Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
INSIDE THE NFL
Patriots ballboy (BOM) was responsible for Deflategate
— I remember someone on an SNL message board pointing out that a huge fart sound effect can be heard randomly going off at the beginning of the scene with Beck as Bill Belichick. That “fart sound effect” was actually Beck making a grumbling/growling vocalization in his grumpy portrayal of Belichick.
— Funny performance from Taran as a faux-clueless Tom Brady.
— Bobby immediately coming off goofily lovable.
— Very strong performance from Bobby during his speech, especially when he and Kate get into a heated back-and-forth.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
cast members struggle to get in the spirit of host’s gentle Hee Haw gibes
— Another strong walk-on from Bobby tonight.
— Leslie’s misery during this whole Hee Haw act is a pretty good running gag.
— An overall okay monologue, even if I could barely find anything to say about it.
STARS: ***
FARM HUNK
Hollywood bachelorettes compete for a life in Iowa
— The debut of a sketch theme that would go on to be an annual January tradition for years (not sure if it’s still ongoing today, as I haven’t seen a new episode since 2018). I’ve always personally referred to these as the “Sorry, can I steal him for a sec?” sketches.
— Of all the installments of this annual sketch that I’ve seen, I think this is the only one where the bachelor role is played by that night’s SNL host instead of a cast member.
— Vanessa: “I’m a second grade teacher…in my pornos.”
— I’m enjoying the running theme with each female contestant turning out to have done porn.
— A fun structure this sketch, and each of the ladies has funny lines, particularly an occasionally teary-eyed Aidy.
— The usual scene-stealing appearance from Leslie, and I love the reveal that she’s actually playing herself.
STARS: ****
WISHIN’ BOOT
(KAM), (AIB), (host) sing about magical country shoe
— I remember hating this short when it originally aired, considering it to be lame as hell, and I would subsequently be dumbfounded to see it go on to be well-loved by a lot of SNL fans. Much like some other things that I used to strongly dislike but now want to understand why so many other SNL fans love, I will go into my current viewing of this short with an open mind.
— So far, this is at least a very spot-on and well-detailed spoof of typical country songs and country music videos.
— Still not too crazy about the comedic premise of a wishin’ boot.
— Okay, I do like the scene with Aidy receiving a prison visit from the Wishin Boot’.
— I’m currently near the end of this short, and yeah, I’ve barely been laughing. I’m enjoying it more for its charm than its actual humor.
— Overall, despite my lack of amusement towards this short and the fact that I still can’t understand why a number of SNL fans consider it to be pretty much a classic, I cannot hate this short at all anymore like I used to. It has a charm that I now can’t help but like.
STARS: ***
CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD
stars of The Voice & American Idol vie
— Kinda unexciting to have an SNL host play themselves in an installment of this sketch.
— Meh, I could do without the return of Kate’s Keith Urban impression.
— I’m not as crazy about the collection of impressions in tonight’s Family Feud sketch compared to the previous two installments of this sketch. Kenan’s always-funny Steve Harvey is the only thing really carrying tonight’s installment so far.
— That’s it? This sketch is over? Easily my least favorite installment of this recurring sketch that has aired by this point.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Neon Light”
WEEKEND UPDATE
MIC’s goofy high school friend Riblet (BOM) expertly reads news items
gay porn on PED’s computer represents confirmation of his heterosexuality
Nicole (SAZ) fights with ex-boyfriend MIC while giving financial advice
— The debut of Bobby’s Riblet character.
— Bobby is killing it as this Riblet character, and I love how different this feels for an Update commentary, especially with the various turns where Riblet suddenly tells an Update joke in a very professional, straitlaced manner. I also love how they even go through the lengths of showing an altered version of the Update opening title sequence, with Riblet inserted in Michael’s place.
— After the audience’s very iffy reaction to his joke about King Abdullah getting run over by a terrible woman driver, Michael humorously ad-libs “Riblet, everybody”, reminiscent of his great “Prince, ladies and gentlemen” ad-lib from earlier this season.
— Some decent lines from Pete throughout his gay porn anecdote, especially him telling Colin, “You’re like a straight 8 and a gay 10!”
— Second week in a row where we get the long-standing Weekend Update tradition of how the punchline to a joke about the death of a creator of something noteworthy is done in the style of said creation, a tradition that I always like, as I said in my last episode review. This particular joke, about the death of the creator of the instant replay, is fun and memorable, and I like an amused Michael ad-libbing to Colin, after the slow-mo clip of Colin getting hit in the face with a football, “You look so dumb.”
— Hmm, I have absolutely no prior memory of this commentary with Sasheer as Michael’s ex-girlfriend.
— The timing of some portions of Sasheer’s commentary is off.
— I like Colin nervously and slowly sliding out of the shot when he’s asked to chime in on Michael and Sasheer’s tense argument. What was with the extremely delayed camera cut to him, though? That just further proves my point that the timing in some portions of this Michael/Sasheer commentary feels off.
— I am liking the tense back-and-forths between Michael and Sasheer, and it’s an interesting and strangely refreshing novelty to see Michael convincingly acting in a scene like this.
— Ha, we get a very funny sudden twist at the end of Sasheer’s commentary, with her mysterious new boyfriend turning out to be Riblet. Solid callback, and I never would’ve guessed that’s where Sasheer’s commentary was headed.
STARS: ***
PAROLE BOARD
parole board nixes Texas Man Gobbler’s (KET) bid for a redemption
— Given the fact that The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies, I’m interested in this spoof of Morgan Freeman’s legendary speech from that movie.
— A very funny sudden tone shift after Kenan’s poignant opening speech, with the parole board bluntly revealing that Kenan straight-up ate a person, and that Kenan’s NEVER going to get out of this prison.
— Kenan, when reflecting in regards to his eating people: “Would I do it again? Point me towards a homeless shelter.”
— The whole “last meal” discussion is cracking me up.
— Even the predictable text crawl ending made me laugh.
STARS: ***½
TOPEKA TODAY
widower (TAK) wrote song of 70-year marriage to awful (KAM)
— When Bobby compliments Taran and Blake on how beautiful their song is so far, I laughed at Blake frankly telling him in an un-amused manner, “There’s more.”
— A good dark turn this “loving” song takes, helped by the incongruity of these unflattering lyrics being sung while we see touching young black-and-white photos of Kate’s character. I feel the dark humor here should be going even further, but it’s fine for what it is.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Boys Round Here”
MAGICIAN
formerly-skeptical audience member (host) asks magician (TAK) for powers
— Boy, Blake sure was late on his cue to utter “Fake!”, leading to almost five solid seconds of complete dead air.
— Some of Blake’s desperate requests to the magician are making me laugh, such as “I wanna be a black guy…just for one day” and “Guns for a head!” Otherwise, I’m pretty meh on this sketch.
— Okay, I did get a cheap big laugh just now from Blake’s “Give me the power…to go down on myself.” I also like the subsequent bit with him trying and failing to go down on himself behind the curtain.
— Blah, that “Magic isn’t real!” “I knew it!” twist didn’t come off anywhere near as clever as the writer of this sketch apparently THOUGHT it was. Maybe it was just Blake’s weak execution of that twist that made it not work very well.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average and forgettable episode, in what’s been a string of episodes lately that have either been kinda meh or forgettably average. While there at least wasn’t anything that flopped too hard in this episode, and the first two post-Weekend Update sketches (Parole Board and Topeka Today) had some good dark humor, the only rated segment that stood out as strong to me all night was the “Sorry, can I steal him for a sec?” sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Farm Hunk
Parole Board
Topeka Today
Weekend Update
Inside The NFL
Wishin’ Boot
Monologue
Magician
Celebrity Family Feud
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kevin Hart)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
J.K. Simmons
Wishing Boot is an easy five stars. A pitch-perfect parody of dumb country songs complete with Kate saying that they were gonna make so much money from this song. Love the bit about Blake’s dog being the boot the whole time too. Just wonderful.
The Wishin’ Boot is just a straight up great song. One of the reasons I love this era.
I don’t get the hype around Wishing Boot either, tbh. I’d go as far as thinking it’s pretty bad. It doesn’t escalate enough or have enough strong jokes in it to justify how lame the premise is.
I forgot about Wishing Boot. It was nothing special when I first saw it.
I didn’t care for this episode as a whole as none of the segments were great. Then again, I have never been a Blake fan.
The monologue was just lame as it was filled with “sister” jokes that just got tired. Plus, I like Hee Haw, so this was a huge letdown.
I never cared for Riblet. Nothing from that character stood out to me.
I only remember that and the magician sketch. That’s how forgettable the episode was.
I concur that you’re underrating “Wishin’ Boot.” The video nails exactly what it’s spoofing. That’s enough to simply call this episode uneven, almost typical of this season.
IIRC, Super Bowl 49 was milked for *two* cold opens, which says something about all the inflated pregame drama from that Pats-Seahawks tilt.
For some reason, I thought this episode was in Year 41, not 40. I know there’s a callback to how much the cast liked working with Blake, but I also thought that was in late ’15/early ’16.
Riblet seemed, at least at the time, like a response to some of the early backlash against Michael Che as an Update anchor. Bobby’s suddenly-excellent Update story reads seemed like a tease to the fans who wanted someone else at the Update desk. Of course, Che would get better after S40, but this is definitely a statement of that season.
Similarly, I remember people trashing this episode when it aired. It surprises me that so many sketches were actually pretty well-written, and that Shelton wasn’t too bad as a host–that’s not exactly how this one felt to me upon its first airing.
I also like Wishin Boot. Sue me, it’s a great sketch and Blake sells all of its stupidity. Also, can’t think about his verse without thinking about this:
https://twitter.com/elijahjams/status/559215294552748032?s=20
I can see the criticisms of Wishin’ Boot–it takes too long to get going (Kate’s portion of the song is not overly funny) and it goes on too long once it does. However, it’s always been one of my favorites–all of the performers nail the song, the general beat and style perfectly encapsulates a lot of country songs (as someone noted, if you change the Boot to “Jesus,” this would basically be a real song). Everyone also more or less plays it perfectly straight, so it’s easy to just accept the insane portions of the song as normal.
I haven’t checked, but someone once said the “fake” Wishing Boot was a different type than the “real” one, which is another impressive detail.
I usually HATE the “hunk” sketches, but this one is the best. I didn’t like how this became recurring.
I was just thinking with the Hee Haw monologue, could anyone from that show have fit in as a guest during the first 10 years of SNL? I can see Buck Owens and/or Roy Clark as a musical guest.
Roy Clark would have been a pretty good host and musical guest, yes.
A much better episode than I remembered, though still far from a classic. I’ll agree with others Stooge is underrating “Wishing Boot”, but only slightly. I think this season’s “Tiny Horse” was actually a much better riff on the same subject (less bite, but more absurdity, which I prefer).
Pete’s really relying on sheer charisma for these early Update appearances, in my opinion. These early appearances are much more fratty than I care for. I far prefer his later spots where he’s more biter and delightfully unhinged (I’m going to duck when I say this, but he gives me Norm vibes sometimes).
The Shawshank sketch was the highlight of the night for me. (“All you should be thinking about at this point is what you want for your last meal.” “A man.”)
I will have to express my own praise for Wishin’ Boot – it’s not the best of the best, but it’s a strong homage to the country-pop weepie of the ’90s and ’00s, with the same terrific eye to detail (Kate’s look is especially on point) we will see a few seasons from now in the candle song. The pre-tape also features the type of Aidy and Kate performances I tend to enjoy most – Aidy leaning into weirdness instead of cutesiness, Kate underplaying. And a great use of the specific talents of the host. On top of that, some great imagery – Aidy waking up the morning after, Aidy streetwalking, the boot pulling out a knife, etc.
Topeka Talk is also good use of Blake’s talents, and a fun idea in of itself, with just the right reaction performances from Sasheer and Bobby. Taran is also fine, and cast a bit against type (he often would have been in Bobby’s role). The ending is a bit iffy but not enough to stop this from being the best live sketch of the night.
Blake is a likeable host, which is a big part of the formula, and contrasts him with Adam Levine (who fortunately is nowhere to be found). The only complaint I have with how he was used would be the magician sketch – he does NOT have the comic timing for that type of piece. To be fair, he is not an actor or a comedian, so that’s on the show for giving him this sketch. I also don’t like the ending here – although it’s lived on as one of the most used “Kenan reacts” memes.
I want to like the parole board sketch more than I do. Kenan does well, and the ending has Jack Handey vibes, but as per usual, it’s too long and also not very well constructed – a similar premise in the late ’80s or early ’90s would have had only one member of the board, or would have had differing points of view from board members. Here you have three people saying the exact same things, which gets old quickly.
The Bachelor sketches usually have one or two reliable laughs. That’s also true here. The downside is too many of the women being too samey, and overusing Aidy’s character and some of her more annoying tics.
The monologue is another example of confusing writing and overwriting that tends to plague the show in more recent years. They had a simple and fun premise ready to go – just doing old Hee Haw bits for a minute or two – instead of all the mishmash with Blake wanting to do the routines but no one else knowing how and Leslie objecting, and so forth. Similar to the Amy Adams monologue, there is so much going on that the end result collapses.
Generally I don’t enjoy the Family Feud sketches which have celebrity impressions, and this one is no exception. The half-hearted “lolgay” ending with Blake and Taran’s Adam is unfunny and awkward and should have been scrapped. The best part of this for me is Kyle’s Steven Tyler impression – guilty pleasure badness.
By and large I don’t think these episodes are much better or worse than SNL of the last few seasons (I’d say the pre-tapes were better, but I probably enjoy the sketches, host selections, Update, and overall cast more now), but one advantage they still had was the shorter, more energetic cold opens. Bobby in particular is put to good use in his spark plug role here.
Interesting that Taran and Kate introduced Blake’s performances. I suppose this may have indicated their status as more dominant male and female cast members of that time.
Like @Anthony Peter Coleman said, I kind of like Pete’s later Updates more (minus the ones that exploit his personal life). This one just tries too hard into being ‘cute’ and relies too much on his charisma to sell thin material.
Such a weird “joke” from Jost about Obama threatening Israel. This stuff feels like a million years ago now but this season has a number of moments that attempt to criticize Obama from the right but don’t really want to go too far into the weeds.
I like the idea of the Sasheer and Michael commentary more than the execution. You can see Sasheer forcing herself to play a part that isn’t suited to her.
Bobby is a lot of fun as Riblet, although I feel like that segment got a little too much airtime, more than benefited it.
My favorite part of Update was Jost’s exaggerated “shocked” face after Che’s joke about the twins who had once been triplets. Colin doesn’t do that type of thing very often, so it stood out, and made him more endearing.
Cut sketch (not hard to see why):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DBIkOVYqes
Promo:
Totally agree that Blake was put in an awkward spot in the Magician sketch. I’m surprised no one mentioned the cut Disney sketch where he plays John Smith. The audience seems mostly dead but I liked the way it slowly built. And it made good use of Blake’s naturally low key acting persona
https://youtu.be/-DBIkOVYqes
I mentioned it but it probably got lost in the mix…
I think Blake does a decent job there; it relies too much on Taran finding new ways to say “JOHN SMITH!!!” but there are some funny ideas, like Aidy playing the old woman from Up.
@John somehow I missed that part of your comment, sorry! I agree that Aidy as the woman from “Up” was one of the funnier parts.
At about 10 minutes into this there’s a brief glimpse of a pre-tape cut from this episode, called Boys in Blue.