Pete Martell

Another CFT: I am not sure why this was uploaded. Bowen being in Wicked and the show wanting promo, an apology to Mikey fans for him being shut out, the last cut sketch [Cayden] getting over a million views, the show being on break, wanting Charli's fans to come to their page...? Either way, I am always glad to see more cut sketches, and I would have put this in the episode over a few other pieces, even though it's nothing special. It's a bit more lively than the original with Issa Rae, due to Charli having an actual part. She seems to be enjoying herself. Maybe her most fun performance of the night. Bowen is OK too. Mikey and Chloe...eh.

I meant to post this a few days ago, but as soon as I saw the set and who Marcello was playing in the acting class sketch, I thought of this Phil Hartman sketch (he did it both times he hosted). I am not saying he ripped off Phil Hartman, as the idea wasn't new then either. Still, it reminded me how much I miss Phil.

Shockingly, they put up another cut sketch.

Joking aside, I actually do think the podcast sketch gave some insight into why. It captured a certain mood and personality in a way that wasn't as clunky as SNL so often is (see the cold open). I was especially impressed by how smooth Emil Wakim is after not even a half season. I kept thinking Lorne has a wonderful jobs program - for Alec Baldwin. The makeup department did a great job but as soon as he opened his mouth it was Trumpwin all over again.

She didn't. I assume she was just there and they let her go onstage. I am not sure I remember that happening before with a former cast member (it has a few time with hosts). I was happy to see her. She is also in Charli's video, apparently. Beyond being involved with Kanye West, her best known role has SNL ties - she was Adam Sandler's mistress in Uncut Gems. I have had my ups and downs with PDD but I feel bad for them being cut and barely airing almost the entire season. Some other cut moments (if a dress report is up on Reddit later I will post it - all of this is from the Saturday Night Network hot take show). JAJ was cut from the impression tape (he was Brian Cox - he was also cut from Update last season as Cox) Emil was cut from Update, talking about the election. Sketches: BONJOUR HI: The Issa Rae episode sketch returns, with Chloe replacing Kate. Charli was a field reporter. Mikey returned to his role from the first sketch. ROYAL WIGS: Bowen asks Charli, Andrew, Heidi, Chloe, Mikey if they look dumb while wearing Mozart wigs. Andrew and Marcello duel when Bowen says dating cousins is dumb. A clip of this was shown during the football game. KAIDEN: Heidi and James are bragging about their child Kaiden, who calmed them down after the election, and doesn't sound like a 4 year old upstairs taking off his pants and dressing up as a clogged toilet for Halloween. Charli and Marcello are a couple, as are Andrew and Ashley. 4 year old Kaiden at the end of the sketch got high-fives from Heidi and James.

If they hadn't had to rush I think the sketch would have made more sense, but I think the show just doesn't know how to write sketches now that have layers and aren't quick laughs (they don't even know how to write a lot of those). I did enjoy it for what it was, especially on a rewatch. I agree they didn't need so many people in the sketch. I felt like they were trying to make up to the cast for having them almost entirely shut out of the cold open (and even in the monologue Andy Samberg was thrown in just because I guess we were all meant to be honored that he made an appearance...). One of the reasons I was more of a fan of Heidi in her first 3-4 seasons is because she reminded me, at times, of Jan Hooks, who also had that dramatic streak in her comedy. Heidi has lost that (to put it kindly) over the last few years, but her work in this sketch reminded me of what might have been. I actively dread these Biden appearances. Not because I think the show is being mean but because it's just so shockingly hammy, I am surprised any pieces of the set are left. Bryan made a cameo in 2016. I wouldn't mind if he came back. I think the controversy is because a lot of people see it as being a song about a woman of color, with cringey lyrics, while he says it was just written about an image he had of women dancing around a fire at Burning Man.

I liked the last sketch - it's the type of sketch I could have seen them doing a better job with years ago with people like Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks, but the show's content is so cookie cutter now I appreciate any throwback. I also liked Andrew's sketch, and Ego's. The Update commentaries were watchable too. Michael was so underused, but all the hosts this season have been, aside from Ariana Grande. This was cut from Weekend Update (apparently there actually is a tiktok challenge to dress like the Menendez brothers).

That is probably part of it, and he may not want to be too closely tied to SNL given where most of his career and fanbase leans. I imagine he knows what the response would be to a lot of hacky cold opens. I'm not sure this is the right place to put this but it's a behind the scenes interview with the head of the hair department. She is the inspiration for the Bronx Beat sketches.

I think it's a combination of many things. Tiresome as I found Baldwin's Trump, he played him for four and a half seasons, and Baldwin was SNL royalty to many fans. JAJ was an unknown to most fans and is not one of the cast members who managed to break through based on huge charisma/selling a version of themselves to viewers, the way cast members like Kate or Bowen did. He's not a cast member who is generally going to get applause just by walking onscreen, as most don't. Another issue is the political writing, which has mostly been terrible for decades, outside of a few moments, and now you don't even get those. I think JAJ's Trump worked better on his social media pages but has been a shaky mix on the show itself. It's not broad enough or as focused on cheap seats compared to the rest of the cold opens and can't be carried on the fan familiarity with the performer. I think there's also a lot of Trump fatigue - many who like him aren't watching SNL and many who don't like him probably don't want to see more of him.

JAJ has never gotten a great deal of response from the crowds compared to a number of other political impressions over the years, and it's been very noticeable at times. I also wonder if they see Gillis as having a conversative appeal, as I think the show has been trying to move more in that direction the last few years. I agree they were probably expecting more from Bowen as Vance, as he is the closest thing they have to Kate McKinnon in a cast member who pops with the audience. The biggest difference is he was not tied to political material the way she was starting with Hillary, and they aren't writing anything for Vance anyway. (the Update line where Jost chides the public for thinking Vance, not RFK Jr, is weird kind of says it all about their feelings on him). If a cast member were showing up as Biden, I'd still roll my eyes at the hacky writing, but at least I'd say a cast member is being used. If you are bringing back Dana Carvey, you should have more for him to do than sniffing hair and staring at the camera.

Sadly, no. This is a longer description from the Reddit dress rehearsal report above. Kenan is checking tickets to the VIP section at Yankee Stadium. Nate comes along, playing himself, and is recognized by Kenan. Kenan tells him “you better not put me in one of your stand-up bits!” and basically goes on about how much he doesn’t want that while simultaneously making it obvious how he really does want that. His supervisor (Heidi) comes out and chastises Kenan and apologizes to Nate, who goes inside. Kenan scans some more people in until he gets to Anna Wintour (Chloe). He recognizes her and tells her how much he doesn’t want her to put in on the cover of a fashion magazine doing a fancy pose “wearing something like this” as he puts on what basically looks like a glittery upside-down chandelier. Heidi comes back out and chastises him again and lets Chloe go. Kenan starts to daydream about what he really doesn’t want to happen as a little dream bubble appears above him. In the dream bubble, Nate is doing stand-up and Kenan joins him and they talk about their bossy wives. The sketches cuts back to (a pre-recorded) Heidi and Kenan and ends.

The show's take on Biden has become coarser in recent years. I think the nastiest was probably Woody Harrelson's, but it didn't bother me as much because he was just a part of debate sketches and they gave him some sharp lines. Here, it just feels like an excuse for Dana to stretch out a lot of lazy gags. I think Dana has said he's not trying to be political, and so he is probably just trying to do easy jokes the way he used to do about Mickey Rooney, but the presentation feels very cheap because there's no depth beyond having some guy walk out to drool and stare at the camera. I think the idea was meant to be she lost all of her sense of grace once she started pigging out. It might have been funnier if the timing hadn't been screwed up with all the breaking from Mikey and Bowen. Akiva Schaffer, one of the Lonely Island trio (the third, Jorma Taccone, did not return). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiva_Schaffer

Michael had tried to get that sketch on back early in his first season, when Megan thee Stallion hosted. Glad he finally did. I forgot to mention the Weekend Update cuts when I made my original post. Luckily a more detailed dress rehearsal report is out. Heidi had another of her "wacky" desk characters that have made me tire of her...which means it will probably be on this next episode. They have co-written some of the sketches that have gotten on but only get in the credits when one of their shorts gets on. The show seemed to start losing interest in them around the middle of last season. Some fans think it is because their movie wasn't well-received.

I think every desk piece in recent years goes on twice as long as it needs to. Having her go on for so long took what could have been quirky and just made it seem extremely awkward. They try to have it both ways with Kamala and I don't think either attempt works. I was never a huge fan of this impression but now with Andy Samberg and Dana Carvey there it feels even more like a put-on, alumni laughing with each other through overdone one-liners and recapping. I just find all of this a tough watch. There's such a crassness, especially the way they portray Biden. And the choice to have all of this framing the VP debate is all but saying they don't care about writing for the debate, or for Walz and Vance. Then why even bother? Not because they have any interest but just for Youtube views. Trying to make a cheap gay joke with Vance and Walz was lower than I expected of the show these days. Apparently JAJ was meant to appear in this as Trump but was cut. I like JAJ but I can't say I'm sorry. His career was going well before SNL but moved up another gear afterward (he even has a special coming up produced by Lorne). He seemed much less involved this time. And the show in general has that vibe for me now - struggling to write sketches, to get the performances right, to figure out what to say, to get the energy. The slide sketch felt like it was a first rehearsal, rather than a production for the live episode. He seems to be a pleasant guy, and that pleasant vibe helped the sketches he was involved in, but it seems like a herculean effort for the show to make something genuinely good these days. I was never that big on Lonely Island, especially not after they started only doing music videos, but something about this felt especially crass and desperate to me. I did not like it at all. Some of the people who were in the Saturday Night Network podcast chat last night mentioned that the episode was much better in dress rehearsal. I wonder how often that is the case, but it's unfortunate to look at the end result and wonder what might have been. The Mile High sketch is one I almost enjoyed, but the unprofessional breaking from Bowen and Mikey derailed it. It reminded me how much of the show now seems to center on sketches invented to make cast members laugh. That isn't what I watch the show for. In my opinion, breaking is special when it happens to a cast member who tries to keep composure, not someone who just has no control. This has happened repeatedly with Bowen, and I end up thinking that he's laughing more than I have at anything he's done on the show in years. And it just makes me think Mikey has been there much too long. From the podcast, here are some of the sketches that were in dress rehearsal: SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY - Nate, Sarah, Ashley, Kenan, Mikey, Heidi, Chloe, Bowen. Nate hires Sarah, who dances with a human sized puppet in front of and behind her to the cha cha slide. Mikey is a divorced dad who flirts with the front puppet. The reveal at the end is that the puppets are real (played by Heidi and Ashley). EMANUEL - Yankees VIP sketch. Kenan plays Emanuel, Chloe is Anna Wintour, JAJ is Liam Neeson. Kenan is letting them into the Yankees VIP suite joking that he didn't want to be in Nate's standup, Chloe's next Vogue issue, or JAJ's next movie. DOLLHOUSE- Sarah as JAJ and Heidi's kid. Nate, Ego in it too as playwrights. Sarah and Nate play with Sarah's dolls but it is very intense dialogue with fighting (like Nate's doll jumps off the house). JAJ and Heidi keep going to the kitchen which allows Ego to join Sarah and Nate in playing. One of the people who attended dress rehearsal said the sweet sixteen and dollhouse sketches were very good.