Pete Martell

This has been an issue with those hired as gifted impressionists for some time now, as shown with Melissa Villasenor. There's much less attempt made at finding a character, which is what makes the impression stand out more. Mikey Day is not a gifted impressionist, but when he played John Oliver last season, it made me laugh, because he latched onto what I find tiresome when I watch too much of Oliver. I do think James Austin Johnson is better at finding a character in his impressions, but they are often of people I have no interest in seeing the show cover, like Trump (or Biden - not that he does Biden much at this point).

These are the types of impressions which get the show written up and get even more content because the celebrity being impersonated replies favorably. Chloe seems to like to do these, as it also helps her career-wise (not judging her - she's not there for art, she's there for career - I just don't get much out of the impressions).

Tomorrow's Vintage is Chris Pine/LCD Soundsystem.

Darrell Hammond interview.

I was watching some clips from Ghosts, and saw that Punkie Johnson was in two episodes earlier this season. Alex Moffat is heading to Broadway. Molly Shannon's show, The Other Two, is returning on May 4. I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson's sketch show, is returning on May 30. Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis' show, recently returned for what is likely its final season. Bill Hader's show, Barry, is returning for its final season on April 16.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/saturday-night-live-editors-agreement-nbc-1235558194/

Saturday's Vintage is Colin Farrell/Scissor Sisters.

Tonight, Heidi will be on Bravo's What What Happens Live.

Some of the material they cut would have been better, although not by much in a few cases.

It's funny because the group are very controversial, with the lead singer often saying offputting things. I was not expecting them to sound like so much pop/lite rock from the '80s (like if Bryan Adams had joined very late '80s Fleetwood Mac). I do like pop and lite rock from the '80s, so the performances were alright for me, but jarring compared to the image they present. The writing for this episode, pre-tapes aside, was nonexistent to me, but I agree with you about the silliness and energy being benefits. I think Molly suffers from what many in the cast this season are suffering from - there is little effort in trying to find what their best comic voice in. There have been so many comparisons between Molly and Melissa McCarthy that I wonder if they decided to just throw them in drag to recreate the viral appeal of Melissa as Sean Spicer. I don't know if Molly has the panache to play these types of parts, as the Update piece just stumbled, and had little bite. (it didn't help that one of the writers, Fowlie, has co-written a number of my least favorite pieces this season, from Bowen's "sucka" sketch from the past episode, to Heidi and Chloe having flat butts, to Heidi going on and on on Update about wanting to commit incest with her son). Dress report:

There was nothing bad tonight, but as keeps happening this season, also nothing I thought was especially good, other than the pre-tapes, maybe. I was happy to see Molly finally get onto Update, but I thought the piece was simultaneously cliched and also too much for them to work with for their debut. I enjoyed JAJ's impressions, but had hoped to get a break from Trump. I don't expect brilliant writing, but I feel like something has gotten worse with the quality of many sketches. An endless sketch all about Fred, who isn't a cast member now, and wasn't even the host, making faces. Two sketches that revolved almost solely around Mikey yelling. Another sketch that revolved almost entirely around Ego yelling. Then at the end, the sketch with James Austin Johnson and Andrew Dismukes became all about Bowen yelling. You can be funny while having sketches that are mostly about yelling, but it takes much more effort than I'm seeing now. I don't think it helped that the host, while charming and competent, blended so far into the background and brought little to the material. The cold open probably summed up everything I'm so worn down by in the writing now. It had a nice enough idea, but just went on and on and on, cramming in people without knowing how to use them (I thought the Jamie Lee Curtis, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson impressions were just plain bad, and I don't know what was going on with Kenan as Mike Tyson.

Chloe interview for the new ad she's doing. https://www.gearpatrol.com/food/drinks/a43066575/chloe-fineman-nutrl-interview/ https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/chloe-fineman-stars-in-nutrl-vodka-seltzer-campaign/

Agree, but I'm not sure how much choice they have in the matter (the season 13 cast worked through a tech strike for several weeks).

Tomorrow's Vintage is Salma Hayek/Christina Aguilera, from season 28.

Right now there's no real way of knowing. They could work things out with the union, they could try a show without pre-tapes or promos (one that would probably have a harder time getting a host), they could cancel the episode, or the rest of the season.

I'd hoped NBC had reached a deal with them but clearly not. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpkgpzEs_4H/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

I assumed - no idea if I'm right or not - that "memo" joke was supposed to be bad, as the character was meant to be hacky and not funny (like at the end when he added on the whole "don't talk to me before I've had my coffee" after pledging to fight in a race war).

As SNL paid tribute to John Head this past episode, a bit more on him. https://cartermatt.com/569028/who-is-john-head-saturday-night-live-airs-title-card-tribute/

That was probably why I liked the Dilbert commentary - they didn't seem to be trying for funny, just weird and incredibly disturbing. The Punkie and Mikey commentary I liked (along with the straight male friend sketch these were the only parts of this episode I got much out of) because it reminded me of the gentler personality-based humor we got for cast members years ago. Apparently it is based on how Punkie does act - on one of the podcasts they said Punkie was asked what she thought about working with Will Forte, and she said something like, "That old dude was weird but he was nice." They realized she meant Willem Dafoe.

This is behind a paywall. Heidi talking about Travis hosting. https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article272629270.html

A big part of the current media landscape is blowing up comments in order to generate content. I don't happen to agree with Woody Harrelson's views, but I think sites that make them blaring headlines (especially when some of those sites, like Rolling Stone, have a very dubious history in their own right) only care about fanning the flames. I know I wouldn't have paid any mind to anything he said if not for the furor afterward, furor which seems to have made the whole thing national or (on social media anyway) international news. She's hosted 6 times. Never great, but I think she's one of those hosts who probably came back a lot because she was willing to do silly things and presumably easy to get along with backstage. I think he mixed up the last two times he hosted - he hosted around Thanksgiving during season 40. In season 45 he hosted in late September. I genuinely do not think SNL has known how to write most political pieces in 20 years or more. I think JAJ is funnier than Baldwin was as Trump, but his idea of Trump is just rattling off random things, which seems to have worked well for him on social media pre-SNL, but can seem awkward in the more rigid SNL format. The main problem is that when SNL talks about politics, they either just literally recap what a politician said, or they go out of their way to lampshade how stupid and irritating the politicians are. Neither is particularly clever or funny (in my opinion). Last night was the epitome of an idea that was never going to translate well to SNL, so of course they did it anyway.

I didn't even catch the COVID or vax talk because I just wasn't paying attention. I find Woody Harrelson to be pleasant enough whenever I see him on TV, but I haven't watched any of his movies in a very long time. He's not someone who leaves me rapt with anticipation. He was going on and on and on in the monologue (7 minutes, as it turned out), and somewhere around the time he went into great detail about his pot habit to the point of letting everyone meet his dealer (somewhere John Belushi was probably cheering), I faded out. I would venture to guess that far more people know about his comments because of sites like Rolling Stone that have become clickbait farms than they would have otherwise. But they get a lot of profit while feigning outrage, so...good for them??? I think one of the problems I am having with the show of late is I just feel like I have already seen everything I need to see of the people who keep getting airtime. If you aren't interested in them you aren't going to be interested in the night. This isn't new for SNL, but some long-running cast members are better than others at finding fresh work. As @vb68 said above, I immediately thought Heidi was just doing her Angel voice. I had to go back and rewatch this later, and it still did absolutely nothing for me. Bowen's wordplay with Woody at the end went on and on, I don't think Woody was the right choice for a partner, and those wordplay sketches were better done by cast members like Kristen Wiig (in her first few seasons, before she just started making faces all the time). Kenan's had a wonderful run, but I'm at the point now where if there's a long sketch that exists just so he can make funny faces, and absolutely nothing else is going on, like the amusement park sketch, I'm just not interested anymore. I enjoyed the PDD short, but I just kept thinking I've seen them do all this before, or I've seen other people do this before. You can't expect originality, there are only so many ideas, but there's just something so samey about PDD to where even when I like it I forget it almost immediately. I thought the Cologuard sketch was well-made, beyond being too long, but there's some talk about whether or not it was based on a Youtube video (the video is very crude so I don't know if it should be linked, but the Youtube channel is called Zebra Corner and the video is called If Commercials Were Real Life - Cologuard), so I'm not going to praise it now. The sub sketch and the Hippo sketches were very well-acted by the cast and Woody and had some good lines, but weren't particularly good in of themselves. At least the former did try to use most of the cast, unlike the rest of the night. The latter had a real copout of an ending which suggested someone panicking at the last minute over even the mildest parody. Maybe one of the problems is the older I get the less people I know. JAJ did a good job on Update but I had no idea who the hell he was playing. Chloe did not do a good job in the cold open, but I'm not sure what she could have done playing someone most of the studio audience clearly had no history with, and on top of that, just a bad, pointless sketch. Presumably someone decided Trump's visit to East Palestine, Ohio was so crazy, it wrote itself...and did not bother to write an actual sketch, or good lines. One of the worst cold opens this season. Overall, I think the only parts of this episode I would want to see again are the whole runner of Woody asking where his 5-timer robe was, and the jokes from Jost and Che. I really hope this is the final season for some of these people...although I feel like I say that every season so maybe it's more about how they are (over)used if they stay on long enough. Unless they are like Punkie, who is seemingly lucky to get in the building. Cut sketch: