Taraji P. Henson/Mumford & Sons April 11, 2015

It’s the fourth-to-last episode of season forty and the finale is coming up sooner than we know it. On the last episode, Michael Keaton came back to host the show with first-time musical guest Carly Rae Jepsen. Keaton’s performance on the show was amazing, especially since it had been a very long time since he last hosted. Jepsen brought two new, catchy songs to perform and she did a great job. Some highlights from the last episode include:

            -A monologue that paid homage to Michael Keaton as Batman and Beetlejuice.

            -A CNN sketch that poked fun at CNN recreations and animations of news stories.

            -A new short from Mike O’Brien.

            -A parody of Scientology appropriately titled “Neurotology”.

            -Norman Reedus appearing as his character from The Walking Dead.

            -The return of Jebidiah Atkinson.

            -Several Easter-themed sketches.

This week, it’s first-time host Taraji P. Henson and second-time musical guest Mumford & Sons. The last time Mumford & Sons appeared on the show was on September 22, 2012 which was the second episode of season 38 with host Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Taraji did a great job hosting this episode and I can’t wait until the next time she hosts the show.

Sketch Rundown:

Hillary Clinton Election Video Cold Open:

This had to be one of my favorite cold opens of the season. I loved Kate as Hillary Clinton and thought she was hilarious. The vocal warmups were funny and a great addition to the sketch. I was a bit surprised that Darrell Hammond reprised his impression of Bill Clinton since I figured they would have someone from the current cast impersonate former President Clinton. Nevertheless, Hammond’s Clinton is a great, classic impression and that impression played well against McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton. Some of my favorite quotes from this sketch include “Aren’t we such a fun, approachable dynasty?” and “He sounds like a Simpsons character.” Since Darrell said “Live from New York” with Kate, the intros were most likely pre-recorded. That’s at least my theory. Overall, I loved this cold open and can’t wait for more political sketches for the rest of this season and for next season.

Taraji P. Henson Monologue:

I thought Taraji had a good monologue. I didn’t know what to expect from her since I’m not that familiar with her work and I’ve never seen Empire. In regards to her role of Cookie on Empire, I kind of expected a musical monologue from her. Even though there have been so many musical monologues this season, I did like the song and especially that cast members other than Sasheer and Cecily were backup singers. I loved Kenan’s line “I could’ve been the oldest cast member on Good Burger 7,” and Vanessa’s line “I could’ve been the most famous Jewish person from Cleveland. JK, I am!” I ended up enjoying Taraji’s monologue a lot more than I thought I would.

Depend Legends:

I loved this ad parody so much! I felt like this was supposed to be the modern “Oops! I Crapped My Pants!”  I loved how they put different actors and historical events on the diapers. My favorite one had to be the “All the Female D.A.’s from Law & Order” one. I recognized Stephanie March as A.D.A Alexandra Cabot immediately since I’m a huge fan of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I loved the tagline of “Depend Legends: Make History. In Your Pants.” This had to be one of my favorite ad parodies of the season.

Teacher Trial:

I liked this sketch and I understand why it was such a controversial sketch. I get why people would say if it was a male teacher and a female student then this sketch wouldn’t have been written. The fact that it pokes fun at the double standard of men being treated like heroes after having sexual relationships is what makes the sketch work. I wish Cecily’s lines were more than two words but I guess her character wasn’t supposed to appear to be that bright. I loved the list of names and thought a lot of them were hilarious. Bobby mouthing “I love you” to Pete was very funny. Again, I liked this sketch and thought it was a funny sketch.

Home 2:

I thought this was a funny sketch. I loved a lot of the impressions, especially Taran’s Jim Parsons, Sasheer’s Rihanna, Taraji’s Nicki Minaj, and Cecily’s Sofia Vergara. I loved Pete and Kate as Die Antwoord as they scared Taran and thought it was hilarious. I loved this sketch and I hope they make Home 2 (well, I should probably see the first one).

QVC:

I thought this sketch was okay and it wasn’t necessarily my favorite sketch. I did love the first line, “You’re watching QVC, which means you’re a cat whose owner’s at work. Hi little guy!” I thought Aidy was great as the model and Kate’s character reminded me a little bit of Liza Minelli. I loved the 3-way poncho and the 10-way necklace. I also loved the line near the end of the sketch, “He’s the inventor of the world’s cheapest ladder.” As I said before, I thought this sketch was okay and it wasn’t my favorite sketch.

Game of Thrones: South Centros:

In my opinion, I thought this was a funny sketch even though I’ve never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones and didn’t get many of the other references in the sketch. I didn’t even know that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was from Game of Thrones and appeared as his character from the show. I was also surprised to see Che in a sketch tonight. My favorite line from this sketch would have to be “If this was a book, it would be seven long ass books.” Overall, I thought this was a good sketch.

Mumford & Sons “The Wolf” Performance:

I thought this was a good performance and a good song. I’ve only heard a couple songs by the band so I wouldn’t call myself a fan but I did like their new sound. Even though I like their new sound, I still miss the country feel like “I Will Wait”.

Weekend Update:

I felt that this week’s Weekend Update was strong with the jokes strong on both parts. I didn’t expect to see Cecilia Gimenez again but it made sense with the story about the Lucille Ball Statue. I loved the pictures of her sculptures of some of the many American comedy legends and the one of Colin. I also loved her description of Colin. Cecilia Gimenez is such a funny character and I hope we see more of her in future seasons. I really liked Che’s joke about the Maya Angelou stamp and Jost saying “Hey” after Che’s joke about white people being able to protest without consequences. I loved getting to see Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy again. I love this character so much because he’s so adorable, just like Vanessa. I loved how he kept saying “But don’t quote me on that!” after just about everything. Seeing Billy Crystal come out as Jacob’s dad was a fun surprise. I loved how he pulled out a prepared speech and said “You do the math!” after just about everything. Like father, like son, am I right? Overall, I thought this was a great Update.

Hollywood Game Night:

I love this sketch so much and I’m so glad they brought it back. It was also great to see Kate’s Jane Lynch impression. I loved Beck’s Nick Offerman and the joke with the mustache. Taraji’s Wanda Sykes was so funny. One of my favorite things about this sketch is how they play actual games from the show (I know this from being a fan of Hollywood Game Night). I loved how they started playing “Glory” and showed the footage from the Oscars. Some of my favorite lines included “This is the same brush they use on horses,” “I cry in French,” and “Luke, I am your…worst nightmare.” I thought this was an awesome sketch.

Vlog:

I didn’t think this sketch would be a recurring sketch but they picked a great night to bring it back. I did like the sketch the first time with Chris Rock and I also really liked it this time with Taraji. Some of my favorite lines from this sketch include “We’re going together as a joke,” and “Go rake the garbage!” I really liked this sketch and thought it was funny.

Sesame Street Promo:

I had a feeling they would do something like this, mainly because of Taraji’s character on Empire being named “Cookie”. I loved the lines “Cookie’s being a real monster,” and “The ‘P’ is for ‘Puppet’”. Overall, I thought this was a funny sketch and I loved the use of the Muppets from Sesame Street.

Their Own League:

I loved how this sketch was a parody of A League of Their Own. I also loved seeing Reese De’What again. I loved how this sketch utilized a lot of the female cast members and seeing Bobby dressed as a girl was hilarious. This sketch had a lot of great line, including “There’s no sobbing in baseball!” “Then all women are allowed to play underhand with a big softball like a child,” “This blows because we could really use her on the team,” and “While our husbands are away, we’re the racists.” I loved this sketch and thought it was hilarious.

Mumford & Sons “Believe” Performance:

I thought this was another good performance from Mumford & Sons. I also really liked this song. Like I stated earlier, I’m not a huge fan of Mumford & Sons but I thought they did a great job performing on the show.

Connectatron:

I thought this was a good sketch but I felt like the sketch was over too quickly. I had a feeling that the show probably ran longer than expected so they had to cut a lot out of this sketch to make sure they didn’t go over more in time. Thankfully, they included the full sketch from dress rehearsal online (https://screen.yahoo.com/snl/connectatron-203208929.html). The arm and leg puns were hilarious and the people dressed up as the villain and the connectatron were hilarious. To me, the shark kind of looked like the sharks from Katy Perry’s SuperBowl Halftime Show. While I was watching this sketch, it felt like I was watching the modern day “Power Rangers”. I liked this sketch a lot and thought it was a great way to end the show.

Overall, I thought this was a good show. Taraji did a great job hosting and I would love to see her host again in the future.

Some SNL news is that the song “Neurotology” from last week’s Michael Keaton episode was made available for download on iTunes on April 10^th. I’m so glad this song’s on iTunes and it made a great addition to my SNL playlist.

This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Taraji P. Henson with musical guest Mumford & Sons. I’ll be back soon with a review of Cecily Strong’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. 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

Michael Keaton/Carly Rae Jepsen April 4, 2015

It’s the Easter episode which means there are only a few more episodes left of season 40. Last week, Dwayne Johnson returned to host with first-time musical guest, George Ezra. Johnson delivered a great performance and Ezra gave us two great performances with songs that won’t leave our heads for weeks. Some highlights from the last episode include:

            -The return of “The Rock” Obama (and the introduction of “She Rock” Obama).

            -An unexpected musical monologue where Johnson gave himself the nickname of “Franchise Viagra”.

            -A parody of #genderflect.

            -A live-action parody of Bambi.

            -The introduction of Jemma, a new character from Cecily Strong.

            -The return of Olya Pavlotsky and Willie.

            -A sketch involving the recent news events involving Robert Durst.

            -A short from Kyle Mooney doing man-on-the-street-like interviews.

This week, Michael Keaton returns to host the show for a third time with first-time musical guest, “Call Me Maybe” singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It’s been a while since Keaton last hosted. The last time Keaton hosted was November 14, 1992 back in season 18. Regardless, Keaton had a great performance this week with this episode most likely being one of my favorite episodes this season. Jepsen also brought two great performances and begs the question, why wasn’t she on the show when “Call Me Maybe” was one of the most popular songs of that year? Better late than never, right? Anyway, here’s the rundown of the Michael Keaton/Carly Rae Jepsen episode.

Sketch Rundown:

NCAA Cold Open:

I thought this was an okay cold open and I figured they would do something regarding the NCAA Basketball Championship. I was glad that there wasn’t a political cold open even though I’m a fan of SNL political sketches. I did think this cold open was funny and it had some great lines, such as “College is the most important year of your life,” “Jaleel is in the Buffalo Wild Wings Study Tent quietly working on that paper,” “I majored in volcanoes,” and “I’ll be damned if I was gonna be the only one in the NBA who did not know poetry of Emily Dickinson.” I enjoyed this cold open but it wasn’t necessarily my favorite.

Michael Keaton Monologue:

I thought this was a funny monologue. Taran, Bobby, and Jay were great in this even though I didn’t expect a musical monologue for this episode. I loved how Bobby and Taran were like “Will you play Batman with us, Michael Keaton?” and “Will you play Beetlejuice with us, Michael Keaton?” along with showing the pre-recorded bits of scenes from Batman and from Beetlejuice. I thought Bobby’s line about only having six weeks to live was a little cryptic and it had me and a lot of others wondering if this was going to be his last season because there were only six weeks left of season 40. I loved how a lot of the cast came out at the end with half of them wearing Batman shirts and the other half wearing Beetlejuice shirts. Overall, I really enjoyed this monologue and thought it was very funny.

CNN Newsroom:

I thought this was a very funny sketch. I loved how they parodied the way that CNN reports the news. I understand why this sketch would bring about some controversy due to the plane crash that occurred in Germany. The joke was about how CNN reported the news about the plane crash and not about the crash itself. I loved the animations, the puppets, and the cat. I also loved the story about Indiana and Arkansas, especially how it turned into a dance party with commentary from Jay’s Don Lemmon. I thought this sketch was hilarious and a strong sketch to start the show.

Prom Queen:

I was so excited to see another Mike O’Brien short. The plot of the sketch was weird but it was still a good sketch. I later found out that this sketch was supposed to be a parody of the movie She’s All That (which is one of the many movies that I haven’t seen). I was surprised that people didn’t make a big deal about the plot line of a student trying to make his teacher the prom queen, even though I understand that this was the joke of the sketch. I was certain this would’ve drawn just a little bit of controversy. I loved Vanessa’s character, even though this is the kind of character that Vanessa has played on the show several times before. Overall, I thought this was very funny and I hope we see more Mike O’Brien shorts later this season and during the next season.

Easter Hotline:

I thought this was a funny sketch and I loved seeing Sasheer be the lead in a sketch. Some of my favorite quotes from this sketch are “The geese are back!” and “You know the number because it hasn’t changed your entire life.” It reminded me a little bit of the “Night Murmurs” sketch from the Cameron Diaz episode but the complete opposite. It was a hilarious way to say that we should call our grandparents on Easter. Overall, I really liked this sketch and thought it was hilarious.

Ad Meeting:

This sketch probably had to be my least favorite sketch of the night. I felt like they kept running the same joke into the ground, which made the sketch pretty boring and redundant. The only thing I liked about this sketch was the quote “Call me Sirsly”. Overall, I didn’t think this sketch was that great.

Neurotology Music Video:

I thought this was a hilarious parody of the Scientology documentary and music video. It was funny seeing Colin Jost in the video, especially dressed in nineties clothes. I also loved how the video told where these people are years after the video was first made. The song was so catchy and I hope they release this song on iTunes ASAP!

Carly Rae Jepsen “I Really Like You” Performance:

I thought this song and the performance were great. This song is so incredibly catchy, I swear I had it stuck in my head for weeks. This is one song I would’ve loved to have been in the studio to see performed live. Before the show came on tonight, SNL recorded Cecily, Jay, and Pete lip synching about ten seconds of the song on the popular lip synching app Dubsmash and then posted them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you haven’t seen them yet, you should check them out. Overall, I really really really really really really loved this song! (See what I did there?)

Weekend Update:

I thought this week’s Weekend Update was strong on both parts with great opening jokes. I loved getting to see Pete again. At first, I didn’t understand why Pete wasn’t using his arms but that was clarified when Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead came out and there was a fake arrow in Pete’s chest, especially since Pete was out to talk about the season finale of The Walking Dead. Some of my favorite things said were “I don’t know if you know this but sometimes I smoke a little weed. Oh yeah, we know, ‘cause we have noses,” “When I’m high, it’s really easy to mistake me for a zombie,” and “Did you smoke a little before you came out here, is that what happened? Maybe. Are you wearing three different kinds of hair product? Maybe.” I loved getting to see Jebidiah Atkinson again. I love this character so much! I loved how he gave the reviews of all the different TV shows. For example, Jebidiah’s line about Seinfeld- “Hey Kraemer, I can say an n-word, too: Next!” Although, one of my favorites had to be the one about SNL itself- “Saturday Night Live. The same tired characters repeating the same tired catch phrases: Next!” I loved how the show was able to make fun of itself. Overall, I thought this was an awesome Update.

Smart House:

This was another sketch that wasn’t my favorite. It felt like the typical sketch saved for after Update. The characters, along with the line delivery and accents, seemed a little dull. It also seemed as if they were running the same joke into the ground. Even though I didn’t necessarily like this sketch, I did like the line “Oh sweet Reese’s Pieces.”

Carly Rae Jepsen “All That” Performance:

I liked this song and thought it was a good performance. It was great that Carly Rae Jepsen finally got a chance to perform on the show, even though it took about three years since “Call Me Maybe”. In all honesty, I think some people were hoping she would perform “Call Me Maybe”. Overall, I thought Carly Rae Jepsen had some great performances and I would love to see her perform on the show again.

Easter Candy:

I liked this sketch and it reminded me of the Halloween candy sketch from when Edward Norton hosted back in season 39. As much as I liked the sketch, I thought Keaton’s character was a little creepy, although I think that’s part of why I liked the sketch so much. I also loved Kate’s character, Portia, and thought it was the perfect mix of cute and creepy. I loved the bit with the chick and how Kate was trying to feed the chick a Chicken McNugget. I also loved how Kate called the chick a “child chicken”. Some of my favorite quotes from this sketch include “This is an Easter egg I dyed. I think it’s egg-celent,” “For our Jewish friends, this is unleavened bread which means, unlike Jesus, it doesn’t rise. Jesus one, bread nothing,” “Know what I gave up this year? Cocaine. Almost,” and “This is my friend Jordan. He’s not an almond but he’s a nut.” Overall, I thought this was a funny sketch and a great way to end the episode.

Overall, I thought this was an amazing episode and probably the best episode yet. I thought Keaton did a great job hosting and I would love to see him host again in the near future. I also thought Carly Rae Jepsen did a great job with her performances and I hope she gets the chance to perform on the show again. It’s hard to believe that there are only about four more episodes left of season 40. It won’t be long until we’re talking about the upcoming 41^st season!

Some SNL news is that the highly anticipated SNL documentary, Live From New York, had a limited release and opened in US theatres on June 12. The film opened at Tribeca Film Festival on April 15. I had the chance to see the film and it was such a great film that I wish I could’ve seen it more than once since it was only in theatres for about a week. This is one of those documentaries that I would watch over and over again if it was released on DVD, on iTunes, or on any other platform.

This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Michael Keaton with musical guest Carly Rae Jepsen. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Taraji P. Henson with musical guest Mumford & Sons. 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