As y’all probably heard, I’m sexy now.

Cold Opening – The Rachel Maddow Show
This is a step in the right direction for political cold openings. A parody of a cable news talk show is always an apt setup for a forum of craziness, although this time around the craziness was a little jumbled, with the Charlie Rangel parts not really having much to do with Boehner/Pelosi. B-

Anne Hathaway’s Monologue
Another monologue premised on the physical attractiveness of a female host and the possibility of nudity? It would have been funnier if Anne had not admitted to K-Wiig that she was not being serious with the guys. B-

TSA
This commercial parody worked thanks to its recreation of elements of actual phone-sex line ads: the purring voiceover, the foggy shots, the cheesy jazz, etc. The guys, Bill and Bobby especially, did a good job of playing mostly straight/slightly “sexy.” If only we had seen one of the agents interacting with a customer. B+

The Miley Cyrus Show
This was significantly worse than the first Miley Cyrus Show sketch for three reasons:
1. No Bryan Cranston. I was not expecting Cranston to be around to reprise his pitch-perfect Billy Ray, but of all the choices they had to replace him, Sudeikis was the worst. His comedy style (excited and obnoxious) is the opposite of Billy Ray (laid-back in a silly way).
2. The guest did not provide a counterpoint. Anne’s Katie Holmes was dead-on, but it didn’t work the way Paul’s Johnny Depp did, with his confusion of what was going on around him providing a counterbalance. Katie just added to the parade of idiocy.
3. It was the same sketch all over again. Certain sketches can get away with doing the same thing over and over again, but not when the parts are substandard.
Luckily, Vanessa’s Miley is as great as ever, and bonus points go to Bobby as the drummer in the background. B

Penelope at the Lutheran Church Thanksgiving
Judging by the way the stage was set up, I could tell that this was a Penelope sketch right away, but it also felt a little different. The background characters were oddly well-developed, and everyone was so earnest that I almost couldn’t believe that they would end up being upset by Penelope (“Don’t be so hard on her, she means well”). Too many of these gags were retreads of past Penelope’s, but there were enough new ones, the most creative being the one-upping of a priest by bringing in a microphone to tell better jokes. B+

Kate Middleton Meeting the Royal Family
Fred and Bill were appropriately game as the Queen and Prince Philip, but the joke of the royal family as another type of family was not particularly fresh. B-

Florence + the Machine perform “Dog Days Are Over”
This performance unfortunately was not as colorful and adventurous as the music video or F + the M’s VMA performance, but it’s still a great song. B+

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: Hey, look at that, a few funny jokes. “Impersonating a lorax” was stupid in a good way. B
-The Segments: -Guy Fieri: It was not until about halfway through this routine that I realized that the main joke was that everything was being soaked in alcohol, which is a good thing, because it means there was so much going on. Guy’s made-up words (“splorp,” “Lanbsury for cranberry,” “numbrero,” “full throbble”) had me in hysterics. B+
-Come on, Dictionary: A poor man’s Really!?! B-
-Chris Hunter on Four Loco: That sounds about right. B-
-Jay Pharaoh performs Thanksgiving raps: All the impressions were tight (gotta give Jay props especially for his handling of Drake’s unusual delivery) and Thanksgiving songs are always funny. It is a little jarring, though, that Jay generally looks nothing like the people he does impressions of. B+

The Essentials: The Wizard of Oz
When you have a character like Lon Donsen who is supposed to be so out of place from the rest of the scene, it is best if the other characters do not realize how out of place he is or just ignore his strangeness and plow through, which is why this sketch worked as well as it did. B+

WXPD News
This was just as funny as Harrison Ford in Morning Glory. B+

Mega-Mart
This started to resemble the Kickspit Underground Rock Festival bit from last year, particularly with the inclusion of DJ Thunderthrust, who sounded like a combination of DJ Deuce Groan and Thurdersex from Kickspit’s lineup. Enjoyably crazy, but not quite classic, as Black Friday parodies have been done before. B

Camel Tame
So, what was that bulge supposed to be? B-

Florence + the Machine perform “You’ve Got the Love”
As the a capella opening made clear, the focus tonight was on Florence Welch’s voice rather than the band’s theatrics, which is fine enough, because at just 24, she already has one of the best voices in rock. B+

Horse Play
This was just as funny as Bunny Business, and the fake movie premise was even goofier. (Horse Play is hardly even a pun – it’s an actual word!) But Bunny Business was a little longer. Horse Play ended just as it was getting started. B

Overall
There were plenty of recurring elements, some new, some in unusal places, and some that had not been seen in a while. I did not fall in love with anything, but I feel that this is one of those episodes that I will enjoy more on repeat viewings.