“I am so in the weeds with David Pumpkins”
Cold Open: The Presidential Debate
3 Stars
Tom Hanks moderates our final presidential debate as Chris Wallace. We get bad hombres and nasty woman and a fun bit with the entire planet laughing at Trump claiming he was the most respect for women. And the hilarious bit where he says he won’t accept the results of the election. I’m getting a little tired of all these debate cold opens but I am binging these in fairness. I remember thinking this was amazing at the time. I can’t believe I’m living through this crazy moment in history when a crazy, racist, fake billionaire almost got elected President...
Tom Hanks Monologue
Tom Hanks has been dubbed 'America's Dad' so he has a father/son chat with America. He notices America's complexion getting darker and gayer, he's concerned about the debt, can smell the weed, and wants to know if America really needs all those guns. Short and sweet and it's just nice to see Tom Hanks back at SNL.
Black Jeopardy!
I know I'm alone on this but I don't love these sketches. I hate to say it, but I don't quite get them. There's something about the internal logic that ties my brain in knots. It's 'Black Jeopardy' so the questions are geared towards black people but then the answers will be so specific sometimes that it seems that only these black people would know them. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe since I'm a white dude I'm not supposed to fully understand it and it's just a sketch designed to make white people feel uncomfortable. If that's the case, good on you. Maybe it's just supposed to be silly and not to be dissected. But this installment does something that the others don't do, it explores the small things that make us similar. We all have a package drawer in our kitchen with a bunch of crap we got from fast food bags, none of us trust the government, we know a guy who will fix anything for $40, and we all want the good chair. This is probably the last time the show attempted to humanize a Trump supporter.
Halloween Show
Tom and Cecily have not been asked to write a musical number for their local Halloween festival but they do it anyway. They sing 'Don't Stop Believing' but change the lyrics to be about a witch falling in love with Dracula. Their daughter plays a zombie who is caught in their love triangle. I enjoyed the performance but not the setting. It's 3 people singing a song to a bunch of confused people, which is something we've seen on the show countless times. Might have been a better idea to set this at the Halloween festival where everyone in the town could see their bizarre idea. As it is, it makes no sense that they're singing to a bunch of people who are telling to stop singing and then, of course, the punchline is they actually liked the song.
Broken
With shows like Transparent and Orange Is The New Black winning awards for Best Comedy, CBS is making their own half-hour drama that they're pitching as a comedy about a bunch of professors diagnosed with depression. It's difficult to make something purposely unfunny funny but they pull it off nicely.
Haunted Elevator
Oh, here we go. The sketch that inspired hundreds of Halloween costumes, an animated special, and a sequel sketch several years later. I was worried I wouldn't get the same amount of fun as I did the first time but this still makes me laugh. It's so stupid and absurd and beautifully played. Beck and Kate are riding a haunted elevator, they see ghosts and ghouls and murderers and...a guy in a Jack-O-Lantern suit dancing with two skeletons who goes by the name of David S. Pumpkins. Who is David Pumpkins? His own thing. What are the skeletons? Part of it. What does the S stand for? Some questions don't need answers.
Lady Gaga
“A-YO”
Weekend Update
Cockpit
Tom plays Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who saved a plane full of people during The Miracle On The Hudson. He's getting back to commercial flying but is upset that he has to work as co-pilot under Alec Baldwin. It's wild seeing a sketch helmed by two of the most legendary SNL hosts, I just wish it was funnier.
A Girl’s Halloween
A group of girls getting ready for a chill and respectable Halloween is juxtaposed with scenes from 4am that night where they're all drunk, puking on pizza, stumbling down the street, and screaming. A very well edited piece. Nice touch with Bobby getting a flashback to the start of his night as a hopeful pizza shop owner who later has to kick a bunch of drunk girls out of his store.
Lady Gaga returns with “Million Reasons”
America’s Funniest Pets
I forgot this was a recurring sketch until I looked it up. Last seen in the previous season's Adam Driver episode, Tom plays Ron Howard hosting a clip show about funny animals when he's visited by the hosts of the French version who voice-over their clips with a lot of ennui. This cat is waiting for his deadbeat father, this pig is dancing for a group of masturbating businessmen, this cat is dead from a drug overdose. Not a bad way to end the night.
FINAL ANALYSIS
Average
3.3 Stars
MVP
Tom Hanks
The Presidential Debate, Monologue, Black Jeopardy!, Halloween Show, Broken, Haunted Elevator, Cockpit, America's Funniest Pets
Best Sketch
Haunted Elevator
Worst Sketch
Cockpit
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
I would have swapped A Girl's Halloween with Broken, but I guess that does put all the Halloween sketches in the front half. Eh, leave it alone, this was a fun show.
Host Analysis
Tom Hanks has never not been good on SNL. You want proof of that, come back tomorrow when I'll be ranking all his episodes.
Final Thoughts
One classic sketch doesn't make a classic episode but this was still an episode hovering between good and great. There's only two duds but they're not that bad, just on the weak side. Plus Lady Gaga rocked. I always watch the musical guests but I don't always pay attention, Gaga kept the energy of David S. Pumpkins going into Weekend Update and then brought some excitement to the back half with her second performance. Plus this episode has David S. Pumpkins in it, just watch the whole thing and have yourself a good time. The world's ending soon, remember? Have a little fun while it burns.
Up Next
Benedict Cumberbatch hosts the last show in a world that makes sense.
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