Another week and another anticipated
episode of Saturday Night Live. This
most recent episode, with host Jim Carrey and musical guest Iggy Azalea, was
anticipated episode due to the fact that this was Carrey’s third time hosting.
After several appearances on Weekend Update
and in sketches, writer Leslie Jones was also upgraded to a featured player the
Monday before the episode. Two weeks ago, SNL
alum Bill Hader made his hosting debut along with first time musical guest,
Hozier. Some highlights from this episode include:
- - The return of
several of Hader’s beloved characters, such as Herb Welch and, of course,
Stefon.
- -A beautiful
tribute to deceased former cast member, Jan Hooks.
- -Former cast member
Kristen Wiig made several appearances throughout the episode
- -Hozier’s great
musical debut on the show.
I didn’t have many expectations for this
episode. I knew this would be a funny episode even though I’m not the biggest
fan of Jim Carrey. This was definitely one of the stronger episodes of the
season both in sketches and in the ratings.
Show
Rundown:
Ebola
Czar Cold Open:
With Ebola constantly in the news, I wasn’t
surprised this was the topic for the cold open. One thing I loved about the
monologue was the jokes about past scandals during Obama’s presidency. Some of
the quotes said during the monologue, both said by Taran Killam as the Ebola
czar, included that “everything will be 100% cool as hell” and “Latinos in red
states have immunity”. A few other memorable quotes came from Kenan Thompson as
the Reverend Al Sharpton which were “Ebola Caesar” and “all of New York is
contaminated all the time”. I thought this was a good cold open but it wasn’t a
strong cold open.
Jim
Carrey Monologue:
When Carrey first stepped onto the stage
in his costume, I definitely thought it was strange despite this being the
Halloween episode and that it’s Jim Carrey. Carrey states in his monologue that
he likes Halloween because it’s “the one day a year I actually blend in”. His
hybrid costume “Helvis” was a bit strange and I figured a musical number would
be coming up. I loved the involvement of the band with their howling and the
addition of the devil choir, as well as the “Helvis” marquis. Bobby and his
facial expressions were also a great comedic touch to the number. My favorite
line would have to be the last line of the monologue, “Helvis has left the
building”. The musical number was very catchy and I still can’t get the song
out of my head.
Lincoln
Commercial 1:
When I first saw this ad parody, I thought
it was an actual commercial due to the production quality and that Jim Carrey
does a very convincing Matthew McConaughey. Out of the three commercial
parodies, I thought this wasn’t the strongest one although it was pretty funny.
Carrey
Family Reunion:
This sketch was one of the best sketches
of the night. I loved how the cast poked fun at a lot of Jim Carrey’s past
characters. Even though I haven’t seen a lot of Jim Carrey’s movies, the
impressions were still hilarious. The Jeff Daniels cameo was expected because
of the sequel to Dumb and Dumber but
it was still a fun cameo. Pete Davidson jumping in at the end of the sketch as
The Riddler was also very funny. This sketch was weird but a funny kind of
weird.
Lincoln
Commercial 2:
I thought this was better than the first
commercial. The kids in the back seat were a great touch, especially with the
line, “Whose kids are these?”
Graveyard
Song:
This sketch was also a really strong
sketch. Taran Killam and Jim Carrey as Paul and Phil was great, even though the
joke might have dragged on a little too long. Bobby and Kenan definitely made
the sketch when yelling at Paul and Phil. One of my favorite lines of the
sketch was toward the end when Pete handed Phil a beer and Phil said that the “beer
went right through me”. This sketch was one of my favorite sketches of the
night.
Lincoln
Commercial 3:
Out of all the commercials, this had to be
my favorite one. I loved how it started out as an Allstate parody. Kenan
getting hit and dragged by the car was a good transition into the Lincoln ad.
Iggy
Azalea “Fancy/Black Widow” Performance:
I was pretty excited that Iggy Azalea was
the musical guest since I like her music. I wasn’t surprised she would perform “Fancy”
but I wasn’t expecting the medley of “Fancy” and “Black Widow”. Also seeing
Rita Ora perform “Black Widow” along with Iggy wasn’t much of a surprise since
her vocals are featured heavily in the song. I thought this was a good performance
overall.
Weekend
Update:
I thought this week’s Update was good but not as strong as the previous episode. I felt
like some of the jokes on both parts fell flat. Jost seemed to do better this
week even though he had a little bit of a flyaway hair problem that drove me a little
crazy. I loved Vanessa Bayer’s romantic comedy character. The character was
funny and Vanessa looked really pretty as this character, as she is beautiful
without the costume, too. I loved the bit between Michael Che and Vanessa
turning Update into a rom-com for a
couple minutes. I loved getting to see Drunk Uncle again as he is one of my
favorite Weekend Update characters.
To see Drunk Uncle roll from Che to Jost was expected because of the character’s
personality. I also love how this character is full of a ton of one-liners,
like other Weekend Update characters.
Secret
Billionaire:
This sketch seemed to be the typical
sketch to show after Weekend Update.
It was pretty weak and a little weird but with a few good jokes here and there.
The best part about this sketch was the puppy in a suit.
Ghost
Chasers:
I thought this sketch was awesome. It was
so funny and perfect for the Halloween episode. No kidding, if this were real
life I know I would be Leslie Jones’ character. This short was so funny with
the right amount of creepy, especially with the dolls.
Zombie
Apocalypse:
I thought this sketch was also weak with a
few good jokes here and there. I felt like this was a mediocre parody of “The
Walking Dead”. I did feel bad for Pete Davidson’s zombie character for being
hit with a bat all the time, even if it was a prop and he wore a ton of padding.
Halloween
Party:
First of all, it was good to see Kate and
Aidy in a sketch again. Second of all, this was hands-down one of the best
sketches of the night. Seeing Kate and Jim dance to Sia’s “Chandelier” dressed
as the dancer in the music video was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
I loved seeing the entire studio being used and the fourth wall being broken.
It was great to see cameos by both Iggy Azalea and Lorne. I was praying that
Jim didn’t drop Kate while swinging her around. Aidy’s character in this sketch
with her one-liners were a great comedic touch to this sketch.
Iggy
Azalea “Beg For It” Performance:
I didn’t expect this song to be performed
and I thought this performance was just okay. The other singer in this
performance, Mø, was good but had the unfortunate downside of performing with
technical difficulties.
Geoff’s
Halloween Emporium:
I thought this sketch was funny but also a
little weird, especially Jim Carrey’s character. Seeing both Cecily and Vanessa
in this sketch looked like their former porn star characters moved to
Wisconsin, donned the accent, and got jobs at a Halloween store. This sketch
did seem like the kind of sketch that would be shown at the end of the show.
Overall, this episode was one of the
strongest of the season both in content and in the ratings. There were several
strong sketches throughout the episode and also a lot of good comedy. Since I’m
not a big Jim Carrey fan I wasn’t expecting a lot from this episode. Luckily,
Carrey was able to prove me wrong. I definitely enjoyed this episode more than
I thought I would. In other SNL news,
Taran Killam and his wife, actress Cobie Smulders, are expecting their second
child! Congratulations to the couple on this wonderful news!
This has been my take on SNL hosted by Jim Carrey and musical
guest Iggy Azalea. I’ll be back next week with a review of SNL hosted by former cast member Chris Rock and musical guest
Prince. Please spread the word about the blog and subscribe to the blog. Also,
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Thanks for reading!
Lauren
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