Well everybody, we have reached the last
episode of January and the last episode before the anticipated 40th Anniversary
Special. Last week’s host and musical guest was first time performer Blake
Shelton. I was familiar with Shelton’s music and I knew he had a good sense of
humor from seeing him as a coach on The
Voice. However, I was a little nervous to see if his sense of humor on The Voice would be able to translate
well on a show like SNL.
Nevertheless, I was very impressed with Shelton’s performance and I hope he
gets to host the show again in the future. Some highlights from the last
episode include:
-Several
jokes about “Deflate Gate” in the NFL.
-A
tribute to Hee Haw.
-A
new song from the genius minds of Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Sarah Schneider, and
Chris Kelly.
-The
reappearance of Celebrity Family Feud.
-A
new Weekend Update character for
Bobby Moynihan, Riblet.
This week’s host is first time host J.K.
Simmons with first time musical guest D’Angelo. Before his appearance on SNL, I only knew him from the Farmer’s
Insurance commercials and Growing Up
Fischer. I had also never heard of D’Angelo before this episode but I was
pretty impressed with his performances. After his performance on SNL, I was very impressed with him and I
hope he gets the chance to host again.
Sketch
Rundown:
Super
Bowl Shut Down Cold Open:
I liked this cold open and thought it was
funny. I’m not a big sports fan or even a big football fan but I love it when SNL does any kind of sports parody. I
loved how they also made a reference to the so-called “Snow-pocalypse”. I also
loved the football with dreadlocks and thought it was a great comedic touch.
This cold open had so many great quotes such as “I’ve been a diehard fan since
the beginning…of 2013,” “I’ve seen bigger blizzards at Dairy Queen,” “The
scandal with the Patriots aka ‘Deflate Gate,’ aka ‘Ball Ghazi,’ aka ‘the Eballa
Crisis,’” “The yearbook voted me best smile,” and “Knock, knock. No comment.” I
thought this was a great cold open, especially with the Super Bowl coming up.
J.K.
Simmons Monologue:
Since I’m not that familiar with J.K.
Simmons, I didn’t know what to expect from him. I thought he delivered a funny
monologue and loved how he made a tribute to his character in his most current
movie, Whiplash. I loved seeing Kyle,
Pete, and Leslie play the drums but I wish they would have had Aidy do
something with the keyboard since she was out there. I thought it was great to
see Fred again and after I got the running joke, I figured this was why they
brought him back. This monologue had some great quotes such as “CNN said the
storm was going to be a ‘snow-pocalypse’ but I think we can agree it turned out
to be more of a ‘no-pocalypse,’” “I think my hair’s gorgeous (side note: yes it
is, Kyle.),” “Do all the girls love you, because you’re the little SNL cutie pie (another side note: This
girl thinks he is!)?” “I’m not gonna practice 100 hours a week,” “I really miss
Blake Shelton,” and “Do not scream at me J.K.! I am a forty-seven-year-old
woman, do not do that!” I thought J.K. Simmons did a great job with his
monologue> I would also consider his monologue to be one of my favorites
this season.
Totino’s
Ad:
I thought this was a funny ad parody. I
loved Vanessa in this and she does a great job playing a parody of the
stereotypical wife. I also loved how this ad made fun of the stereotypical wife
that doesn’t watch and/or understand football and is only there to make food
for the guys and bring them beer. I loved how the age limit on the box was “For
grown women ages five and up.” This was a great parody and I hope we see more
of these in the future.
Miss
Trash 2015:
I liked this sketch and thought it was a
great parody of the Miss USA/Miss Universe-type competitions. I
loved how Vanessa’s character came out in a ball gown and all the other girls’
characters were dressed “white trash” style. This sketch had a lot of great
quotes and the quotes made up for most of my notes on this sketch. Some of my
favorite quotes include “Last week, she tried to join ISIS but they said ‘No
thanks,’” “She’s deaf-initely not wearing underwear,” “Her nickname in high
school was ‘Slime Bitch,’” “She’s a graduate of Doggy Day Care,” “I thought
this was Miss America,” “Too bad, now
you’re trash,” “We have the before pictures but the network won’t allow us to
show them because they are the visual equivalent of the ‘f-word,’” “Just today,
my gynecologist told me I was accepted to UTI. And I’m so excited my crotch is
on fire,” and “The winner will be sent to the hospital and the runners-up will
be sent to prison.” I ended up liking this sketch a lot more that I thought I
would, in the end.
Casablanca:
I liked this sketch for two of many
reasons: Kenan and Kate. I loved seeing Kenan’s character, Reese De’What, again
and I thought Kate was awesome in this sketch. Her character had me laughing so
hard during the entirety of the sketch. I thought this was a funny parody of Casablanca even though I’ve never seen
the movie. I thought Kate’s costume was great and since the sketch was done in
black and white, it made her look like she could have been an actress from that
era of black and white films. I liked this sketch and thought it was a great
sketch.
Teacher
Snow Day:
I thought this was a great sketch and
thought it was very funny. The song was very catchy and I still can’t get
“Teach the children” out of my head. Even though it was expected, I thought
Pete was great as the student that came to school on a snow day. I thought the
gospel choir was great and it was a great comedic touch. I love the quotes
“Thought my teachers were bitches but they’re hard core thugs,” and, at the end
of the sketch, “I’m definitely passing Chemistry now.” I absolutely loved this
sketch and I hope they release this song on iTunes. This had to be one of my
favorite sketches of the night.
D’Angelo
“Really Love” Performance:
Before his performance on the show, I had
no idea who D’Angelo was. After this performance, I was pretty impressed and
thought it was a good performance and I thought the song was pretty good.
Weekend
Update:
I thought this week’s Weekend Update had a good start to it and there were some strong
jokes on both parts. I loved seeing Cecily’s other Weekend Update character, The One Dimensional Female Character from
a Male-Driven Comedy, again and loved this appearance more than the first one.
I loved Colin’s line, “Is this the baby from American Sniper?” I did have this thought, however, about when
Cecily’s character said she was pregnant. I had to ask myself the question, “Is
Cecily making fun of her pregnancy rumors or was it something the writers
contributed for the character?” If it was the former, good for her (even if it
wasn’t, I think a lot of people would think the former). As someone who has
been asked before about if I’m pregnant, I have so much respect for her (It’s
one of the many things I can relate to about Cecily). I remember last year when
she tweeted, back when she was on Twitter, about the pregnancy rumors and
calling out the “cruel bully dickheads” (if I were her, I wouldn’t have used
those exact words but I would’ve said something similar). I normally don’t go
off on tangents like this but on this subject, I felt like I had to since
asking a woman if she’s pregnant, regardless of whether or not she is pregnant,
is one of my pet peeves. Back to Update,
there were two jokes by Michael Che that I thought were great. I loved the dog
joke where the punch line was “The most popular breed in America is the Type 2
diabeagle.” I also loved Che’s joke about lesser known African American heroes
getting their own stamps. I also liked two of Jost’s jokes, which were the quinceañera
joke and the joke about the “zombie cat”. I loved seeing the return of Jebidiah
Atkinson and I even predicted that his next appearance would be about the
upcoming Grammy’s. Even though I loved seeing Jebidiah again, I didn’t like
Che’s interaction with him. In all honesty, it’s not just Che’s interaction
with Jebidiah. It’s Che’s interactions with just about all the Weekend Update characters that have
appeared this season. Back to Jebidiah, I loved the question he opened with
about the Grammy’s: “Who wouldn’t be excited for a night-long tribute to the
Spotify playlist of a twelve-year-old girl?” Jebidiah always has so many great quotes,
like “She’s all about that bass, bout that bass, no talent!” and “Someone
turned her Celine Dioff!” I thought this was a good Weekend Update with strong jokes throughout the segment.
Microsoft
Assistant:
I liked this sketch, even though I don’t
like many of the sketches that appear directly after Update. I loved Bobby’s character, Pushie, and I really wish Pushie
was on my computer. I loved the quotes “You selected: Birthday Cake Man!” and
“Helvetica Bonham Carter!” I did get pretty sad when “Murder Pushie” came up (I
would definitely not murder Pushie) and even teared up a little when Pushie
said “I’m ready to be murdered now.” Thankfully, Pushie lives on and I hope
this becomes a recurring character. I thought this sketch was pretty funny.
The
Jay Z Story:
I thought this video was great and really
funny. I thought it was funny how Mike O’Brien, Jason Sudeikis, and J.K.
Simmons played Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Nas, respectively. I loved getting to see
another Mike O’Brien video; I’m so glad they kept him on as a writer. I thought
it was great that Sasheer was able to do her Beyoncé impression during this
video. I didn’t expect to see Jason Sudeikis during this video but it was a
great surprise. I loved how this ended with the ending title card, “A Mike
O’Brien Picture”. I loved this video and videos like this prove that, at least
in my opinion, Mike O’Brien is a writing genius.
D’Angelo
“The Charade” Performance:
I thought this was a great performance and
a catchy song. I also loved the tributes to Ferguson, Eric Garner, and the
other race cases that have occurred recently with the shirts that were worn by
D’Angelo and his band.
Career
Day:
When the title card for the sketch came up
at first, I thought they were going to bring back Nasim’s character, Shallon,
since this was the title card used for those sketches last season. I loved
Cecily’s reaction to hearing “Japanese Messy Boy”. I really hope someone made a
gif of that. I loved Pete’s character and the reactions to J.K. Simmons’
character. Some of my favorite quotes from this sketch include “I then sit at a
very small, white table in a very small, red, plastic chair and eat a meal
while the wealthy, Japanese woman watches and silently judges me,” “Do you get
a napkin? I wish!” and “You’re my hero and that’s coming from a fireman.” I
thought this sketch was really funny and a great way to end the show.
Overall, I thought this was a good episode
with a great job done by all. I especially loved the extra-long goodnights,
especially since the goodnights are usually cut off during most episodes. I was
very impressed with J.K. Simmons and I hope he comes back to host another
episode in the coming seasons.
Some SNL
news for this week is that former cast member Brooks Wheelan’s comedy album,
“This is Cool, Right?” came out on January 27th. It’s a great album
(I bought it on iTunes and I have it on Spotify) and it brings me back to
September of 2014 when I saw him perform live. If you ever get the chance to see Brooks
perform live, go see him! I swear, you will not regret it. It’s a fun and
memorable experience.
This has been my take on SNL with host J.K. Simmons and musical
guest D’Angelo. I’ll be back soon with a review of the SNL Fortieth Anniversary Special. Please spread the word about the
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Thanks for reading!
Lauren
