SNL is back after having a week off to prepare for this
week’s episode hosted by Woody Harrelson with musical guest Kendrick Lamar. On
November 1st, the show was hosted by SNL alum Chris Rock and musical guest Prince. This episode was a
good episode and did very well in the ratings, as it is currently the highest
rated episode of the season. I would think that one reason for the high ratings
would be because of Prince and his eight-minute-long, uninterrupted musical
performance which has never been done before in the history of SNL.
Some highlights from the last episode
include:
-Chris Rock’s
controversial jokes in his monologue that mentioned the Boston Marathon
bombings and 9/11
-Prince’s eight-minute-long,
uninterrupted performance
-A sketch about the show Shark Tank involving the terror group,
ISIS, which was met with a lot of criticism and controversy
-An ad parody called “Swiftamine”
which shows that anybody can like Taylor Swift’s music
-A sketch about a married
couple, played by Chris Rock and Leslie Jones, fighting on their anniversary
that was painful to watch during the live show. The sketch also included a line
flub and blocking flub by Jones, which shows that anything can happen on live
TV. This sketch was rumored to be written by writers that Rock had brought with
him.
For this week’s episode, I didn’t know
what to expect since I’m not familiar with Woody Harrelson or a lot of his
work. Okay, I know he’s in The Hunger
Games movies but I still wouldn’t have recognized him. I also wouldn’t have
known that he was the actor who played Haymitch. The last time Harrelson hosted
the show was on May 16, 1992, which was the season 17 finale and Victoria
Jackson’s last episode. This episode also aired less than three years before I
was born, which does show my age. Actually, both time he hosted prior to this
episode were before my time. Regardless, I kept an open mind and was pleased
with his performance for his third time hosting SNL.
Sketch
Rundown:
A
Drink at the White House Cold Open:
This had to be one of the funnier
political cold opens. The impressions were good and the jokes were on point.
One of my favorite parts of the cold open was the prank phone call to Hillary
Clinton with the joint scream at the end. Another one of my favorite moments
from the cold open was President Obama with a Presidential Medal of Freedom on
his head. I thought Sasheer’s brief cameo as Michelle Obama was very well
placed towards the end of the cold open. Overall, I liked this cold open.
Woody
Harrelson Monologue:
I’m not very familiar with the work of
Woody Harrelson so I didn’t know what to expect in regards to the monologue. I
did like how Harrelson tied Taylor Swift’s most recent album, “1989”, and the
first time he hosted, which was in 1989. Harrelson broke out his guitar and
sang a parody of Swift’s song “Blank Space”, with the help of his Hunger Games costars Josh Hutcherson,
Liam Hemsworth, and Jennifer Lawrence. I loved how Jennifer made fun of herself
because she can’t sing and how Josh and Liam also made fun of her singing. Jennifer’s
line flub was also pretty funny and actually worked well. Overall, this was a
pretty strong monologue, despite Harrelson looking like he was stoned during
the monologue.
The
Dudleys:
I thought this sketch was just okay,
though definitely portrayed the typical family sitcom. One of my favorite
quotes was regarding pot roast being served for dinner: “I used my favorite
recipe: takeout.” The paper mail complaints were a great comedic touch since
paper mail is hardly used these days. The comment “These aren’t my Dudleys. PS,
repeal Obamacare” was so random yet it was so funny. I didn’t expect to see Uzo
Aduba from “Orange is the New Black” to make a cameo but it was a fun surprise.
It would have been a great impression for Leslie or Sasheer and it would have
given them more screen time. The tagline for the sketch was that they heard us
loud and clear but it begs the question, did they really hear us “loud and
clear”?
Match’d:
I felt this was a very random game show
sketch and this definitely wouldn’t be considered one of my favorite sketches
of the night. The opening line of the sketch “You’re watching MTV. You’re DVR
must be empty.” was a great way to open the sketch, despite this being kind of
a weak sketch. I don’t watch MTV hardly, if ever, and I didn’t think they made
these types of game shows anymore, unless it was a throwback to when MTV had
these types of shows on the air. Despite thinking it was a weak sketch, there
were some high note in the sketch. I liked the plot twist of the host, played
by Woody Harrelson, being the father of the contestant, played by Cecily
Strong. I loved how it made the contestants, respectively played by Beck
Bennett, Kyle Mooney, and Taran Killam, act nervous about their previous
responses to the questions and made them think about how they were going to
answer the next questions. Another high note from the sketch was finding out at
the end that the moment alone was recorded. Like I said previously, this wasn’t
one of my favorite sketches as it was just an okay sketch.
A
New Day:
This sketch was just okay and I didn’t get
a lot of the material in this sketch, maybe because I don’t smoke marijuana. One
of my favorite quotes from this sketch was Woody Harrelson’s character shouting
“Free…at last!” This line was funny and very random. I thought it was funny how
Pete’s character went from talking about making social change on marijuana laws
to his excitement about “Rugrats” coming on TV. This sketch was funny but it
wasn’t one of my favorite sketches.
Football
Halftime Speech:
I thought this sketch was a very good and
very funny sketch. I thought this sketch was the perfect way to satirize
concussions and other brain and bodily injuries brought on by contact sports. This
was satirized perfectly by Kenan’s character. Some of my favorite quotes from this
sketch include “Back of the head…put your princess to bed!” and “If the pupils
dilate…you did great!” I also loved the heavily padded, oversized football
helmets at the end of the sketch. This had to be one of my favorite sketches of
the night.
Young
Tarts & Old Farts:
This sketch was my absolute favorite
sketch of the night and one of my favorite sketches ever! The impressions were
great and on point. This sketch was very similar to the “Michael Bublé's
Christmas Duets” sketch from season 37. One of my favorite quotes from this
sketch includes this one said by Kenan’s Lionel Richie to Cecily’s Ariana
Grande: “Let’s try that again. I don’t think they heard you in China.” Another
one of my favorite quotes was from Sasheer’s Diana Ross in regards to Kyle’s
Macklemore: “I don’t need him to educate me about gay people. I invented gay
people.” I loved how they were able to include Kendrick Lamar, this episode’s
musical guest, in the sketch. Some of the impressions that I loved included
Cecily’s Ariana Grande, Aidy Bryant’s Meghan Trainor, Taran’s Sam Smith, and
Woody’s James Taylor, and the little girl who played Blue Ivy Carter. She was
so adorable! I also loved how Vanessa’s Miley Cyrus impression was brought
back. I loved the joke that she was the “old fart” in this sketch to Kate’s
Lorde, who was the “young tart”. I loved this sketch and I would love to see
more of these types of sketches.
Kendrick
Lamar “I” Performance:
I’m not a big Kendrick Lamar fan but I
ended up liking this song more than I thought I would. The song was really
upbeat and catchy as I found myself dancing along to this song. I thought this
performance was the better of Lamar’s two performances of the night.
Weekend
Update:
Going into Weekend Update, I figured there were going to be a lot of Kim
Kardashian jokes due to her infamous magazine cover and photos. I loved Colin’s
transition to “getting back to real news.” I also loved his “Who wore it best?”
joke. I loved Leslie Jones’ segment; it was funny, as always. I loved the
quotes “I feel like I have to talk to HR first.” and “crazy chimney bitch”.
Woody Harrelson’s segment with Taran’s Matthew McConaughey was good and I
really love Taran’s McConaughey impression. I love how Taran’s McConaughey is always
calling Jost “CoJo” and I loved the quote “can’t go on and on till the break of
dawn”. I thought this week’s Update
was strong with only a few jokes falling flat, in my opinion.
Old
New York:
I thought this sketch was the typical
sketch saved to appear directly after Update.
I felt the sketch was dragging, especially with using what felt like the same
crack jokes over and over again. I’d have to say my favorite part of the sketch
was Woody’s character fake arresting the rest of the guys with a “Vote for
Nader” button. This wasn’t my favorite sketch of the night.
Campfire Song:
I thought this
sketch had a good start before they started singing the song about apples.
After the song was introduced, I felt the sketch dragged on and that the sketch
was going on forever. I thought the joke of the other people really knowing the
song was funny but just okay. Overall, I thought this sketch was just okay and
it wasn’t one of my favorite sketches. The one thing I hated about this sketch
is that I can’t get that song out of my head.
Kendrick
Lamar “Pay For It” Performance:
I thought this performance was just okay.
The song was good but I still liked the first performance better than this
performance.
Last
Call:
I usually don’t like this sketch but out
of all of the “Last Call” sketches I thought this was the best one out of all
of them that have aired. I thought the use of the saran wrap was hilarious and
I’m not sure if anybody noticed the sound effect delay but regardless, it was
still funny. There were a lot of great quotes from this sketch, which included
“I’m meeting a friend here tonight, Mr. Al K. Hall.” and “As long as you don’t
mind taking a detour through STDetroit.” I really loved Kenan’s bartender
character as he had some great reactions and quotes, such as “Moonlight come
and me wanna go home.” and “Well, I gotta kill us all, I guess.” the latter as
he doused the place with gasoline. I thought this was a great way to end the
show.
Overall, I thought this was a good
episode. I did feel that it was a little guy heavy as the female cast members
were hardly in a majority of the sketches. I think a lot of that had to do with
sketches being cut after the table read and after the dress rehearsal.
This has been my take on SNL hosted by
Woody Harrelson and musical guest Kendrick Lamar. I’ll be back soon with a
review of SNL hosted by Cameron Diaz and musical guests Mark Ronson and Bruno
Mars. 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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