After a two week spring break, it’s back
to work for everyone at SNL. Last
week, Chris Hemsworth came to Studio 8H to try his hand at hosting along with
first time musical guest, Zac Brown Band. This was a great show and Hemsworth
did a great job hosting which means this probably won’t be the last time we see
“The Sexiest Man Alive” host the show. Some highlights from the last episode
include:
-The
introduction of Kate’s Hillary Clinton impression, which will come in handy
during the 2016 Presidential Election.
-Chris’s
brothers, Luke and Liam, making an appearance during the monologue.
-A
sketch taking place in space that involved a live chicken.
-A
possible new recurring sketch and character for Kate involving her Iggy Azalea
impression.
-The
return of Leslie Jones and “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation
with at a Party” to the Weekend Update
desk.
-An
Avengers sketch.
-The
return of the “Former Porn Stars” sketches.
This week, we welcome back returning host
Dwayne Johnson with first time musical guest, George Ezra. I was very impressed
with both Johnson and Ezra with their performances on the show. Here’s my
review of this week’s episode.
Sketch
Rundown:
The
Rock Obama Cold Open:
I had a good feeling they would bring this
character back, mainly since Dwayne Johnson was the host, and I loved how they
used it as the cold open. I loved the added joke of “She Rock” Obama and it was
a great way to use both Leslie and Sasheer, especially since the last time they
did “The Rock” Obama there were no African American cast members since Maya
Rudolph had left the previous season. I loved how Johnson threw a fake hand
like a basketball and saying “Obama from downtown. Brick” I loved this
political cold open and this is probably one of my favorite cold opens of the
season.
Dwayne
Johnson Monologue:
I liked Johnson’s monologue and thought it
was very funny. I didn’t expect a musical monologue from him but I liked it a
lot more than I thought I would. I thought it was funny how Johnson called
himself “Franchise Viagra”. I liked the song but I couldn’t hear the girls that
well during their solos. My favorite line from the monologue was “Another Smurf movie? No.” One thing I noticed,
and I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this, is that Cecily was bumped square
in the forehead by Johnson’s elbow and didn’t miss a beat during the monologue.
That moment really emphasizes the fact that anything can happen during a live
show. I thought this was a very funny monologue from Dwayne Johnson.
Pep
Boys:
I liked this commercial parody and loved
how it parodied Starbucks’ “Race Together” campaign. I loved how it was called
#genderflect and that it showed how these conversations are very awkward to
have. One of my favorite quotes from this was “Anyway…you’re car’s totaled.” I
thought this sketch was hilarious and loved it more than I thought I would.
WWE
Promo Shoot:
I had a feeling they would do a sketch
like this, especially with Johnson’s history with the WWE. The promos were
hilarious and Johnson’s character bringing in personal information about
Bobby’s character in the promos was great. I loved the lines “And that’s what
Coco’s cookin’!” and “Too far Coco!” I liked this sketch but not enough to
consider it one of my favorites.
Bambi:
I absolutely loved this sketch! I thought
it was a great way to parody the classic Disney cartoons and movies being
turned into live-action movies. The impressions were great and I loved the
animal puns, including “Now it’s time for them to pay…deer-ly”. I also loved
how they made Bambi in the style of a
Fast and Furious movie. There were so
many great lines, including “What’s the matter? Never seen a deer in the
headlights?” I loved how the tagline was “Get Bucked. June 2016.” I loved this
sketch so much that I wish this movie was going to happen.
Dinner
Date:
I thought this was a funny sketch and I
loved Cecily’s new character, Jemma. I thought Cecily’s accent was hilarious
and I loved how she said “Nibbles”. The “Bananas” song was hilarious and so
catchy and the song was stuck in my head for about a month. When Beck was
smashed into the table by Johnson, it really looked like it hurt. I loved the
200 onion rings bit and it really made me want onion rings (I’m even craving
onion rings while writing this post). This sketch had to be one of my favorite
sketches of the night.
Jungle:
This had to be my least favorite sketch of
the night. I felt like this sketch was Indiana Jones meets “The Ambiguously Gay
Duo”. I felt like the same joke was being run into the ground and it was
overdone. I thought Kate was funny, along with Beck and Kyle. Even after
watching this sketch a few more times, I really couldn’t get myself to like
this sketch.
Brogain:
I thought this was a funny short. I loved the
whole idea of this and I loved the wig they used on Johnson. I loved the lines
“Think you’re frat dog may be an alcoholic,” and “You chanted the n-word in a
viral video”. I thought this was a great way to parody the fraternity in
trouble for their racist chant. I liked this sketch more than I thought I
would.
George
Ezra “Budapest” Performance:
I hadn’t heard of George Ezra before his
performance on the show but I wish I did. I loved this performance and this
song. The song was very catchy and I had it stuck in my head for a while. I
also loved his voice and thought it was very soulful. I thought this was a
great performance and I absolutely loved it.
Weekend
Update:
I thought this week’s Weekend Update went off to a good start, especially with Jost’s
joke about Indiana. The first Update
guest was the popular Kate McKinnon character Olya Pavlotsky. I’m so glad this
character came back. She has so many great quotes and one-liners, like “I have
been planning my funeral since I was a little girl,” “As I am buried, I will
have them play the most popular funeral song in Russia: At Last!” “In your
screams, Russia!” “What are dreams?” and “This is why my toes are like One
Direction, only four left. Also, mostly hairy.” I always laugh so much during
Olya and every other Kate McKinnon character. I loved Jost’s joke about The Jinx and thought it was hilarious. I
love how they used “This is How We Do It” and “Oops! I Did it Again!” for intro
music. This had to be one of my favorite jokes of the night. The last guest on Update was Kenan’s newer character,
Willie. I didn’t think Willie would be on again. I think it’s a good character
but it’s not my favorite character. Overall, I thought this was another strong Weekend Update.
Cooking
with Paul:
I didn’t really like this sketch as much
and felt that it was the typical sketch saved for after Update. It was a really weird sketch that was pretty much using the
same joke over and over and running that joke into the ground. This sketch was by
far one of my least favorite sketches of the night.
Improv
Show:
I liked this sketch a lot and I liked how
they tied in the events involving Robert Durst into this sketch. Kate was
hilarious in this sketch as Durst. I also had to wonder if she was wearing dark
contact lenses. I also liked Cecily’s character and thought she was funny. Some
of my favorite lines included “I don’t know, I’m a psycho,” and “She’s gonna
die.” As much as I liked this sketch, I felt like the ending was very abrupt
and the sketch could’ve gone on a little longer. I was also surprised to notice
that the host wasn’t in this sketch. It’s not uncommon for hosts not to be in
sketches but it doesn’t always happen where hosts are not in live sketches. As
I said before, I really liked this sketch and thought it was funny but I felt
that the ending was a bit abrupt.
George
Ezra “Blame It on Me” Performance:
I thought this was another great
performance from first time musical guest, George Ezra. This song was also very
catchy, even though it wasn’t stuck in my head as was the song during his first
performance, “Budapest”. George Ezra brought two great performances to tonight’s
SNL and I hope this isn’t the last
time we see him on the show.
Interrogation:
I thought this was a good sketch and I got
a few laughs out while watching this sketch. When I was watching this sketch,
being the complete SVU nut that I am,
I thought that this was trying to parody Law
& Order: SVU with Vanessa’s character being a parody of Olivia Benson
and Dwayne’s character being a parody of Chris Meloni’s character Elliot
Stabler (I got the idea while looking at the wigs and costumes). A lot of my
favorite lines from this sketch came from Johnson’s character, which included “One
time, I held it through an entire production of Rent with the original cast!” “Do you really expect us to stand
here and follow the yellow brick lies?” and “Does this look like a gorgeous
Cheesecake Factory to you?” Even as I write this post, I still don’t know how I
feel about Johnson butchering the theme to Friends
(only because I’m such a huge fan of that show) [and yes, I know it was a joke].
Overall, I enjoyed this sketch and I liked it a lot more than I thought I
would.
Circus:
I thought this was a great short, partly
because I love Kyle Mooney so much. The animations were funny and pretty
cheesy, the interviews with the kids were adorable, and the conga line with the
clowns was hilarious. There was a short similar to this for the Fortieth
Anniversary Special but it was cut for time and released as a web exclusive
online (Here’s the link to the unaired short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVxDo2iM-I).
This was a cute man-on-the-street-type short that I enjoyed very much.
Overall, I thought this was another great
episode. I’ve enjoyed the past episodes that Johnson has hosted in the past but
I think this is my favorite out of all of them. Dwayne Johnson is one of those
hosts that I would love to see come back and host again.
This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Dwayne Johnson with
musical guest George Ezra. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Michael Keaton with
musical guest Carly Rae Jepsen. Please spread the word about the blog and
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Thanks for reading!
Lauren
