We’ve reached the episode of Saturday Night Live I think everyone had
been waiting for. Bill Hader came home to Studio 8H to host SNL with musical guest, Hozier. This episode also marks the 39th anniversary of the premiere of Saturday Night Live. Last week, former cast member and writer Sarah
Silverman came to host with musical guest, Maroon 5. Some highlights of last
week included:
- -A tribute sketch
to the late Joan Rivers
- - A sequel to The Fault in Our Stars about Ebola
- -Current writer
and former cast member Mike O’Brien appears in the “Whites” commercial, his
first appearance since leaving the cast over the summer
- -Cecily Strong,
Sasheer Zamata, and Sarah Silverman as the “River Sisters”, which led to
controversy with a troupe from The Groundlings claiming SNL stole their sketch
Although I said I enjoyed the episode,
which I did enjoy the episode very much, I was really excited for Bill Hader to
host because there would be a lot of his characters coming back. Although this episode
didn’t do so great with the ratings, this episode was hands-down one of the
best of season so far.
Show
Rundown:
Kim
Jong-Un Cold Open:
Although the topic was expected, this
had to be one of the stronger cold opens of the season so far. I love Bobby’s
Kim Jong-Un impression and he plays it really well. The tap dancing routine was
also a nice touch. Some of my favorite quotes included: “The movie Space Jam is about me! We all know
that!” and “I have the same haircut as Brad Pitt in the movie Fury!”
Bill
Hader Monologue:
I thought Bill Hader gave a great
monologue. He seemed excited to be back in Studio 8H and you could tell
throughout the monologue. I loved how Hader joked that he wasn’t supposed to be
on SNL because he “grew up in Tulsa,
Oklahoma like some idiot in a book.” It was nice to see Kristen Wiig in the
monologue, even though it was expected due to their movie The Skeleton Twins being recently released. Harvey Fierstein was
unexpected and I guess it had something to do with Bill Hader saying his singing
voice sounded like Fierstein. Something else I thought was funny about
Fierstein’s appearance is the way Kristen and Bill responded to his appearance.
It sounded like something out of a Scooby-Doo episode. The song during the
monologue was unexpected but I liked how Hader was being self-deprecating and
the song went to the tune of the Journey song “Any Way You Want It”. One of the
best parts of the monologue had to be when Bill mentioned to Kristen that she
could do anything, though Kristen mentioned that she can’t play the saxophone
but she can do everything else. Another good part was the mention of
#HaderSinging and that it was already trending so Bill had to sing.
Herb
Welch:
This has been one of my favorite Bill
Hader impressions and I’m so glad they brought back this character. This sketch
always seems to have the best one liners and I love seeing Herb Welch
essentially hitting everything and everybody with his microphone. The sketch
also features Pete Davidson, who was absent last episode due to his segment on Weekend Update being cut at dress, and
he seemed like he was very happy to be in the sketch. I was so glad they brought
back this character and this was a great sketch.
The Group Hopper Short:
As a fan of Young Adult fiction novels,
this short was one of my favorites. I thought it was a good move in using Pete
Davidson in this short and it was a perfect blend of the Young Adult novels. I
also thought Bill Hader as an Effie Trinket kind of character was hilarious.
This trailer showed that the movie is from “the director of Maze Runner, the producer of Divergent, and a casual fan of The Giver” and “adapted from a YA novel
written entirely in the comments section of a Hunger Games trailer.” If this was an actual movie, I would totally
go see it.
Hollywood
Game Night:
It’s about time they had a Hollywood Game Night sketch, especially
since Kate McKinnon does a scary accurate impression of Jane Lynch. I loved
seeing Kristen Wiig’s impression of Kathie Lee Gifford return and everyone
else’s impressions seemed to be on point. I thought it was good that they used
actual games from the show even though the show does air on NBC. Some even say
that this may be the new “Celebrity Jeopardy!”
Overall, I hope this sketch is a recurring sketch.
39
Cents Short:
When I first watched this short, I
actually thought it was a real PSA since the production quality was so good. I
thought it was funny how the villagers wanted more money and how they couldn’t
do the math in their heads since Charles Daniels was asking for thirty-nine
cents and not a dollar. I thought adding Leslie Jones for this short was good
since she added a lot of humor to this short. I loved at the end they told
people to send two hundred dollars in cash if anyone ever wanted to see Charles
Daniels alive. I thought this short was one of the stronger ones I’ve seen.
Jan
Hooks Tribute:
It’s always sad when someone affiliated
with the show passes away, especially when they’re so young. If anyone reading
hasn’t heard already, former cast member Jan Hooks passed away on October 9,
2014 supposedly of cancer, though no details of that were made official. Bill
Hader and Kristen Wiig introduced the sketch “Love is a Dream” from 1988 which
costarred fellow deceased cast member Phil Hartman. It was very emotional to
watch this sketch with the two former cast members who died way too soon.
I wasn’t familiar with Jan Hooks but
regardless it was a beautiful tribute.
Hozier
“Take Me to Church” Performance:
I had never heard of Hozier before it
was announced that he would be the musical guest for this episode. Needless to
say, I was very impressed with his performance on the show. This song was so
beautiful and Hozier’s vocals were very entrancing. Overall, it was a great
performance.
Weekend
Update:
One thing I noticed within the first few
moments of Update was that Colin did
a much better job this week. I was
laughing at his jokes and was thinking, “Wait, is Jost actually making me
laugh?” I felt that this season Jost is finding his own voice and not trying to
come off as a Seth Meyers wannabe. Michael Che was also great and seemed to be
more comfortable at the desk. Pete Davidson was back at the desk doing a
commentary piece on rap music and gold chains. I’ve been becoming a fan of Pete
Davidson since he appeared on SNL and
I feel like he’s really proving himself and proving that he belongs on SNL. Stefon, one of my favorite Update characters, made his triumphant
return to the desk. I loved his reaction to seeing Colin and Michael at the
desk with asking “How long have I been on anesthesia?” Also Stefon saying both “Hmm,
one of each” and “Barack, Mitt” to the anchors was absolutely perfect. It was a
little weird seeing Stefon without Seth but it was still just as funny. Stefon
was able to talk about New New York’s
hottest clubs, which included clubs like “Whimsy” and “Jan’s New Backpack”. The
way that Bill kept breaking when saying Dan Cortese while talking about all the
clubs proves that John Mulaney, the former SNL
writer who co-created Stefon with Hader, is an absolute genius.
Puppet
Class:
To be honest, I didn’t expect this
sketch would become recurring. I did like the sketch and I thought it was
funny. I loved how Taran laughed at just about everything his puppet was
saying. I also loved the joke about Bobby’s puppet being a hippie without any
hair. I felt the jokes in this sketch were very funny and on point.
Inside
SoCal:
I’ve stated in previous posts that I’m
not a huge fan of the Good Neighbor sketches but I happened to like this one. The
first time “Inside SoCal” appeared was last season when Jonah Hill hosted. I
liked this one better than the first because I felt more cast members were used
in this short. I’m still not a big fan of these sketches but this sketch shows
promise that I can actually appreciate these sketches more than I do now.
Hozier
“Angel of Small Death & the Codiene Scene” Performance:
After watching both of Hozier’s
performances, I have become a fan of him and his music. I fell in love with his
voice and his performing style. I also thought it was cool to see Kristen
introduce his second performance.
Cat
in the Hat:
The “Cat in the Hat” sketch was one of
my favorite sketches of the night. This sketch was a strong sketch and wasn’t
the typical sketch that would be saved for the end of the show. It certainly
was a topic that was unexpected. I loved the plot twist of the Cat and Cecily’s
character, Linda, were previously in a relationship and that Aidy’s character
was the daughter of the Cat and not Linda’s husband Thing 2 a.k.a. Johnathing.
One of my favorite quotes from the sketch was the last line which was “And oh,
the places she let me go.” A part of my childhood took a deep and dark left
turn after watching this sketch.
Overall, this episode will go down as
being one of the best of the season. I can’t remember the last time I laughed
so hard all the way through an episode. There wasn’t really a weak sketch
during the episode, which is always a good thing. I loved during the goodnights
how Bill was emotional about coming home to SNL.
Bill Hader definitely needs to come back and host. This is definitely one of my
favorite episodes of the season and of SNL
as a whole. To paraphrase the words of Stefon, this episode had everything.
That’s been my take on SNL hosted by beloved former cast member
Bill Hader and musical guest Hozier. SNL’s
taking a week off but they’ll be back October 25th with a new
episode with host Jim Carrey and musical guest Iggy Azalea. Please spread the
word about the blog and subscribe to the blog. Also, follow the blog on Twitter
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please feel free to give me constructive criticism about the blog so I can
improve the blog in any way.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren
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