by Anthony
PENCE TAKES THE VACCINE
Joe Biden (ALM) crashes Mike Pence’s (BEB) COVID-19 vaccination event
— Unintentionally (?) meta bit with Beck questioning whether or not Lauren’s character can talk.
— Beck’s Pence describes himself as “Swoll as F” here, which the real Pence would never say, but hey—comedy! Also wouldn’t it be “AF”? Maybe the joke is that Pence is too out of touch to say it right, but he wouldn’t even be in touch enough to know the rest of what he just said. I’m not even sure he knows the F word.
— Jeeeesus Christ at the joke where Pence hopefully assumes the vaccine is some kind of…prostate exam? I’m mainly angry at how hacky that is, but I also want to point out, that’s really more of a gay joke than a Pence joke, guys.
— Actually let’s examine the prostate joke a little further, as much as I’m sure none of us want to. What exactly is the internal logic of this joke? Pence, even as portrayed, isn’t dumb enough to think a vaccine would be a finger up the butt, right? So is the bit that he’s so gay that even a booster shot in the keister feels good to him? Either way, what a fucking whiff.
— Goddamn, the guy’s got one foot out the door and we’re still doing the “all Trump’s closest advisors secretly hate him and feel super guilty” jokes?! Who are these for??
— Okay, Pence’s “well I guess it’s 5:00 somewhere” when offered a lollipop was a decent joke.
— Now we get Maya’s Kamala again, this time accidentally stepping over Beck with her first lines. You know, writing these cold opens before the night of the show might lead to them feeling more rehearsed and less rushed, but then I guess we risk losing gold like “Pence wants a doctor to finger his bum bum”.
— “How’d you even get into the White House?” “I won more votes.” Damn show, did you buy that joke just to use the bathroom? That shit was cheap.
— Now we’re having Pence excited about BTS touring? Okay, so these are just cheap gay jokes disguised as Pence jokes, got it (I know that’s been their M.O. Trump’s whole tenure, but it feels like they’re laying it on particularly thick tonight, like they want to get in all the ‘hilarious’ bits they thought of before he left office).
— The debut of Alex’s extremely short-lived Biden impression.
— It is nice to see a cast member play the president again, though that’s something I’m reluctant to praise the show for. To quote a Chris Rock bit I’m pretty sure I have verbatim “SNL always wanting credit for some shit it’s supposed to do.”
— Fun physical bit with Alex doing the Willy Wonka entrance for Biden.
— “I’m like Colonel Sanders: everytime you see me I’m a different guy.” Oh, Alex….
— And there exits Alex’s Biden, only to return 2 more times: once, similarly tacked on into a terrible sketch, and a final time, poppin in after he’s already been replaced to poke fun at his own seemingly insignificant stint in the role (in that trademark SNL style of meta humor that feel fun at the time but really rubs you the wrong way when you start to think about it for too long). While I do think JAJ has a stronger take, it’s so ridiculous Alex got so little chance to shine in the role, especially when he’s been unfairly shuffled off to the sidelines for so much of his time at the show. When I originally watched this episode, the introduction of Alex in the Biden role made me cut this sketch some slack, but boy is that slack gone. Instances like this are why I’m glad we get to review these sketches with a bit of hindsight.
— And here enters Kate as Guiliani. As if I needed another reason to not cut this sketch any slack.
— We get a reference to the truly bizarre press conference Guiliani had in which it appeared he was…melting at the sideburns (I know), though the effect here looks a bit like someone squirted some ketchup on Kate’s face.
— Guiliani just mentioned his “pube dye”—interesting he uses the word “dye” since I kinda want to.
—What was up with Kate seemingly almost completely dropping character on her exit? I guess she was reacting to the line mixing up 9/11 and 7/11 bombing, but did you really expect that to be a home run, Kate?
— Now Kenan enters as Ben Carson, because if we keep throwing shit at people maybe we can trick them into thinking they’re being entertained.
— Kenan’s Carson remains solid enough, if a shadow of Jay’s impression (one of his funniest bits in his time at the show). He’s got a bit of a character here, but it’s not nearly as specific as what Jay had, and veers into “generic goofy Kenan guy” at times.
—Good God, that was a whole lot of nothing. Really not a great sign both Jost and Che were behind this one (with assistance from 2 additional writers). These are our seasoned head writers, and the best they can pull out in 6 and a half minutes at the top of the show is one decent physical gag from Alex. Fucking weak.
STARS: *
MONOLOGUE
KRW, MAR, KAM sing personalized variants of “My Favorite Things”
— Ah, Kristen. Certainly one of my most conflicting relationships on the show. I started watching in Season 34, right at the start of Kristen really being hyped as the best cast member since Sliced Bread (god, I miss SB’s Update pieces). And being a young, impressionable fan, I got completely swept up in that and would have sworn by pretty much anything Kristen did for years. Only as my fandom deepened and I learned of her more divisive nature among fans did I go back and watch her with a more critical eye and realize ‘ooh yea, there’s a lot of flaws here.’ Still, I think her deadpan is practically unmatched and her whackier side, when used correctly, can be a ton of fun. That “when used correctly” is a big factor though.
— That bit with Kristen “yelling” at her offscreen assistant was done in such a muted fashion I’m not sure it was even worth it.
— Say it with me: Yaaay, Musical Monologue!!
— I’ll admit my distaste for these types of monologues sometimes actually ends up getting in the way of my enjoyment of them in a way it shouldn’t. I pretty much zoned out of this one during the live airing as soon as Kristen started singing, assuming it to be a straight cover of the classic Sound of Music song and missing some of the funny increasingly surreal lyrics. Kristen in particular is a good host to straightforwardly deliver nonsense like that.
— Now we have Maya getting involved, which gives us a good reminder of her chemistry with Kristen, but I definitely prefer the understated way Kristen is singing compared to the consciously ‘comedy’ performance Maya’s giving.
— Much like the assistant bit, the part here with Maya and Kristen labeling Kate’s genuine Sound of Music lyrics as racist feels strangely stalled.
— I do prefer Maya’s “comedy!” performance to Kate coming out and immediately breaking as she starts to sing, at least.
— As per usual, hard to know exactly how to grade the monologue. As a piece of comedy, I wouldn’t call it very successful, with several halted side bits and a loose central premise that didn’t provide many memorable one liners. As a piece trying solely to be cute, it does the job fine enough, even if it does feel a wee bit cloying at times. Still, we’re Stooges and not Scrooges around here, so in the interest of holiday cheer I’ll give this a probably generous 2.5. It’s super slight, but hey, it’s a cute little way to start the holiday show (though anything’s better than goddamn Katey Guiliani).
— Boy, not the best sign the last two pieces had a combined eight writers behind them, though.
STARS: **½
SECRET WORD HOLIDAY EDITION
Mindy Grayson & Austrian actress (KAM) bungle holiday clues
— (Siiiigh) Hi James. Glad to see you’re doing well. And oh, you’re heading straight to Kent’s office, huh? Oh goody.
— Kenan’s replacing Bill in the host role here, which could at least possibly provide a change of pa—oh who the fuck am I kidding?
— Matt reminded me Kenan already replaced Bill in the last iteration of this sketch (and that I was originally spelling Kristen’s character’s last name wrong, things Matt knows off hand as the biggest Secret Word superfan I know).
— Kenan’s name here is Grant Chode by the way, a name two professional comedy writers apparently found humorous. Hell, why stop there? Why is Kristen’s character named something as boring as Mindy Grayson when we could call her Balls McGee?
— Man, Kristen must love this character, because this has been the lead off sketch for the last two episodes she hosted (strangely, in both her last 2 outings she only brought back 2 characters—Mindy Grayson and Aunt Sue—and in both eps they’re slotted in the exact same place in the show—lead-off sketch and 10-to-1).
— Kate comes out here for the other comic role usually reserved for hosts when Kristen was in the cast. Her prominent role in all 3 segments so far basically convinced me when I was watching this live we were watching Kate’s farewell episode (as I think Lorne himself even said at one point before the season started she would only be staying on until the Holiday shows). However, when she promptly disappeared for the rest of the night, I figured that wasn’t the case.
— God, Kate giving us a role that feels so reminiscent of ones we’ve seen her do plenty of times before isn’t exactly making the strongest case this shouldn’t be her final night.
— Oh my God, Kristen said the secret word. I can’t believe it. You ain’t never seen a bitch this shocked.
— I’ll give the show credit at least for giving Lauren some good comic roles tonight. Sure, she’s been unfairly ignored all season, but here she gets some real meat like ‘Pence’s silent wife’ and ‘woman watching Kristen being whacky’. Good stuff, show.
— Oh and now we get that part of these where Kristen does a piece from one of her bad plays. This always just feels like an even lamer version of that Mary Katherine Gallagher TV movie bit.
— I like Kate and Kristen. Kristen especially I’m quite fond of. But sketches like this, built entirely around them being ‘oh, so goofy’ and nothing else can fuck off into the sun.
— Lauren: “When is it my turn?” Jeez, all are the lines with her unintentionally meta tonight?
— Now we get the part where Kristen mistakes one of the words for something dirtier, and then I think Don Knotts comes in and bugs his eyes or something.
— Kenan, regarding one of Kristen’s problematic songs, “that is not OK, even for the time we’re supposed to be in.” God, so much lazy writing in this piece.
— Now Kate and Kristen are dancing, reminding us at least they had fun.
STARS: *
CHRISTMAS MORNING
when it comes to presents, mom (KRW) gets robed
— Oh, Serpas with the puns. You sly dog.
— Written by Dan Bulla and Stephen Castillo, two writers who tend to oscillate for me between genuinely inspired silliness and more seemingly manufactured ‘lol so random’ shit I’m really not into. This one is…well it’s neither I guess, but it is a really solidly constructed little pretape.
— My mom loves this one, by the way. It’s likely yours does as well—this is a piece designed for everyone to enjoy, but it’s got one target audience especially in mind (much like the ‘manufactured memories’ shorts the show does around the holidays). Which isn’t a bad thing; mom’s need to laugh too.
— The song itself here is nothing to write home about, though I get that it’s trying to mirror the type of generic music you’d get in an Old Navy ad.
— Haha, I like that to fit the rhyme scheme, Chloe’s first 3 ‘extravagant’ gifts are a hat, a globe and a book (Catcher in the Rye, to be specific, which—wait, how old is she meant to be?). Then her next gift is a new phone, which definitely seems a step above ‘globe’.
— This short is a great excuse for Kristen to brush off her perfect deadpan chops. I’ve said this before in one of these reviews in a comparison to Aidy (whose extended absence ends after this episode, by the way) but Kristen really is SNL’s queen of quiet indignation. She’s just so funny in playing these “I’m very pissed but only gonna show it a little” roles.
— Love the dark little bit with Kristen cheerfully mentioning she burned her hand on the oven “but I didn’t even scream, cus I keep the pain inside of me!”
— The bit with the dog getting more presents than the mom is great, with the dog also getting a robe really putting it over the top. Also, that’s Chloe’s real dog, and he looks goddamn adorable in that robe. Some great Kristen faces in the dog part as well.
— As per usual, not into the ending that tries to wrap a cute bow on these “relatable holiday” pieces, this time in the form of a Kenan line that genuinely felt like it was about to lead into a reveal this was all a sponsored piece from Macy’s. Still a minor nitpick in a piece I have no real complaints for.
— Throwing in a bumper shot of Chloe’s dog eating the show logo because I can (I mean look at it!) Speaking of which, this ep, like many, has a bunch of cool bumper shots and commercial break shots, something that the team led by Mary Ellen Mathews (who has been doing bumpers for the show since 1999) consistently kills. They add such a unique flavor to the show, and they always manage to make whoever’s hosting look so damn cool in those shots.
STARS: ****½
USO PERFORMANCE
(KRW), (BOY), (musical guest) do sassy scene at a show for WWII soldiers
— Bowen, the toughest guy in the unit, eh? Okay, so I know the sketch knows why that’s funny, but here’s the thing: what makes this sketch funny overall then? If it’s supposed to be funny because a tough guy soldier is committing so hard to this performance of a club song, having Bowen in the role—who we already will be able to perform this type of song— negates what would supposedly be comical there. If it’s supposed to be funny because of how incongruous the song is for the time period, they really don’t play that up enough for it to register (beyond some comments from the crowd that, as per usual, don’t do much for me comedically to justify their existence). Which leads me to believe that the true crux of this piece is how much fun it is to watch Bowen and Kristen dick around. Which, listen… it is. I like these two, they’re clearly having a good time (in a way where it’s apparent without resorting to breaking, which is the best way to watch performers have fun on stage), the song sounds nice, and this is about the most awake we’ve heard the crowd all season. So all that adds up to a good time. But this is half a piece, and as such, only gets half marks.
— I haven’t actually had much time to talk about Bowen, so let me give some quick thoughts. I think he’s in a class similar to other quick stars on the show like Ferrell, Farley, Belushi, Murphy and Jones, where they feel almost forcefully funny. They are funny, all of them (indeed, all these people have made me laugh hard before), but in a way that almost feels like you’re being pummeled in the face with how funny they are. Sometimes you can be in the mood for that, but sometimes it’s best served as a side dish rather than a main (I know, I can only compare sketch to food). It works here, but I don’t like the instincts in place that would lead Bowen to write a sketch basically just built around him flailing about for audience approval.
— “Wait so the girl is playing the boy, and the boy is playing the girl?”—Mikey, once again with the quick assist for those unable to get jokes.
— Dua Lipa gets in on the fun a bit. She’s fine.
— Okay, while I still don’t think we need the crowd in these types of pieces, I did laugh at Kyle’s super exaggerated delivery of “this is da moment of truth!”
— Crowd cheered at Bowen and Dua saying “defeat the Nazis”, which—yea, I guess that is pretty relevant to 2020, huh?
STARS: **½
A TEACHER
high schooler (AND) rebuffed by teacher (EGN), attracts principal (KRW)
— After 2 seasons of struggling to make her mark in such a large cast, this sketch, coming off the heels of the similarly well-received Dionne Warwick Talk Show the week before, felt like the moment the show finally let Ego step into the star role those who were fans of her pre-SNL work always knew she could comfortably fill. Both sketches are slightly thin, and rely entirely on the strength of Ego being funny and charming enough to carry them. And in both cases she more than proves herself able to rise to the occasion. Ego is another one in that class I mentioned earlier with Bowen. She can simply will humor into places it shouldn’t be off sheer charisma. Based on that alone, it’s insane it took the show as long to let her have her breakout moment, but at least her rapid rise up the ranks of the show following this sketch was one of the main highlights of a season with too few.
— I know many would call “Mid Day News” Ego’s big coming out moment, but while that is definitely one of the best pieces this cast has ever done, it feels more like an ensemble piece than one where Ego herself is given the spotlight to specifically shine. That sketch also has such an airtight premise that that almost becomes the star of the piece as well, so while all the cast members kill it there none particularly stand out to the casual viewer. The piece itself is stronger, but you don’t notice Ego as much as you do here or in Warwick, where the material isn’t the strongest but she’s selling the shit out of it. I think that was the show’s logic at least, as Ego’s struggles continued in Season 45 following that sketch, while she would have a killer second half of this season following these two standout roles.
— I haven’t seen the show this is mocking, but a part of me wonders if this piece’s writers (Ego and Drezgate) hadn’t either. It definitely feels in reaction to the show’s premise more than the show itself, though I could be wrong.
— “You’re pulling a C- in my class, that’s not hot for me.”
— This isn’t just an exciting piece to watch because of Ego, by the way. Andrew is doing fine work in one of his first notable roles.
— Ego is seriously knocking all these line deliveries out of the park. She’s killing me here.
— Lol at Ego’s description of Andrew’s penis as a “limp-ass little neener”. I don’t think I’ve heard the word ‘neener’ used to describe a pillypacker before but it’s definitely stuck with me since this sketch.
— Lauren with her third speechless role of the night. Oh no wait, she had one line in Secret Word, basically asking if she was ever going to get to speak. Jee. Zus.
— “You’re so confident.” “Yeah, I got that swagger you have when you’re not a pedophile.” (These are great lines, but typing them out will never do justice to how well Ego delivers them.)
— Kristen seems a bit superfluous here, though I do like the detail that she used to be a prison guard who let prisoners out because she was in love with them.
— Wouldn’t it make more sense for Kristen’s pedophile character to be the one to lose interest in Andrew’s character once he turns 18, and not the other way around? I guess it’s nice he was given some power in the relationship, but still seems like a bit of a confused beat.
— Also haha, did Andrew’s character not realize it was his birthday until Kristen reminded him?
— A great pretape, and a sign of what a truly dominant force Ego is going to become in the cast once we return from break.
STARS: ****½
HOME ALONE 2
Pigeon Lady (KRW) gets aggressive in alternate ending
— Nice to see two sketches in a row featuring typically underserved performers capitalizing off of well-received turns in the previous episode, as Melissa gets a nice meaty role here right after her lovely Dolly Update piece last week. Unfortunately, unlike Ego, Melissa won’t be able to further capitalize on her success here, and ends up spending the next half of the season pretty much entirely shut out. It’s ridiculous the show would treat any cast member in such a way five years in, let alone one as gifted and as naturally likable as Melissa. Some may say she should write more for herself (this is a large part of what helped Ego rise so quick once she finally got her shot), as she did here, penning this piece with Will Stephen and Bryan Tucker, but after 5 years I put the blame much more on the show for never deciding what exactly it is they want out of this woman they hired.
— Though she’s more or less using her own voice here, Melissa has the Culkin mannerisms down.
— The bit before the burglars show up, with Kristen’s Pigeon Lady finding out just how much money Melissa’s Kevin has, is fine, though it has some dead spots.
— Kyle and Mikey get the Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern roles, because this era is really intent on pushing them as impressionists for some reason.
— Kristen stabbing the burglars into a bloody mist just off screen with her umbrella is fun, even if it feels like a lesser version of Ferrell in that one interview sketch with Pierce Brosnan.
—Something about the structure of this one feels a little off, like there was a beat missing before the Pigeon Lady started to straight up murder the burglars. Still, a short and sweet sketch with likable performances from Melissa and Kristen.
— “Did you kill those guys?” “No, Kevin, we killed them.”
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Start Now”
— Anthony: Dula Peep! I don’t have much to say about the performances, but I did want to say that I really enjoy this album (though this song, probably the album’s biggest hit, actually doesn’t do a ton for me). Also, after her slightly awkward dance moves last time she was a guest, it’s cool to see Dua come back here in full pop star mode.
— Blue: Ahh, the Christmas lights dimming and the stage lights coming on is such a cool visual effect.
— Dua Lipa is giving off an interesting vibe, between her energetic physical movements and her suave, “too cool for you” facial expressions. She definitely has improved her stage presence since her last SNL performance, as Anthony pointed out.
— I love the choice to have all but the rhythm section drop out during the chorus. That’s a neat little trick in modern pop music and I appreciate it every time I hear it.
— This song is reminding me of Dua Lipa’s earlier hit, “New Rules.” I’d probably get them mixed up if I were more familiar with this song.
— The pauses that Dua Lipa takes before certain lines (“Did the heartbreak change me?… Maybe” on the first verse, “though it took some time to… survive you” on the second verse) are not working for me.
— It amuses me to see Dua Lipa’s dancers mime to the percussion hits on the chorus.
— Although the choreography hasn’t been doing much for me, Dua Lipa’s confidence as she joins in for a brief dance break is appealing to see.
— Very smooth mic hand-off after the dance break—I almost didn’t notice where Dua Lipa got it from.
— Wait… Right before the final pre-chorus, Dua Lipa sings the word “so.” Except… her mouth was nowhere near the microphone when she did so. I guess this answers the question as to whether lip-syncing is allowed on SNL?
— Okay, now that the final chorus has started, Dua Lipa is riffing while the pre-recorded vocals continue to sing the chorus. So it’s likely that she was singing live to an entirely recorded track, essentially doubling her own vocals. Which isn’t a bad idea for a pop singer whose performance is heavily choreographed, to allow them some time to catch their breath.
STARS: ***½
WEEKEND UPDATE
“Closing Time” accompanies a montage of curious Donald Trump moments
Smokey Robinson (CRR) mispronounces Jewish things he recently learned of
prospect of vaccination prompts Willie to merrily recollect hardships
Instagram influencer Landis Trotter (HEG) is an inelegant corporate shill
— The final Update of the Trump era. I think the fact that Jost and Che’s tenure has now stretched across three presidencies is as good a way as any to show that it’s probably time for them to pack their bags. These guys, Che in particular, have become some of my favorites to ever sit behind the desk, but SNL, like any vampire, needs fresh blood to survive.
— Nice to see that in five years Jost’s stance on Trump has shifted from “he seemed fine last week” to “he was mostly bad”.
— The bit laying Semisonic’s “Closing Time” over famous Trump memes (like him screaming at that child laborer he forced to mow the White House lawn, or the start of his salacious affair with that flag) feels like the type of hacky, pandering late night bit these two are above. It also went on way too long.
— Che does a Pence joke and, shock of all shocks, the punchline is a lame bit about him being gay.
— Not a great opening string of jokes, with my favorite being a riff on something Mitchell and Webb already did better.
— Oooh boy is this a thin premise Chris is working with here. Let’s see if his natural likability can overcome that.
— “You say tomato, I say tomurtahey.”
— Yea, Chris was kinda fun here, but it never escalated beyond him as Smokey Robinson saying Jewish words in a goofy way. This had “cut” written all over it, to be honest.
— The news that the Cleveland Indians were changing their name resulted in about a quarter of the crowd trying to start a big applause break that didn’t really take.
— Slightly stronger, if still not up to their standards, second run of jokes from Jost and Che. Especially enjoyed Che’s Bezos joke, even if that guy is a total book daddy who dunks on Trump and gives us yummy jobs.
— Ooh, Willie! Che writing these is another notch in his “top 3 Update anchors” column (Norm and Jane are the other two, by the way. Though, for very different reasons, the final stages of their tenures are pretty lackluster, so….fuck, Che might be #1).
— As always with Willie, some fun dark humor perfectly contrasted with Kenan’s cheery delivery. This is one of those Update characters like Stefon or Jebidiah Atkison that never changes up past its debut, and yet that never really bothers me.
— “I followed my own rules: wore a mask, kept 500 feet away from schools…”
— Quick run of 3 jokes between segments here, since we have so many correspondents and still need to make room for a little Christmas Tradition… The best one in this run, and of the night so far, was Che’s Tom Cruise line.
— Hmm, I don’t remember this Heidi Update character much, but I remember 46 being a year of strong Update appearances for her, where her pieces started to have more ideas behind them than ‘vocal fry’.
— Nice, this is indeed a piece that has an actual premise behind it, and a pretty good one at that, skewering obviously sponsored posts from vapid Instagram ‘influencers’ (man I hate that term).
— Heidi’s doing a lot of the strong, specific character work she’s known for here.
— Speaking of which, sometimes Heidi’s stuff can be a little too specific for the crowd to really get into, but they seem to be digging this.
— “So you think people should buy Dune for their moms?” “I do. I use it everyday, it changed my life.”
— I like the part where Heidi starts regressing into a child and talking about how she’s “pwetty” and “a money maker”. It feels fitting to this character, even if I can’t exactly articulate how.
— Decent end with it being revealed Che has a sponsored ad of his own.
— Joke Swap time baby! This is a goldmine of a tradition these two stumbled on, and it’s especially smart they use it so sparingly, only breaking it out for Christmas shows and finales. It was also wise of them to skip the S45 finale, since you really need the crowd to make this pop like it does.
— After following the normal routine of Jost having to read horribly racist jokes followed by Che getting mildly insulting digs about his sex life, it’s awesome to see Colin get a genuinely harsh line for Che to read in there with his Epstein bit. Though Che’s final line there, “I’ll take it from here” gets stepped on a bit (with the crowd, Jost and Che himself all sort of working together on that one).
— Speaking of awesome, the bit where Che makes Colin read a line mocking his wife ScarJo’s iffy racial casting (and her unfortunate comments in response—I thought we learned at this point how cringey ‘black, white or polka dot’ is) is so damn good.
— Much like the last Christmas show I covered, this Update started slow but gradually got better (both times including a fun Heidi piece), coming to a head in the epicness that is Joke Swap.
STARS: ****
THE GRINCH
Grinch (PED) had a threesome with Cindy Lou’s (CLF) parents (MID) & (KRW)
— Thanks to our buddy Matt for showing me this video of Pete blinded by the prop contacts he was originally supposed to wear here, a video that (spoiler alert!) made me laugh more than anything in the actual sketch.
— Interesting to see Chloe and Kyle cast as kid siblings in two pieces tonight. By the way, as someone who enjoys Chloe fine enough but can sometimes find her either a bit robotic or a bit broad (weird those are her two modes), I’ll give her credit and say she always feels really natural in these kid roles.
— This is a typical Seiday premise (they wrote this with Pete) of “famous character from film acts the opposite of how we’d expect”. It’s a fairly common sketch/comedy trope in general (see: tonight’s Home Alone piece) but I feel like they especially love it. These are generally fine, sometimes even really funny, but they feel like the type of piece where once they figured out that main joke it’s probably really easy to kind of assembly line the thing together. You get the sense Seiday just have a dart board of half-baked pop culture ideas like “E.T. phones home for booty call” they cull from each week. Parody is one of the key elements of sketch, so I’m absolutely not criticizing these two for riffing on stuff they’ve seen, but there’s often a sense of detachment in these pieces, like whatever property they’re mocking could be replaced and the central joke wouldn’t really change. Indeed, here, you can make this about any children’s character, as it’s not really a Grinch-specific joke and the humor is derived more from the idea that a character from children’s media would FUCK (how shocking!).
— Feels like a weird choice to have Chloe hold an unacknowledged stuffed toy of The Cat in the Hat (probably the only Suess character more famous than the Grinch) throughout this piece.
— Wonder how much of the impetus of this came from the fact Pete has a surprisingly solid Carrey Grinch impression, as we saw in that Saoirse Ronan Chad sketch.
— I see even when he’s furry and green everyone wants to fuck Pete.
— And there’s the joke about the Grinch’s dick growing three sizes that I think every last one of us was expecting.
— Is that big white finger from The Grinch? I don’t remember it, but I guess it’s been years since I read the book or watched either the Chuck Jones or Carrey versions.
— I like everyone’s performances here, at least, even Pete. But yea, that wasn’t worth more than a couple chuckles.
STARS: **
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
impending Christmas homecoming disclosure overwhelms surprise-loving Aunt Sue
— Well, at least this recurring sketch isn’t as insufferable to me as Secret Word, though your mileage may vary there.
— Aww, really hard to watch Lauren stepping all over her first big line of the night after all those silent or practically silent roles.
— Why would these people even invite Aunt Sue if they knew they had a surprise? Also, how many damn people is she an aunt to? I WANT ANSWERS!
— The crowd, which has been surprisingly lively compared to the absolutely dead audiences we’ve been getting in the first half of this season, really isn’t giving this much. I can’t say I blame them.
— You know, I don’t even love this character, but it might have been interesting to see how Target Lady was taking the pandemic. Certainly a Wiig character I could see having more reason to exist in 2020 than Aunt Sue, at least, who is doing the same shtick as always but this time it has the word “antibodies”.
— I’ll admit, watching Kristen babble and destroy things is funnier to me than it has any right to be. I don’t hate this, even if logically I really, really should. Still, given just how old hat all this is at this point, I can’t go anywhere above a 2 and feel right about it.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Levitating”
— Blue: Wow, that is one fancy outfit that Dua Lipa is wearing! The hat reminds me of a jellyfish.
— It’s much more obvious here that Dua Lipa is singing along to pre-recorded vocals. Mainly because said vocals are drowning her out at the very beginning.
— Speaking of outfits, the backup dancers are glittery and I appreciate that.
— Something about both the pre-chorus and the chorus is really aggravating me. That’s more to do with the way they’re written than how they’re performed, though.
— Despite the fun choreography and outfits, this performance really washed over me, due to me not being jazzed about the song or Dua Lipa’s voice. Still, there was nothing outright horrible about the performance, so I’ll give it a passing grade.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
CUT FOR TIME: MIDDLE-AGED MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: EPISODE 2
another update of the animated series that shows how the superheroes face problems as middle-aged adult
— A sequel to this piece from the first At Home show. I thought it was a fun little absurdist piece last time, though let’s see how necessary I find this sequel.
— Written by Bulla and Castillo with Kyle. When I first saw the original, I thought it was a piece Seidell had involvement in, as it actually reminded a lot more of something you’d see on CollegeHumor back in the day than most of what he’s turned in while working at the show.
— Something that separates these pieces from that type of parody piece I mentioned earlier is that it feels far more informed on what it’s parodying than, say, that Grinch sketch. There’s a lot of fun to be had with taking these goofball ‘party dude’ characters and aging them into depressed 40-somethings. Taking a random child’s character and making them have the sex is decidedly less inspired.
— Wonderfully depressing bit with Kenan’s Donatello pretending not to be hurt by his daughter not wanting to come home for Christmas.
— Another bit that takes delight in the uncomfortable, as Beck’s Raphael makes his family tense at dinner by expressing his support for Trump.
— This wasn’t able to be the wonderful surprise it’s predecessor was (I also think the lack of an audience actually aided that piece), but it still got in and out quick and packed quite a punch in that time.
STARS: ****
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
—This episode actually felt like a lot from the back half of Kristen’s tenure: the pre-tapes were the obvious highlights, but get past the lame-ass recurring characters and you have a pretty fun show (we also got a much more fun Update than we would have got with solo Seth, so there’s that).
— I’m not sure where I’d rank this with Kristen’s two (and yes two, At Home doesn’t count, she’s in like 2 segments) other shows as host. All three have had serious highlights and serious lowlights (the lowlights often coming in the form of Kristen’s recurring characters). I wouldn’t call any of the episodes outright bad, but I’d hesitate to call any great. I think her season 42 episodes might be the most consistent overall, with season 38 having the strongest highlight amongst the three (“Acupuncture”; I’m a sucker for gusts of fake blood, as my possibly generous “Home Alone 2” grade showed), leaving this is as probably the weakest, but still a decent enough outing (even if my rating average for this one will probably make it seem like I like it less overall than I do).
— Kristen herself was a solid host tonight, if a bit more muted than she’s been before. You can feel her becoming increasingly uncomfortable with her more muggy pieces each time she comes back, which is really for the best. She proven herself more than capable of delivering all of the more deadpan or surreal material she was given tonight. If we can get another hosting outing from her that really focuses on that stuff it could be such a winner.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Teacher
Christmas Morning
Weekend Update
(CFT: Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles: Episode 2)
Home Alone 2
USO Performance
Monologue
Home For ChristmasThe Grinch
Pence Takes the Vaccine
Secret Word Holiday Edition
TOMORROW
Now that Dua Lipa finally got to be musical guest, it only makes sense we get the rest of that canceled March 2020 ep; Kabir takes a look as John Krasinski makes his long awaited (mainly by those people you know who won’t shut up about The Office) hosting debut
The “One SNL A Day” Project 2.0 