Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TAX PACKAGE
Stockholm Syndrome has left Barack Obama (FRA) voicing GOP talking points
— OH, FUCK. After the preceding episode’s Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening thankfully turned out to be a fake-out, with it quickly getting interrupted by a far-more-welcome WikiLeaks TMZ piece, we end up getting a full-on, uninterrupted Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening in tonight’s episode. Is SNL trolling me?
— An actual fairly funny premise with Fred’s Obama agreeing with the GOP due to Stockholm Syndrome, as he explains.
— Blah, a very lame turn with Fred’s Obama complaining about Bristol Palin getting eliminated from Dancing With The Stars.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
host belatedly realizes musical guest is the show’s most popular Paul
— Though the bit with Paul Rudd assuming that the people lined up outside 30 Rock chanting “Paul!” are fans of his is cliched and has been done on SNL before (Harvey Keitel’s season 18 monologue, for example), it’s coming off decent enough here, and Rudd has some funny lines.
— Our obligatory meeting of the Pauls.
— Great little bit with the new and underused Paul Brittain joining in on the meeting of the Pauls, only to sulk away when realizing which Paul the Paul fans outside 30 Rock are really fans of.
STARS: ***
FELINE CULINARY CREATIONS
gloppy presentation overshadows gourmet ingredients
— Some laughs from the fancy atmosphere and visuals of this cat food commercial being interspersed with incongruous shots of nasty-looking cat food being carelessly plopped onto plates.
— Great brief shot of Brittain doing a chef’s kiss gesture during his cooking of the fancy cat food.
— Another great brief shot, this time of Nasim as a chef tasting a bit of the cat food herself.
— Funny ending shot of the cat’s paw clinking wine glasses with Abby.
STARS: ****
AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
Austin Vogelcheck’s girlfriend (VAB) is wary of his clan’s yule canoodles
— (*groooooaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn*)
— So far, the only thing I can find to say about tonight’s installment of this typically horrible sketch is that Brittain’s getting quite a bit of airtime so far tonight.
STARS: *
WHAT’S THAT NAME?
contestants (host) & (VAB) fail to identify vassals
— This soon-to-be-very-occasionally-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— After a simple beginning with the contestants easily guessing celebrity names, we get a very funny turn with Kenan entering as Rudd’s doorman.
— Such a great and realistic concept to this sketch.
— I love Kristen’s bitter, foreign-accented delivery of “But Steve Zahn you know.”
— Bill doing his usual excellent job as a game show host. His incredulous delivery of “Those people???” was particularly great.
— Solid escalation to the type of guests who show up.
STARS: ****½
STUMBLIN’
(ANS) & (host) trip to “9 to 5” theme; Mario Batali cameo
— Such a fun concept and very catchy music.
— Funny random inclusion of Paul McCartney, especially the “Tiny Harmonica Solo” part.
— Wait, has that been Kristen singing the “Stumblin’” song the whole time? If so, it’s odd how I didn’t even notice until the final verse of the song, where I heard a distinct Wiig-ism in the singer’s vocal inflection.
STARS: ****
A MESSAGE FROM MASTERCARD / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
jailed Julian Assange (BIH) threatens online attacks if he’s not released
— It’s great how it’s become a weekly running gag for a sketch to suddenly get interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. How often in recent SNL decades like this do you get a running gag that lasts for a string of consecutive episodes?
— That joke from Bill’s Assange about America still not having caught Osama Bin Laden would no longer be relevant just a few months later.
— I love how Bill now portrays Assange like a diabolical villain, complete with him smugly taking a sip of tea each time he laughs evilly.
— A funny list of cruel website attacks Bill’s Assange threatens to make, especially the Netflix/Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper threat.
STARS: ***½
SEXUALLY SPEAKING
Rodger Brush’s facile sexist coital advice doesn’t help
— I was about to groan at the appearance of this bad recurring sketch, but the preceding installment of it from this season’s premiere was slightly better than usual, as Fred’s Rodger Brush actually had a few funny lines. Then again, that sketch as a whole still sucked.
— I will groan at the obligatory and insufferable portions of this recurring sketch where Rodger Brush repeatedly asks the guests to speak louder.
— Funny cutaway to an ashamed, head-shaking Bobby.
— We get at least one funny Rodger Brush line in this installment, with him asking “You want Dr. Linda up here peein’ out of her ass?”
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jet”
WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM & musical guest create an audio caption for a British royal photo
all of Stefon’s club ideas for NYC holiday visitors are non-traditional
— The Weekend Update Audio Caption segment with Seth and Paul McCartney doing the voices of Prince Charles and Camilla is silly fun. Seth also seems to be having fun reprising the stuffy high-pitched British voice he used to regularly do in sketches earlier in his SNL tenure, when playing Prince Charles and other Brits.
— Stefon’s explanation of what a Human Parking Cone is receives what may be one of Bill’s biggest and more memorable breaks in these Stefon pieces.
— Funniest parts of tonight’s Stefon commentary are his Miss Piggy vocal imitation and his twisted version of the Twelve Days Of Christmas song.
STARS: ***½
HOLIDAY JAM
Principal Frye (JAP) gives crisis updates during high school assembly
— The debut of Jay’s Principal Frye character, who’s reportedly based on Jay’s real-life high school principal.
— Jay’s Principal Frye voice is fairly amusing, as are his various reports, but I hate that sharp inhale sound he keeps making between sentences. I believe Jay would thankfully drop that aspect of this character in subsequent installments of this sketch.
— Kenan’s angry speech gets my biggest laughs of this sketch so far.
STARS: ***
MERYL STREEP ON ICE
audiences love Meryl Streep’s (ABE) effortless rink artistry
— An okay-seeming concept for a showcase of the Meryl Streep impression that Abby previously did in a Weekend Update commentary.
— This is Jason’s first appearance ALL NIGHT. And it’s not even a live appearance! Wow. I know his airtime has been diminished in a number of episodes this season in general (I’m still wondering if he was possibly filming Horrible Bosses at this time. Does anyone know?), but THIS is insane. At least he’s his usual likable and charming self in this commercial, though.
— Taran’s testimonial gets my only big laugh of this rather forgettable commercial. Despite him playing a gay stereotype, his testimonial simply being him saying a sassy “Um…the bitch can skate” certainly made me laugh.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Band on the Run”
BROADWAY CARES
unprofessional spotlight technician Jeff foils host’s Cabaret performance
— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in years, surprisingly. This also ends up being its final appearance, though there’s a variation of it in the season 38 Jeremy Renner episode, where the name of Bill’s Mike Underballs character is changed to Wes Underballs for some inexplicable reason, and instead of playing a douchey crew member named Jeff who ruins every take being filmed, Jason plays an idiot movie star named Dick Fuel who ruins every take.
— Very odd how Jason is making his first and ONLY live appearance of the night in 1) the final sketch of the night, and 2) with his scenes taking place in the rafters in SNL’s studio. (How often has a live sketch involved a performer in SNL’s rafters? Hell, is this the ONLY time in SNL history? Jerry Seinfeld had a scene in the rafters in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ season 31 monologue, but his appearance was pre-taped.) When this originally aired, I remember almost wondering if the fact that Jason’s only live sketch appearance in this episode had him appearing in a separate part of the studio from the rest of his scene partners meant his appearance was filmed at a different time or in a different studio or something. This, and his diminished airtime in general this season, also almost made it feel to me back then like he was only a “part-time cast member” this season, much like how Eddie Murphy was, in some ways, only a “part-time cast member” in his final season, and Dana Carvey kinda was, too, in his final half-season. I hear that several of the veterans in SNL’s present-day season 46 cast will also only be “part-time cast members” this current season. (If you didn’t know, I’ve been on hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, I can only go by what I’ve read about the current season.)
— I got a good laugh from Jason explaining that his mind is so distracted because “I saw Tangled again this week”.
— There’s Bill-as-Mike-Underballs’ angry pronunciation of “Jeff” that I always love: “JYYEEEEEEFF!”
— Jason’s getting the usual big laughs he always gets as this Jeff character, even if this installment isn’t quite as memorable as either of the previous two installments of this sketch.
— Unlike Rudd’s preceding episode from season 34, in which he got a number of fun things to do, especially with cast members like Bill and Andy, Rudd has been utilized poorly tonight. It feels like he’s been given nothing but forgettable straight roles practically all night.
— Very funny ending.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Day in the Life” & “Give Peace a Chance”
GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Get Back”
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Not great, but pretty good. (“Pretty good” sadly seems to be the best this season can achieve, it feels like so far. There has yet to be a standout strong season 36 episode by this point.) Also, even though I don’t usually factor musical performances into the quality of episodes, it goes without saying that the many musical performances from the legendary Paul McCartney added a nice vibe to tonight’s episode.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What’s That Name?
Stumblin’
Feline Culinary Creations
Broadway Cares
A Message From MasterCard / A Message From Julian Assange
Weekend Update
Monologue
Holiday Jam
Meryl Streep On Ice
Tax Package
Sexually Speaking
Affectionate Family
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert DeNiro)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jeff Bridges, after previously hosting the show a whopping 27 years prior, hosts the Christmas episode
Yeah, S36 seems like a season that is very much “a season.” It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. It’s on par with like, 1996-97 or 2017-18.
The three Julian Assange sketches were written by Christine Nangle and Seth.
Stumblin’ got a fair bit of hate online for its use of Paul McCartney. One review said “I can’t believe they forced him to do this” and Seth responded on Twitter by saying “You don’t force Paul McCartney to do anything, you ask Paul McCartney to do something and he agrees to do it.”Also, this is the only Digital Short co-written by Mike O’Brien. You can see him when Paul and Andy are repeatedly stumblin’ past the elevator.
In Meryl Streep On Ice, the girl with the light blue coat in the middle of the group of teenagers who also appears as a recurring SNL extra around this time is Emily Robinson, probably best known for her role in Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade.
It makes sense that POB stepped in; this was right around the time Jorma and Akiva were phasing themselves out of the show. IIRC, Akiva left after Year 35 and Jorma after Year 36, but both continued to contribute sporadically.
“Pretty good” does sum up this episode. No outstanding shows (yet) but there hasn’t been an outright crap one, either.
#2 of 4 in the we-don’t-know-how-to-use-Paul-Rudd files, although I do truly enjoy Stumblin’, which is a perfect use of his goofy charm, in perfect step with Andy. Just light and fun and nice and doesn’t try to be anything it shouldn’t be. The idea of Paul McCartney somehow being forced into his cameo here is, sadly, about par for the course of some of the bizarre reviews SNL tends to get.
Update is also a great deal of fun – maybe the most sheer enjoyment of any in Seth’s era. I love Paul’s cameo, the Stefon appearance is fine, and they both bring out the best in Seth as an Update presence. And Seth putting on the country accent attempt after the joke about country men being better endowed genuinely gave me a laugh.
This What’s That Name? premise is reused by Sawyer/Rich/Mulaney when Mulaney hosts in 2019. The tone is very different, conveying more tension and uneasiness, and it’s much preferable to me. This version is…fine, but the performances are mostly glib and the pacing is very fast, meaning any of the darker nuance is erased and you can’t connect. It sums up much of the glossiness of this period. The main part I do like is that they set Paul up by bringing back the doorman he can’t remember the name of.
Most of this episode outside of these parts just sort of shows up the real cast splits by season 36, and has an oddly, sadly empty feeling…especially the last 30 minutes or so. It doesn’t help that we have so many solo showcases, and I’d say only one of them really works (Bill’s Assange monologue).
Fredbama is about as wanly performed as we will ever get – this is the one where you can see just how incapable Fred is of lifting writing the way that someone like Phil Hartman or Dana Carvey, or even Will Ferrell or Jason Sudeikis might have done. The Roger Busch return is somewhat better, as at least they are finally giving him more of a personality (even if it’s just being an ignorant pig), but what a huge waste of Paul Rudd.
The Principal Frye sketches are my favorite things Jay did on SNL, but the debut doesn’t quite work – beyond the weird voice, he also goes on too long into bizarre, graphic sexual talk. You can feel the audience becoming confused and checking out.
The positive about these impression pre-tapes of Abby’s is they feel like they are from an earlier era of the show. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a very good impression of Meryl Streep, and I don’t really get any entertainment out of this piece. In that sense it (and Jason’s sketch) are very similar to how I often feel about modern SNL in that my finding something funny takes a backseat to whether I am just glad someone I like got a piece on the show.
Jason’s sketch is…not very well written? Jason’s charm pretty much carries the whole thing, but what a contrast to the earlier versions. I’m not sure if it’s because they couldn’t come up with any harsh digs toward Paul Rudd or just because their hearts weren’t in it after a gap of over three years, but there’s just nothing to this, which is a shame.
Still, for all the emptiness and slow breaking away of the ensemble at this point (just another way this episode reminds me current SNL [just much less messy than current SNL]), it does have some positives much of the way through, and Paul McCartney adds a warmth and a heart, as he did in his 1993 episode. I kind of wish they’d just had him host, with Rudd as a special guest, but both Pauls do their best.
Promo (this may be loud, sorry). Good use of Rudd’s humor here:
Hey John. That Talk Show Host Is Roger BRUSH ! I Don’t Think That Is Paul Rudd Because It Does Not Look Like Him To Me ! What Do You Think About Black Jeopardy ? That Is MY Favorite Sketch That Jay Does Except For His Impressions !
With 4 separate musical guest spots, and performing 5 songs, plus several sketch appearances, I agree they should have just had McCartney host. Also I just realized that the medley was likely in tribute to John Lennon, who died 30 years ago to the week of this episode.
I never thought about it till this oneSNLaday project, but: Between this show, and Paul’s sketch appearances/cameos in other episodes (and with Jimmy Fallon), I’m shocked they’ve never had Paul actually host. He’s clearly been game for it since the season 5 cameo! I’d love to see Paul host with Ringo as musical guest… two roles they’ve never actually held. Or make it McCartney as host, Paul Simon as musical guest… or McCartney hosts, and…
I think McCartney would have also fit in as a host during the “All-Star” season when Ebersol was producing the show (84-85). Anyone agree?
Paul did have a movie (“Give My Regards to Broad Street”) and hit song (“No More Lonely Nights”) to plug in 1984, so it’s not a crazy idea, SNLLover.
Yes, but Ebersol couldn’t bring in the heavy hitters like Lorne could and does. I mean season 10 had hosts like Bob Uecker, Pamela Sue Martin, and … Ringo.
*I meant to write the season 5 satellite segments.
I mainly remember Macca’s musical performances and Jay’s first time as that school principal…
Hey Stooge. IF They Had Closet Organizer Two Weeks In A Row, You Would Complain About Seriously, The Preceding Episode Although I Generally Enjoy Closet Organizer ! How Ever, You Can Do Julian In Different Situations And You Would Not Mind That ! Also, Last Week Was The Cold Open And He Had A Message For The People ! This Week Was A Different Sketch And He Wanted To Be Released From Prison !
Stooge, is there a sketch called The Giving Tree?!
I highly doubt it.
I searched Google and the only relevant results I got were articles about a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Giving Tree sketch from Donald Trump’s season 41 episode. Here’s one of the articles: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/the-humiliating-snl-sketch-trump-really-didnt-want-to-do.