It’s the Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night Live, which means it’s time to give thanks for a strong first
half of the fortieth season, so far. Last week, it was the third time hosting
for host Woody Harrelson with musical guest, Kendrick Lamar. This episode was a
strong episode like many of the episodes before it this season. There was a
little dip in the ratings from the previous episode, hosted by Chris Rock with
musical guest Prince, but it was still one of the stronger episodes of the
season, ratings wise.
Some highlights from the last episode
include:
-Jennifer Lawrence, Liam
Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson crashing the monologue of their Hunger Games costar to promote the film.
-A musical short bringing
together the “young tarts” and “old farts” of the music world.
-Enough Kim Kardashian
jokes to last the rest of the year, courtesy of Colin Jost and Michael Che.
-Several male heavy
sketches
For this episode, I had some idea of what
to expect from Diaz since I have seen reruns of the past episodes that she has
hosted. The past times that she has hosted it’s been decent so I had my
expectations that this episode would be decent.
Sketch
Rundown:
School
House Rock Cold Open:
This had to be one of the funnier
political cold opens that I’ve seen this season. I’m surprised they went the
“School House Rock” route but I’m thankful for the childhood flashbacks. I did
love the idea of the president pushing the bill, played by Kenan, down the
stairs three times. Some of my favorite quotes came from the executive order,
played by Bobby, which were “I’m an executive order and I pretty much just
happen.” and “I didn’t have time to read myself!” I ended up really liking this
cold open and this probably was one of my favorite cold opens of the season, so
far.
Cameron
Diaz Monologue:
I honestly don’t have that much to say
about the monologue except that so far, this is probably the weakest monologue
of the season. I know the monologue is the last priority but they could’ve put
a little more thought into it. I thought the cast members who asked questions
were good but there really wasn’t much of a beginning, middle, or an end. Like
I said before, this probably has to be one of the weakest monologues of the
season and probably my least favorite monologue, so far.
Back
Home Ballers:
This was one of my favorite sketches of
the night. I thought it was a great sequel to “(Do It On My) Twin Bed” from
last season. I thought this was a great way to utilize the ladies of the cast
and show that they all have some musical abilities. I expected there would be a
sequel to “Twin Bed” but I don’t think I would’ve expected one this soon. That
being said, the timing was perfect for the sequel to come during the Thanksgiving
episode. Jean from “Twin Bed” also returns, which I didn’t notice at first
until I watched this again. I also thought that Leslie’s rap towards the end of
the song was awesome. I found this sketch to be very relatable and I now have
another song I’ll play endlessly on loop. “Twin Bed” was also nominated for an
Emmy in 2014 and unfortunately lost but I’m pretty sure “Back Home Ballers”
will take home an Emmy in 2015.
Black
Annie:
Along with “Back Home Ballers,” this was
one of my other favorite sketches of the night. I expected an Annie sketch this episode since this was
the film Diaz was promoting. Vanessa’s version of Annie reminded me a little
bit of her character from the “Spotlightz Acting Camp” sketches. I thought
Vanessa was just adorable in this sketch. When Jay came out as Jamie Foxx and
said the line “My name is Jamie Foxx, I mean, Daddy Warbucks,” I was laughing
really hard. When Leslie came out as Annie, she had me laughing so hard that I
was in tears. Leslie was also hilarious in this sketch. I loved the reference
to the song “Gold Digger” when Jay sang “take my money”. I loved how at the end
they started singing “Tomorrow” and then Kenan came out and broke out in a rap.
The latter happening after one of my favorite quotes from Leslie “This is not
about you orphan bitches. This is about Black Annie!” Again, one of the best
sketches of the night and one of my favorite sketches.
Nest-spresso:
I thought this was a weird idea for a
commercial parody but I found it somewhat enjoyable. While watching the sketch,
Taran’s character reminded me a little bit of Brooks Wheelan (Brooks was a cast
member last season best known for his stand-up bits on Weekend Update; I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m the only one that
remembers him and misses him on the show). I thought Vanessa’s character’s lack
of knowledge of how the product works was pretty funny and a great comedic
touch. Overall, I thought this sketch was just okay.
High
School Theatre:
To be honest, I thought this was kind of a
weird sketch. I did think having Kenan and Vanessa as audience members was a
good move, otherwise the sketch probably wouldn’t have been as good. The only
thing I learned from this sketch is that Kyle Mooney is a good singer. One of
my favorite quotes from this sketch was at the end where it was “the first of
seven intermissions”. I thought that the tribute to Mike Nichols at the end of
this sketch was sweet, even though this sketch wasn’t one of my favorites.
Mark
Ronson and Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk” Performance:
This has to be my favorite musical
performance of the season and one of my favorite musical performances on the
show ever! I’m so obsessed with this song that I can’t go a day without
listening to it. Bruno Mars always puts on a great performance and he and Mark
Ronson created this amazing song that will always be played everywhere you go.
I was so excited to see this song performed on the show and I would’ve loved to
have been in the studio to see this in person. I don’t know why Diaz was
wearing a fedora when she introduced the act but despite this, I loved this
performance!
Weekend
Update:
I thought this Weekend Update was a strong one, even though I thought Che’s Cosby
joke was a little too soon. I did like the line he said which was “I know it’s
not the same thing but I forgave Kramer.” Of course, I had to look up who he
was talking about to understand the joke. I did like and agree with the
Ferguson story Che delivered about how calling in the National Guard before the
grand jury decision has been made basically tells you what the verdict will be.
This story hits close to home for me being from the St. Louis area and seeing
all of the violence and riots on the news every day for months. Switching
gears, I loved seeing Kate’s Angela Merkel again on Update. I hope Merkel is in the news more often since I love Kate’s
impression. This impression always has many great quotes and one-liners. Though
at the end of the segment, Jost trying to “German kiss” pretty much scarred me
for life. I also thought Taran as Charles Manson and Cecily as Manson’s fiancée
was pretty funny. I loved the lines “I just want to kill the world about it!”
and “We’re like peanut butter and chaos.” I had a feeling, at the very end of Update, Cecily had to really trust Taran
that he wouldn’t hurt her when she ended up on top of the Update desk. I have no doubt in my mind that this was staged and
spotted well so nobody would get hurt. Even though I don’t think I can ever get
the image of Taran and Cecily, in character, going at it on top of the Update desk out of my mind, I thought
this was a strong Update.
Baby
Boss:
I’m not a big fan of this sketch or this
character, but I liked how they brought this sketch out of an office setting. I
feel like this was a great way to give this character more of a back story and
make the character a little more rounded. I thought it was funny how they gave
Baby Boss a wife and that they were expecting a baby. I thought Kenan and
Sasheer were great and had great reactions in this sketch. Even though I
thought some parts of this sketch were funny, I thought this sketch was just
okay and the character and jokes were becoming a bit redundant.
Dr.
Dave and Buggles’ Animal Hour:
I thought this sketch was okay; I didn’t
like it as much as the other sketches. I felt like it was trying to be some
kind of reboot of “Brian Fellow”. I didn’t like how they pretty much used
different variations of the same joke. Although, I was glad they did something
with the monkey escaping from the cage. Even though I didn’t really enjoy this
sketch, I did think the animals were cute.
Chris
Fitzpatrick:
I don’t have a lot to say about this
sketch since I’m not a big fan of the “Good Neighbor” sketches, though I did
get a couple laughs out of it. I love Kyle Mooney but I’m not a big fan of this
character. I also didn’t know what was up with all the car explosions in
between shots. I thought this sketch was okay, overall.
Poetry
Teacher:
I thought this sketch was okay. I’m not a
big fan of this character even though I love Vanessa. I like how Vanessa’s
character is now the substitute teacher instead of a poetry teacher visiting
students in detention. I feel like that change was made since Mike O’Brien left
the cast and went back to being a writer. I did like the poem about Friends, mainly because it’s one of my
favorite shows. I don’t necessarily like these sketches and, like I stated
earlier, this sketch was just okay.
Mark
Ronson and Bruno Mars “Feel Right” Performance feat. Mystikal:
I thought this performance was good,
despite not knowing who Mystikal is. I thought this song was catchy but I wish
Bruno Mars would’ve performed a second song.
Night
Murmurs:
I felt this sketch was the typical sketch
saved for the end of the night. I thought this sketch was good but almost felt
like a little bit of a spinoff of the “Former Porn Stars” sketches. I did
notice how they cut from Cameron to Kate a little too early though a different
version was released online. I liked that Kate was in this sketch because I
felt like she added more humor into a sketch that wasn’t all that great, though
Cecily was great as well. I thought this sketch had its funny moments but it
was just okay.
Overall, I thought this was a fairly good
episode. There wasn’t really a bad sketch in the episode though there were some
weak sketches, which is going to happen. I thought that Diaz’s performance as
host was good but she wasn’t one of my favorite hosts.
Some SNL-related
news from the past week include SNL alum
Bill Hader and his wife, Maggie Carey, welcoming their third child, a daughter named
Hayley, on November 15th. Hayley joins her older sisters, Hannah
Kathryn and Harper. Congratulations to the Haders on this wonderful addition
to their family. It was announced on November 19th that current SNL cast member and former Weekend Update anchor Cecily Strong will
host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2015. Strong is also
the fourth woman to host the event. Congratulations to Cecily on this honor. I
know I’ll be watching and that she’ll be great.
This
has been my take on SNL hosted by
Cameron Diaz and musical guests Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. I’ll be back soon
with a review of SNL hosted by James
Franco and musical guest Nicki Minaj. Please spread the word about the blog and
subscribe to the blog. Also, follow the blog on Twitter @SNLblogger and on
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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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