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 10th. 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
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please feel free to give me constructive criticism about the blog so I can
improve the blog in any way.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren
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