Saturday, October 1, 2016

Ronda Rousey/Selena Gomez January 23, 2016

We’re one episode into the second half of the season and it’s showing some promise. On the last episode, Adam Driver and Chris Stapleton made their SNL debuts as host and musical guest, respectively. I thought both did a great job and I would love to see both of them come back to SNL in the future. Some highlights from the last episode are:
    -A cold open about the Republican debate.
    -A monologue with several Star Wars references.
    -A sketch about the football game that went into overtime and caused SNL to be severely preempted on the East and Central time zones.
    -An Undercover Boss sketch featuring Kylo Ren.
    -An Aladdin sketch about a magic carpet ride gone wrong.
    -Pete and Laura Parsons returning to the Update desk.
    -A tribute to David Bowie introduced by Fred Armisen.
    -A digital short about the Golden Globes.

On this episode, UFC Champion Ronda Rousey and Selena Gomez made their SNL debuts as host and musical guest, respectively. For the most part, athletes don’t have a good track record of being good SNL hosts although there are some exceptions, such as Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning. In my honest opinion, Ronda Rousey should be included in this exception. I thought she did a great job as host and it seemed like she was game for pretty much anything. Here’s my take on Ronda Rousey and Selena Gomez.

Sketch Rundown:
Trump Rally Cold Open:
I loved seeing Tina come back as Sarah Palin and how the wardrobe department recreated Palin’s outfit. This is why they win Emmys (also, Tina wore it better). I thought the side notes were funny. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this was the exact transcript from the rally. I thought this was a funny cold open although it’s sad that it looks like Taran won’t be playing Trump anymore.
Ronda Rousey Monologue:
I didn’t know what to expect from Ronda Rousey but I thought she did a great job with her monologue. I thought the idea was very clever. I loved the cue card bit and seeing Kate’s Bieber impression. I loved Kenan playing Rousey’s coach and his line, “You can sleep during Update.” I thought this was a great monologue.
Screen Guild Awards:
I really loved this sketch. I thought it was a great way to take on #OscarsSoWhite and SNL’s own diversity problem. I loved the parodies of the nominated movies. I loved that they were able to use Che in a sketch. I thought it was funny how the sketch ended in a five-way time.
Love Struck:
I thought this sketch started off really cute at first. I loved seeing Vanessa play a mean girl for once. I also liked how they were able to utilize Rousey’s MMA skills. I also loved the twist at the end where it turned out to be a PSA.
Bland Man:
I loved that they did a parody of The Bachelor. This sketch was similar to the one they did with Blake Shelton last season. I loved Cecily’s character since it reminded me of Lace from the most recent season of The Bachelor. I loved the group of kids in this sketch and the line “I have a son...and five daughters who are standing right there.” I also loved how they brought in Selena Gomez for this sketch. I found this sketch to be funny and entertaining.
Selena Gomez “Good For You/Same Old Love” Performance:
I thought this was a good performance. I liked that she did a medley since I figured these songs would be ones she’d perform.
Weekend Update:
I loved the opening joke about the blizzard and how even Broadway shut down but SNL was still up and running. I was expecting a Jonas Brothers joke since the winter storm’s name was Jonas. I loved Bobby playing the friend who was saying that it wasn’t that bad outside. I loved the joke about Palin and Jost and Che’s jokes about Trump. I loved seeing Leslie and this segment of hers had me in tears from laughing so much. I also loved how she said “laughgasm”. I loved Jost’s joke about National Compliment Day and the dad joke. I wasn’t real happy to see Willie again and it looks like we’ll be seeing him on a regular basis. Overall, I thought it was another solid Update.
Three’s A Crime:
I’m surprised they brought back this sketch with Cecily as a teacher who’s on trial for having a relationship with her student, played by Pete. I don’t know why they had to bring this back with Rousey and Strong being on trial for having a relationship with Pete’s character. Regardless, I still found this sketch to be funny. I loved the list of names, texts, gifs, and vines. I was surprised there wasn’t a lot of backlash for this sketch this time around. Overall, I thought this was a good sketch.
Superheroes:
I loved the different superheroes and thought the different superpowers were funny. One of my favorite lines from the sketch was “How many are there total? Like between six and thirty.” I thought this sketch was really funny.
Bar Rap:
I thought this sketch was just okay. Even though I did think Beck’s character was funny at times, the sketch was still pretty weird.
City Council:
I really liked this sketch. I thought Leslie was great and I loved Aidy’s character. Kate’s character was awesome and I loved Kenan and Ronda as well as Pete. I thought this was a funny sketch, especially for it being in the second half of the show.
Selena Gomez “Hands to Myself” Performance:
I thought this was a good performance, even if it was simulating a threesome. I did like the song and found it to be pretty catchy. I thought Gomez did a great job with her performances and I would love to see her on SNL again.
SuperBowl Party:
I thought this sketch was okay and a little weird. Beck and Kyle’s characters were pretty funny, especially since they sounded like little kids. This sketch seemed like the typical sketch saved for the end of the show
Settl:
I was surprised they used this ad parody from the Ryan Gosling episode from last month. By the use of this ad parody, it looked like the show ran short. Regardless, I still found this ad parody to be funny.

Overall, I thought it was a such a good show even a blizzard couldn’t stop it from happening. I thought Rousey did a great job hosting, especially since athletes don’t have a good track record for being good hosts. Of course, there are some exceptions (Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning). I actually wouldn’t mind seeing her host again.  I also thought Selena Gomez did a great job and I would love to see her pull double duty next time.

This has been my take on the SNL episode hosted by Ronda Rousey with musical guest Selena Gomez. I’ll be back soon with a review of SNL hosted by Larry David with musical guest The 1975. 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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