9.6/10. Very enjoyable episode without a dud in the bunch. Emma stone not only knows how to do comedy, but she works very well with the ensemble, knowing when to stand out and when to blend in with the rest of the cast. It's a characteristic that serves her well in a season of SNL that has been on a real hot streak.
If there's a theme to this week, it's doing bits that feels familiar, but that are done with such flying colors that they're still enjoyable throughout. The student theater activism play is a bit that's been done several times, but it never fails to tickle my funny bone, and they always find fun new twists on it. The highlight this time was Kenan's line about "she really overshot the runway on that one" with Aidy's AIDS monologue. The same goes for Kate McKinnon as the old Hollywood starlet on a panel about women's issues in the movies. There's a problematic undertone to the bit, but there's also just a pure committed lunacy to it, and Kate McKinnon's consistently brilliant comic chops to keep it humming. When Jennifer Aniston said "we did have a monkey on Friends and he was a handful" and McKinnon responded "a handful of opium" it completely cracked me up.
The same goes for the week's political sketches. The show's found a solid take on Trump post-election as a guy who couldn't be less interested in doing his job alongside Kellyanne Conway as his rueful babysitter. The cold open featuring him unable to pay attention to a security briefing because he's too busy retweeting people on Twitter was very amusing. On the other side of the political spectrum, using the viral pictures of Hillary hiking in Chappaqua as fodder for a "Finding Bigfoot" style mockumentary is inspired, and full of clever gags.
I'm running out of ways to say that "Weekend Update" is great. Jost and Che injected a little more edge this week, eliciting some oohs and groans from the audience, which is usually a good sign. As for the desk bits, Leslie Jones's set about penis size wasn't one of her strongest bits, relying more on delivery and interaction with Jost than the strength of the material. Vanessa Bayer reprised her Rachel from Friends impression, ahead of the inevitable Jennifer Aniston walk-on, but it fell a bit flat given that Aniston played the semi-aloof superior celebrity friend rather than leaning into the joke.
But the similarly inevitable Christmas sketches were both amusing. The bit about the cleaning lady's performance, where all their songs involve sexual things with Santa feels reminiscent of the "Santa's My Boyfriend" song the show did a number of years ago, but the reactions among the board members really sold it, especially the bit about Alex Moffat's visitation not going "great." The stealthy sketch of the night may have been the last one, about a version of Mary who's annoyed at Joseph for letting in all these people to visit Baby Jesus when she's exhausted and not feeling her best and doesn't want to deal with company. There's a real nice mix between a parody, for lack of a better term, of the nativity, and the prosaic domestic issues between couples that makes for a very funny and clever sketch.
The pre-taped sketches were both winners as well. The ode to the "only candle," gifted among women as a thoughtless present akin to the fruitcake of old isn't the best funny song in SNL history, but it has a funny premise and the late 80s "We Are the World" style works nicely. Similarly, the fisher price-esque well as a toy for soulful young boys was appropriately weird and well-observed in the pantheon of the show's fake commercials.
Otherwise, the cold open, with Emma Stone treating SNL like her high school was an enjoyable, if easy little opening to the show, and the posters coming to life to help Pete Davidson with his algebra had a loony energy and a commitment to character that really brought the laughs. Like I said, nary a dud in this bunch of episodes that speaks well of the show's writing and performances as of late, in addition to the superb host.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-12-05T04:36:15Z
9.6/10. Very enjoyable episode without a dud in the bunch. Emma stone not only knows how to do comedy, but she works very well with the ensemble, knowing when to stand out and when to blend in with the rest of the cast. It's a characteristic that serves her well in a season of SNL that has been on a real hot streak.
If there's a theme to this week, it's doing bits that feels familiar, but that are done with such flying colors that they're still enjoyable throughout. The student theater activism play is a bit that's been done several times, but it never fails to tickle my funny bone, and they always find fun new twists on it. The highlight this time was Kenan's line about "she really overshot the runway on that one" with Aidy's AIDS monologue. The same goes for Kate McKinnon as the old Hollywood starlet on a panel about women's issues in the movies. There's a problematic undertone to the bit, but there's also just a pure committed lunacy to it, and Kate McKinnon's consistently brilliant comic chops to keep it humming. When Jennifer Aniston said "we did have a monkey on Friends and he was a handful" and McKinnon responded "a handful of opium" it completely cracked me up.
The same goes for the week's political sketches. The show's found a solid take on Trump post-election as a guy who couldn't be less interested in doing his job alongside Kellyanne Conway as his rueful babysitter. The cold open featuring him unable to pay attention to a security briefing because he's too busy retweeting people on Twitter was very amusing. On the other side of the political spectrum, using the viral pictures of Hillary hiking in Chappaqua as fodder for a "Finding Bigfoot" style mockumentary is inspired, and full of clever gags.
I'm running out of ways to say that "Weekend Update" is great. Jost and Che injected a little more edge this week, eliciting some oohs and groans from the audience, which is usually a good sign. As for the desk bits, Leslie Jones's set about penis size wasn't one of her strongest bits, relying more on delivery and interaction with Jost than the strength of the material. Vanessa Bayer reprised her Rachel from Friends impression, ahead of the inevitable Jennifer Aniston walk-on, but it fell a bit flat given that Aniston played the semi-aloof superior celebrity friend rather than leaning into the joke.
But the similarly inevitable Christmas sketches were both amusing. The bit about the cleaning lady's performance, where all their songs involve sexual things with Santa feels reminiscent of the "Santa's My Boyfriend" song the show did a number of years ago, but the reactions among the board members really sold it, especially the bit about Alex Moffat's visitation not going "great." The stealthy sketch of the night may have been the last one, about a version of Mary who's annoyed at Joseph for letting in all these people to visit Baby Jesus when she's exhausted and not feeling her best and doesn't want to deal with company. There's a real nice mix between a parody, for lack of a better term, of the nativity, and the prosaic domestic issues between couples that makes for a very funny and clever sketch.
The pre-taped sketches were both winners as well. The ode to the "only candle," gifted among women as a thoughtless present akin to the fruitcake of old isn't the best funny song in SNL history, but it has a funny premise and the late 80s "We Are the World" style works nicely. Similarly, the fisher price-esque well as a toy for soulful young boys was appropriately weird and well-observed in the pantheon of the show's fake commercials.
Otherwise, the cold open, with Emma Stone treating SNL like her high school was an enjoyable, if easy little opening to the show, and the posters coming to life to help Pete Davidson with his algebra had a loony energy and a commitment to character that really brought the laughs. Like I said, nary a dud in this bunch of episodes that speaks well of the show's writing and performances as of late, in addition to the superb host.