“I like that pizza pie”
Cold Open: A Paid Message From The Russian Federation
2 Stars
A shirtless Vladimir Putin talks about Trump and his inauguration and we have our first political impression behind a desk cold open of the season. Couldn’t care less about this but I did enjoy the inclusion of Olya Polyatsky. It’s always nice to see internal crossover from the SNL extended universe.
Aziz Ansari Monologue
Aziz does standup about Trump’s inauguration, our divided country and the casual white supremacy of the lowercase kkk.
Beat The Bookworm
I feel like this is a bad sketch with a different host. The main reason I like it is just Aziz’s delivery. His boastful and confident bookworm immediately crumbles when forced to answer questions about 90s pop culture.
Interrogation
Aziz gets arrested for not loving La La Land. I remember thinking the reveal of that was hilarious when I originally saw this. It only loses a little on second viewing. Very fun performances from Beck, Cecily, and Aziz.
Kellyanne Conway
I don’t know how to feel about this one. I’m not sure I get it. Kellyanne Conway sings a parody of Roxie from Chicago. I don’t get what it’s going for, I don’t think it’s funny (if it’s supposed to be), and I’m not sure what it’s trying to say (if anything). It’s a fine re-creation of the movie musical but there’s no real joke or exaggeration.
Broderick & Ganz
Broderick will get you huge settlements for minor claims while Ganz will leave you in debt with more legal fees to get rid of him after he calls Squatter’s Rights on your bathroom. Every single part of this is classic and I love how it’s all done live. Aziz is great and Bobby’s subtle work to look incompetent is amazing. He’s just slightly aloof before he starts crossing his eyes and blacking out.
Big Sean
"Bounce Back"
Weekend Update
Leslie Jones comes out to talk about black history and the fact that black people invented the mailbox, the traffic light, and call waiting. My favorite part of this was Che afterwards. Colin introduced Leslie with a story about the movie Hidden Figures which Leslie barely mentions. After the bit, Che sarcastically remarks,
“So that was about Hidden Figures, right?”
It felt like he was speaking my truth. I wish they would just be honest and say “Here with a random bit from their stand-up act is Leslie or Pete.
“Promise me you’ll always be there for her.”
“Nah Jake, that’s your job.”
Dirty Talk
Melissa isn’t that good at the dirty talk. She role plays as a 6th grader with a learning disability and Aziz doesn’t enjoy her bringing impressions of Owen Wilson and Wanda Sykes into the bedroom. I remember watching this episode in 2017 thinking this may be the start of Melissa becoming a star of the show. Turns out, this may be the last time I talk about Melissa even though she stays on the show for 6 years.
Five Stars
Bobby’s Uber driver and Aziz’s Uber passenger are both trying to get a 5 star review. A lot of wonderfully awkward moments ensue. Bobby asking Aziz his religion, moist mints, and a foot massage. Definitely my favorite pre-tape of the season so far.
Pizza Town
I thought this was going to be a sketch referencing the recent Pizzagate event but it’s just a sketch about a crime scene in an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese style establishment with a robot band. It’s repetitive but fun. Police are trying to catch a bad guy while a bunch of robot animals are singing about pizza.
Big Sean returns with "Sunday Morning Jetpack"
To Sir With Love
Oh, right, this thing. I honestly forgot about this. I definitely don’t remember that it came from this episode, I must have separated my feelings towards this from my all around enjoyment of the show. Cecily and Sasheer sing To Sir With Love to Obama as he leaves The White House. Even though I agree with you, I was also upset that a racist game show host became President, this is not the time and place. I forgive the Hallelujah cold open because it was fresh. It was the Sunday after the election, give them a pass. This is too late and may have been my official turning point with politics on SNL. They’re saying it’s Us Vs. Them and for all the talk about how sad you are about our divided country, this doesn’t quite help. And you can’t say it’s not anti-Trump because they wouldn’t have done this had Hilary won. Every four years half the country thinks the election was stolen. This is no better than people putting up signs that said Obama is a secret Muslim in 2008. I mean that IS worse but you get the point. Politics aside, can we put politics aside please?
Average
3.5 Stars
MVP
Bobby Moynihan
Broderick & Ganz, Five Stars, Pizza Town
Best Sketch
Broderick & Ganz
Worst Sketch
To Sir With Love
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Remove everything political. If you take out the cold open, Kellyanne Conway, and the 10-1 you got a 4.6 sketch average which is about as close to perfect you can get.
Host Analysis
You know, getting a guy with sketch show experience to host your sketch show isn’t a bad idea.
Final Thoughts
Obviously this episode is strong enough to makeup for its flaws. I remembered it being a classic. I had all but forgotten there were two political musical numbers that made me hate watching. Despite the goose egg at the end we still got a respectable 3.5 average and the good stuff is so good that I will probably forget my least favorite moment of the season came at the end of it. Aziz was a great host and the sketches were funny. There’s probably something to be said about the fact that the worst part about this one was all the Trump but we didn’t get any actual Trump. There’s no Alec this week so I can’t blame him but this might be the end of me liking anything Trump related on SNL. We’ll see if it comes back but we may be at the beginning of the end.
Up Next
Kristen Stewart hosts and we get the debut of Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer
No comments:
Post a Comment