March 25, 2021 – The 'One SNL a Day' Project

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HALLELUJAH
Ivanka (Scarlett Johansson) & the rest of team Trump sing “Hallelujah”

— SNL spoofs their own serious Hallelujah cold opening from earlier this season.
— So far, this spoof is doing absolutely nothing for me, and neither are the walk-ons from Trump cabinet members throughout the song.
— Blah, cue the applause break for Scarlett Johansson’s walk-on as Ivanka.
— Okay, I did kinda laugh just now at the brief gag with Trumpwin doing the “Look, no hands” gesture while still “playing” the piano.
STARS: *½

MONOLOGUE
Five-Timers host & Tom Hanks [real] are running for president; Alec Baldwin cameo

— Quite a lot of hosts becoming Five-Timers in these last few months of this season (Scarlett Johansson, Melissa McCarthy, and Dwayne Johnson).
— Random casting of Alex, briefly showing up just to get the “honor” of placing the Five-Timers jacket on Dwayne.
— A funny fake-out with the Five-Timer who Dwayne says will be his presidential running mate turning out to be Tom Hanks instead of Alec.
— A nice charm to this monologue, and a good way to get mileage out of Dwayne and Tom’s beloved public images.
— A decent laugh from Dwayne and Tom each demonstrating how they would handle a national crisis as president/vice president.
STARS: ***

CARTIER FIDGET SPINNER
Cartier’s diamond-encrusted fidget spinner occupies annoying babe (VAB)

— Wonderful to see a new Vanessa Bayer-starring commercial in her final episode.
— This commercial is initially bringing the Kristen Wiig “Red Flag Perfume” commercial to mind, as well as (to a lesser extent) the Ivanka Trump “Complicit” commercial, but this Vanessa ad ends up taking its own turn.
— A very funny and inspired way to spoof the fidget spinner craze from this time.
— As expected, Vanessa is excellent in her performance here, and it’s great to see her play against type once again in these last two seasons of her tenure.
— Beck-as-the-voice-over’s various descriptions of Vanessa are hilarious.
— A great “Because, GOD, the sex is good” punchline.
— Overall, a Vanessa Bayer gem that I had surprisingly forgotten all about until now.
STARS: *****

WRESTLEMANIA PROMO
Koko WatchOut psychologically wrecks Trashyard Mutt again in Wrestlemania promo

— It’s gonna be hard to top the first installment of this, but I can’t complain about this second installment being part of Bobby’s swan song tonight.
— Beck replaces Taran Killam as the announcer from the first installment of this sketch, and they repeat the same running gag of the announcer always being preoccupied with his phone before he suddenly goes into “professional announcer mode”. Just like last time, I don’t care for that running gag, and don’t see why it’s necessary (though it’s certainly not hurting the sketch or anything).
— I love Bobby’s “Ohhhh, nooooooo” when Dwayne brings up Bobby being a Katy Perry fan (even if this whole “Katy Perry fan” portion of this sketch feels to me like SNL pandering to this episode’s musical guest).
— While this installment isn’t quite measuring up to the first installment for me, this is still very funny, and Dwayne’s overly-personal trash talk about Bobby is providing big laughs. I especially love Dwayne’s “You’re the DeVito!” line during the reveal of Dwayne and Bobby being twins.
STARS: ****

ONE VOICE
eighteen additional artists are featured on Big Chris’ (KET) rap song

— Very funny how out-of-hand the increasing number of additional rappers is getting, much to Kenan’s frustration.
— Ha, not only are Colin and Michael involved in this, but they’re playing a rap duo hilariously given the incongruous name “2 Black Guyz”. Colin making a non-Weekend Update appearance rarely fails to be inherently funny.
— This is fun as hell, and I love the very different personality and style each performer gives to their rapper character. This short is also a great way to get the entire cast involved. As I always say, I love seeing a full-cast piece in a season finale (even if, as I also always say, I prefer those full-cast season finale pieces to air at the end of the episode).
— Tom Hanks’ famous David S. Pumpkins character from earlier this season returns in the form of David S. Pimpkins.
STARS: ****½

SCORPIO
(host)’s self-made costume gets more attention than his superhero status

— Meh, the big comedic turn this sketch has taken isn’t doing much for me, despite the likability of Cecily’s performance when she first starts fawning over Dwayne’s sewing skills. This sketch’s type of humor usually isn’t my bag, kinda like I said about that The Boy Is Mine sketch from the Chris Pine episode.
— I do kinda like Dwayne explaining why he prefers not to have a scorpion label on the chest of his costume.
STARS: **

JURASSIC RIVER RAPIDS
Gemma is part of unplanned double date on splashy Universal Studios ride

— Blah. However, at least it makes sense to do this in this episode, given how solid Dwayne was as the boyfriend in the first installment of this sketch. I guess they also realized this is their last opportunity to do this sketch when Vanessa’s in the cast.
— I did get a chuckle from the new addition of Gemma having a pet pig.
— Like last time, Dwayne is fun and natural in this role.
— All of the water that Vanessa keeps getting splashed with throughout this sketch must be a good-natured case of “reverse hazing” for Vanessa’s last show.
STARS: **

XENTREX
(host) uses sketchy male enhancement drug despite side effects

— Dwayne’s various “And he said…” “And I said…”s when relaying the conversation he and his doctor had about the dangerous Xentrex drug are increasingly hilarious.
— A great background visual of Dwayne roughing up Kyle while a long list of the medication’s side effects are shown onscreen.
— I love Dwayne’s very straitlaced, deadpan “Hail Satan” at the end when showing various bad effects of the medication.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swish Swish”

WEEKEND UPDATE
“Bad Day” accompanies photos of departed Trump administration members

high-strung Dawn Lazarus delivers more meteorological gobbledygook

Drunk Uncle lists things in America that need to be made great again

— Great to see Dawn Lazarus already return after only two episodes, as part of Vanessa’s swan song tonight.
— Like last time, Vanessa is absolutely fantastic at this character’s nonsense-speaking routine. I particularly got a laugh from her smiley, affable delivery of “Hopefully, no goddamn rain.” And, of course, her legendary utterances of “Hap” never fail to kill.
— A good callback to Michael’s Dwayne “The Scissors” Johnson joke from a previous Update.
— As part of Bobby’s swan song, we get our final Drunk Uncle commentary, which is this character’s first appearance since the notorious Donald Trump-hosted episode from a year and a half prior. I’m glad that episode didn’t end up being Drunk Uncle’s final appearance.
— (*groan*) There goes Colin ONCE AGAIN responding to Drunk Uncle’s usual “That’s not me” line with “That’s not anyone.” I’m sure most of you readers know how much that gets on my nerves. Well, this is the last chance for Colin to say that, so…
— Ah, we get an acknowledgment of this being Drunk Uncle’s final appearance, with him asking Colin to do one shot with him “for the road”. However, I wish they did something far more noteworthy than that to make his final appearance special.
— The Russian Roulette bit at the end of Drunk Uncle’s commentary is hilarious.
— Drunk Uncle’s overall commentary was the usual great stuff.
— Surprised this season finale Weekend Update didn’t contain either Colin and Michael’s joke-swapping routine or their “favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes” routine.
STARS: ****

IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Brad Grey marks his passing
— Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode

RKO MOVIE SET
in 1948, star actress (VAB) can’t stop farting while shooting film noir

— The “Solomon and Klein – Detectives” window sign in the background (seen in the second above screencap for this sketch) is presumably a reference to SNL writers John Solomon and Rob Klein.
— Hooooooooo, boy. While I’m so happy to see SNL give Vanessa so many showcases in her final episode, and while it’s certainly a novelty seeing Vanessa do a fart sketch, that sure as hell doesn’t mean her doing a fart sketch is a GOOD novelty. I had no desire to ever see Vanessa do a fart sketch, especially not one that feels like a complete rehash of that notoriously horrible Rear Window sketch with January Jones back in season 35. Not to mention this is our second fart sketch of the second half of this season alone (the sit-ups sketch from the Alec Baldwin episode being the first), and the first one was bad enough.
— Speaking of the sit-ups sketch, I’m assuming Steve Higgins is the one providing the fart vocalizations in this RKO sketch, like he did in that sit-ups sketch.
— Well, Higgins is at least managing to get some rare breaks out of Vanessa, which is actually charming in her case, and also a special note to mark her final episode with. My goodwill towards that is the only thing keeping me from completely hating this sketch.
— Lame ending.
STARS: **

INTERNATIONAL MAD SCIENTIST SOCIETY
(host)’s child-molesting robot wins mad scientist evil invention contest

— Ah, yes, here we go…
— An absolutely PRICELESS very dark reveal of Dwayne’s evil invention: a child-molesting robot. Holy hell.
— I love that combination scream/gasp/laughter reaction from SNL’s audience in response to the initial reveal of the child-molesting robot.
— I love Dwayne’s “Robo-ChoMo” name for his child-molesting robot.
— Sasheer’s facial reactions are making me laugh a lot. Our final display of Sasheer’s good straight man skills (which are much better than I had remembered before reviewing these past few seasons).
— Dwayne, on how to build a child-molesting robot: “What you do is, you start by building a regular robot, uh, then you molest it and hope that it continues the cycle.”
— This sketch is easily one of the ballsiest things SNL has ever put on the air, and it absolutely pays off.
— Dwayne, on evilness: “Benito Mussolini used to force-feed people castor oil until they literally died of diarrhea. (pause) I mean, that’s gotta be where the goal posts are, right?”
— At many points in this sketch, Dwayne’s voice and inflections sound VERY Barack Obama-esque (even moreso than his voice usually does).
— Yikes, the random White Castle turn this sketch takes towards the end is freakin’ TERRIBLE. Thankfully, the rest of this sketch is classic enough to not be hurt by that. But still – damn, that was the best way they could end this sketch???
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Migos [real] perform “Bon Appétit”

WINGMAN
while being (host)’s wingman, bartender (BEB) adds himself to hookups

— A big laugh from the first threesome reveal.
— Beck is solid in this lead role and has a pretty good amount of funny lines.
— A very funny sudden appearance from Bobby as “Carlos”, our final display of Bobby’s great ability to steal a sketch with a simple walk-on.
STARS: ***½

SENIOR SKIT
high school seniors (BEB), (KYM), (BOM), (VAB) perform valedictory sketch

— (*sigh*) Welp, this is it, folks. Bobby and Vanessa’s final sketch as cast members.
— Man, when Bobby says, in a sad, emotional manner, “Now it’s coming to an end” in regards to the crazy ride that his and his classmates’ four years of high school have been, you can tell that 1) there’s a lot of reality subtext in that line, given his and Vanessa’s SNL departures, and 2) his sad, emotional delivery of that line was NOT acting. His delivery of that line is heart-breaking.
— A very good running gag with a deadpan Leslie as the lunchlady whenever her cooking gets slammed.
— This sketch probably isn’t anything special on paper, but there’s a nice charm to it when seeing it played out, obviously helped by the fact that this is Bobby and Vanessa’s sendoff. Too bad SNL didn’t put Sasheer in this as one of the students performing this play. She and SNL apparently knew at this time that she was leaving, as an SNL fan once mentioned back at this time that there were photos online (can’t remember where) of Bobby, Vanessa, and Sasheer each being lifted in the air by their castmates at the end of this episode’s goodnights (not seen in the televised version of this episode’s goodnights, unfortunately).
— The ending of this sketch seemed like it got cut a little short due to the show running long. That also probably explains why this sketch in general had a rushed vibe.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

— Interesting seeing the audience actually give a standing ovation in these season finale goodnights.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fitting end to such a good, memorable season. Much like this season itself, while this episode certainly had some lowlights, they were far outnumbered by some great highlights, including two five-star pieces (Cartier Fidget Spinner and International Mad Scientist Society). Dwayne Johnson did his usual fantastic hosting job, and his hosting skills & comforting presence were particularly welcome in a season finale.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
International Mad Scientist Society
Cartier Fidget Spinner
One Voice / Xentrex (tie)
Wrestlemania Promo
Weekend Update
Wingman
Senior Skit
Monologue
Jurassic River Rapids
Scorpio
RKO Movie Set
Hallelujah

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a slight step up

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER