Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MOTHER’S DAY MESSAGE FROM MICHELLE OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON
Michelle Obama (SAZ) & Hillary Clinton (VAB) spar before Mother’s Day
— (*sigh*) One of the last times we’ll ever hear Don Pardo’s voice introducing a sketch.
— Speaking of lasts, this ends up being the last time Vanessa plays Hillary Clinton.
— Some funny tension between Sasheer’s Michelle Obama and Vanessa’s Hillary.
— This is the most front-and-center we’ve ever seen Vanessa’s Hillary (all of her previous appearances were rather brief), giving me a better chance to assess her impression. I see what she’s going for in the voice she’s using, but something just feels wrong with how the voice is coming out, especially when her voice starts getting gradually loud and shouty halfway though this cold opening. I can understand why SNL would re-cast this role the following season.
— Great slam from Vanessa’s Hillary to Sasheer’s Michelle regarding childhood obesity being the “toughest” issue Michelle has tackled as First Lady.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
TAK, CES, KAM, SAZ, BEB, KET sing, which is the one thing host can’t do
— Ugh, there’s the use of that tired “Carlin line” (a.k.a. when a host sarcastically says a variation of “I did such a great job hosting [insert large number here] years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back”, which originated with George Carlin in his season 10 hosting stint).
— I love that they show a clip of the Gemini’s Twin sketch from Charlize Theron’s first episode, because 1) I always like whenever a new SNL episode shows a clip from an older episode, and 2) Charlize’s first episode is a very significant one for me, as it’s the very first SNL episode I ever reviewed, during my original 2000-2014 stint as a reviewer of newly-aired episodes. Currently reviewing this season 39 Charlize Theron-hosted episode is very significant for me, too, because it’s the second-to-last episode I ever reviewed during my aforementioned original stint as a reviewer. (Yes, Charlize Theron indeed hosted both the first AND penultimate episode of my original reviewing stint. A crazy coincidence. Imagine if a similar coincidence ends up happening when I complete my current SNL project. The only realistic scenario I can see for that is if Paul Simon, who hosted and musical guested SNL’s second-ever episode, which, obviously, is the second-ever episode I reviewed in my current SNL project, hosts and/or musical guests one of the last episodes I review in this project. In fact, that would actually be two full-circle endings for me, because, believe it or not, Paul Simon also happened to be the musical guest in Charlize’s first episode, which is, again, the first episode I ever covered in my original stint as a reviewer. So many eerie coincidences.) Reviewing this season 39 Charlize Theron episode right now is honestly giving me an emotional and nostalgic feel, remembering the special, huge feeling I had back at this time in 2014 when I was about to retire from reviewing after 14 long years. This also makes me realize just how far I’ve come along in this current SNL project of mine.
— An okay premise for a musical monologue, but I don’t care for the style of the monologue song itself, and there’s not much funny stuff happening during it.
— Okay, the quick bit with Beck right now is pretty solid.
STARS: **
COME DO A GAME SHOW WITH YOUR MOM, IT’LL BE FUN, YES IT WILL!
(KAM) hosts a Mother’s Day game show with her kids (BRW), (KYM), (host)
— When Kate’s kids are all saying their opening greetings in unison, I laughed at how Kyle’s line during that is a quickly-delivered, whiny, monotone “I don’t wanna be heeerrre.”
— Just a mildly funny sketch so far, but it’s relatable and Kate is doing a very solid job in the lead role.
— A funny side role for Aidy.
— A good comically-brief appearance from Bobby as the father.
STARS: ***
GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
passionate drama teacher (host) coaches Morgan
— Blah, there goes the obligatory, very tired “Aidy and the guest each say a different thing in unison when revealing a topic on the show “ trope.
— I’m really enjoying Charlize’s drama teacher performance here. I’m finding it amusing AND very believable.
— A very weak “My boyfriend’s crazy” story from Cecily tonight.
— Aidy doesn’t have as many funny moments as she usually does in this recurring sketch, though I do like her character’s wild, desperate delivery when trying to say “Well, that’s our sexy show” in a sexy manner during the conclusion of this sketch.
STARS: **
DRAGON BABIES
retired police officer (MOB) voices animated protagonist of Dragon Babies
— The most in-character we’ve ever seen Mike. He’s doing such a great job here, and his cop voice is fantastic.
— Very fun chemistry between Mike and Cecily.
— Great understated, controlled frustration in Taran’s director character during his interview portions of this short.
— I love the comically-uncomfortable moment with Mike somberly disclosing a story about once shooting an unarmed guy. Yet another Mike O’Brien short that adds in a comedic sense of melancholy.
— Overall, Mike does it once again with yet another very strong short. His shorts are so damn good that there’s no wonder why SNL let him continue doing them and starring in them the next few seasons when he’s not even in the cast anymore.
STARS: ****½
DATING SEMINAR
pelvic thrusts & sound effects accompany dating advice of Heshy & (host)
— The second and final appearance of this character of Nasim’s.
— For some reason, they changed Heshy’s surname. In this character’s previous sketch, her surname was Al-Fahi, and now it’s Farahat.
— Like last time, Nasim’s timing is excellent when making gestures to the various sound effects right on cue.
— Pretty fun addition of Charlize, playing against type as a frumpy character. I remember that, when this originally aired, I interestingly got a Mo-Collins-from-MADtv vibe from Charlize’s characterization here. I still kinda see it a little during my current viewing of this.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fever”
WEEKEND UPDATE
retiring SNL lampoonee Barbara Walters [real] gives tips for success
this year’s crop of graduates leads Drunk Uncle to fear for the future
— On a related note to me saying earlier in this review that I always like whenever a new SNL episode shows a clip from an older episode, I love the montage of SNL’s Barbara Walters impersonators over the years. Sadly, Michaela Watkins gets snubbed from this montage, for obvious reasons.
— A laugh from Barbara Walters demonstrating her “real voice”.
— I can’t find anything at all to say about the rest of Barbara Walters’ commentary. She’s at least coming off likable here. At certain parts, her timing is slow, awkward, and frail, but I can cut her some slack for that, given her age.
— A rare interaction piece between Cecily and Colin.
— The extremely random “Breaking Nudes” segment was a very funny little piece of absurdity.
— Drunk Uncle, in a random non-sequitur grumbling: “Jew Kids On The Block!”
— Ugh, is it necessary to have Colin carry on Seth Meyers’ tradition of always responding “That’s not anyone” whenever Drunk Uncle says “That’s not me”? It was tired enough when Seth did it.
— I love Drunk Uncle’s “What do you call a fish with no eyes?” joke. No idea if that’s an original joke from SNL or not (that joke is probably an oldie that I had just never heard before), but Drunk Uncle’s delivery of it was very fun.
— Drunk Uncle’s singing of “I Believe I Can Fly” is probably my favorite out of all the “Drunk Uncle butchers a hit song” moments that have occurred over the years.
— Some SNL fans seem very confused as to why Cecily says “No, no noooo!” to Drunk Uncle in a weird, growly voice towards the end of his “I Believe I Can Fly” singing, but I’m pretty sure that Cecily was imitating one part of the real “I Believe I Can Fly” song. I honestly don’t remember that song having a growly “No, no noooo!” part in it, but I’m guessing it’s in there.
STARS: **½
BIKINI BEACH PARTY
dead whale explosion interrupts teen fun of Bikini Beach Party movie
— I have mixed feelings towards the conversation between the girls. There’s some funny lines in that conversation, but some of the other lines in it that are intended to be funny are typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette-style bad randomness.
— A very memorable and priceless visual of the dead whale exploding an insane amount of blood and guts all over Charlize and Taran. I remember how much this visual absolutely FLOORED me when it originally aired.
— Kenan’s at the point of his SNL tenure where he can do almost no wrong for me, but his appearance in this sketch is unfortunately one of the instances where him hammily chewing the scenery actually doesn’t work for me. I really dislike that voice and delivery he’s using here, and it feels completely wrong for this sketch.
— Blah, it’s very unnecessary and harmful to this sketch to repeat the “blood-and-guts explosion” gag right after the first one. The second instance of that gag got nowhere near as many laughs from me nor the audience.
STARS: Very difficult for me to figure out what rating to give this. The first “blood-and-guts explosion” gag ALONE deserves a high rating, but 1) the scenes prior to that were iffy for me, 2) I hate how they repeated the “blood-and-guts explosion” gag to far less comedic effect, and 3) Kenan annoyed the living hell out of me. For now, I’ll rate this ***, but I might change my mind later on.
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
— Not only is it fun how a blood-soaked Charlize from the preceding sketch carries over into this musical guest intro, but this is actually the second consecutive year in which something like this occurred in the penultimate episode of a season. Season 38’s penultimate episode had Kristen Wiig (that night’s host) and Aidy both introducing the musical guest while still covered in blood from the Acupuncture sketch that preceded it. At this time in 2014, I wondered if SNL was intentionally trying to make this a new annual tradition for every penultimate episode of a season. That could’ve been fun. But alas, the “tradition” stops here. I can’t remember if the following season’s penultimate episode (Reese Witherspoon / Florence + The Machine) has any sketches that involve blood in any way, but either way, that episode doesn’t contain any instances of a sketch carrying over into the host’s introduction of the musical guest.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bullet in the Brain”
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara (KAM) & (host) show cats available for adoption
— This soon-to-be recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Charlize again playing against type tonight as an unattractive character.
— A good offbeat performance from Charlize.
— Some funny lines from Kate when disclosing each cat’s strange quirks.
STARS: ***½
TOURISTS
in NYC, foreign visitors ask passers-by for assistance
— I love the exaggerated American accent that Kyle’s foreigner character tries to say American expressions in.
— I’m loving the low-key approach to this, and I like the format with the cutting from one foreigner’s scene to another’s, and how each foreigner’s scene differs from each other’s.
— Funny subversion in Bobby’s scene, regarding directions to Arbalato Street.
— Charlize once again playing against type as a frumpy character, this time going the whole nine yards by donning a fat suit.
— A very funny initial facial reaction from Beck when finding out he’s in New York instead of Chicago.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
— Much longer goodnights than usual tonight. Probably one of the longest the goodnights have gone on in an episode from recent years.
— Poor John Milihiser is getting far more facetime during these goodnights than he regularly gets in actual episodes. (He was nowhere to be seen in tonight’s episode prior to these goodnights, and, showing how good-natured and likable he apparently is, he doesn’t even look upset by that, and is instead looking like he’s genuinely having a lot of fun interacting with others onstage during these goodnights, as seen in the third above screencap for these goodnights.)
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, though it’s yet another season 39 example of pre-taped shorts standing out far more than the actual live segments. Also, reviewing this episode just now felt significant, emotional, and nostalgic for me, for reasons mentioned in my review of the monologue. And this hosting stint of Charlize Theron’s was an improvement over her previous one, which typecast her in an awful lot of “Hot girl gets lusted after by horny men” roles.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
plus the first instance of this:
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dragon Babies
Tourists
Whiskers R’ We
Come Do A Game Show With Your Mom, It’ll Be Fun, Yes It Will!
Bikini Beach Party
Dating Seminar
A Mother’s Day Message From Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton
Weekend Update
Monologue
Girlfriends Talk Show
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Andrew Garfield)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 39 comes to an end, with host Andy Samberg. It’s the final episode for five-year cast member Nasim Pedrad, the final episode for first-year featured players John Milhiser, Mike O’Brien, Noel Wells, and Brooks Wheelan, the final episode that Cecily Strong co-anchors Weekend Update, the final episode for announcer Don Pardo, and the final episode I reviewed during my original 14-year reviewing stint.
I remember Dragon Babies. Mike was good as a cop in the short. He was also going for the emotional effect at one part.
I didn’t care for Kenan’s part in the Beach Party sketch. He overdid it and he was not necessary in the piece.
John seemed happy to have his face appearing more frequently tonight than usual. The finale might be a different story. Who’s excited for the return of the kissing family?
Dragon Babies is pretty impressive in how well done the animation is and how much it looks like a real straight to TV film for kids looks.
Compare it to something like Eleanor’s House from this last season which has pretty awful animation that kind of pulls away from the premise of the sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwYK8xrb0Es&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
The non Kyle & Heidi portions of that sketch are supposed to feature bad and deliberately off putting animation. The CGI for those two is pretty awful, but seeing at it was an (the first?) At Home I’ll cut them some slack (like how the animation on Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles was kinda lackluster).
I actually like the Eleanor’s House sketch BECAUSE of the bad animation. It gave it this creepy surreal vibe that felt like part of the point.
@Anastasia, yes, as soon as that purple dog with the constantly thrusting hips arrives, you know it’s going to turn into a disaster. I really enjoy that sketch – that and Overnight Salad would have been great moments for Aidy to leave on.
Going into tomorrow’s finale, I have to say, though I much preferred S38, 39 was still fine overall. In fact, I’d say 38 had more episodes that were outright duds (Lawrence, Levine, Bieber, McCarthy, Wiig) than 39 (Cyrus, Willis, Goodman, Rogen).
It’s very blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but John makes a brief appearance in Dragon Babies (more specifically, the back of him) at around 1:38 in the online video and shown here on the left side:
https://i1.wp.com/www.onesnladay.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/5-10-2014_0.22.23.00.jpg?ssl=1
DRESS CUTS
Cocktail Hour
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cut-for-time-cocktail-hour/2781030
Viper
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cut-for-time-viper/2781087
Pageant Prosecution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvgBKO7CGzY
Mornin’ Miami
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cut-for-time-mornin-miami-with-charlize-theron/2781031
Mother’s Day Bus
~ A message from The Philadelphia City Planning Commissioner (Kate): getting around town may be stressful this busy Mother’s Day, so here’s Philadelphia funk legend Frankie Smith (Pharoah). The set opens up to reveal a cityscape backdrop. Frankie sings about the Mother’s Day Bus, reminiscent of his 1981 hit “Double Dutch Bus”. “Get on the Mother’s Day Bus”, chant back-up dancers dressed as bus drivers (Milhiser, Beck, Bobby). Bus patrons (Noël, Cecily, Taran) sing along, carrying a flat cardboard bus to give the illusion that they are riding. Crawdad (Kenan) introduces several mothers (Sasheer, Vanessa, Nasim, Aidy, Charlize), all names with the suffix “-issa” (Melissa, Annalissa, etc.). Everybody dances
Update – Bruce Chandling (Mooney)
~ Chandling appears on air next week, but the routine is different from this one: for Mother’s Day, Bruce talks about his mom, who at one point “dressed me up in an umbrella and coat just to go to the fridge!” & “gave me a mop and bucket to clean my diapers!” Bruce also reflects on his father, beginning light-heartedly but growing somber and silent when saying dad “pushed us around”. Jost tries to get Bruce back on track, so he flips it back to goofy jokes as usual
TIDS & BITS
monologue: Charlize mangled Ana Gasteyer’s last name, so the line was shortened to ”Maya & Ana”
Heshi’s surname same as in her debut: al-Fahi, not Farahat ** “quiet Chinese man who was gay and didn’t live near me” line got so many laughs, Nasim had to just stand there a bit until it all died down •• the ladies read what people are saying about them on Twitter: Ladybug22 tweets “these girls are the biggest chodes ever”. Neither gal knows what “chode” means, but think it’s flattering
Update: Barbara Walters did the “Kardashian/President” filter bit one extra time, and got mixed up on the cameras for the rest of the commentary ** she didn’t show up to the goodnights in dress, either ** after Cecily’s joke about Donald Trump got a good response, Colin asks “Where were you on the Bruce Chandling jokes?” ** Drunk Uncle calling Colin “Seth” got a huge reaction in dress; just a few chuckles on air
Bikini Beach Party: beach took up both stages to the right of home base: girls’ dance scene on the right half, whale on the left ** Kenan’s character named Mr. Dudley, and he was excited to get whale bones for scrimshaw purposes ** Kenan’s song at the end referred to the place as “Dead Whale Island” ** Cecily had tanlines midway down her thighs ** the sheer amount of terror/ laughter/ shock in the audience = electric & exciting (still tinglinggg)
Whiskers: in the beginning, a cat peeked into the frame. Audience chuckled, but Kate didn’t notice until she bent over to pick the kitty up. When she realized how close the feline was, she broke character for a few lines ** one cat “has had all shots and no worms, except for one big worm that we call ‘Huge Worm’” ** Damien’s scream was human: simply a recording of a man screaming over a shot of the cat ** at the end, the gals mentioned Damien taking someone hostage off-screen
DRESS RUNDOWN
Michelle/Hillary
monologue
Mom Game Show
Girlfriends Talk Show
DRAGON BABIES
Heshi
Black Keys #1
Update
Barbara Walters
BREAKING NUDES
Bruce Chandling (CUT)
Drunk Uncle
pageant court (CUT)
Mother’s Day Bus (CUT)
COCKTAIL HOUR (CUT)
Mornin’ Miami (CUT)
Black Keys #2
Bikini Beach Party
Viper (CUT)
TOURISTS
Whiskers R’ We
goodnights
They added Cocktail Hour to the repeat. I don’t think there were any big cuts either (there may have been some tighter dress versions used or enough dead air trimmed out).
I think Cecily and Mike had already broken up by this point, which makes Dragon Babies a little more bittersweet.
Viper was John’s last gasp for airtime. Could it have kept him in the cast for the next season? Probably not, but it would’ve kept him from being a one-lead wonder.
It’s a testament to how little Lorne and co believed in the crew they hired that you couldn’t fill a full episode with the non Good Neighbor showcases the newbies got this season. You have, what, 8 or 9 pieces? A live sketch a piece, a couple Update appearances from Brooks (I’d be especially bummed if I was Mike, John or Noel and never even got an Update feature) and a few (fantastic) shorts from Mike. SNL has failed much harder, and I think this season and the absolute lack of risks it took was a reaction to that. The unfortunate side affect is it made the show look more straight up cruel than ever before, hiring comedians just to watch them languish if they aren’t stars by their 5th episode.
Taran later confirmed in an interview Lorne was starting to get like that around this point, and that it got especially bad after the 40th Anniversary. Guess Lorne wanted every night to have that feeling, and was real bummed to go from having Paul Simon and Leonardo DiCaprio around to having to remember Jon Rudnitsky’s name. Hence the onslaught of cameos from Season 42 on, something we’ll hopefully see less of in the Biden era.
That is my one biggest complaint of Modern SNL. The show hires a lot of cast members, yet let’s them go to waste in favor of celebrities, certain pop culture figures of the day and alums that Lorne tends tends to favor. To me, that is unfair and that is playing favoritism. It takes away airtime from people who are in the cast. If they are not right for the show, then why even be on the show in the first place. I know someone said there were people that viewers and fans love the cameos, but it should not be at the expense of the current cast. If SNL wants to continue with such a direction like that, then they should shorten the amount of performers they have in the cast. Sixteen to twenty is too big for the show to handle, especially with guest stars added in.
It’s like, pick one. Cast or guests.
The shift in the show may have been new for Taran, who arrived when Seth Meyers was likely at his most entrenched (and in those years, Seth did try to spread the wealth for the cast, after talents like Casey Wilson were badly let down), but I’m not sure if Lorne’s view of the show went through a change because of the anniversary or if it was just something which has a history of popping up with certain cast members. You had Norm put into a central role early on (even though he has given the impression Lorne didn’t care much for him) while all the other featured players of 93-95 got crumbs (indeed, similar to more modern seasons, the Hair Club for Men guy, Dan Aykroyd and Richard Simmons got more airtime than Sarah Silverman, Jay Mohr or Laura Kightlinger). Later, you had the horribly underused or misused Jerry Minor and Dean Edwards, then Rob Riggle, then Casey Wilson and Abby Elliott, etc.
The main difference in the last decade has been that SNL now has such a long history, with cast members who are willing to return, Lorne and NBC end up dipping into that history, because that’s also what viewers tend to praise. In the long-term, for instance, it probably didn’t do the show much good to give Maya Rudolph a lot of airtime in the first half of this season rather than develop the new featured players, but it comes from the same place as keeping so many cast members on the show for a decade – there is no real viewer pushback, it’s just easier to go with a proven thing for as long as possible. That’s the change more than the cameos – I don’t really feel like we got nonsense like Matthew Broderick in a cold open 20 years after his last public relevance because Lorne was still pining for the anniversary highs. The cameofests, sadly, seem to be part of the show’s increasing need for a headline the next morning in an era where SNL, and all network TV, are less and less relevant.
I think that something DID go south quickly with Lorne’s view of this season’s newcomers. Luke Null and Jon Rudnitsky did get shut out, especially Luke, but they had also joined full casts at a time when many people were well-established (Jon also had various controversies like his old tweets and his Anderson Cooper impression). That wasn’t the case this season. I wonder if Lorne blamed them for the major backlash the show got for being too white, which led them to have to do auditions mid-season and apologize on-air. Whatever happened, the way that Noel, John and Brooks (especially Noel and John) were so iced out is still a bit startling. I wouldn’t have cast either of them, to be honest, but Noel in particular seemed like she would have been a much more natural fit for this era than what ended up happening. I guess it remains an example that what we assume will happen with SNL sometimes never does.
In regards to Colin continuing the ‘thats not anyone’ thing with drunk uncle, did Colin not write those features? I believe in his book he says he did, so those lines are perhaps actually scripted rather than anchor ad-libs? I do agree though that it’s odd to have the exact same line in basically every feature
“In regards to Colin continuing the ‘thats not anyone’ thing with drunk uncle, did Colin not write those features? I believe in his book he says he did, so those lines are perhaps actually scripted rather than anchor ad-libs?”
I never said they were ad-libs.
The show seems to rely on online buzz more than ever. Probably easier to get hits when you have a cameofest versus a skit featuring Noel Wells and Jon Milhiser.
“Just a mildly funny sketch so far, but it’s relatable and Kate is doing a very solid job in the lead role.” I don’t know if it’s a generational thing, but there are some very famous older sketches I feel this way about (thinking specifically of Seinfeld’s high school sketch).
I think I love the Mother’s Day Game Show more than most. It’s probably one of my favourite performances from Kate. Silly but also grounded and relatable. Bobby almost steals the whole thing with his brief walk on though. To me it’s a four star sketch but I’m also a sucker for a game show sketch even if it’s one of SNL’s most played out formats.
I’m with you on it being a four star. Bobby’s bit especially is perfect to me.
Dragon Babies is just a work of pure beauty. It’s ironic this aired the week before Andy Samberg returned to host, as it’s a classic example of why I will never agree with those who claim the pre-tapes were never as good post-Lonely Island. Much as I love Andy and appreciate that without the attention and revenue LI brought, the department that produced these shorts would not have existed, this short has a nuance and richness which the Lonely Island pieces never even really attempted. Mike O’Brien is at his best as the cop, where the mixture of likeable moments and completely fucked up actions are presented without a heavy hand, respecting the intelligence of the audience. Between Dragon Babies and the proudly oddball Tourists pre-tape, this episode is perhaps the closest SNL can ever get to bringing Tom Schiller’s standard to the modern show.
(Cocktail Hour also has some strengths, especially the first moment where we see the silly drinks contrasted with the Albee dialogue, but as is often the case with SNL, it becomes too long and repetitive, and I don’t care for the ending)
The beach sketch is best served as a trivia question about what would have gotten on the air if Anderlette had been on the writing staff in season 20. The gore, the shock value material of the grown man and a young teenager, etc. Similar to season 20, parts of this do work for me – some lines, the performances, and the buildup and execution of the first explosion is just great – while other parts do not.
The recurring sketches did nothing for me, which isn’t very out of the ordinary for most recurrers of this decade, to be fair.
This Girlfriends’ Talk Show is just about rock bottom for a segment that had only been around for two seasons – just a weird, half-assed premise, and half-hearted execution, and some weak performances from everyone involved. Cecily is one of my favorite cast members, but having to hear the incredibly irritating voice she uses in this sketch helps me be less surprised that some fans were fed up by this point.
Heshy is mostly a very energetic battering of one note, otherwise known as a Mikey Day specialty. Nasim powers through, and Charlize is a competent sidekick (the call-and-response of “I’m Heshy!” and “I’m Gail!” as they gyrate is a good moment of rapport), but it just feels like gift wrapping. My favorite part is the use of the old Street Fighter sound effects – a glimpse at the video game touches Day will put to greater effect in later sketches.
I’ve never really been that into the Whiskers R We sketches, as they create a muddle from trying to mesh cat jokes with “lol lesbian” jokes, but Charlize’s disturbed performance gives this one more of an identity than later versions (I do enjoy the At Home revival, which is improved by Kate having to do it on her own).
I appreciate Vanessa trying so hard in the cold open, but while she does bear something of a vocal resemblance to Hillary, she would have blown out her voice if she’d kept the impression. Sasheer is serviceable as Michelle Obama. This probably should have been left out – the whole idea of First Ladies in conflict was lazy as hell by 2014 (especially since there were few if any reports of Michelle and Hillary being at odds), and you could tell they were hamstrung by reality. In past years the focus of the sketch would have been that everyone loved Michelle and hated Hillary, similar to the old Reisa Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan Donahue sketch, but the amount of hatred Michelle faced would have just made this look out of touch at best. So we end up with a lot of nothing.
The monologue is incredibly annoying to me, for some reason. I think it’s because of the humblebrag phoniness of the cast having to tell us all of Charlize’s virtues. JLo’s monologue was raked over the coals for this, but I have never heard the same complaints about Charlize’s. I guess because she didn’t make the comments herself. Either way, it’s so forced and does the early portion of the episode few favors.
(I initially thought Taran looked annoyed during the monologue, but by the goodnights I began to wonder if he was ill, based on the way Charlize and Bobby seemed to be comforting him)
My main response to Barbara Walters being on SNL was that it felt very surreal, but my second response was that she popped in about 15 years too late. I suppose she only wanted to come on when she was ready to retire, but a snappier Barbara sparring with Cheri Oteri’s Baba would have been fun. (it says it all that they put Cheri’s last in the montage – and your blog is eerily on cue once again, as Cheri popped up with this impression on CNN’s NYE coverage a few days ago)
Finally, to echo what @Shawn said above, the Mother’s Day sketch is one of my favorite Kate sketch performances. She gives a simple, warm performance which is the perfect anchor to a simple, warm sketch. This is more difficult than it seems – to not mug, or be “cute,” but to instead play the material in a way which manages to be sweet without seeming desperate. I’m very glad this sketch did not go the usual path of everyone hating each other or some horrible thing being said or revealed midway, etc. It’s a breath of fresh air, and I think in Kate’s case helps explain why she became so popular around this time.
(I think this is also the first time Kyle is given that “teenager” wig, which, incredibly, he still wears 8 seasons later)
Promos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UNQrUJhtY
“Heshy is mostly a very energetic battering of one note, otherwise known as a Mikey Day specialty.” Haha yea, especially once he teams up with Streeter. Sarah was definitely the far superior College Humor pick up, but you have to give Streeter credit for making such a mark on the show (him and Mikey usually get at least 1-2 sketches on a week, sometimes 3) and occasionally the two of them can come up with something truly inspired (David Pumpkins, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa). I can take or leave Mikey as a performer but definitely think he was a good pick up as a writer, even if his stuff is a little mechanical at times.
A lot of Kate’s lesbian material reminds me of Anderson’s gay material. I’m not necessarily surprised they’d be so willing to make fun of the groups they belong to, but I am surprised its almost always so hacky.
Or in the cases of this and last season, pick actual cast member Melissa Vilasenor, or featured players Chloe Fineman or Bowen Yang!
Throw in Alex and Ego and you have the exact crew I can’t wait to see take center stage (I know Alex and Melissa are on their 5th seasons…fingers crossed.)
Dragon Babies reminds me: I don’t remember if this applies to seasons 40 or 41, but I think this season’s trend of the pretapes being noticeably better than the live material continues in seasons 42, 43, and 44. With season 42 in particular, the pretapes become the centerpiece of the show because they’re like season 10 levels of quality.
RIP Barbara Walters