“He hasn’t liked it since Kattan left”
Cold Open: Antisemitism Territory
1 Star
As soon as I see a C-SPAN logo I have to ask myself why I’m watching this. There is no way I’m gonna enjoy this. And hearing Steve Higgins’s voice has me strangely missing the low dulcet tones of Jim Downey. But I’ve always sighed a little when I saw a C-SPAN opening. How does SNL get me feeling nostalgic about something I barely liked in the first place? This is a congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses, Chloe plays a congresswoman I’ve never heard of. I’m gonna try to pretend that this isn’t topical and is just an original concept. Forget the fact that I don’t know anything about anything this is referencing, just focus on the ha-has…and I’ve completely zoned out. Focus on the positives, the cold open isn’t the episode and isn’t a measure of its quality, it’s just an unfunny 7-10 minutes that starts every show.
Adam Driver Monologue
I was gonna commend the show for not mentioning The 5-Timer’s Club two episodes in a row but then I realized it was only Adam’s 4th episode. And holy crap, what do we have here? An actually fun monologue that seems like it was written? It has focus and is about one concept and we didn’t need any gratuitous cameos. Crazy how they can impress me by just showing up. Adam kills this. He plays piano for Santa while tossing off Galifianakis style one-liners. After a slow start we’re cooking much earlier than usual.
We’re Trying
Adam and Bowen announce that they are trying to have a baby, not by surrogacy or adoption but the old fashioned way. I really enjoyed this and it’s a great example of a sketch you could only do today. For anyone who complains about stuff you can’t do anymore, you couldn’t do this 20 years ago. I mean, you could but it would be a Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz sketch and it would be known as that one we don’t talk about. I like how it was a little naughty. It could have been naughtier but I appreciated that this was the classiest sketch about two guys trying to make a butt baby that I’ve ever seen.
Old Friends
3 Stars
Mikey hits up his childhood friend and is surprised to learn that he’s now a homophobic sex offender gun-nut who’s bringing his buddy Big Filthy to the party. Things are going pretty good until we end in my least favorite way, it was a secret commercial for Facebook. A lame but relatable tag. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been spooked by a high school friend’s Facebook page.
Beep Beep
3 Stars
Adam’s playful ‘beep beep’s at dinner are challenged by Andrew’s ‘beep beep’s and, as we all know, one must yield to the other’s ‘beep beep’s or fight to the death. Really loved the comic tension between the two but a weak ending just about ruined it with Kenan coming out with a gun. It feels like there’s a more fun and absurd ending to be had.
Shop TV
2 Stars
All that nice subtlety of the butt baby sketch has evaporated with this sketch about Adam holding a big black cock. He’s a chocolatier with a very phallic shaped concoction and he strokes it and wants to gobble it down. He says he has some bonus items to go with it. Did you guess that they would be balls? You guessed right. I don’t mind that this is juvenile but it just feels so hacky. It’s just an Oscar nominated actor playing with a dildo. All right, when you put it that way it’s fun but this was the bad kind of naughty. Like Schwetty Balls has a little class. This is just playing with a big black dick. Adam makes the most of it though.
Olivia Rodrigo
“Vampire”
Weekend Update
Chloe Fineman does the dance that Julia Stiles does in Save The Last Dance and is then joined by Julia Stiles. As someone who saw Save The Last Dance in theaters on a date just out of high school I gotta say this did absolutely nothing for me.
First Time Flying
Adam is a talking baby on a plane disrupting other passengers. This is a case of too many things going on. We got the crying baby jokes mixed with adult delivery but then it turns into a sketch about how weird Adam’s baby looks but that gets abandoned when he takes a big shit. Adam’s fun here but this is a bit of a waste of potential. Plus it ends in my least favorite way where it was actually a commercial for Baby Plane, a plane to fly your baby separately. What’s the running tally now? I think that makes 15 sketches this season that ended that way. What’s a brother gotta do to get a text scrawl or spinning newspaper ending?
Olivia Rodrigo
“All-American Bitch”
TikTok Pranks
Old people don’t like being pranked on TikTok. They don’t think it’s funny. Unfortunately I don’t find their re-enactments of TikTok pranks funny either.
Tiny Ass Bag
The opposite of a Big Dumb Hat, a Tiny Ass Bag. It feels like I should hate this but I didn’t. I actually enjoyed their catchphrase of “and that’s it”. It got annoying and then steered back into amusing. Adam was funny as the Herlihy Boy-esque peanut gallery. Olivia Rodrigo makes a cameo. I’m never excited to see the musical guest show up in a sketch. I don’t know why that always gets cheers and applause. It’s even worse when I have no idea who the musical guest is and they cameo before their performance. I can’t wait for 20 years from now when half of these musical cameos are lost time. Like if the lead singer of Midnight Oil showed up in a sketch in Season 18 you’d look back on that and go, why?
FINAL ANALYSIS
“My bag is little and my ass is fat”
Average
2.9 Stars
MVP
Bowen Yang
Antisemitism Testimony, We’re Trying, Beep Beep
Best Sketch
We’re Trying
Worst Sketch
Shop TV
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Aside from the cold open, this episode had a nice flow to it. I guess that’s my only suggestion. Please stop starting every episode with a political cold open. It’s one thing when it’s the president but who the fuck is Elise Stefanik? I don’t know what any of this is. It would be like if every cold open was a Game Of Thrones parody. I never watched Game Of Thrones so I would probably get sick of endless spoofs of it. Then after I saw enough Game Of Thrones parodies I would start picking things up and I would be aware of who the main characters were and their relationships and storylines. But then they do a Game Of Thrones parody of a character so specific that you have to be a super fan to get the reference. I don’t know if that’s a good analogy or not, but could you please start the show with something other than politics? I kinda like not thinking about that stuff and if I did I would watch any number of other political comedy shows.
Host Analysis
He’s one of the good ones. Nailed all of his characters and just felt like he knew what he was doing. I can’t think of too many hosts who could have made choking down a chocolate dong work as little as it did. Ok, maybe Salma Hayek but for different reasons. Or Steve Forbes. Come to think of it, there’s not a host that I wouldn’t want to see stroke a big chocolate penis on live TV. Was I too hard on that sketch? Hee hee, hard on.
Final Thoughts
I think I may have been too tough on this one. This feels better than a 2.9. If you cut the cold open it’s a 3.1 which feels more appropriate. I also might be too low on stuff like Beep Beep, Old Friends, and First Time Flying. I really enjoyed those but they all had one thing that bugged me. Judging it against episodes of SNL that I enjoy watching this is pretty average but comparing it to the rest of the season so far it’s first class entertainment. Adam is a great host, the sketches were fun, everything was fresh, good monologue, no cameos (outside of Julia Stiles), Update wasn’t too bad, Olivia Rodrigo was solid, and a guy gobbled a big chocolate wang. This was a good one and worth watching. Not a classic but a good time. Along with the Nate Bargatze episode the only two so far this season worth much of anything.
Up Next
Kate McKinnon makes her grand return like 18 months after she left. How y’all nostalgic for 2022 already?
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