CREDIT: Alison Hale/NBC

This post was originally published on News Cult in December 2017.

Love It

The Race – Office culture really does turn on the most insignificant of dimes that look completely nonsensical from the outside. So why not ramp that up to 11? An eighties-by-way-of-algorithm aesthetic, confident jerkoffs running off together in unison, traumatic holes in pants – it’s all just so left of pastiche that it hits that surreal sweet spot that is Beck and Kyle’s forte so sweetly. A few touches that could be going overboard with the weird – Lindsay (Ronan) being a ghost (and its matter-of-fact acknowledgement), Mac from Mac and Me, a cameoing Greta Gerwig doing the old elevator gag – somehow work when in unison.

A Christmas Carol homages are never in short supply, but I have to give White House Christmas credit for actually telling a story in the cold opening, and featuring some astute character touches to boot…Saoirse Ronan’s Monologue is maybe a little too chaotic with all of its appearances from cast members, but there is a lot of spirit in the pronunciation song, and Beck Bennett is a lovable dork…Oh boy, Kate McKinnon’s Theresa May, you sure do know how to throw the most British of shade…Pete Davidson’s go-with-the-flow airhead Chad makes his way out to a live sketch for the Bachelor Auction, and the spell he casts over a bunch of eccentric rich folk makes for his best outing yet. Major props to Cecily Strong for her delivery of “It’s Chad, you cow”…With Late for Class, I must commend SNL for having the balls to air a sketch that starts out completely terrible by design, with the joke being the item-by-item explanation of its own awfulness.

Keep It

Welcome to Hell – The ladies of SNL have a noted recent history of teaming up for musical numbers, and ladies in human history have a history of being harassed, so “Welcome to Hell” makes plenty of sense. In practice, it’s got plenty of bite, but its approach is fairly obvious, as the candy-colored aesthetic clashing with the disturbing subject matter is a typical juxtaposition. Tone can be tricky to get just right. It is nailed a few times here, especially when Melissa Villaseñor’s Salem burning victim lets out a defeated “Oh man.”

Is the joke that Floribama Shore is taking place during Hurricane Irma or that its characters have names like “Quartney”? Both are funny, but neither takes precedence…There’s a weird sort of progressivism in the tolerance (with laughs) that SNL offers doll-loving weirdos in the Action News 9 sketch…KMart Returns and Exchange is mostly time filler, with a bunch of random kooks coming and going, but it’s good for a few laughs, especially Kate McKinnon crashing into a desk…As usual, Michael and Colin get their biggest laughs from their asides and interpersonal banter, like Che declaring his preference for Trump’s oatmeal guy to be his lawyer, and suddenly worrying about the appropriateness of his Secret Santa gift for Colin…Aer Lingus lets us know that when in doubt, just end the show with a bunch of dogs, and give them the soul of Oscar Wilde for good measure.

Leave It

Shelly and Greg Duncan – There’s a decent amount of imagination to the positions employed by this Kama Sutra-exploring couple who aren’t on the same page (figuratively and literally), but the obviousness of the whole concept makes chuckles hard to come by, at least from me. (The audience seems to love it.) I cannot help but be confuzzled by the logical inconsistency of how Leslie Jones as Shelly is so shy and sweet when we see her, even though she is clearly ruled by urges of dominance.

Saoirse Ronan
On a scale of Jennifer Lawrence to Felicity Jones, Saoirse Ronan is also a young actress in the midst of a likely Oscar nomination when making her SNL hosting debut. But she’s also Irish, and there have not been too many Irish hosts, so that kind of puts her in her own category. And maybe it would make more sense to compare her with other hosts who wear their SNL fandom on their sleeves. Anyway, she is poised throughout, and she keys right into Beck and Kyle’s style, and that goes a long way.

U2

On a scale of insufferable to really rockin’, U2 are of course both, much more so in their first performance, the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “American Soul,” which features some rim-rattling riffs from the Edge but does not say anything too unique about how this country has gone down the crapper. However, in a stadium anthem this powerful, lyrical simplicity is often what is called for. Song number two, “Get Out of Your Own Way,” is not as memorable.

Letter Grades:
White House Christmas – B
Saoirse Ronan’s Monologue – B
Floribama Shore – B-
Action News 9 – B-
“Welcome to Hell” – B-
KMart Returns and Exchanges – B-
The Race – A-
U2 perform “American Soul” – B+

Weekend Update
The Jokes – B
Theresa May – B+
Shelly and Greg Duncan – C

Bachelor Auction (BEST OF THE NIGHT) – A-
Late for Class – B+
U2 perform “Get Out of Your Own Way” – B
Aer Lingus – B