Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Jerrod Carmichael/Gunna

April 3, 2022

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SNL: Gunna, Jerrod Carmichael, Heidi Gardner (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Why, hello there, readers of SNL reviews. You’re here just in time for my take on the Jerrod Carmichael/Gunna episode, which originally aired on April 2, 2022. (Although, since most of it happened after midnight on the East Coast, it really mostly aired on April 3, 2022. [H/t Scott Aukerman.])

Jerrod Carmichael is hosting, and he recently came out of the closet, so it’s the perfect time to get to know him. Meanwhile, Gunna is the musical guest, and I’m less familiar with him than I am with Jerrod, so hopefully we’ll get to know him a little bit better than before as well.

It’s been a few weeks since the last new episode aired, so in case you’ve forgotten, I’ve been doing something a little different with my reviews this season. Specifically, I’ve been listing the sketches in unique orders instead of simply opting for the order in which they aired. For this episode, I’ll be listing them in the order in which they appear on SNL‘s YouTube page. (Please note: there is currently one cut-for-time sketch up there, but I won’t be covering that in this review.)

Also, I must note that I wrote this review after running a four-mile race, and I tend to be in a good mood for most of the day afterwards following a morning cruise around the park.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía

March 13, 2022

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SNL: Mikey Day, Rosalía, Zoë Kravitz, Chris Redd (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

And now for something completely… all about the 15th episode of the 47th season of Saturday Night Live. For this outing, the host is a descendant of famous people, and wouldn’t you know it, she has SNL guesting in her blood. Current Catwoman Zoë Kravitz’s dad has been a musical guest a couple of times, while her stepdad hosted a few years ago. As for this episode’s musical guest Rosalía, I don’t think she has any family members who have previously stopped by Studio 8H, but she herself did give Bad Bunny an assist last season.

Since this episode aired on the weekend that Daylight Savings Time took over, I will be listing the sketches in order of how much sunlight they feature (whether literal or metaphorical), from least bright to brightest.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Oscar Isaac/Charli XCX

March 6, 2022

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SNL: Charli XCX, Oscar Isaac, Aidy Bryant (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

And the Oscar goes to… the 14th episode of the 47th season of Saturday Night Live, as it was hosted by Acting Man Oscar Isaac. And as for the musical guest, well you know it’s Charli XCX. She was originally booked to sing on this season’s partially scuttled Paul Rudd episode, which she at least did appear on in pre-recorded form. Save that one for the history books…

Since my birthday is in a few days, I’ve ordered the sketches in this review in order of how much I would enjoy spending my birthday in the sketches’ settings, from least desirable to most desirable.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: John Mulaney/LCD Soundsystem

February 27, 2022

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SNL: John Mulaney, LCD Soundsystem, Cecily Strong (CREDIT: NBC/Cecily Strong)

Good morning to the end of February. This is a review of John Mulaney’s fifth time hosting Saturday Night Live. (N.B.: He also used to be an SNL staff writer.) As such, I will be listing the sketches in order of how close their running times are to five minutes. Noted indie-dance-electronic rock band LCD Soundsystem provided the tunes.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Willem Dafoe/Katy Perry

January 30, 2022

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SNL: Katy Perry, Willem Dafoe, Chris Redd (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Oh hello there, you’re reading my review of the TWELFTH episode of the FORTY-SEVENTH season of Saturday Night Live. Who’s the host? That’s an important piece of information, and the reality is that it is American actor Willem Dafoe. Also noteworthy: the musical guest is Katy Perry, who’s known for performing songs.

For this episode, since we’re in the middle of winter, I’m ordering sketches from least cold to coldest. It’s a subjective rubric, sure, but hopefully you can see what I’m going for.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Will Forte/Måneskin

January 23, 2022

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SNL: Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, Måneskin (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Believe it or not, Orville Willis Forte IV is now an SNL host. Formerly he was an SNL cast member. Now he’s both! Rock band Måneskin is neither of those things, but they are an SNL musical guest, and that’s pretty cool, too.

Now I’m going to talk about the episode! For Season 47, I’ve been listing the sketches in various orders. This time, since the episode is being hosted by an alum, and there’s thus an expectation for the return of some of his recurring bits, I’ll be listing the sketches in order from least to most original. So the recurring sketches will be covered first, with those that deviate the least from the formula covered up top. Then I’ll get to the one-off bits, with the big conclusion reserved for the most original sketch of the episode.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Ariana DeBose/Bleachers

January 16, 2022

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SNL: Jack Antonoff, Ariana DeBose, Bowen Yang (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Good morning, I’m coming to you live from January 2022! It’s the first new Saturday Night Live episode of the year, that’s what I’m going to be talking about here. Speaking of firsts, it’s the first time that singing actress Ariana DeBose is the host and also the first time that Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers is the musical guest, but not the first time that Jack’s been here, as he also performed with fun.) Hopefully that’s not too confusing!

In case this is your first time reading one of my reviews, you should know that this season, I’ve been ordering the sketches in a variety of ways, like alphabetical and reverse airing order. This time, I’m doing it in order of the number of speaking/singing roles per sketch. A few notes on this: narrators are counted, except for Darrell Hammond during the monologue (since that’s more a part of the opening credits). The person introducing the musical guest IS counted for the musical performances, while backup singers are NOT counted if they only sing backup. And for Weekend Update, the parts with guests are counted separately from the parts that are just Michael and Colin telling jokes.

Okay, here we go!

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Paul Rudd/No Musical Guest

December 19, 2021

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SNL: Charli XCX, Paul Rudd, Ego Nwodim (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

This Paul Rudd-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live was supposed to feature Charli XCX as the musical guest, but instead there was no musical guest. (Although Charli did show up in a pre-recorded sketch!) Changes were made at the last minute, but the show had to go on, so it did go on! There were some new bits, but several of the sketches were classic Christmas-themed selections, along with new intros from Rudd and/or Tina Fey, Kenan Thompson, and Tom Hanks.

Rudd was in town presumably to promote his new flick Ghostbusters: Afterlife (which also features some SNL alums in its cast) and his new Apple TV+ show The Shrink Next Door (which also co-stars an SNL alum). But I also must mention that he has a recurring voice gig on the terrific new Netflix show Saturday Morning All Star Hits!, which stars and was co-created by current SNL cast member Kyle Mooney.

In the spirit of persevering, I will stick with the reviewing plan I had for this episode, which was to list the sketches in order from least Christmassy to most Christmassy. I’ve determined this according to the number of times we hear spoken in the sketch the word “Christmas” (or its derivatives, like “Christmassy,” “Christmastime,” etc.). I have included in the counts those Christmases spoken in the intros.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Billie Eilish/Billie Eilish

December 12, 2021

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SNL: Billie Eilish, Kate McKinnon (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

The eighth episode of Saturday Night Live Season 47 features the same person as both host and musical guest, and that person is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (or just Billie Eilish, for short). This is the first time this season that the same person has been both host and MG. If you were worried that this sort of double duty was never going to happen again, then that was quite an overreaction.

Last episode, I listed the sketches in order of running time, from longest to shortest, so this time I will go from shortest to longest.

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Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Simu Liu/Saweetie

November 21, 2021

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SNL: Kyle Mooney, Saweetie, Simu Liu, Cecily Strong (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

This year I am thankful for new episodes of Saturday Night Live. And the NEWEST new SNL is the one hosted by Simu Liu with musical guest Saweetie. He’s the self-proclaimed “first Chinese host to be the fourth Chinese host,” while she’s the Santa Clara native who sure seems to rap a lot.

For this review, I will be listing the sketches in order of running time, starting with the longest.

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