May 18, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Andy Samberg, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39, St. Vincent
A Message From Solange and Jay-Z
I feel like if this whole sketch had been centered around the obviously doctored elevator footage, just making it crazier and crazier, it would have been more unique and memorable. B-
Andy Samberg’s Monologue (BEST OF THE NIGHT)
Apparently the impression rivalry that began with the impression-off on Andy and Bill Hader’s first show still exists to this day. There were a lot of great transitions in the order of the impressions that operated according to surreal logic (Ryan Reynolds~Jim Carrey, the Dream Team members). A-
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May 11, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Charlize Theron, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39, The Black Keys
Do you know where Arbalato Street is?
A Mother’s Day Message from Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton
Vanessa has got Hillary’s vibe down, but the voice isn’t really close. Sasheer’s Michelle was decent. The back and forth of the tension was solid. Hillary having not yet decided if she will run for mother of the year was a clever way to do an obvious joke. B-
Charlize Theron’s Monologue
I thought this was aiming to be a meta takedown of how so many SNL monologues are singing bits, and maybe it was, but it didn’t really work that way, instead being just another singing SNL monologue that kind of joked about how it was a bad idea to do that yet again. Charlize’s line about men still liking her despite her height was worth a laugh, though, with Beck playing that moment well. C+
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May 4, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Andrew Garfield, Coldplay, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
If someone was like, “Hey, come live in this house, there’s only nine of us,” I would say, “You got it dude!”
Donald Sterling Press Conference
A typical run-through-the-people-in-a-current-event cold opening, but with a little more relevance and finesse than usual. Still, this was mostly filled with obvious gags. Confusing Roots the miniseries with the Roots that have Questlove did get me to laugh, though. B-
Andrew Garfield’s Monologue
At least this wasn’t a tired monologue format, but on the other hand, I had no idea what it was. Apparently the joke was, the audience is overly antagonistic to Andrew Garfield. What up with that? Aidy got a lot of applause. She deserves it; she’s been having a great season. B-
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April 13, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Ed Sheeran, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, Seth Rogen, SNL, SNL Season 39
Coachella
If the goal of this sketch was to be as bland as the Republican politicians it was portraying, then it succeeded all too well. C
Seth Rogen’s Monologue
What an absolute mess of a monologue. There were some funny moments (writing the word “pizza” 400 times, punking James Franco, Jay Pharoah confusing Seth for Joe Rogan) and a whole lot of pointlessness, epitomized by the cameos stopping by to “support” Seth. Franco’s presence was understandable, Taylor Swift was there for Ed Sheeran, I guess but she didn’t really do anything, and as for Zooey Deschanel – does anyone have any idea on that one? C+
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April 6, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Anna Kendrick, Pharrell Williams, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
“I’m just gonna go fuck this guy, and then … we’ll go on our date!”
GM Hearing
This was a one-joke sketch through and through, but there were enough variations on that one joke to make it bearable. The highlights were the positively Orwellian “I am looking into knowing when I first knew about it” and the classic “Could you use it in a sentence?” The interruption of “Live from New York” has been done before, but it is done rarely enough that it is generally a treat whenever it is done. B
Anna Kendrick’s Monologue
When Anna mentioned her musical theater background, I groaned at the prospect of another song-and-dance monologue. But this was actually one of the best of that ilk in a while. With its off-stage interactions with the cast and crew, I even got vibes of Mike Myers’ return as host in 1997, one of the best monologues of all time. This one succeeded as well as it did because of a weird undercurrent of cruelty, what with Bobby telling Anna, “you gotta pace yourself, girl,” Kate asking Vanessa, “was that supposed to be a Scottish brogue?”, Anna telling Cecily that she loves her face and Taran that she loves him in the sketch where he has no lines, and Lorne ignoring Anna while she sang right next to him. B+
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March 30, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Louis C.K., Sam Smith, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
HealthCare.Gov Meeting
The joke here seemed to be that the president was reluctant to participate in social media campaigns, which is a huge misread on reality, because Obama obviously loved doing Between Two Ferns and revealing his March Madness bracket. Kyle as the Pope was interesting, though, despite sounding more Italian than Argentinian. C+
Louis C.K.’s Monologue
This is one of the best monologues of the season basically by virtue of being the only stand-up comedy monologue thus far. Now, Louie is obviously a living legend, but if there is going to be a stand-up monologue, I would prefer if it had a sort of event feel to it, as in Zach Galifianakis’ appearances. But that’s enough complaining, because this was great material that was tightly put together. “I don’t know when God started” and “Maybe your life is your weekend with Dad” were the top lines, and how have I not heard words of wisdom like this on the wifebeater until now? A-
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March 9, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Lena Dunham, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39, The National
A Message From the President
I saw Non-Stop a couple of days ago, and aww man, I am so pumped for Liam Neeson right now. Why can’t he host? Not much happened here, but Liam did show up and yell at Vladimir Putin, and that goes a long way. B
Lena Dunham’s Monologue
Yes, we get it, because of the content of her show, people feel way too comfortable asking Lena Dunham personal questions. But this all felt so … tame. C
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March 2, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Beck, Jim Parsons, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
Ellen
A mish-mash, as is typical of cold opens lately. Some parts worked, including Jay’s freakishly good and ornamentally unnecessary Barkhad Abdi impression. “Oscar hosting the Ellen’s” made me laugh to an unfathomable degree. B-
Jim Parsons’s Monologue
Jim Parsons pronounces Texas “Tex-IZ.” This monologue made a strong enough point to justify the umpteenth musical monologue, though the lyrics themselves were whatever. C+
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February 2, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Imagine Dragons, Melissa McCarthy, Pass the Mash, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
PASS! THE! MASH!
Super Bowl Halftime
Last year’s Super Bowl halftime sketch was amusing, but that came after the actual Super Bowl, so by default, it wasn’t too imaginative. So it was nice to see SNL imagining an unusual scenario ahead of time this year. They could have gone for stereotypical broad theater geek gags here, and they did, but only a little. This felt like a Broadway production from Broadway people who actually were able to get the Super Bowl facts straight. Plus the singing and dancing was awesome in and of itself. Aidy popping in just to say “Oh my!” was delicious. B+
Melissa McCarthy’s Monologue
This was absolutely an unusual monologue, and it was performed with supreme confidence. The pre-taped flashback was quite a whirlwind. The fight itself wasn’t all that much, but it was certainly well-directed. B
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January 26, 2014
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Bastille, Jonah Hill, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 39, SNL, SNL Season 39
Heterosexual Men’s Figure Skating Championships
Comedy based on stereotypes can work, but if it isn’t subversive, then it tends to perpetuate those stereotypes, intentionally or not. It’s also just difficult to make it work as far as funny goes, because it tends to lack the element of surprise. You have to do a really good job of playing the stereotype straight. The performances were decent, but not spectacular. The last routine was a little bit better than the others, in that it went beyond “stereotypical straight guy” material into “creepy guy” territory. C+
Jonah Hill’s Monologue
I was just thinking of how, in light of his Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a “Comedy,” Leo DiCaprio would make a great SNL host. He would follow in a distinguished line of primarily dramatic actors whose dramatic chops can be effectively parlayed into comedy. But he’s never seemed like he would be interested. So, when everyone was asking Jonah about him, it was weird to be thinking, “So, Leo is here, right?” This ended up being solid way of addressing an aspect of Jonah Hill’s personality – his self-seriousness as an AC-TOR – which is, I would argue, generally a better approach than addressing a single moment of the host’s life. (Why does Taran keep making those noises at the end of his sentences as Brad Pitt?) B
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