“If God wanted me to eat that he would have put it in a Lunchable”
0 Stars
My immediate thought when Pete starts talking about the conflict between Israel and Gaza is wrong place, wrong time. But he talks about how his father was killed in a terrorist attack and how comedy helped him overcome that tragedy. So it’s a nice sentiment but do we need to comment on everything? I really don’t like a somber cold open for a multitude of reasons. I understand the show thinking that people are expecting them to say something, but are we? Like if they had a non-topical cold open it would be disrespectful? You’re unnecessarily bumming me out at the start of the season. I remember watching this live. The war started when I was on my honeymoon. My wife and I saw it on the news and decided that we would deal with that mentally when we returned. Several days passed, I hadn’t thought of it, I turn on the SNL premiere and there’s Pete Davidson (something I’m not too keen on seeing on TV) staring into the camera to remind me of death and despair. Happy Saturday!
Pete Davidson Monologue
I stress that this is entirely my opinion and you are free to disagree with me. I have nothing personal against Pete Davidson, I have just never found him funny, charismatic, or even very interesting. It could be a coincidence but my interest in the show started to wane right around the time he started becoming popular. I fully admit this could be cranky old man talking. I remember my dad not understanding why I loved Adam Sandler when I was a kid so this could be completely a generational thing. I really don’t get it. My wife gets it. She’s not a fan but she tells me I’m wrong whenever I voice this opinion. I guess I’m trying to say if you love Pete then you may want to stop here because I doubt I’ll be heaping much praise on him. He talks about watching Game Of Thrones with his sister and a girl he once knew who overdosed. I suppose that’s along the tragedy into comedy theme we’re going with today. Can’t say I laughed.
The NFL On Fox
Remember the early 2000s SNL and how it was lame because it seemed to revel in pop culture that would be dated by the rerun. All those Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson sketches? Some things never change. This is all about the NFL commentators talking about Taylor Swift instead of football and arguing over who’s the biggest Swiftie. They sing Bad Blood, dissect her relationships, and we end with a Travis Kelce cameo where I think he says something but it’s drowned out by audience cheers. Some people must like this stuff because they keep doing it but this is the exact opposite of what I think of when I think of the show.
I’m Just Pete
Remember Barbie? How much fun was the Ken song? Well this is a parody of that revolving around all of Pete’s tabloid stories. First off, you’re spoofing a comedy. That just feels inherently wrong. Airplane and The Naked Gun are classic because they’re goofing on something usually taken super seriously. Parodying a comedy feels like stealing, like that scene in Ted where they just copy a scene from Airplane. It’s why “Weird Al” doesn’t change the lyrics to Cletus T. Judd songs. Second, and I don’t want this to sound mean, but I don’t care. I have never cared. I have never given a single shit about who Pete is dating or if he’s on drugs or his beef with Kanye West or anything else about him. I wouldn’t know any of this if he didn’t bring it up on the show. The one line of this I appreciated was how he gets tons of publicity for everything but his comedy. To that I say, do somethin’ funny. Devon as ‘Black Pete’ also provided a slight chuckle. Thank God they didn’t overdo all the different Petes and just stuck to three.
Wired Autocomplete Interview
I can’t tell if I liked this or if it’s just the first halfway decent sketch in the show. It does include the line ‘diarrhea lung’ so it has to have at least some value. Pete and others answer questions pulled from Google search history and all of Pete’s questions revolve around taking a smelly shit on a plane that forced an emergency landing. It would have been nice to get more variations on the gag rather than always going to diarrhea but on the other hand, it is diarrhea and diarrhea is funny.
Secretary
This didn’t work for me as well as it did the first time I saw it, but some of that might be me knowing they brought this back. First time I saw Trudy, the overly helpful secretary who finishes your sentences, anticipates your needs, and licks mustard off your tie, I thought this is exactly what I want to see more on the show, goofy character work. Heidi is a hoot in this as are most of the side characters who pop in for a line. And Pete…doesn’t derail this. He handles this sketch as well as I would expect any first time host, unfortunately he’s a guy who was on the show for 8 years. 8 years?!? And John Milhiser gets one sketch? This show be weird.
Please Don’t Destroy
The Original Princes Of Comedy
First time covering the PDD guys, I like them. They’ve been consistent with their stuff, I look forward to seeing them, and I always enjoy the frenetic pace. Here we see their humble origins as young Def Jam comics talking about Capri Sun pouches and how substitutes need to sit their big asses down and turn on a movie. I could have used a lot more of this and I don’t think we needed the Pete bridging section. There was probably a better way to introduce this concept other than we just happen to be watching videos on our computers. Very fun ending with Che’s mom being a fan. And we get a random John Mulaney cameo.
Ice Spice
“In Ma Hood”
Weekend Update
I almost wrote that this is my first Jost/Che season but I forgot I watched Season 42 already. As usual I don’t have much to say about Update. I liked Che giving the offensive jokes about missing black children to Colin but am I really supposed to believe that all these “spontaneous” moments that make Colin crack up are legit crazy make-em-ups?
Spaceship
I watched this dumbfounded. At what point did this nothing sketch get such high production values? Heidi’s robot outfit alone seems so extensive but there’s really no point to it, leading me to believe they either had all this stuff already and wrote a sketch to accommodate it or they tried to dress up a turd and pretend it’s a steak dinner. The crew of a starship is under attack when they’re visited by Bowen who “used to work here”. That’s the bit, he’s an annoying co-worker on a spaceship and it goes on for a long time.
Ice Spice
“Pretty Girl”
Beach Day
One of the bright spots of my casual SNL watching from the last few seasons has been Andrew Dismukes. I like the way this guy’s mind works. He has a Chris Parnell vibe to him where he always stays in the scene. Plus he writes sketches with turns so you start off thinking it’s about one thing before he switches to the actual concept. We start with him buried in sand then Pete gets news that his family farm has been struck by a tornado. You think the sketch is gonna be Andrew talking seriously with a pair of sand boobs but then it turns to Andrew wanting to hold off on the serious talk long enough to get a picture of him buried in sand. It doesn’t go very far after that and veers into “no, but” comedy with Andrew claiming he wasted his beach day getting buried against his wishes but Pete negating him and saying he actually ordered people to bury him and screamed when they didn’t want to. One of my minor pet peeves in this era of the show, someone establishes a premise and then someone else (usually Kenan) comes in and says “no, that’s not what happened and this is a stupid premise”.
Glamgina
Sarah has glammed up her clam for the cute new gynecologist. Pete as the doctor tells her that it is a bad idea medically and all the other women pop up to endorse the vaginal makeup. I know you got a big cast but I didn’t need ALL the ladies to show up. Chloe, Ego, and Heidi were enough but then Chloe #2 pops out from a closet, Punkie walks in eating a bag of chips, and Kenan comes in to ask if it works on booty holes. Fun premise that just kept sputtering.
Roadhouse Bar
This has enough in it to enjoy but too much to love. Andrew sits down and tells Kenan he’s making money by selling foot pictures online. He boasts about how many figures he’s making (as well as how many fingers), they order drinks with funny names (a little too reminiscent of the Last Call sketches), then Pete comes in to do the same bit. A couple of absurd laughs but it got so scattershot as it went on. It also ends with it being an advertisement for The Cheesecake Factory, which is a gag they go to a lot that seems lazy. In my day sketches ended with long text scrolls read by Al Franken and that’s the way it was and we liked it!
FINAL ANALYSIS
“I used to work here”
2.2 Stars
MVP
Heidi Gardner
Secretary, Spaceship, Glamgina
Best Sketch
Secretary
Worst Sketch
Spaceship
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Rethink that cold open. You don’t have to do a funny sketch about the possible start of WWIII but you could shorten the Taylor Swift sketch and start with that. If you really want to you could put on a title card saying our hearts go out to the people but starting the show, and the season no less, on such a dour note bugged me. You could also book another host but I get it, he was supposed to host last season before the writer’s strike so let him do it. The flow of musical guest/Update/shitty sketch/musical guest was a real momentum killer in the middle but it did allow the show to end with 3 decent and more oddball sketches.
Host Analysis
I don’t think Pete is my least favorite SNL cast member but he’s certainly bottom 10 or 15. That’s a list for another day but there’s people who angered me with their presence while Pete just more confounded me with his. I didn’t get it at first, saw no potential, but gave the benefit of the doubt that he might grow into something. Then he didn’t and I assumed he’d be a 1 or 2 season wonder. Then he stayed on the show for 8 years. That’s what makes him fall further down the list. This ain’t no Jon Rudnitsky, this guy had a Kattan-like tenure and all he has to show for it is Chad and some self-deprecating jokes about how much he sucked on the show. Maybe that’s the joke, if so I feel it’s on me. As for this episode, he wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t good and it certainly didn’t look like he had any sketch comedy experience.
Final Thoughts
I knew going in this wasn’t gonna be one for me, not many episodes are these days. It’s weird, I think I accept Pete as a host more than a cast member. I’m realizing why he didn’t bother me as much as I thought he would, it’s just this one episode. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that Pete left the show 17 months ago. It was too soon. I’m still waiting for Vanessa Bayer and Bobby Moynihan’s triumphant return and they have just as much relevancy comedically as Pete although he trumps them with tabloid success. Not much of this makes sense. I don’t know why Pete is a thing, I don’t understand the show’s love for him, why’s he hosting now?, why the Travis and Taylor stuff?, why the weird cold open?, it’s all very confusing. I’m considering this a warm-up show. You just came back from two strikes and I want to see more from some of these people, just not Pete, which is why I was happy he left.
Up Next
Bad Bunny pulls double duty
What made you go for a modern day episode instead of continuing Season 2?
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say the same.
ReplyDeleteI also lost alot of respect for Pete when he joked about the arena bombing in Manchester that his then fiancee Ariana Grande was performing at which killed 22 people I don't see kids being killed being funny.
ReplyDeleteLong story short, I got bored. Started Season 2, moved, took a break, then when I came back I watched 2 episodes that didn’t feel like SNL so wanted to do something to keep my interest up. I haven’t seen all of 49 and wanted to watch it before the 50th so gonna go back and forth and tentatively finish both at the same time. Might be weird going from Belushi to Kenan and back again but will also keep it fresh.
ReplyDeleteKeeps it interesting
ReplyDelete