I was disappointed that they had James Austin Johnson doing Trump for the second time in about three weeks. He does a great impression, but his appearance last night wasn't funny to me. I was more amused by Spoiler his role in the Target spoof. The best parts of the cold open were the judge calling Rittenhouse "my client" and Chris Redd's spot-on commentary. I thought the Republican or not game show was funny, lampooning the craziness of the times. The baking show was silly and fun.
Very "Meh" episode this week overall, imo. Funniest line, by far, was Che's Queen Elizabeth joke. If I had taken a drink at that moment, I'd have done a spit-take.
Ditto!!! That got me laughing loudly with the whole house asleep. I also liked the republican or not skit. Overall I thought it was a good episode. We just watched Shang Chi Friday night so I was glad he did a good job hosting.
It was good but for me, not as entertaining as some others this season. Liked: Simu Liu. Wasn't familiar w/him before, but did happen to somehow catch his spot on The Tonight Show w/Jimmy Fallon this week & knew he was going to be this week's SNL host, so kept that on. Target Thanksgiving sketch. Can't believe I'm saying this, but Walking In Staten. Clever, funny lyrics & what a good sport that Marc Cohn participated! New military weapon: Dog head/man hands. VG++! SNL @ best when doing absurdist silly, madcap comedy. Not as entertained by: Weekend update. I found all of this seasons' more interesting/amusing. The 9-1-1 weed-party that of-an-age couldn't deal, just didn't laugh (maybe have to be drunk or high.) Thanksgiving Bake-Off. Yeah, "been there, done that". Done better. As others have said, same joke & on that one, too: General observations from this & some bits of season: a bit overboard on the push of gratuitous sex jokes. Yes, SNL pushes enveloope, but I just don't remember such a great deal of pretty crude level content: see also - 2nd song performance by Saweetie. In a nutshell, the essence of how low & debased our society would seem to have fallen. Have no familiary with her, but listening & looking @ her, I imagine the intent is to be the next Cardi B (?) - I had to look up & watch (part of) a Cardi B video, b/c I thought I remembered seeing or reading about something of hers & after doing so, I would say defintiely. Neutral: Republican Or Not Toast: (Leave, don't return) Aidy Bryant Kate McKinnon
I felt like this was a potentially great sketch that just wasn’t written as well/sharply as it needed to be, to truly connect. The concept was solid, but the writing seemed lazy and too predictable once each mystery guest was first introduced. SNL has done some fantastic and layered political sketch’s based on TV game shows in recent years (Black Jeopardy) — but this one didn’t have any twists and turns, and even the one mystery guest who was an actual politico didn’t really bring it with anything unexpected, or particularly ‘cutting’. More generally about the episode in total — my wife and I liked the host just fine, and he seemed mostly very comfortable in his own shoes throughout the entire night. But I don’t think I laughed especially hard more than 2-3 times the entire night. Only the bake-off sketch was truly awful, but little else was all that memorable — except maybe the pre-tape where Bowen and the host kept one-upping each other with “first Asian this” and “first Asian that” awards — that one connected pretty well.
What’s crazy is that they have done that cake barfing bit before. So someone actually had to think that this bit was not only worth doing, but worth doing again. Standard okay episode with a few laughs. The open had some laughs but was conceptually disappointing. Same basic setup they used a couple of weeks ago? Jeez….
I was more bullish on "Republican or Not" based on how Kenan sold it as "gleeful host who knows what's coming" from the very beginning.
I thought this was a good episode. I like the Trump representation a lot - they are showing the behaviours of the person not the broad strokes anymore. That's where the humour is. Cecily's performance with all of her characters was crazy good. Che's Queen Elizabeth line was so good. Hats off to him for the delivery. Republican or Not was a good sketch and Keenan is getting that Bill Hader sadistic vibe which is hilarious. I liked the Staten Island bit except it went on too long for me and is so specific I am a bit distanced from it. The Karaoke bit was fun. I laughed at the Asian awards skit. Could have been done faster. Less said about the cake baking skit the better. Except this - did they think people forgot the first version? I find the writing strong and they aren't always staying safe. I still love how they distribute parts around and the whole cast gets used.
They know perfectly well that people will remember seeing another version of the sketch before. The enjoyment of doing it again is coming up with new weird cakes -- there's no need to change the structure of it.
The fun of the sketch the first time was the surprise not the weirdo creepy factor. Must have been a favourite sketch of someone.
In the UK we get SNL at 9pm the next day on Sky Comedy and I record it to watch during the week. Just finished watching the latest episode and was baffled because there was no sign of Saweetie except in the final credits. No music in the show at all except for the karaoke sketch and Walking in Staten. So I used Sky’s catchup to download the episode and there were the usual two songs from the guest. They cut her out of the broadcast version for the UK. Anyone know why? (And I don’t think “she was rubbish” is a valid reason!)
- Ugh no! Looks like Kate's back & here I was, enjoying this season & actually looking forward to it each week. Also not a fan of the whispered, mumble-vocal, whether it be Billie Eilish or whoever else is doing it. Oh well. I hope they don't let her gobble it up, she's had her day...By now, it's not just overstaying, it's long overstaying. And, the new cast-members have been doing great, along w/Chloe Fineman promoted to cast regular!
I'd meant that in relation to Kate, not Billie! Just b/c I'm not a fan of Billie, I certainly don't consider a couple of years in the spotlight overstaying! I also don't think she's untalented; just not for me.
And in other news… ‘Saturday Night Live’: British Version Of NBC Late-Night Comedy In The Works At Comcast-Backed Sky I know that this is off topic, but I thought that I’d share it here.
A gossip site claims SNL are chasing Britney Spears to host only. I think she did double duty once and performed only once before.
I'll be curious to see Eilish as the host of "SNL". I don't follow her much, but since it seems like every pic I've ever seen of her makes it look like her dog just died, she doesn't scream "comedic talent"! It'll be fun to see how she does.
