Saturday, October 3, 2015

Scarlett Johansson/Wiz Khalifa May 2, 2015

There are only three episodes left of season 40! It’s hard to believe this landmark season will be coming to a close in a few weeks! Even though there was no new episode of SNL last week, Cecily Strong traveled to D.C. to host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. She did such a fantastic job! If you haven’t seen it, find it on YouTube or go to my post about her performance at the dinner (I included a link to the YouTube video of her performance). Some highlights from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner include:
            -jokes about President Obama.
            -jokes about Hillary Clinton.
            -jokes about 2016 Presidential Candidates.
            -a repeat-after-me saying that reporting on Hillary Clinton’s appearance isn’t journalism.
            -jokes about news outlets like NBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, CNN, The Huffington Post, NPR, and Buzzfeed.
This week, Scarlett Johansson, who has hosted and cameoed multiple times since 2006, returns to host for the first time since 2010, her most recent time hosting. I like that I haven’t seen any of her previous times on the show because I like not knowing what to expect from a host. I thought she did a great job hosting and I would love to see her host again. Wiz Khalifa was the musical guest and brought two pretty good performances. Here’s my take on the episode.
Sketch Rundown:
Mayweather-Pacquiao Cold Open:
With the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight going on the same time SNL was on, I had a feeling they would do this for a cold open. I loved the beginning with the voice-over before the sketch began and thought it was hilarious. I loved the lines “In fact, right now, many of you are frantically calling your cable company to order it on Pay-Per-View, for the very reasonable cost of ‘one month’s food,’” “Not even regular golf- we showed golf played at night,” “Without a doubt, it was the whitest day in the history of professional sports,” “The 9th place finisher in 2007’s Dancing with the Stars,” and “They’re calling this the fight of the century but only because your combined ages are 100.” I loved Aidy as Pacquiao and seeing Kate’s Bieber again. I also loved how Jay and Kenan left at the end of the sketch. This had to be my favorite sports cold opens in a while.
Scarlett Johansson Monologue:
I thought Scarlett’s monologue was good. It was funny but it was weird. Even though I know she has a bit of a musical background, I didn’t expect a musical monologue from her. I loved the picture of her baby and thought it was funny. Taran and Kenan coming out for the monologue made sense because they’re the only cast members with children. This monologue also confirms that Taran and Cobie Smulders’ second child is a girl. I loved how Kenan said “And I have one that I know of: Kitten,” and “At 8 months, mine was screaming all night long or so I was told.” I also loved the other lines “Your baby is a lucky man,” “I’ll never sleep again,” and “Absolutely not. I’m awake from head to toe.” I thought the monologue was funny but the lullaby was very weird.
Right Side of the Bed:
I honestly didn’t think they would bring this sketch back. However, I did enjoy this sketch more than the first time. The chemistry between Cecily and Taran is amazing and I love them in sketches together. Scarlett’s character’s accent reminded me a little bit of Janice from Friends. I loved how Cecily’s character said “I love that accent. She sounds like a talkin’ pizza.” I loved Cecily and Taran’s reaction to Scarlett’s line “That show on TV, you know, the one with the gay guy and his mom.” That reaction was my favorite part of the sketch. I also loved in this sketch how Cecily was close to breaking, which is very rare for her since she’s good at keeping it together in a sketch. I loved Kate as Hozier and how she changed up the lyrics to “Take Me to Church” to go along with the Kentucky Derby. Overall, I loved this sketch and thought it was a great way to start the show.
Orioles:
I thought this was a funny sketch and reminded me of the “Morning News” sketch from the James Franco episode which was cut for time. I loved the Kiss Cam bit and the “Guess the Attendance” and how it was “31 including the players”. There were so many great lines in this sketch, including “Baltimore has just been on fire this week,” “Here it is provided by the good people at Nerf,” “So after the game, Flee,” “That knee grows stronger every day,” “And the ball is shot down by a military drone,” and “I’m going to Newark where I’ll be safer.” I loved this sketch and  I’m glad a sketch like this aired and wasn’t cut after dress.
Black Widow Trailer:
I thought this sketch was very funny and I would definitely go see this movie. I loved Taran as Thor and thought he was funny I loved “I’m sorry” written in fire on the side of a building. Some of my favorite lines from this include “Chill. Marvel gets women,” “From Marvel Studios and the writers of 27 Dresses,” and “I’d hate to be that guy’s girlfriend.” Overall, I loved this sketch and thought it was funny.
Girlfriends Talk Show:
I love this sketch so much, even though this particular sketch wasn’t my favorite. I can always sympathize with Morgan in these sketches. I think it’s safe to say that every single one of us is Morgan. This sketch always has some great lines, including “You’re singing just gave me years of pain,” “Yes you basic B,” “She may be prom queen but I’ll be at the prom long after her stacking up the chairs. So suck on that reality pop.” I thought this sketch was very funny and I enjoyed it a lot.
Wiz Khalifa “See You Again” ft. Charlie Ruth Performance:
I’m not a Wiz Khalifa fan at all but I really liked this song. I think it had to do with the fact that another artist was featured in the song. I also like that the song wasn’t very rap heavy. It was a good performance and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It was the perfect balance of music and rap.
Weekend Update:
I thought this weekend’s Weekend Update had a good start. I loved the “Cal Ripken Molitoff Cocktail Day” joke. I loved seeing Kate’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg returning. I loved how she danced up against Colin after a “Gins-burn”. I also loved her Grimm Reaper joke at the end of her bit. I also loved the lines “I’m like a weird mole: I’m tiny but I could be dangerous,” “I gotta push same-sex marriage through before God remembers I’m still alive,” and “I just got Gins-burned!” I’m glad that they didn’t do a Bruce Jenner joke after talking about his interview with Diane Sawyer about how he’s transitioning into a woman (Bruce Jenner is now known as Caitlyn Jenner). I like the way this story was played out on Update, especially with Che’s off camera comments, because even though it is a touchy subject and doesn’t need to be joked about. Moving on, the couple from Game of Thrones played by Bobby and Vanessa was okay but I didn’t get a lot of the jokes since I don’t watch the show. I loved the 6-year-old meat joke with Che’s response, “Tyler’s not real!” I also thought the Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal impressions were funny, as always. Overall, I thought this was a very good Update this week.  
Dino Bones:
This was the typical sketch saved for after Update. One thing that I thought was funny, and didn’t realize at first, was that Kenan was referencing the song “FourFive Seconds”. I also thought it was funny how they played a clip of the song after the sketch. One other thing I thought was funny was Taran’s wig. Other than these, I felt like they were just running the same joke into the ground. Cecily and Scarlett’s characters came off as more annoying than funny, which I guess was supposed to be the joke. Two of my favorite lines from this sketch include “You’ve got a little bitch in you,” and “OMG, you are a bitch in the best way.” This sketch was probably my least favorite sketch of the night.
Blazer:
I liked this short and I loved how this sketch poked fun a little bit to police brutality. I didn’t expect Wiz Khalifa to be in a sketch. Another thing I liked about this sketch that it was a video within a video. Some of my favorite lines from this sketch include, “’Cause my partner filmes everything with his body cam?” “Also ‘cause I edited it all together and added music and put it up on YouTube?” and “Because I made light of race-based police brutality?” I liked this short a lot and thought it was funny.
Virgin Flight:
I thought this was a good sketch. I loved the robot flight attendants joke throughout the sketch. I loved how they kept saying “Happy Halloween” when it was May. I also loved the towel bit and thought it was hilarious. This sketch had so many great lines, such as “My microphone is in my face,” “You ordered 38 boxes of animal crackers,” and “It also looks like the other one has made her way into the cockpit.” I thought Vanessa and Scarlett were hilarious as the robots. Overall, I thought this was a good sketch and liked this sketch a lot more than I thought I would.
Wiz Khalifa “We Dem Boyz” Performance:
I thought this was an okay performance. I really liked the first performance better than this one. Like I said before, I’m not a huge Wiz Khalifa fan. In general, I’m not a huge fan of rap at all. The performance and the song were okay but I still liked the first performance a lot more.
Jingle Writers:
I thought this was a decent sketch, it was a weird kind of funny. I was so glad to finally see Kyle in a sketch. This sketch, however, did have a lot of great lines, including “You know the jingle scene. It’s coke for breakfast and ass for dinner,” “We accept personal checks and Sacajewa coins only,” and “If you change your mind, just whisper our name to an owl.” I loved how they included Papa John’s in the McDonald’s jingle. One thing I noticed in the sketch was that the bird noise at the end of the jingles sounded like the bird noises from the old “The Falconer” sketches. Overall, I thought this was a good sketch and a weird, yet funny, way to end the show.

Overall, I thought this was an awesome show and Scarlett did a great job hosting. I can definitely see her hosting again in the future. Although I liked this episode a lot, I kept asking myself this one question: Where the hell was Sasheer? I swear, I don’t think I saw her in a single sketch. Not even a pre-taped bit! I know she’s underused but still, I thought she would be in at least one sketch. She probably was in a few things that got cut before the live show. Other than the lack of Sasheer, I thought this was a great episode.

Some SNL news is that Cecily Strong has been cast in the new Melissa McCarthy movie The Boss, formerly titled Michelle Darnell, which will be released on April 8, 2016. Strong has also been cast in the new Susan Sarrandon and J.K. Simmons movie, The Meddler. Safe to say Cecily’s going to be very busy between these two movies and Ghostbusters. I definitely can’t wait to see these movies. Something tells me that 2016 will be a great year for film.

This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Scarlett Johansson with musical guest Wiz Khalifa. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Reese Witherspoon with musical guest Florence & the Machine. 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

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