Saturday, November 7, 2015

Tracy Morgan/Demi Lovato October 17, 2015

Season 41 continues it’s great start with a great host pick. Last week, Amy Schumer graced the stage of studio 8H for the first time fresh off her Emmy win for her show Inside Amy Schumer and her hit movie Trainwreck. The Weeknd brought in Nicki Minaj for his performance of “The Hills” and performed his hit song “Can’t Feel My Face” near the end of the show. Some highlights from last episode are:
            -A Fox & Friends cold open.
            -A stand-up monologue from Schumer.
            -A sketch about a Delta flight where Amy and Vanessa parodied the Spice Girls and fell out of a plane.
            -A short about how people are obsessed about their guns.
            -A new Update character from Jay and the return of Kate’s character Mrs. Santini.
            -A short about a hands-free selfie stick.
This week’s episode is one I’ve been waiting for since the first three hosts were announced close to the end of the summer. Tracy Morgan made his triumphant return not only to Rockefeller Center and SNL but to comedy in general. This was Tracy’s first performance since he was severely injured in a car accident over a year ago. I thought Tracy did a great job and it was great to see him perform again. Demi Lovato, one of my favorite singers, came to perform for the first time on the show. I loved her performances and I thought they made a great addition to the show.
Here’s my review of Tracy’s big return to comedy.
Sketch Rundown:
Democratic Debate Cold Open:
I thought this was a funny cold open. I thought Jon’s Anderson Cooper impression was pretty good and I can understand why the real Anderson Cooper wouldn’t like his impression. To be fair, Rudnitsky’s probably never done this impression before and the last person to do an Anderson Cooper impression was Seth Meyers. I loved seeing Alec Baldwin as Jim Webb (I had a feeling he would be here because of Tracy hosting) and seeing Larry David as Bernie Sanders was a nice surprise. I thought his impression was very good that I thought it was the real Bernie Sanders. I loved his line “I don’t have a SuperPAC. I don’t even have a backpack.” I loved the underwear and BernieSanders.com bits. I loved this cold open and I thought it was a great way to open the show.
Tracy Morgan Monologue:
I loved this monologue and I thought Tracy deserved the standing ovation when he came out. I loved how he poked fun at his injuries. I loved the 30 Rock episode in the monologue and loved seeing the whole cast reunited. I loved the Smash and Animal Practice bumpers and the lines “Remember, this is 2012,” and “Are those Smash people under me?” I thought this was a great monologue and one of my favorites of the season so far.
Family Feud:
I liked that they did a regular Family Feud instead of another Celebrity Family Feud. I honestly don’t know if I could take another one of those. I loved Tracy and Leslie playing exes. I also loved seeing Che in a sketch. A couple of the lines I liked were “Looks like we surveyed 100 divorced women,” and “He has stolen enough from me, Steve!” I thought the excessive buzzer over Leslie was very funny. I loved this sketch a lot and thought it was funny.
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet:
I’m so glad they brought this sketch back since this is one of Tracy’s well-known characters. I loved how they used the original intro from when Tracy was on the show. I thought Pete was very funny in this sketch and the beaver was cute. I was surprised they brought a camel into the studio. The whole time I was like “There’s a camel in studio 8H.” The thought bubbles over Tracy, Aidy, and the camel were very funny. The camel moving in front of the camera was funny and shows that this is a live show. I loved it when Tracy was like “I can’t see camel!” I thought this was a funny sketch and one of my favorites of the night.
Fake Cocaine:
I thought this was a weird sketch but I loved the first tagline “The #1 excuse for going #2.” I also loved Leslie’s line “Who took a s*** in my bedroom?” Even though there were some funny moments, I didn’t absolutely love this sketch.
Demi Lovato “Cool For The Summer/Confident” Performance:
As I mentioned earlier, I love Demi and she’s one of my favorite singers. I was so excited that she was picked to be the musical guest. I had a feeling she would perform “Cool For The Summer” and “Confident” but I didn’t expect a medley even though it worked for these songs. I thought this was a very fun, catchy performance of two great songs.
Weekend Update:
I loved Jost’s joke at the beginning of Update about the debate and the joke after that about Huckabee. I also loved the bit between Jost and Che about the Republican candidates and the process for becoming president shouldn’t be treated like an open call audition. I loved how Jost was like “Mets beat the Cubs tonight!” and Che talking about how he recorded the game and was going to watch it back later. I loved Tina’s bit about Playboy, especially her line “Girls need to know coding and arm butts,” and her poses on top of the Update desk. I also loved how she just ran from the desk with her arms flailing. I loved how Jost was about to break during Che’s joke about aliens. I did kind of see the Segway to Willie coming. I didn’t even expect Tracy’s character Woodrow to appear since I’m not that familiar with the character. I loved how Tracy brought out a Degree deodorant saying that he has a degree. I also thought the song the two of them sang was funny. I thought this was a very good Update.
Morning Song:
I thought this sketch was very random and the typical sketch saved for after Update. It reminded me of the opening scene from Beauty and the Beast. The sketch got really weird after the line “I’m sleeping with this boy child.” I was surprised this sketch didn’t get a lot of controversy. Overall, this wasn’t my favorite sketch.
The Standoff:
I thought this was an okay sketch. I liked how they were going to dance. I thought that was a great direction for this sketch. I thought the ballet slippers were funny. Overall, I thought this was an okay sketch.
Demi Lovato “Stone Cold” Performance:
I thought this was a beautiful song and a beautiful performance. This song reminded me of her song “Warrior” from her previous album and this performance just shows how great of a performer she is. I loved how she got emotional during this performance. I loved this performance and thought she did a great job with both of her performances.
Yo! Where Jackie Chan At Right Now?:
I thought this was a funny yet random sketch. I loved the phone line and asking random celebrities where Jackie Chan is. I loved the line “People need to respect this show. We won a Peabody.” I loved that Leslie played herself in this sketch. I also loved the trap set out for Jackie Chan and thought it was funny. Even though I thought it was a weird sketch, I thought it was very funny.
Astronaut Jones: The Martian:
I really liked how they brought this sketch back and that they used the original intro, the dumb yet very catchy theme song. I thought it was funny, even though predictable, that they would combine The Martian and Astronaut Jones. I loved seeing Demi in a sketch, especially since she has a background in acting. I ended up liking this sketch a lot more than I thought I would and thought it was a good way to end the show.

Overall, I thought this was an amazing show. I thought Tracy did an amazing job and it was great to see him back doing what he does best: making people laugh. I loved how he had his wife and little daughter onstage with him at the goodnights and how he messed up Jane Krakowski’s last name. I would love to see him host again in the future. I also thought Demi did a great job as the musical guest and I would love to see her come back and pull double duty as host and musical guest. This episode deserved to be the highest rated episode of this season.

Some SNL news from this week includes the news that Colin Jost is no longer a head writer for SNL but remains on the writing staff. My guess to why he’s no longer a head writer is so he can focus more on Update instead of the show as a whole.

As you might know, Donald Trump was announced to host on November 7th. It’s definitely a controversial choice and a choice I’m not happy about. Out of all the presidential candidates, Trump was the one chosen to host, probably since he’s hosted before. I’m still going to watch the episode and live tweet but I’m not going to do a full review of the show. I’ve been going back and forth for a couple weeks about whether or not I should write a post. I’ve decided I won’t review Trump but instead focus on Sia’s performances, Weekend Update, and focusing on the strongest sketch for each cast member. My reason for watching the show on November 7th and not boycotting has nothing to with supporting Trump. Honestly, I can’t stand him and I don’t agree with anything he stands for. I’m only watching the show because the cast, crew, writers, producers, and everyone at the show put in so much work week after week. Sia’s also put in a lot of work to her performances. I may not be happy with the host choice for this upcoming episode but there are a lot of other host picks I haven’t liked in the past and may not like in the future.

This has been my take on this very special SNL episode hosted by Tracy Morgan with musical guest Demi Lovato. I’ll be back soon with some kind of review for the episode hosted by Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump with musical guest Sia. 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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