EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally slated to be written by John. However, after a high stakes Parcheesi match didn’t go his way, John ceded the review rights for this episode to Anthony. Anthony will now review/rate the episode, with some input from John still included. Are we experimenting with collaborative reviews? Or will we never do anything like this again? Only time will tell…
IMPEACHMENT PRESS CONFERENCE
Gordon Sondland (WIF) doesn’t aid Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) exoneration
— Yayy, Trumpwin! Boy I sure hope Alec makes that silly “O” face (that the real Trump never even really does).
— Trump just said he wants “no quid pro quo, bro”, which feels like a real “Yoko’s loco about my cocoa” kind of joke.
— One of these extras keeps flashing a notepad with the phrase “Live Like a Lost Boy” written on it (fourth screencap above). This apparently turned out to be some kind of guerrilla marketing stunt to promote his clothing company, which is both extremely douchey and kinda admirable in its boldness. Either way, I’m sure Lorne was thrilled.
— By the way, the way that dude is milking his reactions is way more annoying to me than him trying to promote his business in a somewhat sketchy fashion.
— I think their intention is for Trump’s antsiness and eagerness to leave to be more of an anchoring joke here, because they keep going back to it, but there’s really not enough escalation to it if that’s the case. He just keeps repeating that he’s really gotta leave, and that’s all we get.
— Will walks out to big applause and immediate botched cues, as Baldwin seems to skip ahead a couple lines, causing Will to just sort of awkwardly stand there while Baldwin breaks character and fumbles for the right line. Then, when Baldwin does finally say his original intended line (“Oh, it’s you, Ambassador Sondland”) he gets stepped over by both Will and Heidi, both probably unsure of what to do and trying to just move ahead with the scene. It’s an incredibly awkward moment that also leaves those in the audience who weren’t sharp enough listeners to pick out Baldwin’s line over the two other ones simultaneously going on clueless as to who Will is supposed to be. Now, is this another case of modern SNL’s poor direction/card placement, is it a byproduct of these cold opens often being written the day of air without much time for rehearsal, or is it just another indication of how little dedication Baldwin has to the role at this point? Why, dear reader, would you be shocked to find out it’s all three? (Maybe I’m being too hard on Baldwin. I’m a real rude, thoughtless little pig that way.)
— Will’s inclusion in the sketch is also unfortunate, because you hope he’s going to breathe some life into this thing and instead he spits a couple nothingball lines about how there was in fact a quid pro quo and the sketch is over.
— This was mercifully short (less than 4 minutes) which acts as both a positive and negative. On the one hand, yes, I’m glad this didn’t drag on as long as some of these opens do, but “hey, this could sucked for twice as long as it does!” is also such a lame thing to give a piece points for. And while I don’t necessarily want more of this trash, it does have to be acknowledged just how ridiculously undercooked this piece is. It never gets anywhere substantial and really just feels like pure time filler, and yet it’s what’s placed up top. I know I can be pretty negative about these opens, but this is the stuff they’re giving us to kick things off and set a mood for the show and it’s always such weak sauce shit.
— This is also one of those pieces that never gets past feeling like it was only written out of obligation, like the show “had to” cover this huge news story despite having nothing of note to say about it. We get no new insights into Trump’s behavior during this time that social media wasn’t already all over and there’s no real skewering of the media or the rest of the government’s reaction to the impeachment, so what are we doing here? As per usual, it basically amounts to watching Baldwin make silly faces and doing that dumb voice that sounds more like he’s imitating a coworker he hates than Trump while delivering lines you won’t remember tomorrow, except for maybe one or two particularly egregious ones. And if that still does it for you, God bless ya. But boy howdy am I done with it.
— John: I can’t even comment on the quality of this cold open (as these brilliant comments above already do so well) because I was, and am, genuinely befuddled by what happened. I can’t imagine they intended a 4-5 minute cold open, given their modern track record. Was the debate sketch meant to be the cold open? Did someone just… collapse and have to be rushed away in the final stages of this being put together? What the hell was going on? Where are the oral histories when we need them?
STARS: *
MONOLOGUE
WIF is flattered & flustered by Ryan Reynolds’ [real] presence; TRM cameo
— In lieu of any Five Timers Club members (or even references to this being Will’s fifth time hosting, which honestly I’m fine with—the Five Timers stuff can be fun but I also don’t need it to be a whole thing that someone’s been there 5 times) we get a Ryan Reynolds cameo to center this monologue around. I don’t believe Reynolds and Ferrell had worked together on anything up to this point, so his presence feels kind of random here. It’s not like he has much of a connection to SNL either, having only hosted once in 2009. I wonder if he was already in the building (for something we’ll get to in a bit), and, in typical SNL fashion, they wrangled him into this monologue last minute because they didn’t have anything else. Which I guess would make sense on a normal week, but really guys? You have nothing else—for Will Ferrell??
— Will’s at least playing his nervous schoolgirl crush reaction well, as he typically does in that kind of earnest childlike role. I got a big kick out of his giddy little laugh when learning Blake Lively is a fan of his, as well as him starting to speak in a little British accent afterwards and going “well, that’s not too shabby.”
— Also enjoyed Will staring down and eventually straight up pointing at Ryan after a joke.
— “Will, just do the monologue!” “The monologue is terrible.”
— Tracy Morgan! Making his second consecutive appearance in a Ferrell hosted episode! This feels like a cameo that makes more sense for Will than Reynolds at least.
— Tracy gets a couple distinctly odd Tracy lines (and calls Will “Pharrell”), so I can’t complain about his appearance, even if it does feel too brief.
— I don’t know. This felt pretty cobbled together and hollow, but it also had Tracy talking about suckling from Will’s bosom. Half marks.
— John: I know some people who had a viscerally negative reaction to this monologue, which I get, but Will Ferrell saying “The PROPHECY” in Tracy’s voice has been stuck in my head ever since this aired. It’s probably my favorite Tracy cameo of recent years.
STARS: **½
HEINZ
Heinz Relax Ketchup bottle emits orgasmic sighs instead of fart noises
— Here’s a fun, silly little pre tape that’s rightfully popped up in recent Thanksgiving specials.
— Ferrell’s stone-faced, distraught reaction to his family thinking he farted is hilarious.
— The gag of a ketchup bottle making pornographic noises is so dumb, and I mean that purely as a compliment.
— As per usual with these modern fake ads they break the reality of the ad more than I’d like, but this gets in and gets out with its joke so quick that I have no real complaints.
— Not entirely sure how to feel about Kyle’s teenage boy character wanting to sneak off with the ketchup to masturbate, though.
— With the exception of a disappointing return for MacGruber, this is, to date, the last pre tape we’ve gotten directly after the monologue before commercial break. It’s definitely an aspect of the show I’ve missed these last few seasons.
— John: I love this. A hilariously stupid idea, executed properly, terrific voiceover work from Cecily, and, amazingly, not padded and padded the way many pre-tapes now are. I have watched it probably a dozen times and could probably watch a dozen more. Aidy’s reaction to Kyle wanting to go to his room with the ketchup bottle makes me laugh every time—perfect performances from both of them. At the time I saw more focus on how people don’t use ketchup at Thanksgiving than I did on the comedic material, because I guess the show where space aliens claim to be from France and have giant cones on their heads is known for its realism. Anyway, this is one of my favorite pre-tapes of modern SNL, and a great example of Will’s talents used right.
STARS: ****½
2020 DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
Democratic debaters include Amy Klobuchar (RAD) & Michael Bloomberg (FRA)
— Yayy, a debate sketch. I feel like this was likely the original cold open before the impeachment became the big story of the week. That means we get the gift of basically having two cold opens. Again: yayyyy.
— Kate’s Warren describing herself as having “mom hosting Thanksgiving energy” is kinda funny, though it still feels like they aren’t sure what to do with that impression, as evident by that “maize” half joke.
— I already thought “funt” was a dumb joke, and Maya’s Kamala straight up spelling out the gag by almost calling herself the c-word definitely didn’t sway me towards it.
— Maya gets some painful material to work with in this sketch, as Kamala’s supposed desire to go viral has her reenacting a bunch of dumb internet memes. I get that these things can be funny online, and maybe at the ripe old age of 24 I’m just a fuddy duddy who doesn’t ‘get it’, but this is just Epic Movie level parody. There’s no joke other than “OMG, she’s doing the ‘ermahgerd gersberms’ meme!! I recognize that!” Not to mention how embarrassing it looks on the show’s part to engage in this sort of desperate clickbaiting under the thin guise of mocking Kamala. To reference another meme, this is the show in pure “how do you do, fellow kids” mode.
— Now Larry’s Bernie comes in, with a reference so dumb (talking about how he had a “heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack”) I have to smile. Am curious in the venn diagram of how many people got that Billy Joel reference and how many know all the memes Maya’s Kamala’s referencing (though I guess I’m that circle).
— Woody Harrelson returns as Biden. It’s an okay impression, certainly a fine enough one for when he was a host, but not one I’d call strong enough to bring it back in someone else’s episode. This would be the last time we’d see Woody’s Biden, though don’t go thinking we’re finding a permanent face for that role anytime soon.
— Chris has fun energy as Cory Booker, though, like everyone else here, he isn’t given much to work with (also he stumbles over one of his only lines pretty badly).
— Now Biden is telling us the plot to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. I don’t know that I have a comment for that, I just wanted to let you know what’s happening in this debate sketch.
— Biden referring to weed as “sticky icky kush” got a big eye roll out of me. I tend to not like those jokes that basically amount to “LMAO that person doesn’t talk like that!”
— Oh hey, my first time getting to review Bowen! I usually love his energy, but he feels a little too Bowen Yang and not enough Andrew Yang here.
— Will’s got a fun guarded, skittish energy as Tom Steyer, a man who apparently at one point existed.
— Fred pops up as Bloomberg here. Despite him being such a love-him-or-hate-him cast member, I’ve always been pretty in the middle on Fred, but it’s definitely hard to get excited for him when he only just cameoed 3 episodes back in the wretched Trump rally open from the Chance episode, doing his stock Middle Eastern voice. I’ll take Bloomberg over that, but again: hard to get too excited.
— I liked David’s Sanders’ little aside about the extra button in a little baggy that comes with some pants.
— These meme segments are seriously hard to watch (“cringe”, as the kids might say). They really love to saddle Maya with some of the lamest material they can muster when she’s Kamala.
— Continuing what I said earlier about them not having much of a take on Warren, they’re really pushing the “black people will never vote for Mayor Pete” narrative, but didn’t she have just as much trouble with getting African American votes?
— Some of these impressions I haven’t mentioned, like Cecily’s Tulsi Gabbard or Rachel Dratch’s Klobuchar. They’re fine.
— Kate’s Warren just referred to November as “cuffing season”. Haha, she doesn’t talk like that!
— Bit of a mess of a debate sketch (I know, what’s new?) While some of the individual performances remained fun, this one provided very little in the way of memorable lines or (as if I should even ask for this at this point) biting material. Not to mention the Kamala bits, which were just straight up embarrassing.
— John: This is the only chance this season I’ll have to say this, so I’m going to say it: by the time they had the COVID shutdown, I no longer had any idea whether Rachel Dratch or Pete Davidson had appeared in more episodes this season. I am guessing it’s Pete, even if several of his episodes just amounted to walk-on roles…but I’m just going to count Rachel as an honorary cast member anyway. (Seriously, I was happy to see Rachel, even if the material they gave her this season was never up to much…same as it ever was for Rachel, sadly.)
STARS: **
FIRST THANKSGIVING
on Thanksgiving, Pocahontas’ (MEV) grandfather (WIF) lambastes immigrants
— Oh man, they really front loaded this ep with its most frustrating material. I remember finding this sketch to be a total mess when I first watched it, but as always I’ll try and go in with an open mind.
— This sketch is walking a bit of a tight rope conceptually, and I don’t think it’s doing it very gracefully. Ostensibly the joke is that we’re taking the way racist white people talk about immigrants and mapping it to how the Native Americans would talk about Pilgrims. So, I do see the intention of “haha, see, these very people were once the persecuted immigrants themselves!” But if we keep mapping this out, doesn’t it suggest the fears of the people it’s mocking are correct, and they are going to be wiped out and replaced? And I’m not even trying to hold that against the show in a “oh, how irresponsible of them” kind of way, but it does mean that the central metaphor this piece is going for is inherently flawed.
— To my previous point, if the sketch was going for a more mean-spirited “haha, see, you will be replaced!” tone (all satirical sketch premises for me start with the phrase “haha, see”, e.g. “haha, see, Ford is dumb!”) I could see this working better, though even then the Richard Pryor episode already did a perfect version of that 50 years ago.
— We get a random moment where it’s revealed Beck’s character is a pedophile and then everyone just kind of moves on. It got some shock laughs from the crowd, but I don’t know, it felt kind of out of nowhere and cheap.
— Will’s character gets his news from a fox. God, this is such thin mapping why not just have the fox’s name be Tucker?
— Oh, I guess I should mention Fred and Maya are in this. Just shows the level of excitement they drum up at this point that I forgot until now.
— Again, I have to point out how off the joke feels when Will’s racist stand in character is correct about all the stuff he’s worried about.
— Now Beck and the family are getting along after bonding over poop. That’s a sentence this sketch just made me type.
— As if this wasn’t enough of a mess, we now get Will delivering some sort of on-air apology for the sketch we just watched. I did like the line “white actors playing Native Americans? What is this, 2014?” (apparently Fred and Maya’s roles were originally played by white cast members in dress rehearsal, which would have made this line make more sense—though if anything making sense in this sketch might have just made it stand out more) but this both feels tonally confused and a classic example of SNL wanting to have their cake and eat it too. It’s just a baffling note to end the sketch on, truthfully.
— Both this and the cold open were written by Che (this one co-written with Bryan Tucker and Pete Schultz). I love him behind the desk but as a sketch writer, especially when penning political pieces like tonight, he often turns in stuff that’s either lazy like that open or incomprehensible like this sketch. This one in particular I really doubt would have made the show, especially slotted so early, if it wasn’t written by a head writer (having roles for two well-liked alums obviously doesn’t hurt either). It’s really not the best sign when my two lowest-rated pieces of the night were the work of one of the guys in charge. In fact, Kent Sublette, another head writer, co-wrote the Debate sketch, my next lowest of the night. Way to lead by example, guys.
STARS: *
PARTY SONG
teacher’s (WIF) presence at their house party fazes teens (MID) & (CES)
— Can’t say Cecily sounds super natural saying stuff like “hella lit” and “big ass blunt”.
— A funny reveal of Will’s English teacher attending this high school party.
— I like that they avoid the obvious joke of Will being a creep and instead have him doing innocuous stuff like watching The Shawshank Redemption.
— Not that I need the melodies on my SNL joke songs to blow me away, but it should be pointed out how nothing this song is musically.
— There’s a slightly dark, uneasy tone to this I appreciate, though they don’t dig in on it quite enough. Stuff like the long gap where the beat plays in the background while Ferrell downs a beer is pretty effective, and I’d like to see a couple more moments like that in here.
— While this didn’t keel me over with laughter, it was an interesting character piece for Ferrell and had an admirably uncomfortable and dramatic tone at times.
— John: I really like this pre-tape. So many pieces work for me—the (intended or not) unreality of Cecily and Mikey as teenagers, Mikey and Cecily slowly letting obsessing over their teacher’s behavior take over their party mood (and not in the leaden Mikey explains/recaps way), the mind-numbing beat and nasally vocal performance that match how hollowed out Will’s character is, and most of all, Will’s absolutely fabulous performance, which relies so much on just his expressions. The part where he breaks up the detailed rhyme scheme that built through the whole song because he is too broken to be bothered is wonderful. Heidi also does strong work as one of the many, many harried wives she plays in pre-tapes. (was this the first?) There’s absolutely nothing new for pre-tapes on men having midlife crises (I think Beck alone played about 4 or 5…), but there’s a real care in the inescapable hellishness of this one that always stays with me. There’s a certain commitment to the theme in the best season 45 pre-tapes that I miss.
STARS: ***½
PIZZA AD
emotional parents (WIF) & (KAM) derail a pizza parlor commercial shoot
— Let’s see if I enjoy this “Kate and Will attempt to shoot a local commercial and it goes poorly” sketch more than the one they did in his last episode.
— I get that Kate’s “horny dance” bit is meant to be awkward and lame, but it still didn’t work for me. Kate’s little passive-aggressive routine after being shut down however does work for me and feels more true to life.
— For the most part I’m over this type of exasperated straight man role for Mikey, but for whatever reason it’s working for me here.
— Will’s dad basically having no idea how to interact with the kids without the mom around is another funny and true-to-life bit, though the Bobby bit from the Mother’s Day Game Show sketch from Charlize Theron’s Season 39 episode covered that idea more succinctly and funnier (though I did laugh pretty hard at Will demanding “son, fight me!”).
— Oh I guess they’re taking this a step farther and having the idea be that Will can’t even function in any capacity without Kate, not just in interacting with the kids. That’s a slightly different and interesting angle. This piece was originally written for the preceding week’s Harry Styles’ episode, and rewritten this week with a father role added for Will. I’m glad this had to wait that extra week; not only does the father role really add to the sketch, it’s a great role for Will.
— “I hired a prostitute to show me how the oven works.”
— Eh, after somewhat praising Mikey earlier his lines are starting to get into that “explaining the joke” territory with him I really don’t care for.
— Pretty funny bit with Will and Kate both having going into full on emotional breakdown mode.
— Despite some misgivings, this was a solid piece, and a huge improvement over the last Ferrell/McKinnon commercial piece.
— John: For some reason, Will and Kate work well together for me in a way that Kate often does not with other hosts (or even cast members). I think it is because Will is so sure of his own comic instincts that she can’t really overwhelm him. They’re a great match here. I also want to say that Heidi always feels like Bailey Gismert to me in this, and kudos to Kyle for getting to wear both of his teenager wigs in this episode. Oh, and they sort of remake this sketch (or Kate’s mother part, anyway) in the Daniel Kaluuya episode, which doesn’t really work for me.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “1950”
— Anthony: I was going to comment on this being the last time SNL spotlighted an under the radar artist, but then I looked them up on Spotify and this song literally has about half a billion streams, so I’m just a dummy who missed it somehow.
— Out of curiosity, I did some digging to see who the last musical guest was with less than a million monthly Spotify listeners. Since Season 40 there’s only been two: Margo Price in Season 41 and David Byrne later this season (which sounds crazy, but then you remember all his most notable stuff was with Talking Heads. Still, if you’d like to raise those numbers, check out this song, which was one of my top 10 most played last year.) Anyway, dig deeper for your guests, SNL!
— Blue: I 100% concur with the above. Dig deeper, SNL… and stream Love This Giant.
— That being said… I’ve never heard of King Princess, and they are in no way what I expected.
— Sounds like the lead vocals are mixed too low.
— King Princess’ guitar tone sounds great.
— Not crazy about all the effects-heavy backing vocals doubling King Princess on the pre-chorus and chorus.
— Also not crazy about the laid-back feel of this song. I feel like it needs a little more energy.
— Aw yeah, the final chorus made everything worth it, with the second guitarist’s heavy tone coming in under the vocals.
— Kind of wish King Princess’ vocals on the last chorus were even raspier and harsher.
— Whoa, King Princess is rocking the solo! Where was all that energy before?
— I would have found this performance more exciting if they’d stripped some of the pop elements from this song and leaned into the rockier aspects that they brought out towards the end.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE
Guy Who Just Bought A Boat & frat brother (Ryan Reynolds) ply dating tips
— Audience gives an applause break for a “Pence is gay” joke, because SNL/late night in general has conditioned them to believe this is the height of comedy.
— Funny line from Che about lying to the police and saying he’s Kenan.
— Che’s stop and frisk material was fine, though I’d have expected something a bit more biting coming from him. In general the Update jokes tonight have seemed a little soft.
— Guy Who Just Bought a Boat! This has never been my favorite character, but it’s always nice to see more Alex on the show, and this role allows him to show off his Aykroyd-style ability to rapidly rattle off tongue twisting dialogue.
— Yea, the usual takeaway so far for this character with me: I’m impressed with Alex’s delivery, more mixed on the dirty wordplay, and rolling my eyes at all the tiny penis jokes.
— We get a change of pace here with Ryan Reynolds coming in as Guy Who Knows the Owner. Reynolds has a smarmy yet affable presence so I can see why they paired him with this character.
— I like Alex’s enthusiastic “ha ha, yes!” when Reynolds comes out and immediately does a dirty play on words.
— Reynolds is doing fine here, though he can’t spit out the one-liners as quick-fire as Alex, which makes them lose their bite a bit. Also they lean into the tiny penis stuff even harder than usual with him, though I will admit to enjoying his description of it as a “skin Slinky”.
— The M&M’s joke was okay, though I didn’t need the Arby’s tag.
— They probably go to the “Jost is out of touch and possibly racist” well a little too much, but damn if I don’t giggle almost every time, as I did with tonight’s joke about him debuting “ultra black material” at the Apollo.
— Jost and Che both seem aware that Vagina Museum joke was a pretty weak one to end things on.
— A decent, if unremarkable Update. Some solid lines but outside of Reynolds popping up I doubt I’ll remember anything from this tomorrow even.
STARS: ***
CINEMA CLASSICS: THE WIZARD OF OZ
Munchkin muses bristle in Wizard Of Oz outtake
— Ah, Cinema Classics. I don’t usually love these but they do tend to be one of the more reliable Anderlette pieces, for whatever that’s worth.
— As always Kenan is making the Reese De’WHAT scenes funny through sheer will of performance.
— A funny and kind of cute reveal of Will and several other cast members as the little people who inspired the Munchkins.
— This has some decent lines, but this doesn’t feel like it’s getting mean enough to leave much of a mark. It feels like one of those sketches that struggles to justify its existence past the initial reveal. There’s just a second gear it never really finds, though it’s pleasant enough. I’ve certainly seen worse Wizard of Oz material on SNL, at least (thinks of Sarah Jessica Parker, shudders in horror).
— Pretty abrupt, weak ending (yea yea, I know, what else is new?).
— John: Kate’s usual mannered performance-style is a logical fit for Judy Garland, and she again works very well with Will, without whom lines like, “I wish that tornado had killed you!” wouldn’t have clicked (the way he says, “To make you laugh?” is also a highlight). The premise is very obvious, but that’s basically the case for all Wizard of Oz sketches. The reactions from Will, Bowen and Kyle when they realize she dreamt of them being Munchkins sell the sketch; the shoulder shimmies right after are the epitome of guilty laughs. I like Bowen’s reaction when Kate says the Munchkins were a “noble race.” Kyle’s work is strong throughout. And Chloe is, for once, well-cast. This is one of my favorite Cinema Classics sketches, a series that, outside of the wonderful Kenan intros, often feels like it should be better than it is. This one, even if it flabs a bit and needs a slightly stronger ending, is among the handful that don’t just rest on a vaguely interesting premise and a lot of vamping.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hit The Back”
— Blue: Enjoying King Princess’ smooth vocal tone at the start of the song.
— Very cool synth sounds on the first verse.
— There’s that vocal raspiness that I wish King Princess had utilized more in the first song!
— Sudden shift into a dance beat! Yes!
— The pre-recorded voice bits, which sound like people chattering throughout the performance, are very distracting to me.
— Oof, there’s a few lower notes on the second verse that King Princess failed to hit.
— I like how natural King Princess’ dancing appears to be. Reminds me of Maggie Rogers from the previous season. There’s no choreography here, just a young person having fun onstage.
— As with the first song, I find the backing vocals unnecessary. In fact, they might take away from the song.
— I love the surprise tag at the end! Especially the second guitarist’s part.
STARS: ****
VENTRILOQUIST
ventriloquist’s (WIF) dummy claims their relationship is nonconsensual
— Pretty funny twist to have the old gag of a puppet complaining about its ventriloquist’s hand being up its back and taking it to its logical darkest conclusion. I mean, centering a sketch around, to put it delicately, nonconsenual anal puppet fisting (put as delicately as I know how) is certainly a big swing, but so much of tonight has been a whiff why not take it?
— They could be doing more with this past the initial reveal, but Will’s performance is fun at least.
— The scenes with Cecily and Kenan as particularly concerned audience members feel pretty superfluous to me in the way these audience bits usually do. I really think this would have worked better, and played more into the awkwardness they’re trying to mine, if it was just a solo piece from Will.
— Alright, Kenan screaming “get your hand out the little man’s butt!” in a particularly Kenan-y voice made me smile. And I’ll give Cecily credit that she’s committed here as well. Plus they’re actually interacting with Will at least a little, so these don’t feel quite as expendable as a lot of these audience cutaway scenes do, but I still think a solo piece would have been the better and more interesting way to go.
— The pained screams Will makes as he shoves his (lubed up!) hand back in the puppet are funny in a “I guess I’m still 12” way.
— The song at the end felt like it should have gone on longer.
— I don’t love sketches ending in reveals they were ads the whole time, but the idea of there being a “People for the Equal Treatment of Puppets” is funny.
— This is one a lot of people really didn’t care for, and I can totally see someone being put off by a sketch where the joke is basically “puppet molestation”. But this one surprisingly works for me. It’s not a classic or anything, but I got some solid laughs out of this. Though it did feel like it could have leaned harder into either the awkwardness or the chaos, since it instead landed somewhere in between. Still, a somewhat guilty passing grade.
— John: Of all Will’s various hosting stints, this sketch is very much in Will’s wheelhouse from his last 3-4 years in the cast, where some of what he is playing is legitimately horrible but he twists it into very dark comedy (I believe it was penned by Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers of that era, which helps). The way he switches from his normal ventriloquist voice to the wailing puppet (wringing laughs out of “my insides are pulp” is not an easy task), the puppet accusing the audience of being “complicit,” the closing joke with the lube, Cecily’s appalled reaction (I think she was trying not to break, but it works, somehow). Not a perfect sketch by any means, but pure Will Ferrell, and a strong way to wind down the night.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
CUT FOR TIME: DATE IN MEXICO
(WIF) becomes an emotional wreck when his girlfriend dumps him
— Good unnerving energy from Will here.
— Some solid lines and work from Will in the opening part of this but it takes us over 2 minutes to get the initial reveal of him being dumped, which feels like a lot of padding before the meat of the sketch.
— YouTube comments are telling me this is based on something from 90 Day Fiance, though I refuse to look into it and see what that could be.
— Something about Melissa’s performance feels kind of off here. Maybe she’d have corrected it by the time she got to the live show, but she feels weirdly subdued here.
— Speaking of performances that I hope would have tightened up by air time, lot of breaking from Cecily here.
— Will housing down lobster chunks by hand is pretty funny.
— This does seem to be having trouble nailing down its goal beyond “Will acting weird in front of Cecily and Chris”. It’s got enough solid gags that it stays watchable, but it never feels like we’ve truly locked into something. Another piece from this episode that feels like it needed to kick into a second gear it never found.
— Heidi and Alex are fun in their little bit over the phone as Will’s would-be Moldavian lover and her actual lover (who Will assumes to be her brother).
— Decent if somewhat predictable ending.
STARS: **½
CUT FOR TIME: JEANS COMMERCIAL
ad for fun and flirty new style of jeans for men
— Written by Alex with Will Stephen.
— A fairly whatever reveal of the men’s jeans being cut to show off some cheek meat. This doesn’t do much beyond give us a few quick beats of its one joke, but it also gets in and out quick enough to get too mad at, disposable as it may be.
— I do also like that we’re avoiding the easy jokes of women being disgusted by the jeans or the guys being overt creeps. That helps this go down easier.
STARS: **½
CUT FOR TIME: CAST LIST
a group of drama students (BEB, HEG, AIB, MID, ALM, CES, KYM, BOY) eagerly await their drama teacher (WIF)’s cast list for a show
— A Seiday sketch. They seem to go out of their way to write ensemble pieces, which is always something I appreciate, especially with a cast as oversized as this one.
— Lots of laughs from the level of satisfaction Will derives from withholding the cast list from his group of wannabe thespians. Especially enjoy the absurdity of him watching them from behind the drama masks on his door.
— That door bit got an especially solid reaction from the crowd, which begs the question: why exactly did this get cut? Not only is it a strong enough piece on its own right that it deserved to be on the live show on any week, but it appeared on a night where so much of what made it to air was sub par, so its lack of inclusion is truly baffling.
— I do think Mikey is a tad restrained for what’s supposed to be such a flamboyant role. This is one of those roles that would have been played by Taran a few seasons back, which would have been a blessing, since he would have committed more, and a curse, since he would have committed hard to some choices you maybe shouldn’t commit hard to.
— Everyone else is doing great work here. This cast’s theater kid energy has been noted many times, so of course they’re going to crush a piece like this.
— Not sure we needed the bit with Will telling Cecily and Beck to “bang each other’s brains out.”
— Hilarious work from Bowen as he’s consigned to a bit part against his wishes.
— Ferrell’s having a lot of fun holding the students off as he brings out the cast list.
— Kenan and Kate popping in for some very Kenan and Kate roles. Not sure Kate was needed, but Kenan’s simple “I’m sorry” to Heidi was a great moment.
— A very fun, funny, lived-in piece. There’s a couple moments I would have shaved off, but otherwise this was pretty much perfect.
— John: Probably one of the most well-received cut-for-time pieces, and deservedly so. There is something of a full-circle moment here due to the character Will is playing; Phil Hartman played a very similar character in his two hosting stints, sketches that both included Will.
STARS: *****
CUT FOR TIME: HARRY STYLES SKETCH
teenage girls (AIB, CES, KAM) fawn over hot English transfer student Harry Styles (WIF)
— Both this and Date In Mexico had writing input from Jost (with this one being co-written with lil baby Dismukes!), which makes their exclusion from the live show interesting.
— Too long opening text crawl.
— A fun concept of Will taking over a role meant for Harry Styles the previous week.
— Some obvious jokes about Ferrell playing a dreamboat character, but he and the girls are both giving fun performances.
— Kate, when learning Ferrell’s character is 17: “which means he’s legal, jackpot.” Hmm, okay, sketch.
— Lol at Ferrell dicking around with an ice cream cone.
— Kate now just made a comment about how Gwenyth Paltrow must have a website in her pants, because of all the goop in there. She also said earlier “clean up on aisle me”. So, yea…. not loving a lot of Kate’s dialogue in this one.
— Ferrell, describing his tattoos: “this one’s a dolphin, which is a friendly shark.”
— Aidy just got a forced horny joke as well, but she can at least sell that type of thing more than Kate.
— Another dress sketch with some very loose performances in terms of breaking.
— A fun piece overall, even if the writing wasn’t the sharpest in the world.
— John: This was the last of the Ferrell CFT pieces to be uploaded onto Youtube, and is no longer available there. Given how well-received Harry Styles was as a host not long before this, a part of me wonders if this went up just for that reason (even if it didn’t make the live airing). It’s a very goofy piece that I can’t see ever making it out of dress, but some of the absurdity of Dismukes is well-channeled in Will’s performance, and his wispy, deliberately bad attempt at Harry’s accent is funny in of itself. At the time, getting all of the sketches and pre-tapes cut from this episode, released in staggered form, felt like an apology for the live episode not getting the best reaction—something similar happens with the Will Forte episode, where several pieces are released over a week after the original airing.
STARS: ***
IMMEDIATE POST SHOW THOUGHTS
— Another pretty weak Ferrell outing. I appreciate the emphasis on original ideas over taking a nostalgia trip his last 2 efforts have gone for (in fact tonight was Ferrell’s first time as host where he brought back none of his recurring characters or impressions from his tenure) but more often than not those “original ideas” ended up feeling like warmed-over retreads of things we’ve already gotten or stuff that just isn’t very fully formed.
— This was an especially frustrating episode considering how much stronger a lot of the available cut material was than a lot of what made it into the proper show, especially the three unfunny political pieces. It’s the type of move that doesn’t just hurt the episode but your overall faith in the team making decisions for the show. After all, how many “Cast List”s have we lost in favor of a “First Thanksgiving”?
— John: Modern SNL is crippled by running order failures, and this episode is one of the strongest examples of those failures. I remember comments about how much better this episode was in dress, and that would not surprise me. With that said, as someone who is not a huge devotee of any of Will’s hosting episodes (I have not seen his 2012 episode yet, and am not in a huge rush to do so), this is the one I enjoy most. Once we get past the generally terrible first three live sketches, we enter into a lot of good-to-very-good material that allows Will to feel at home and taps into his unique comic talents. The lack of five-timers material and recurring material was also a good thing for me. Too bad about that first half…
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
(CFT: Cast List)
Heinz
Party Song
Pizza Ad
Ventriloquist
Weekend Update
(CFT: Harry Styles Sketch)
Cinema Classics: The Wizard of Oz
(CFT: Date In Mexico)
Monologue
(CFT: Jeans Commercial)
2020 Democratic Debate
First Thanksgiving
Impeachment Press Conference
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
Want more Will Ferrell content? Check out our breakdown of his Best Of special here.
TOMORROW
In an example of totally-not-wonky scheduling, I’m back again! Join me in looking at Jennifer Lopez’s third hosting stint.