with a bit more revision, or dare I say over-explanation.
STARS: ***

CUT FOR TIME: NEW PLAY
(KYM)’s new play is derailed by British (CES) and (host’s) performances

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

— Mm, not sure about Kenan’s unnecessarily hostile reaction to Kyle’s enthusiasm towards the project that he’s explicitly there doing auditions for. I think John spoke on SNL’s tendency to do this sort of thing in his Sam Rockwell review regarding that episode’s “dog head guy” sketch; it’s a strange diversion in hopes of getting a cheap laugh apropos of whatever else the sketch has going on.
— Cecily and Phoebe seem like a fun duo, so I can see how this sketch would’ve come together, but uh, the content itself… not doing it for me much. Silly accents are good for a quick laugh but this whole sketch being built around it smacks of the expectation that wacky performance can override shoddy writing, which is pretty much never the case. It just brings to my attention the dichotomy between how much fun something can be to make or perform, but how that doesn’t necessarily transfer to an audience that doesn’t exist within that vacuum.
— Alright, fine, I was tickled by Phoebe’s delivery of “You even remember that day or were you too hee-igh on meth?”
— Kenan’s lines make it clear that this sketch is supposed to be skewering how British actors sometimes have unconvincing American accents, perhaps something of an inside joke at Phoebe, but you can’t explore that concept entirely through a sketch that’s just silly talking. Even though I’m not finding it to be tortuous, it’s just… not strong, either. This piece deserved to be cut.
STARS: **

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A rather strong episode that I’ve always been very partial to! Aside from the dreadful cold open, I liked everything on display. Phoebe acquits herself nicely to the show, and you can tell that she’s having a great time, providing a lot of confident performances and excellent comedic timing. This episode is also heavily bolstered by how much it invites the show’s more underused or new cast members in on the fun: Alex, Chris, Ego, and Bowen all get some fantastic highlights here. It feels like an episode that points towards the success of a new era of the show, if only the old guard could finally let it go…

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

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And last but not least,

• 

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mid Day News
Monologue
The War In Words
Weekend Update
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Love Island
Royal Romance
State Line Bar
(CFT: Tampax Secrets)
(CFT: New Play)
Impeachment Strategy

TOMORROW
John takes on some stranger things, with David Harbour