It’s now 2016 and we’ve entered the second half of season 41! On the last episode, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler united to host SNL and Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band were the musical guest. This was an awesome episode which caused the first half of season 41 to go out with a bang! Some highlights from the last episode include:
-A funny Republican debate cold open.
-A hilarious monologue from Tina and Amy.
-A sketch that brought back Tina’s Sarah Palin and Amy’s Hillary Clinton to star alongside Kate’s Hillary.
-A game show sketch about meeting your second wife.
-A new Update character for Kate.
-Tina and Amy returning to the Update desk.
-Maya Rudolph! Need I say more?
-A parody of “Bad Blood”.
-The return of “Bronx Beat”.
For the first show of 2016, Adam Driver and Chris Stapleton make their debut as host and musical guest, respectively. I knew that Adam Driver had a role on Girls and was in the new Star Wars but aside from those, I didn’t really know who he was. I was a little familiar with Chris Stapleton due to me being a huge fan of Country music. I was impressed with both of their performances and wouldn’t be surprised if either of them came back to the show in the future. One thing that disappointed me about the episode had to do with the fact that the Packers and Cardinal football game went into overtime and ended around the time that SNL would be coming on. So by the time SNL ended up coming on, they had to show the prerecorded live show. So instead of “Live from New York,” it was “Live but Pre-recorded from New York, it’s Saturday night!”. Anyway, here’s my take on the episode.
Sketch Rundown:
Republican Debate Cold Open:
To be honest, I was expecting for there to be a political cold open especially being less than a year away from the election. I loved seeing Darrell as Trump again. I loved his line, “Thank you, Maria Tony Romo.” I loved seeing Taran’s Cruz, Beck’s Jeb, and Jay’s Carson. I also loved Pete as Marco Rubio and his joke about the boots. There was also the return of Darrell’s Trump calling Beck’s Jeb “Jebra”. I also loved Kenan’s role in the sketch. Overall, I thought this cold open was very funny.
Adam Driver Monologue:
I didn’t know what to expect from Driver but I found his monologue to be very entertaining. I thought Taran and Bobby were great. I also loved how Leslie confused him with Minnie Driver. I loved Bobby’s Kylo Ren costume and wig. I also loved the lightsaber fight between Taran and Bobby at the end. I ended up really liking this monologue.
Football Coverage:
Since I was watching the game before this episode and waiting for it to be over, I found it hilarious how they were nowhere close to the actual score of the game. I thought Pete was great in this sketch. I also loved the part where Kenan’s character was holding a Bible and a gun and contemplating on what to do. I also loved the poll question at the end. I thought this was a really funny sketch.
Undercover Boss:
I thought this sketch was awesome! I thought Leslie’s character and I loved how Driver reprised Kylo Ren in this sketch. One of my favorite lines was :I knew it from, ‘Hi, I’m Matt.’”. I thought this was a hilarious sketch and a great way to parody Star Wars.
Aladdin:
Hands down, this had to be my favorite sketch of the night! The bird bit was hilarious and the bomb dropping was hilarious. One of my favorite lines was after the bomb dropped, “Oh shoot, we must be over Syria!”. I thought the water falling with bits of toilet paper was funny as well as the air traffic control bit. I thought Beck and Leslie were awesome in this sketch. I also loved the dolls they used for the emergency landing. I thought the singing was great in this sketch. I didn’t even know Adam Driver could sing! This sketch also showed how much of a great sport that Cecily was. I would’ve loved to have been at Rockefeller Center when they pitched, wrote, and read the sketch.
America’s Funniest Cats:
I loved Driver’s character’s name “Finn Raynal-Beads”. I also loved the cat videos and thought they were so cute (even though I’m more of a dog person, I love funny cat videos). I thought Cecily and Kate were great together and I think they should be in more sketches together. One of my favorite lines from this sketch was “I think anyone would be proud to do eighteen seasons of this show.” I thought this was a great sketch.
Chris Stapleton “Parachute” Performance:
I thought this was a good performance from Chris Stapleton. I also really liked the song.
Weekend Update:
I loved the opening joke about Trump. However, Che’s joke about the Rams stung a little bit for me being from St. Louis and it had only been a few days since the vote. I did love Che’s joke about the Oscars and Jost’s thumbs up at the mention of Staten Island Summer was funny (one of my favorite movies ever). I loved seeing Pete again and I loved his Hogwarts shirt. I also loved how at the end of his segment he said “RIP Snape!”. I loved seeing Vanessa again as Laura Parsons. The character, as well as Vanessa, are so adorable! Overall, I thought this was another solid Update.
Social Puppeteering:
I thought this was a funny sketch but it was also pretty weird. I did like the line “I took the most valuable thing he had: his mind.” I loved “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-ing”, vampired, and “21 Jump Street-ed”.
David Bowie Tribute:
I loved seeing Fred again and I thought it was sweet that they did a tribute to David Bowie. I loved how they showed a clip of an original performance and used the original bumper.
Golden Globes:
I loved this short! I thought it was really funny and cute seeing Kate and Kyle dressed like kids. I thought Kyle with the hammer was funny. I didn’t expect to see Liev Schreiber but I thought he was funny. I loved his line “Do you kids like eggs?” and how he was wearing an apron while shirtless.
Chris Stapleton “Nobody to Blame” Performance:
I thought this was another good performance from Stapleton. I really liked this song and it’ll probably be stuck in my head for a few days. I thought Chris Stapleton did a great job and I would love to see him perform on the show again.
The Doctor is In...My Butt 4:
To be honest, I didn’t like this sketch and I didn’t like it the first time with Amy Schumer. However, I did like Aidy’s character. Honestly, I don’t know why they brought this sketch back since it was uncomfortable to watch at times. I’m not all that surprised this was used as the last sketch of the night.
Overall, I thought this was an awesome episode. I thought Adam Driver did an awesome job hosting and I would love to see him host again. It was totally worth it staying up really late to watch and live tweet this episode.
This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Adam Driver with musical guest Chris Stapleton. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Ronda Rousey with musical guest Selena Gomez. 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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