Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Mitt Romney’s (JAS) pandering fails to sway special interest audiences
— A fairly fun format with Jason’s Mitt Romney being shown giving a campaign speech at various, increasingly out-of-place events that he unconvincingly tries pandering to.
— I like Kenan’s delivery of “Are you crazy? This is a hell hole!”
— Kate McKinnon makes her very first SNL appearance, as this is her first episode as a cast member. Knowing what a hugely popular cast member she’d later become, I find it kinda amusing (though certainly understandable) to see in hindsight that her very first SNL appearance has her as a non-speaking, non-comedic background extra (seen to Jason’s left in the sixth above screencap for this cold opening).
— The scene with Jason’s Romney at a piercing convention is particularly funny, especially him disclosing the fact that he had his taint pierced.
— Ooh, a meta turn, with Jason-as-Romney’s next campaign stop being at SNL.
— A very nice, welcome, and funny way to shake up the usual LFNY routine. Kinda reminds me of the way SNL’s McLaughlin Group cold openings with Dana Carvey would always shake up the LFNYs.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— As I mentioned above in my review of the cold opening, Kate McKinnon has been added to the cast tonight.
Without checking, I think I implied in my review of the monologue from Kenan Thompson’s very first episode as a cast member (which was way back in season 29) that it’s going to feel odd when I eventually reach the debut of the second longest-tenured member of SNL’s current (as of 2020) cast: Kate McKinnon. And now that I’m finally at that point, yep, I was correct in that it indeed feels odd arriving at the tenure of a non-Kenan cast member who’s still on the show today. Not only does it feel odd, but it feels major in a way. It’s making me realize how closer and closer I’m getting to officially completing this SNL project of mine. I imagine that aforementioned odd, major feel I’m getting from reaching Kate’s debut will double when I reach the debuts of the also-still-currently-on-the-show-in-2020 Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong just a small handful of episodes from now.
— On another note about Kate, it also feels kinda odd in hindsight seeing her in the homestretch of the Kristen Wiig era. I often forget that Kate and Kristen’s SNL tenures overlapped for a few episodes.
MONOLOGUE
host relishes her success in America & introduces her son Manolo [real]
— Sofia Vergara’s accent is a little hard to understand at times here, but I find it kinda charming seeing a host with such a natural heavy foreign accent.
— Sofia gets a good laugh demonstrating how her accent can make the most un-sexiest words (e.g. gonorrhea) sound sexy.
— A pretty nice surprise to see that this ends up being a real monologue, with no involvement from the cast or anyone else but the host (not counting the non-speaking shots of Sofia’s family in the audience).
STARS: ***
JUST FRIENDS BOOTY SHORTS
Just Friends booty shorts belie guys’ protestations of heterosexuality
— A gay-themed premise that initially seems kinda cheap, but the visuals of a carefree Jason and Andy in the “Just Friends” booty shorts are goofy and jolly enough to make this commercial pretty fun. I especially like shot of Jason and Andy happily spinning each other around in a circle in Times Square. (IIRC, that shot would later be shown in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special during the highlight reel of SNL’s most New York City-centric moments.)
— Lately, Taran seems to be slowly taking over Fred’s place as SNL’s go-to performer for gay male roles.
— During the bit with Jason and Andy’s “Not” “Gay” matching tanktops, I got a laugh from the gag with Andy being approached by two gay guys at a bar when he’s left alone with just his “Gay” tanktop.
STARS: ***½
BEIN’ QUIRKY WITH ZOOEY DESCHANEL
Zooey Deschanel (ABE), Drew Barrymore (KRW) & Fran Drescher (host) are eccentric
Mayim Bialik (ANS) & Joey Lawrence (FRA) promote Old Navy
— The second and final appearance of this sketch.
— Like last time, the various random mini-segments within this talk show are fun.
— Also like last time, I’m enjoying all of Taran-as-Michael-Cera’s meek little interjections.
— Hmm, even Sofia Vergara can do a Fran Drescher impression?
— A good initially-disappointed reaction shot from Taran’s Cera when Abby’s Zooey Deschanel tells him, as a compliment, “You’re like a sister to me!”
STARS: ***½
ALMOST PIZZA
(BIH) is suspicious of pseudofood hyped by his wife (KRW)
— The premise reminds me a little of SNL’s That’s Not Yogurt commercial from season 18, but this is still good in its own right so far.
— A particularly funny gag with Kristen unconvincingly pretending to eat the pizza while having her face in a profile angle.
— Bill’s increasing frustration is solid.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½
NEWS TEAM PROMO
moronic (FRA) can’t execute simple turn during TV news team promo shoot
— Ugh. Like I said in a previous episode review, I know it’s not right to judge a non-recurring sketch from its first 15 seconds, but I can already tell from the early reveal of Fred as a slow-witted, dopey-voiced lead character that I am in for a looooooooong sketch.
— Fred’s character’s failure to do the simple task of turning towards the camera during the news team promo filming is not only unfunny, but it’s reminiscent of that really dumb sketch with Peyton Manning where Manning was an actor who kept failing throw a boulder that he was supposed to during the filming of a scene from the movie 300.
— Was that non-sequitur line from Sofia’s character about her boobs even necessary? They only seemed to throw in that line because this character is played by Sofia Vergara.
— I finally got one laugh, thanks to good ol’ Bill, with his delivery of “Don’t give me your wallet!” The line itself was nothing special; it was just something about the way Bill said it that tickled me.
— What an awful, awful ending.
STARS: *½
GILLY
Gilly antagonizes sex ed teacher (host) & foresees her own demise
— The first Gilly sketch in a year-and-a-half, and this ends up being the final Gilly sketch, not counting a brief pre-taped appearance she makes in Kristen’s monologue from the season 38 episode that Kristen hosts.
— Abby, who’s Paula character was introduced in the third-to-last Gilly sketch, continues to remind me of Melanie Hutsell with the open-mouthed mugging facial expression she makes at the end of every one of her lines as this Paula character.
— As I sheepishly admitted in my review of the Drew Barrymore installment of this recurring sketch, Gilly has begun to slightly grow on me after her first few sketches. I still don’t find her all that funny, but I do now find her tolerable and harmless enough. Call me crazy.
— What was with the random long pause from Sofia in the middle of her line after the Gilly theme song ended?
— It was weird enough to see Jason do Will Forte’s old “Gilllllyyyyyyyy” routine in the Gilly/Glee mash-up sketch, but it’s even weirder seeing Sofia Vergara do that “Gilllllyyyyyyyy” routine.
— Very funny visual gag of Bobby popping a boner under the books resting on his crotch, in response to a suggestive statement Sofia makes.
— Ooh, we get a big change of pace all of a sudden, with a fantasy sequence of an elderly Gilly on her deathbed. I’m really liking this.
— We get another change of pace at the very end of this sketch, where, after offending EVERYBODY in the classroom by going too far in telling Sofia, “Suck it, bitch”, Gilly uncharacteristically gives a very sincere apology many times in a row as the camera zooms in on her while her ending theme music plays. All of these changes of pace in tonight’s Gilly sketch have not only resulted in what is, IMO, easily the best Gilly sketch (not that that’s a high bar), but have offered nice closure to this recurring sketch. When this originally aired, all of these signs that this sketch was Gilly’s official retirement, along with rumors circulating at the time about upcoming departures of certain cast members (Kristen, Jason, and Andy), made some online SNL fans at the time, including myself (as seen here in my old 2012 review of this episode), speculate if this sketch was a sign that Kristen would be leaving at the end of this season. Also adding to that speculation was the late-in-the-season cast addition of Kate McKinnon, given the fact that some people who checked out Kate’s pre-SNL online comedy videos noted some Kristen Wiig similarities in Kate’s performance style, and this made those people wonder if SNL’s hiring of Kate was their way of preparing for Kristen’s upcoming departure.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What Makes You Beautiful”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Drunk Uncle isn’t looking forward to spending Easter with his family
— We get a glimpse of the voice that Seth likely would’ve used if he, instead of Jason, ever played Mitt Romney on SNL.
— The already-funny Drunk Uncle is getting even better and better with each passing appearance. My biggest laughs in his commentary tonight are from him exclaiming an annoyed “eBay of Pigs!” out of nowhere, him mistaking the then-upcoming Easter holiday for St. Patrick’s Day, and him saying, as a complete non-sequitur, “He’s still Cassius Clay to me, Seth.”
— Wow, Update’s over already? Surprised this had only one guest commentary, but it’s a nice contrast to how much space Update took up in the preceding episode.
STARS: ***
THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin rhythm engulfs (host)’s family reunion
— (*groan*) Figures they’d resort to bringing this sketch back tonight just because we have a Hispanic host. It’s like how SNL used to lazily resort to digging up the old Besos Y Lagrimas recurring sketch (which I think is from the same writer(s) of these Manuel Ortiz Show sketches) when they would have a Hispanic host. At least this ends up being the final Manuel Ortiz Show installment.
— I kinda chuckled at Taran’s intense delivery of “Si way!” after Sofia says “No way!”
— Is it just me, or does Bill wear that EXACT SAME wig and outfit in every single Manuel Ortiz Show sketch he appears in, despite playing a different character each time?
— When this originally aired, I and some other online SNL fans noted the fact that one of the One Direction guys looked eerily like Terry Sweeney in this sketch, with the fake mustache and the hammy facial expressions he was making (the guy second from the left in the last above screencap for this sketch). I don’t see the Sweeney resemblance quite as much anymore, but it’s still there a little bit.
STARS: *½
LIL POUNDCAKE
— Rerun from 10/1/11.
— Some major audio glitches at the beginning of this repeated ad.
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS: LIVE
Andy Cohen (TAK) chats with Desmond Tutu (KET) & others
— We get a Seth voice-over at the beginning, during the usual “You’re watching (insert TV network here)” bit that a lot of SNL’s TV show sketches in this era (including the Manuel Ortiz sketch that preceded this) open with.
— I’ve only seen a few glimpses of Andy Cohen, and thus, I can’t judge the accuracy of Taran’s impression of him, but Taran’s performance is pretty fun. However, it does further prove my earlier point about Taran playing more and more gay roles lately.
— I like the incongruity of Desmond Tutu appearing on a show like this.
— Kate McKinnon gets her very first SNL comedic role, in a small scene within this sketch in which she’s the only cast member present. I love the idea of that, but unfortunately, despite a decent performance from her, Kate’s scene itself isn’t doing much for me, maybe because I’ve never seen the Tabatha Takes Over show that Kate’s scene is spoofing.
— I feel crazy for saying this, but Kate somehow looks older to me in her first episode than she looks today, 8 years later.
— Kenan’s giddy portrayal of Desmond Tutu is amusing me throughout this sketch.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One Thing”
PANTENE COMMERCIAL
Penelope Cruz (KAM) is given tricky words in Pantene commercial with host
— Ah, after getting a sample of Kate in a comedic role during one portion of the preceding sketch, we now get to see Kate lead an entire sketch, in her first episode!
— Given what a very popular crowd favorite Kate would later go on to become, it feels bizarre hearing dead silence from the studio audience (who’s probably wondering, “Who is this woman??? Why aren’t we seeing Kristen Wiig out there instead???”) in response to Kate entering this sketch and saying her comical greetings to Sofia and Jason while playing directly to the audience (a Cheri Oteri-esque trait). That’s the kind of thing that would easily get automatic laughs (and maybe even some applause) from the studio audience if Kate did that in more recent years, where she has the audience wrapped around her finger.
— Kate’s accent as Penelope Cruz is amusing, and she wins the initially-hesitant audience over with her-as-Cruz’s constant mispronunciations of increasingly-hard-to-pronounce shampoo ingredients. Kate’s executing this pretty well, and is already coming off like an experienced SNL cast member.
— I’m noticing that Kate looks much more her age here than she did in her previous appearances tonight.
— A standout funny part with Kate’s Cruz mispronouncing one particularly long shampoo ingredient as “refrigerator”. I also like the bit afterwards where Sofia, when misunderstanding what the director wants her to clarify for Kate’s Cruz, clarifies to Kate’s Cruz how to pronounce “refrigerator” instead of the ingredient she was supposed to say.
— I just now realized how strange it is that this is the second sketch tonight where the basic concept is a promo or commercial being filmed and one actor keeps messing up the filming by having an inability to do a certain something in the script. (News Team Promo being the first of those sketches tonight.) Both sketches even end with us seeing the heavily-altered finished product of the promo/commercial, after the director of that promo/commercial gave up out of frustration. This Pantene sketch is definitely the superior of those two sketches, though.
STARS: ***
74TH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
reporter (host) interviews Katniss (ABE) & other Hunger Games tributes
— Oh, Jay Pharoah is still in the cast apparently. Could’ve fooled me. He makes his ONLY appearance of this entire episode in this 10-to-1 sketch, briefly popping up onscreen in a non-speaking, one-second little “cameo”. Yeesh. The poor guy’s airtime has been particularly rough lately. In fact, this is the THIRD consecutive episode in which he hasn’t had a single live speaking role.
— Bill’s slogan for one of the Hunger Games’ sponsors, Tylenol, is hilarious: “Got a spear in your head? Tylenooollllll!”
— Sofia is fun and likable as the reporter, and I got a laugh from her nonchalant delivery of “Okay, I’m dying now” after eating poisonous berries.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While nothing in this episode got a rating over three-and-a-half stars from me, the episode had a fairly comfortable consistency, with almost everything working for me except the News Team Promo and Manuel Ortiz Show sketches.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Almost Pizza
Bein’ Quirky with Zooey Deschanel
Just Friends Booty Shorts
Road To The White House
Gilly
Pantene Commercial
Weekend Update
74th Annual Hunger Games
Monologue
Watch What Happens: Live
The Manuel Ortiz Show
News Team Promo
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Josh Brolin