Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE SOUTHERN REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE!
GOP presidential hopefuls try to look cool at a Republican gathering
— The concept of this is a blatant variation of that GOP At Coachella cold opening from the preceding season.
— Kenan as Ben Carson? Feels odd seeing this, knowing in hindsight that Jay would take over the impression in the following season’s primary debate sketches, and do a definitive take on Carson.
— Speaking of an impression from this sketch later being taken over by another cast member in the following season’s primary debate sketches, Cecily would later take over the Carly Fiorina impression that Kate’s doing here, IIRC.
— Despite fun performances, I’m just not into this, due to it being too much of a lazy outright knock-off of the aforementioned Coachella cold opening.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
host & cast members apologize to their mothers [real] & endure home movies
— Very fun to see each cast member’s mom, and I like how this feels like a throwback to the prime-time Mother’s Day specials that SNL previously did in 1992, 1993, and 2001.
— A particularly funny line from Kate to her mom, with Kate apologizing for re-enacting the shooting of Mary Jo Buttafuoco when playing make-believe with her friends as a child. I also like Kate’s mom’s charming response to Kate calling herself weird, telling her that weird is what got her on SNL.
— Wow, SNL actually gave Sasheer a very funny noteworthy moment here for once. Nice to see, especially after Sasheer got shut out of the preceding episode.
— Vanessa’s mom has the exact same hairstyle Vanessa herself used to have when she first joined SNL.
— The first of several SNL appearances Pete’s mom would make over the years.
— Funny comment Reese Witherspoon makes about Pete to Pete’s mom, and I also love Pete’s put-off reaction to that.
— Man, this whole “cast members and their moms” segment is so damn charming.
— Noticeably missing from this monologue (other than the two Update anchors, of course): Taran and Leslie. I recall hearing Leslie’s mother passed away when Leslie was a kid, which would explain Leslie’s absence here. However, I have no idea about Taran. Was his mom still alive at this point? If so, was she just not able to make it to the show?
— Okay, here’s what is not only my absolute favorite part of this monologue, but one of my personal favorite things SNL has ever done: the collection of childhood home videos of each cast member. As I said in previous reviews, I always find it such a fun novelty seeing what cast members looked like as kids, so you can imagine that this monologue must be heaven for me.
— Given the Laura Parsons character she’d later do on SNL, it’s funny seeing little Vanessa acting like a typical child performer in some kind of act she’s performing in with other kids.
— Kyle used to be chubby as a kid? Who knew?
— Aww, Pete was adorable as a baby. And, for obvious reasons, it’s interesting hearing the voice of his father (if that’s indeed his voice we’re hearing).
— Absolutely classic how Kenan’s “childhood home video” is actually a clip of him from one of the Mighty Ducks movies back when he was a child actor. It’s also funny seeing a young Joshua Jackson with Kenan in that clip. This clip also really reminds you of just how impressively long Kenan has been working as an actor. And watching this clip takes me back to my own childhood in the 90s, as I grew up watching child actor Kenan in so many things.
— Another classic portion of this childhood home videos segment, with 13-year-old Cecily frantically asking, as part of a play she’s performing in, “Where’s my cocaine?”
— Overall, man, that collection of childhood home videos of the cast was an absolute BLAST, and it, coupled with the charming “cast members and their moms” segment earlier in the monologue, makes this one of my personal favorite monologues of all time.
STARS: *****
BE SCENE IN L.A.
live mics sidetrack cougars’ (host) & (CES) talk show
— Ugh, I’m currently three minutes into this sketch, and this has been awful so far. I know it’s so damn easy to shit all over James Anderson and Kent Sublette as writers, but typically horrible sketches of theirs like this make it so damn hard not to.
— I did finally get a laugh just now, from Kenan saying “I don’t know what she talkin’ about. We not in a commercial” after Reese throws to a commercial so she can go to the bathroom.
— Aaaaaaaand there’s our fart sound effect, a staple of bad Anderson/Sublette sketches.
— I continue to find Kenan’s performance and delivery to be the only bright spot in this mess, despite him and Jay playing gay stereotypes (another staple of bad Anderson/Sublette sketches).
STARS: *½
PICTURE PERFECT
contestant (BOM) refuses to draw The Prophet Muhammad
— Meh at Cecily’s Rosie Perez impression. The voice should be much higher pitched.
— Hilarious turn with Bobby having to draw The Prophet Muhammad. However, I’m not sure how to react to this as a reviewer, given the fact that it was said this sketch was plagiarized from another show (Canada’s “This Hour has 22 Minutes”, I think). Unlike the plagiarized River Cruise sketch from this season’s Sarah Silverman episode, I’m not sure if it was ever 100% proven that this sketch was indeed plagiarized. [ADDENDUM: After reading some comments in the comments section of this review, there’s enough proof to suggest this sketch was indeed plagiarized.] I think I also heard that the writers of the SNL version of this sketch were James Anderson and Kent Sublette (man, between the preceding Be Scene In L.A. sketch and now this, are Anderson & Sublette writing this entire episode?), who certainly are no strangers to plagiarism (e.g. they were the culprits of the aforementioned River Cruise plagiarism). And if I find out those two writers indeed plagiarized this sketch AFTER getting busted for plagiarizing that River Cruise sketch, it’s going to take everything in me not to go off on the mother of all anti-Anderson/Sublette rants. I swear, those two writers just drive me fucking INSANE.
— Kenan’s Reginald VelJohnson impression has really slipped. It was much better in that Before They Were Stars sketch from the preceding season’s Drake episode.
— I did laugh at Kenan’s enunciation when repeatedly saying “Not. Doin’. It.” in a trademark Kenan-like way.
STARS: * (I can’t reward plagiarism)
MR. WESTERBERG
co-workers realize mocked boss Mr. Westerberg (BOM) molests (BEB)
— A very crass turn this has taken, but I laughed at it initially.
— I usually like me some disturbing comedy, but as this particular short’s disturbing, crass material goes on and on, I’m not quite sure how to react to it. Beck is delivering it pretty well, at least.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ship To Wreck”
WEEKEND UPDATE
LEJ reads love letters she wrote addressing the status of her booty call
COJ & MIC read jokes texted to them by their mothers
(host) is additional Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party
unduly-optimistic Willie offers words of wisdom for recent graduates
— A particularly amusing flirty remark Leslie makes to Colin early on in her commentary.
— The “halftime at SportsCenter” bit during Leslie’s commentary is very funny.
— After Colin ad-libs “And humble” as an addition to the positive traits Leslie proudly says she has, I love her intimidating staredown of Colin.
— Great ending to Leslie’s commentary, with her suggestively saying to her prospective next lover, “I’ll be your Tom Brady and deflate your balls.”
— Lots of funny comments from Colin in his takedown of the new look for McDonalds’ Hamburglar character.
— The bit with Colin and Michael each reading a joke that their mothers texted them is not only a fun bit, but I like how it also feels a bit like a continuation/addition to the monologue from earlier in this episode.
— A nice variation of Colin’s usual “………Dad” punchlines.
— A bit of a twist to Cecily’s usual Girl At A Party commentaries, with her being joined by Reese playing Girl At A Party’s similarly-traited friend, Mackenzie, who was actually mentioned in a previous Girl At A Party commentary (I think the very first one).
— Reese’s Girl At A Party character: “So if you c-section, say something.”
— This overall Two Girls At A Party commentary felt rushed and was much shorter than usual, but I still got some laughs from it.
— Colin and Michael have been having some killer jokes tonight. A nice rebound from their not-as-good-as-usual Update from the preceding episode.
— Wow, this is a long Update. Certainly can’t complain about seeing another Willie commentary, though.
— Willie: “It’s like those trainers used to always say – ‘Your dog’s spreadin’ chlamydia, Willie!’”
— Willie, on his school classmates: “I’ll never forget the last thing they said to me – ‘Ya locked us in here with the shooter, Willie!’”
— Much like the Two Girls At A Party commentary, this Willie commentary felt rushed (what’s going on tonight anyway?), but it was still damn funny.
STARS: ****
THEATER SHOWCASE
didacticism of Student Theater Showcase rankles parents in audience
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, this has a lot of hilariously bad “deep” social commentary from the theater students.
— Some good laughs from Leslie and Bobby’s comments in the audience, and I’m glad that tonight’s installment of this sketch isn’t overdoing it on having the audience members’ comments just be a whole bunch of Mikey Day-esque overly-obvious “Why did that weird thing happen just now?!?” comments.
— I love Leslie responding to the “black people getting shot” act in the play by saying “Yeah, I’m not okay with that.”
— Another great one-liner from Leslie at the end, when she walks by the front of the stage and says into the camera, “Man, screw this – I’m goin’ home to watch Judge Judy.”
STARS: ****
SOUTHERN LADIES
suburban women share their bizarre troubles, drink wine, rob a house
— After getting a break from Anderson & Sublette’s dominance, they’re back with a vengeance here, displaying two of their favorite and overused tropes: every character having cutesy names and every character speaking in exaggerated southern accents. Even for Anderson/Sublette standards, they’ve been relying on the latter trope an awful lot this season.
— I do at least like seeing Leslie in a female ensemble sketch.
— So far, I’m not finding myself exactly HATING this like some other Anderson/Sublette sketches from around this time, but I’m not laughing much either.
— The sudden house-robbing twist at the end made this feel kinda like the random twist endings of those Song Memories sketches from the late 00s/early 10s.
STARS: **
WATER SLIDE
waterpark employees (BEB), (KYM), (host) give little attention to sliders
— Funny scene-stealing walk-on from Bobby.
— Reese comically pausing when saying “Could one of you guys do me……..such a huge solid”, making the first half of that sentence sound dirty, was a very random gag, and if it was supposed to get a laugh, it didn’t work for me.
— A very over-the-top characterization from Cecily in her brief appearance.
— Wait, that’s the whole sketch?!? The hell? This was only about two minutes long and seemed to be missing a lot of things…like a POINT, for starters. I’m not even sure what to make of this sketch.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What Kind Of Man”
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & latest girlfriend (host) profile adoptable cats
— There continues to be a heavy James Anderson/Kent Sublette influence in tonight’s episode. (Only one of Anderson and Sublette co-writes this recurring sketch, but I forget who.)
— A few funny corny side jokes from Kate and Reese. Otherwise, meh. Whiskers R’ We does not work for me as a recurring sketch. Should’ve just stayed a decent one-and-done sketch.
— The usual “host hits on Kate” portions of this recurring sketch are coming off particularly tired in this installment.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A subpar episode. Despite having a few strong highlights, including one of my personal favorite things SNL has ever done (the monologue), there were a lot of things I either didn’t like or, in the case of the Mr. Westerberg and Water Slide pieces, found hard to figure.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Theater Showcase
Weekend Update
Mr. Westerberg
Southern Ladies
Water Slide
Whiskers R’ We
The Southern Republican Leadership Conference!
Be Scene in L.A.
Picture Perfect
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 40 comes to an end, with host Louis C.K.