S46.E15: Maya Rudolph / Jack Harlow

[Pete Martell]

5 hours ago, JZL said:

I thought the Hot Ones sketch was one of the funniest of the year.  I'm a huge fan, so I'm biased.  FWIW, Kenan was on it recently, so it wasn't a total surprise when they did it.  WU was fine, but the rest of the show was horrid, including the utterly lame MG. 

TBH, I stopped watching after the start of the Harris sketch and came here to see if any of the show was worth watching.

Other than Hot Ones, the best parts of the show were mostly after that sketch - Update, the barfly sketch, and the Maya-ing. 

4 hours ago, cpcathy said:

I thought the Hot Ones sketch was hilarious, I didn’t know we were allowed to poke fun at Bey!

The rest of the show was pretty bad, so bad I checked out early and missed The Maya-ing. I watched it on YouTube and wow, the regular writers did not write that. 

Colin Jost and Maya wrote it. Apparently Tina Fey also helped write it. 

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

That's true.  I feel like they could have inserted more humour, but they almost played it exactly straight.  Maybe they didn't want to hurt Sean Evans' feelings.  He seems like a really good dude, but you could lightly parody him and the show in a good natured way.  Which they kind of tried.  

I took it as a straight parody of Beyonce in a ludicrous situation (for her as she would never be on that show). I'm not a huge fan of the Beyonce material that is all about reminding us of how awesome she is or how crazy her fans are, or about old diva jokes (that's one of the reasons Maya's Beyonce impression never did a ton for me). This version was the most I've enjoyed any Beyonce sketches on SNL. I wish the ending were better (what else is new), but the rest was a lot of fun for me, particularly her ever-escalating demands about her wig being removed. 

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

I liked the concept of the last skit, The Shining parody, it just wasn’t very funny.

That was one of the reasons I enjoyed it - I liked how they wove in the nostalgia and the melancholy. SNL doesn't really do that very often in the last few decades. 

I think I enjoyed this episode more than most did - it helps that I had little expectation because I'm not a fan of the Kamala impression and I'm not a fan of a lot of the overly broad humor Maya tends to bring to SNL. While only the sketches I mentioned above really stood out for me in a positive way, most of the others I could find something to enjoy in - the big exceptions are  the Kamala sketch (which in spite of being co-written by Emily Spivey, who hasn't been with SNL in a decade, I still found to be rough and mostly overwritten and very confused) and the awful choreographer sketch, which felt so much like the type of OTTTT ham Maya often did when she was a cast member. If we are going to get that, I very much prefer the approach they used in the barfly awards sketch, which at least gave us most of the cast and some funny title gags.

The monologue was very confusing, but I did like that they spotlighted the new cast members and tried to get viewers to support them (and that they brought this back in the Maya-ing pre-tape by having Andrew still having to pay his dues as a featured player). It felt like something of a support system and a family, and shared kindship, rather than the way that when Tina hosts, it feels like the newer cast were almost hazed.

I wasn't offended by the boomer sketch as much as I was annoyed at how much it felt like pandering to a young demo that have no real interest in SNL anyway. I enjoyed the vocal performances, but just as I could enjoy some parts of the NFT pre-tape, both had a very "old man tries to sell to 'the youth'" vibe, which always makes me cringe with SNL.

So, anyway, first shows back are usually rusty, but this one did work out better than I'd hoped. I am hoping the next two weeks will be stronger though.

5 hours ago, Katmai said:

I'll address another elephant in this episode: Jack Harlow was AWFUL!!! I'd not heard of him before the show, and now I know I haven't missed anything after suffering through his two bits. Adding Adam Levine to that mess did not help, and not just because I have never liked hearing him sing and he seems to always have to be extra extra, it was awful 2.O.

That Adam Levine appearance was terrible all around - their performance felt so amateurish and was one of the worst I can remember seeing on SNL. 

[Ottis]

5 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

That was one of the reasons I enjoyed it - I liked how they wove in the nostalgia and the melancholy. SNL doesn't really do that very often in the last few decades. 

I liked that, too. SNL has been around a long, long time, and it has earned that kind of perspective. I was not even a teen when I first watched. SO ending with Maya photoshopped into the original cast, given The Shining set up, worked for me.

I just wish it had added more funny. Not Rachel in the bathtub funny. Something better. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

One of the worst episodes in a long time.  Maya Rudolph's "accents" were just not very good. Musical guest and Adam Levine were awful.

Update was decent and the Barfly sketch and NFT song were funny.  Bowen's mixed-message piece seemed a bit insincere because of the way it started off.

[Inquisitionist]

14 hours ago, possibilities said:

I went to sleep angrier than I probably should have been. Imagine my surprise to come back here today and find my rant was so popular!

I will say that I enjoyed Cecily as Sidney Powell and of course Bowen is the Bomb.

I really did not recognize Cecily.  Great job of disappearing into an insane character!

13 hours ago, Katmai said:

I'll address another elephant in this episode: Jack Harlow was AWFUL!!!

How do they pick these "performers"?  I listened for about 3 lines, then hit Ffwd.

11 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I did enjoy Tina Fey as the 70s writer who had the idea that women should speak in the sketches. 

Took me a while to realize that was Tina and not Kate!

[Phishbulb]

Tina's character was sort of a cross between original SNL writers Rosie Shuster (left in this pic) and Anne Beatts (far right). 

[Cornhusker12]

Siiiigh, Maya has a serious case of diminishing returns. It seems like she and several other former castmembers (Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig come to mind) all do the EXACT same bit any time they host or even make an appearance, which is putting on the big placid famous-person smile and saying SUPER WACKY things while expecting to be treated like a god, and then whoever they're talking to in the bit will just be like "ummm ok Ms. Rudolph?" We saw yet another very lame example in the monologue.

In general, I enjoyed Maya as a castmember and when she's had supporting roles on other shows/movies, but I don't have the same fond feelings that a lot of the internet seems to have. She is talked about as this Superstar Queen of SNL by a lot of fans and other sites and I'm not exactly sure where that came from or why it has grown legs over the past several years.

[vb68]

11 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I took it as a straight parody of Beyonce in a ludicrous situation

That's exactly what it was, and it worked. I was dying during it, but I usually enjoy Maya's Beyonce anyway.

11 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I think I enjoyed this episode more than most did - it helps that I had little expectation because I'm not a fan of the Kamala impression and I'm not a fan of a lot of the overly broad humor Maya tends to bring to SNL.

Yeah, I enjoyed it on the whole too. But again I like and appreciate what Maya has always brought to the show. Sure there were some clunkers as there always are, and that Kamala sketch was a definite clunker.  (It felt like it was obligatory because Maya was there, but nobody was interested in putting any real effort into it.) But there were some high points too, and those high points won out for me.

On another note, it really does feel like Kate is stepping back now and letting the newer cast get more time. Maybe Aidy and Cecily to an extent too, but they missed the first part of the season. It's mostly noticeable with Kate.   

Edited March 29, 2021 by vb68

[Pete Martell]

2 minutes ago, Cornhusker12 said:

Siiiigh, Maya has a serious case of diminishing returns. It seems like she and several other former castmembers (Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig come to mind) all do the EXACT same bit any time they host or even make an appearance, which is putting on the big placid famous-person smile and saying SUPER WACKY things while expecting to be treated like a god, and then whoever they're talking to in the bit will just be like "ummm ok Ms. Rudolph?" We saw yet another very lame example in the monologue.

In general, I enjoyed Maya as a castmember and when she's had supporting roles on other shows/movies, but I don't have the same fond feelings that a lot of the internet seems to have. She is talked about as this Superstar Queen of SNL by a lot of fans and other sites and I'm not exactly sure where that came from or why it has grown legs over the past several years.

I think it's because Maya gives fun, easily digestible interviews and doesn't do things like lecture about 'cancel culture' or talk about how she got a 10K bottle of champagne for dinner. She also tends to give more of a breezy vibe when she returns, instead of being one of the alum who seem to look down on new players whenever she returns - even when she kept doing cameos earlier this season I didn't really feel like she was on a pedestal above the rest, which is how I tend to feel when Tina appears. 

I never found Maya to be all that funny as a cast member and I don't care for her as Kamala either, but I enjoy some of her comedy a little more in recent years. I just try to tune out some of the huge overhype as that tends to consume itself quickly (like all the hysteria surrounding Melissa McCarthy's appearances on the show, yet she has barely appeared since that stuff reached a peak). 

[Pete Martell]

22 minutes ago, vb68 said:

Yeah, I enjoyed it on the whole too. But again I like and appreciate what Maya has always brought to the show. Sure there were some clunkers as there always are, and that Kamala sketch was a definite clunker.  (It felt like it was obligatory because Maya was there, but nobody was interested in putting any real effort into it.) But there were some high points too, and those high points won out for me.

On another note, it really does feel like Kate is stepping back now and letting the newer cast get more time. Maybe Aidy and Cecily to an extent too, but they missed the first part of the season. It's mostly noticeable with Kate.   

I do enjoy some of Maya's work (I didn't even mind her cameos this season). It's hard to describe because feelings about Maya tends to be very polarized. It's more the certain type of style Maya has in parts of her SNL work that annoys me. Fortunately we didn't get a lot of that this time.

Kate tends to go from heavily being in episodes to not being in much. When we get those 6-7 minute Update appearances or the long cold opens, I start to wince, but some episodes, like Nick Jonas', have gotten the balance right for her. I think Kate, Aidy and Cecily are all stepping back in their own ways - I feel bad about criticizing some of their work if that is the case. I just wish, if these are their last seasons, they weren't using it on stuff like Ted Cruz or Marjoie Taylor Greene. 

Emily Spivey, who was one of SNL's writers for most of the '00s and now works with Maya on Bless the Harts, co-wrote the Kamala sketch. You could tell it was different than a lot of recent political material, but unfortunately I still didn't think it was any good. I really wish they could just retire or heavily restrict political material, but I know that isn't likely. 

[Milburn Stone]

Love Maya. Hated what they made her do.

[vb68]

3 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I really wish they could just retire or heavily restrict political material, but I know that isn't likely. 

I think it's just a matter of getting some political/news junkies who know how to write that stuff. I think Seth Meyers probably took most of those writers with him like Shoemaker and Alex Blaze. If Emily Spivey had to come in and write something like that, no wonder it was clunky as hell. It really is time for new blood. The current writers, especially Che and Jost seem over current events in general. But retiring politics and news altogether would be a big no. There's still plenty of viewers like myself who tune in to see what they do with whatever happened that week. That's one of big appeals of the show. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by vb68

[helenamonster]

I was curious how the Ella Emhoff bit from the seder sketch would go over--I feel like she's not really a known entity outside of The Very Online. And not a single person here has commented about it, so I rest my case lol.

Hot Ones was probably my favorite sketch of the night. A strong premise (what if Beyonce went on Hot Ones?) that writes itself. 

When Andrew said he was 5 years old in 2000, I learned that he's the first cast member who's younger than me, and I suddenly felt very old. We are very close to having our first Zoomer cast member, definitely within the next couple of years.

Edith Puthie forever.

[SoMuchTV]

22 minutes ago, helenamonster said:

I was curious how the Ella Emhoff bit from the seder sketch would go over--I feel like she's not really a known entity outside of The Very Online. And not a single person here has commented about it, so I rest my case lol.

Hot Ones was probably my favorite sketch of the night. A strong premise (what if Beyonce went on Hot Ones?) that writes itself. 

When Andrew said he was 5 years old in 2000, I learned that he's the first cast member who's younger than me, and I suddenly felt very old. We are very close to having our first Zoomer cast member, definitely within the next couple of years.

Edith Puthie forever.

I was wondering about the Ella Emhoff thing. I figured eventually someone would post something so I wouldn’t have to show my ignorance. 

And apparently The Hot Ones is a show?  I checked to see if there was a thread for it here but looks like not. I think I got the gist of it though. 

I don’t think I want to go back and figure out who was the first cast member who was younger than me!  Eddie Murphy maybe? Yikes!  (Full disclosure: Barack Obama is the first and only US president who is younger than me.)

[Irlandesa]

33 minutes ago, helenamonster said:

I was curious how the Ella Emhoff bit from the seder sketch would go over--

I remember her style being pointed out at some event with her stepmother but that's the extent I know who she is.  But I do believe she's talked about online because of that style--although maybe there are more things?  I haven't really followed her.

3 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

And apparently The Hot Ones is a show?

It started as  a free YouTube show.  It probably still is.  And the interviewer interviews celebrities while they eat chicken wings with increasingly hot hot sauce.  I've only seen a few.  It's a bizarre idea.  The interviews aren't bad but I just can't watch people torture themselves with hot sauce. 

 

[Night Cheese]

1 hour ago, helenamonster said:

I was curious how the Ella Emhoff bit from the seder sketch would go over--I feel like she's not really a known entity outside of The Very Online. And not a single person here has commented about it, so I rest my case lol.

I turned to my husband and asked if we were supposed to know who she was or what she was doing.  He replied that he had no clue about anything that was happening in the sketch. 

[ruby24]

I don't like the Biden age jokes. It's just so lazy and it speaks to the fact that they can't think of ANY other angle to make a joke about for him, which is dumb, because there's plenty of stuff besides being "old" (see: Jason Sudeikis's impression- at least he had an angle and created an actual character). Dana Carvey also just did a great impression of him on Colbert last week- they should check that out if they can't think of anything themselves.

[Cornhusker12]

11 hours ago, ruby24 said:

I don't like the Biden age jokes. It's just so lazy and it speaks to the fact that they can't think of ANY other angle to make a joke about for him, which is dumb, because there's plenty of stuff besides being "old" (see: Jason Sudeikis's impression- at least he had an angle and created an actual character). Dana Carvey also just did a great impression of him on Colbert last week- they should check that out if they can't think of anything themselves.

Yup I figured they were holding back on Biden appearances because they were fine-tuning some new angles and ideas for the impression, but it turns out they just have literally nothing. I totally understand how it's a tougher assignment than Trump or Clinton or Bush or any of the classic SNL presidents, but come on. I expected more from Alex for some reason, but it's like a gruff vaguely Southern-ish accent out of touch guy? That's the Biden they came up with? He has SO many little verbal tics and go-to moves that they should easily be parodying in their portrayal but instead it's kinda one of the worst and laziest SNL president portrayals I can remember so far.

The Dana Carvey impression is incredible, I hope they're done with the era of bringing in non-castmembers to do impressions but maybe they should just ask Dana for permission to rip him off haha

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Cornhusker12

[ahisma]

7 hours ago, Cornhusker12 said:

He has SO many little verbal tics and go-to moves that they should easily be parodying in their portrayal but instead it's kinda one of the worst and laziest SNL president portrayals I can remember so far.

Right? I even like Colbert’s aviator glasses and, “C’mon, Jack!” impression. It’s not that hard.

[peeayebee]

Finally got around to watching the show. Really disappointing. My favorite part was Cecily as Sidney Powell. She was hilarious.

[Pete Martell]

On 3/29/2021 at 8:56 PM, Irlandesa said:

It started as  a free YouTube show.  It probably still is.  And the interviewer interviews celebrities while they eat chicken wings with increasingly hot hot sauce.  I've only seen a few.  It's a bizarre idea.  The interviews aren't bad but I just can't watch people torture themselves with hot sauce. 

That's also why I don't watch it, although the guy seems nice enough. Here he is talking about the sketch:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35991892/sean-evans-hot-ones-snl-skit-interview/

Other articles:

Maya's makeup:

https://www.usmagazine.com/stylish/news/maya-rudolphs-makeup-artist-dishes-her-snl-makeup-secrets/

Nick Jonas continued the 'note tradition' for Maya:

https://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/nick-jonas-left-saturday-night-live-note-for-maya-rudolph-48245096