Saturday Night Live

Airport Sushi number was the only one that felt written by Mulaney; didn't approach the heights of his last two production numbers, but was fun and the Sack Lunch Bunch energy of Byrne and Gyllenhall helped out. Uncle Meme sketch was a decent premise and OK jokes, but dead in performance. Byrne songs were great (! that he's doing Toe Jam as part of American Utopia). Other sketches were barely written, Che and Jost should be fired, the former into the sun.

no discussion of the quarantine episode? Actually thought it was one of the better episodes of this season despite the obvious hurdles. Don't know why they started with that Drake spoof, but Pete's later "i've got 2000$" hip hop video was better. Kate and AIdy killed the zoom meeting, which cracked me up. RBG was surprisingly good, AIdy's visualization bit was great. Overall surprisingly good.

i mentioned it on the slack. i liked the middleaged mutant ninja turtles.

The Drake thing was a very weird choice to start.

yeah this was pretty good.

my first thought was "tom hanks and rita wilson have a really small kitchen"

I think we gave up on it pretty early. The Zoom one in particular was just a variation of lol old people can't use computers. I did like Chole Fineman's impression bits. She's generally pretty underutilized. There were a few MIA cast members, weren't there? Cecily? Melissa? Were they in there anywhere?

akm otm, I'm guessing that might be a second house for them?

Fineman is great and I'm glad to see them finally using more of her impressions. I thought this was surprisingly well put together and worked more often than not, the Zoom call was actually one of the weaker skits.

I was afraid they were going to limit their Hal Willner acknowledgment to one of those psot-commercial title cards, but I thought that tribute was sweet and surprisingly well put together given then resources and timeframe. Good song choice too.

That tribute has my crying.

Also, why do I suspect that Pete Davidson sent in like 15 of those rap videos and told them to just pick whatever?

I tried to watch the Pete netflix thing because I generally like his weekend update bits but I only lasted like 20 minutes.

goddamn it the one good thing about the 'ronnie was that it meant no SNL.

xpost, yeah the Hal Willner tribute was very very sweet.

is Davidson a Make a Wish kid that they never asked to leave?

He's like a Make a Wish kid whose wish was to be asked to leave, but then he got better and they didn't grant his wish and it broke his heart.

I started cringing during Tom Hank's bizarre Letterman impression.

It only seemed to get worse from there, had to bail during Kate McKinnon's RGB thing. You see, she lifts weights with Q-tips because ha she is VERY OLD but also somehow ROFL she's horny and sassy ha ha ha

I mean good for them for giving it a go but

The RGB thing was terrible, I hate that McKinnon spends so much time on that character. Feel like she could have brought something better.

Aside from whether the jokes were funny or not, it was interesting that pre-taping and editing allowed the show to be punchier and faster-paced than usual. Didn't think having a laugh track Skypeing in during Weekend Update really helped, though.

i'm a fan of the RBG character. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Eh, RBG was like most of latter-day Kristen Wiig's characters - funny the first time, interminable by the 15th.

there were some good jokes in this week's rbg thing.

I did like it the first time.

Kate McKinnon seems super smart and seems like the obv. heir/anaolog to Kristen Wiig...but she always seems to stop short of disappearing into a character and just defaults to mugging?

McKinnon is warmer, sunnier, and way more engaging than Wiig.

When I complain about SNL taking one joke and flogging it to death, I am often thinking of Wiig characters like the horrid cashier or the "just kidding" lady or the singer who pretends a song is written and makes it up... plz god no. Funny once or twice; after a while I start fast forwarding.

I think Wiig is maybe my all-time fav snl cast member...along with Phil Hartman

the target lady wiig character, i never understoof. I figured it must appeal to some demographic.

not her best character, I didn't really get that either

Yerac have you lived in the upper Midwest?

^^^ There is a specific regional thing with that character that makes her super funny to me

I didn't have a problem with the character at first, it was just killed via repetition and that period where all of her "new" characters were basically variations on Target Lady and/or "just kidding" lady.

yeah i am from virginia although family is from michigan. I figured the target woman was just something I was missing for it to be so popular.

the best wiig character is that weird lady with the tiny doll hands

cecily and kenan both mostly absent this week.

xp dooneese!

Dooneese worked for me only in the context of the world of Lawrence Welk. (Which was enough, obv.)

Gilly is the Wiig character I can't stand. Horrible, even the first time.

I thought the online dating bit toward the end was good, great pacing and just the right length.

I didn't even realize they were doing this again this week until this morning. This week's was better, for the most part; they def ramped up the production quality a bit

Anthony Fauci was funny on CNN yesterday, though, when someone asked him who he wanted to play him if he turned up in a sketch. First he laughed it off--you could tell he hadn't watched the show since 1975--then, when given a choice between Ben Stiller and Brad Pitt, he said, without any hesitation, Pitt.
― clemenza, Saturday, April 11, 2020 10:14 AM

He got his wish. People have been reposting the opening from last night, so that's all I've seen. Pitt was pretty good--even had some of Fauci's mannerisms.

there's a segment with aidy bryant going through what I'm confident are her real childhood journals that is priceless.

nothing can kill this fucking zombie show

you could... not watch it? Not post about it? I dunno. Seems like there are a bunch of options.

As I pointed out long ago, SNL is no more likely to go away than NBC's Today show or Tonight show. All three enjoy low production costs, respectable audience numbers that bring in decent ad revenues, and there are no better options to fill those time slots.

snl @ home >>> reg snl

Sketch on last week’s ep with Paul Rudd and Heidi Gardner (had to google her tbh) as re-connecting cousins kinda killed me. Like super whatever concept, but A+ performance on her part.

Saw a clip of the opening. "This virus, that remember, was started in a lab in Obama" made me laugh.

only here to see who shows up with the energy to shit on a show that they don't watch.

I'll probably watch it first

not as good as the second @ home episode, but it was ok. Surprisingly one of the best Baldwin as Trump opens. the Aidy Bryant bit with the terrifying computer generated party was the highlight; generally speaking I like it when they just get fucking weird like this, it was like a Mulaney sketch. Worst bits were that stupid Kyle Mooney thing that went on forever, and Weekend Update was worse with the enhanced graphics and backgrounds. Nice Tina Fey bit though. The final 'dreams' sequence was great. I can do without ever seeing another sketch about muting on Zoom calls.

kyle mooney has a very dirty kitchen.

can you imagine what his fucking shower drain looks like?