The Saturday
Night Live Fortieth Anniversary Special has come and gone and now it’s back
to regularly scheduled programming. The highly anticipated
three-and-a-half-hour special brought in huge ratings for both the show and for
NBC. The special was the highest rated non-sports, entertainment prime-time
telecast since the series finale of Friends
back in 2004, bringing in a whopping 23.1 million viewers. It was a great way
to celebrate forty years of this incredible show. Some highlights from the 40th
Anniversary Special include:
-Jimmy
Fallon and Justin Timberlake rap the history of SNL.
-Several
video clips throughout the night showing the best of SNL.
-Returns
of these popular sketches: Bass-O-Matic, The Californians, Total Bastard
Airlines, Celebrity Jeopardy, and Wayne’s World.
-Eddie
Murphy’s underwhelming return to SNL
after thirty years since he last hosted.
-Jane
Curtin, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler anchoring Weekend
Update together with several guests impersonating their favorite Update characters.
This week’s host is first-time host Dakota
Johnson (the announcement was first made during an audience segment in the
fortieth anniversary special). I didn’t know too much about Johnson except that
she was in the highly anticipated movie Fifty
Shades of Grey so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this episode. I
thought this was a good episode but it wasn’t necessarily my favorite. This is
also the first episode to follow the amazing fortieth anniversary special so
this episode had a tough act to follow. Here’s the rundown from the Dakota
Johnson-hosted episode.
Sketch
Rundown:
Giuliani
Cold Open:
I thought this was a funny political cold
open with a hilarious tribute to Birdman.
I also loved how they went off the set, which is seen more in sketches rather
than in cold opens. While watching this, there was a girl who was playing Emma
Stone’s character in this sketch that I thought, and still think, it was Dakota
Johnson since I knew it wasn’t any of the female cast members. I thought Beck
was great with the voice-over and thought the firearm bit was funny. Overall, I
thought this was a good cold open.
Dakota
Johnson Monologue:
I thought this monologue was just okay but
I loved how her parents, Don Johnson and former SNL host Melanie Griffith, were in the audience and there to support
her. I thought the audience segments were funny but it was obvious that the
monologue would have something to do with Fifty
Shades of Grey. The monologue was good but not my favorite.
Father
Daughter Ad:
When I first watched this commercial
parody, I instantly knew it was a parody of the Toyota commercial about a
father-daughter relationship which ends with the father dropping off his
daughter at the airport so she could join the Army. When the joke of the
daughter joining ISIS, my first thought was that people would be complaining
about this the next day about how terrorist groups like ISIS shouldn’t be made
fun of and the subject of SNL
sketches. When the commercial ended, I thought “Damn it, SNL! You ruined that commercial for me!” That idea started to
change once I watched the commercial a few more times and reading the articles
about the backlash it received for the bad taste of the commercial, mainly
because about a few days before this episode there were some Americans who were
killed by the group. Was it bad timing considering the preceding events? It’s a
good guess. Did it start a conversation, or argument for lack of a better word,
about the line between free speech and being offensive? Absolutely! Was this
commercial un-American or un-patriotic? In my opinion, it wasn’t but other
people may have a different reaction. As a comedy show, it’s SNL’s job to take current events and
satirize them without being too offensive. These people are paid to do this!
Fans of the show and even the occasional viewer would agree that this was
satire or even think this sketch crossed the line. The next day, Taran Killam
tweeted out a YouTube link to this sketch with a message saying that “freedom
to mock is our greatest weapon”. I’ll post a screenshot of the tweet.
Taran does make a valid point. Without
mockery and satire, we aren’t able to take current events and poke a little fun
at them. Of course, there is a fine line between satire and being offensive.
It’s safe to say that the cast and writers at SNL wouldn’t try to be offensive on purpose. I’m very certain
everyone there knows how much of a threat ISIS is. Getting back to the material
of the sketch, I loved the tagline at the end “ISIS: We’ll take it from here,
Dad.” I thought this was a good and edgy commercial parody. It was definitely
one of the more edgy commercial parodies I’ve seen during my time watching the
show. (Side note, if anyone reading my review of this sketch was in any way
offended by my comments, I truly did not mean to offend anyone and I sincerely
apologize if I have offended anyone. This was a tricky review to write, mainly
because of the subject matter).
Cinderella:
I liked this sketch and I really liked how
they brought back Cecily’s Kathy Ann character. With a new Cinderella movie coming
out, I figured they would do a sketch like this. I loved Kathy Ann’s one-liners
during this sketch, especially “I’m a regular woman like Michelle Robama,” “She
is a real C-U-N-Thursday,” and “I got my HGTV test done.” Cecily’s dancing in
this sketch was hilarious and the fact that the shoe at the end belonged to
Kathy Ann was a great twist. I thought this sketch was funny and I hope they
bring back this character next season.
Say
What You Wanna Say:
I thought this was an awesome short,
especially since I love the song. Everybody was great in this and I loved
Kate’s bit in the bathroom, which I thought was hilarious. I loved the line
“You waited too long, Walt dies!” and the last few lines at the end of the
sketch, “Great parade guys! Should we get brunch? NO!” I loved this sketch and
thought it was hilarious.
Press
Junket:
I thought this sketch was okay but it was
really awkward to watch, even though I get the joke of a twelve-year-old asking
very detailed questions to Dakota Johnson about Fifty Shades of Grey. I expected there to be a sketch about Fifty Shades of Grey but I didn’t expect
a sketch like this. I thought Kyle’s character was adorable and his character
was one of my favorite parts of the sketch. Kate’s facial expressions were also
great and were my other favorite part of the sketch. I loved the lines “Acting
equals pretending!” “Ice cube was cold!” and “I end all my interviews with this
question: Woody or Buzz Lightyear?” Again this sketch was okay and it wasn’t my
favorite.
I
Can’t:
This sketch was okay but I felt like they
were running the same joke into the ground. Aidy’s character was probably my
favorite part of the sketch. I loved the spider bit and thought it was kind of
funny when her character fell out of the window. I don’t know if anyone else
thought this but I thought Cecily’s character sounded a little like “The Girl
You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party”. When I heard the
voice of Cecily’s character, it reminded me of her popular Weekend Update character. One of my favorite lines from this sketch
was “My arm bones are shattered from pits to wrists.” This was probably one of
my least favorite sketches of the night.
Alabama
Shakes “Don’t Wanna Fight” Performance:
I knew Alabama Shakes had been the musical
guest on a previous episode of SNL
(back in season 38 with host Christoph Waltz) but I had never really listened
to their music. I thought this was a pretty good performance and a catchy song
performed by a very talented group.
Weekend
Update:
This week’s Weekend Update, I felt, was a pretty solid one. I figured one of
the first jokes would be about “The Dress” (it was blue and black) and Che had
a marijuana joke that I liked. I loved Kate as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and thought
her portrayal of the Supreme Court judge was hilarious. I loved the joke about
P90X and the quotes “He was Uptown Funking me” and “You’ve just been
Gins-burned!” Her dancing after each burn reminded me about one of Kenan’s Update character, Jean K. Jean. I have a
good feeling that we’ll be seeing more of Kate as RGB in the future. Moving on,
I thought Che had a good Chris Brown joke. I loved Jay coming on as Kanye,
especially since I love his pretty accurate portrayal of West. Jost’s joke
about “Chickentown” was great. This week’s Weekend
Update ended with the return of one of my favorite newer Update characters: Riblet! Everything
about the character this week was great: the suit underneath the jacket, the
pop-away hair pieces, and the ever famous Riblet mic drop. I really liked this
week’s Weekend Update and I really
feel that Jost and Che are really getting the hang of it. I hope we keep seeing
this trend of solid Updates.
Emergency
Room:
I thought this sketch was kind of weird. I
loved Kenan in this sketch even though I’ve never seen an episode of Star Trek. When his character came out,
I figured it would turn out to be a tribute to Leonard Nimoy. I loved how they
showed a still picture of him after the sketch. I liked the title of “Worf M.D.”
and thought it was funny. I also loved how Dakota broke during this sketch. I
thought this sketch was okay but it wasn’t one of my favorites.
Net
Neutrality:
This was a perfect sketch to show how much
people know about net neutrality: absolutely nothing. I loved how this sketch
continued the argument about “The Dress” with Pete and Leslie. Pete’s slow clap
during the sketch was great, especially when the audience tried to join in. I also
liked how Taran came out and slapped everybody but Leslie in the face, though I
felt the Fifty Shades joke was just
okay. I loved the quotes “Who am I? Bill Jobs?” and “Cable and Bits: The Show about Computers by Dogs”. I also really
liked how Sasheer was the lead in a sketch, especially since she’s been a
little underused this season. I ended up liking this sketch a lot more than I
thought I would and thought it was funny.
Alabama
Shakes “Gimme All Your Love” Performance:
I thought this was another great
performance from Alabama Shakes. I really liked the song and thought it was a
beautiful song.
Mr.
Riot Films:
I thought this sketch was funny and it’s
been a while since we’ve seen a Good Neighbor sketch. I thought Beck and Kyle
were hilarious in this sketch. This sketch reminded me of the TV show What Would You Do?, although this was
much funnier. This sketch reminded me of a project I did in high school that
was similar to the show What Would You
Do?, but the project wasn’t as funny as this. I liked this sketch and
thought it was a great way to end the show.
Overall, I thought this was an okay
episode and it wasn’t one of my favorite episodes. During the goodnights, I
loved the Leonard Nimoy tributes from Bobby, Taran, and Don Johnson. I thought
Dakota Johnson did a good job but I don’t think we’ll be seeing her host again
any time soon. Being the first episode since the fortieth anniversary special,
everybody was probably still running on adrenaline. I don’t think it would’ve
mattered who hosted because the fortieth anniversary special was a tough act to
follow.
Some SNL
news for this week includes Cecily Strong’s new movie, The Bronze, being given a limited release date of October 16, 2015
and a wide release date of October 23, 2015. The movie opened Sundance Film
Festival in January to mixed reviews but I still plan on seeing it because of
Cecily. Another bit of news is that the song “Teacher Snow Day” from the J.K.
Simmons episode was released on iTunes on February 10, 2015. Two days after,
the SNL app became available to
download.
This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Dakota Johnson
with musical guest Alabama Shakes. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Chris Hemsworth with
musical guest Zac Brown Band. Please spread the word about the blog and
subscribe to the blog. Also, follow the blog on Twitter @SNLblogger. I live
tweet during new episodes on the blog’s Twitter so feel free to join in on the
conversation. Feel free to start your own conversations about episodes in the
comments section but keep them clean. Also, please feel free to give me
constructive criticism about the blog so I can improve the blog in any way.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren
*Image courtesy of Taran Killam’s Twitter
account (@TaranKillam)
