S49.E19: Maya Rudolph / Vampire Weekend

[Galileo908]

Quote

Host Maya Rudolph with musical guest Vampire Weekend

Airs 5/11/24

[vb68]

Already so much better than last week.

I never get tired of Maya as Beyonce.

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Mother's Day sketch, so they're showing off the moms. Molly and their mom wearing matching bald caps was really sweet. I was surprised that Sarah Sherman's mom was...normal. And wow, Marcello and Longfellow's moms! And PDD even got a bit!

Monologue: Maya is here to teach these kids how it's done. I really liked this one. Maya's mom was, of course, the late Minnie Ripperton. And four kids?! Damn.

Hot Ones: The sequel to the first Hot Ones sketch!

Maya remains a goddamn pro. I was dying at all the sauces, like the one that's just a toilet on fire. Loved it when Kenan kept squirting lotion in her mouth.

Please Don't Destroy: An actual sketch? And the boys aren't in the office?! This was so silly. Maya was perfect in this. Loved the one who ate his phone and it stuck out his neck. And then he choked to death.

Y'all Won: I'm glad I'm not a teacher. I don't know what "Fanum Tax" is, and I'm too old and white to ask.

British Cavemen: Now that's a premise. I love sketches that just let everyone be silly, especially Kenan. Sarah as French Stereotype Caveman just killed me.

Pick Me Up: Again, just Maya and Kenan being silly. Why was the kid still going to sleepovers if she always needs to go home early?! I don't blame the parents to stop making excuses after a while.

WU: Oh, they got lots of mileage out of the Hush Money trial. And, as predicted, Sarah was RFK Jr's brain worm because they couldn't resist a bit that juicy. And of course, it's just another excuse for Sarah to knock at Colin. I just loved all of it. I was loving all the jokes tonight, and Che was just loving all the reactions from the crowd. 

Coffee Commercial: Loved this. At first I thought it was Maya's spin on the Orson Welles "Paul Masson Wine" commercial, but then I was shown this commercial with Lauren Bacall:

That's exactly what they were referencing and Maya was so dead on with embodying Lauren Bacall, even squeezing in a fart joke.

Nurses: Every nurse I've encountered looked and sounded like Maya and Ego. They're the unsung heroes of the medical field. "The Jamaican part of Ireland" sums up that accent exactly.

Lanzetti's Lawn Care: Their landscapers can be trusted because they hired unsexy, socially repellent weirdos. There's something very satisfying about Maya shouting "shut up, nerd!"

Man, this was a good one. Good on Maya on giving everyone something to do tonight. Jake Gyllenhaal closes out the season next week.

[MrWhyt]

solid above average episode, which was what was expected with a pro like Maya hosting. Loved Colin's Marvel/Ferry joke.

[ebk57]

I really enjoyed this!  Lots of fun, silly sketches and everyone was having fun.  And Maya is just perfection.  

Thanks @Galileo908for posting the Lauren Bacall commercial.  I'd never seen it, but the sketch was great, even noting that the actress had a "difficult" reputation.  So true to life. 

Good show! 

[JeanJean]

Not one of the greatest, but entertaining enough and good energy.

Didn't like the "I'm your mother" song. Liked the Mom-pick-me-up PSA, the Lanzetti Lawn Care, and the nurses sketch.

Always like WU and Sarah Sherman's bits on it. I'm SO glad they're not letting up on horrible Kristi Noem. Heidi's "not mad" character is the first time I've come close to liking her on it. She's fantastic in sketches, though.

Didn't care for the diva coffee commercial but I might have liked it more if I saw the Lauren Bacall ad first.

Edited May 12 by JeanJean

[Dirge]

For the whole show I felt like I owed Maya an apology for groaning at her opening outfit (I think she looks so much better when *other* people dress her) which turned out to be covering her costume. But then I saw what she chose to wear for the closing.

Thanks, @Galileo908, for the Lauren Bacall commercial! I had no idea. 

[vb68]

34 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Maya is here to teach these kids how it's done.

If anything, the cast had to try to keep up with her.

[rmontro]

I watch TV with the closed captioning on, and I thought this was amusing:

In the skit where the teachers were complaining about their students, Bowen Yang said he tried to play Cahoot with his kids, but they made usernames like "Dzickanbools2".  Apparently that was too subtle for the captioning, because it translated that as "Zdick in balls two".

 

6 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Hot Ones: The sequel to the first Hot Ones sketch!

I remember that now that you brought it up.  I was wondering if it was a reference to a real episode of Hot Ones that Beyonce was on, but now I remember Maya used to do her impression of Beyonce quite a bit.

That coffee commercial based on Lauren Bacall was a really deep cut, I wonder how many people remember that?  I'm even more surprised anyone on the show remembers it.

[DanaMB]

Maya did a Hot Ones on her show Loot, too. (As her character, not Beyoncé.)

And her outfits on the show are on par with what she wore in her monologue. 

Edited May 12 by DanaMB

[juno]

One of the best WU in a long time. Che was on fire this week. He just needs to stop looking around every time he makes a joke.

[Kimmmmmm]

3 hours ago, rmontro said:

I watch TV with the closed captioning on, and I thought this was amusing:

In the skit where the teachers were complaining about their students, Bowen Yang said he tried to play Cahoot with his kids, but they made usernames like "Dzickanbools2".  Apparently that was too subtle for the captioning, because it translated that as "Zdick in balls two".

 

I remember that now that you brought it up.  I was wondering if it was a reference to a real episode of Hot Ones that Beyonce was on, but now I remember Maya used to do her impression of Beyonce quite a bit.

That coffee commercial based on Lauren Bacall was a really deep cut, I wonder how many people remember that?  I'm even more surprised anyone on the show remembers it.

I'm old and didn't make the Bacall connection!

The show was "OK", IMO, but (again, IMO) Heidi and Sarah continue to be not at all funny. I did love seeing all the Moms.

[rmontro]

30 minutes ago, Kimmmmmm said:

The show was "OK", IMO, but (again, IMO) Heidi and Sarah continue to be not at all funny. I did love seeing all the Moms.

I like Heidi, but I'm beginning to have my doubts about Sarah.  

I was impressed by all the moms, they delivered their lines without messing up.  Not bad for not being used to being on live TV, or TV at all for that matter.

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, rmontro said:

I remember that now that you brought it up.  I was wondering if it was a reference to a real episode of Hot Ones that Beyonce was on, but now I remember Maya used to do her impression of Beyonce quite a bit.

I thought they were referencing a real appearance by Beyonce on that show, too, which of course surprised me. 

As for the coffee commercial, now that I watch the Lauren Bacall commercial, I remember that, but I didn't while watching this sketch. Even the coffee names were similar: High Point and Tip Top. This was funny. Fart jokes are hit-or-miss for me, mostly miss, but I liked this, esp her line, "I don't know who let frogs in here...."

Loved the CO. It's funny seeing the resemblances betw children and their parents. Mikey's got his mother's eyes.

Loved the monologue song. I don't know all the slang -- and didn't get some of the slang in the rest of the show -- but it was good.

In the Hot Ones sketch, Kenan should have put on sunglasses before he brought out the Men in Black device to erase the host's memory.

Maya's character in the please don't destroy pre-tape was great, esp when she swung her boobs around.

In the teachers sketch, my favorite part was the 'sit down' bit Ego did. (I can't remember the spelling.) She looked like she was close to breaking.

The British cavemen sketch was pretty funny. I felt it could have been better, but it was a good idea.

Loved all the Trump-trial jokes in WU, esp that some testimony was so disgusting the sky turned green and that the jury paid Stormy hush money not to describe his penis. I wish the RFK Jr bit was better. Sarah is just too OTT for me.

The rest of the show was pretty good, too. No real bombs.

Like others, I wondered why the daughter in the sleepover sketch kept going on sleepovers, but I ended up not caring because all the excuses the parents were giving were just so great. My favorite was Maya yelling, "Cicadas!" then releasing the bugs. :D

Edited May 12 by peeayebee

[Joimiaroxeu]

Cold Open:
SNL guys lowkey hitting on Marcello's mom. I could see it.
Too many Tom Brady jokes.
Kenan cosplaying Zendaya's stylist. Okay.

Maya's Mother song was a bop. The cast seemed genuinely thrilled to have her back, even the ones who hadn't worked with her before.

Maya as country Beyoncé!!!! Perfect timing. (And I know Beyoncé's new line of hair care products isn't cheap but $6k for coco butter? I doubt even the Beyhive would pay that much.)

I don't do Instagram. What's the deal with Instagram Explore pages? That skit went right over my head.

TSIDDAHN!

Cave people with British accents. Bloody hot innit?

Bet Maya came up with that sleepover fail sketch from personal experience.

WU
Of course, RFK Jr's brain worm. The SNL worm went in too. Loved the costume.
Ozempic babies at the Met Gala. Good one, especially when one of the late night show hosts said it last week.
Kinda low blow on the WNBA. Being imprisoned in Russia isn't really funny but I've heard some people have found Brittney Griner's new memoir hard to take seriously.
I expected a harsher dig at Drake--or none at all. Kendrick has pretty much salted Drake's earth.

Lanzetti's Lawn Care: loved all the accents. Shut up nerd!

I'm looking forward to Jake Gyllenhaal hosting next week, with Sabrina Carpenter as the musical guest. Apparently the Swifties want Sabrina to work in a musical dig at Jake on Taylor's behalf. Because neither Taylor nor her fans can let it go.

[Pete Martell]

The cut sketch. This is a reprisal of a sketch Maya and Kenan did almost twenty years ago.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned the Lauren Bacall commercial. I thought it was about Faye Dunaway (especially as they had the Mommie Dearest bumper right before). I'm not a huge fan of the obscure pop culture reference Cecily did 500 times, but I did appreciate Maya's performance enough to make it one of the more memorable parts of the night for me, along with the pre-tape with Maya as a mother. 

When Maya started on the show I thought she had great potential, but she devolved into mugging. Last night was a more mature side of her even as she still had fun. Probably my favorite of her hosting performances, even if the episode itself didn't do a great deal for me (most of the night felt lifeless to me even as they were taking the approach I wanted them to take - lots of sketches with most of the cast rather than just the same few performers doing camp).

Speaking of that, I am so tired of seeing the same few people on Update. With such a large cast it makes no sense to me to have Sarah doing her roasting Colin the fourth time in a season. I say that as someone who enjoys those, in small doses. I read that JAJ was cut from a commentary as Brian Cox. That may have been bad, but I wish we had the chance to see.

I also wish Che would stop reacting when people don't love his jokes.

Edited May 12 by Pete Martell

[juno]

21 minutes ago, Pete Martell said:

I also wish Che would stop reacting when people don't love his jokes.

last night they were laughing  and he was still reacting to the one or two groans I heard. Dude needs to stop it really is distracting

[EtheltoTillie]

UO:  I think it’s funny when Che does that. 

[HC87]

The writing on this show is so generally piss-poor today.

"British Cavemen?" ....just cringeworthy.

The guys not named Keenan on SNL have 0 presence.

Heidi Gardner is easily the most talented of a very low-bar cast....

Major changes are needed imo.

[cinsays]

1 hour ago, HC87 said:

The writing on this show is so generally piss-poor today.

"British Cavemen?" ....just cringeworthy.

The guys not named Keenan on SNL have 0 presence.

Heidi Gardner is easily the most talented of a very low-bar cast....

Major changes are needed imo.

Agreed on Keenan being the best of the guys but besides Heidi I love Ego

[Galileo908]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

UO:  I think it’s funny when Che does that. 

It's the difference between a sketch comedian and a standup on this show, and Che is a pure standup, always commenting on audience reactions.

[Galileo908]

3 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

Thanks to everyone who mentioned the Lauren Bacall commercial. I thought it was about Faye Dunaway (especially as they had the Mommie Dearest bumper right before)

Rewatching the sketch again, they definitely reference that, too, since Maya mentions the cameraman being in her eyeline.

[peeayebee]

3 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

With such a large cast it makes no sense to me to have Sarah doing her roasting Colin the fourth time in a season. I say that as someone who enjoys those, in small doses. I read that JAJ was cut from a commentary as Brian Cox. That may have been bad, but I wish we had the chance to see.

I can't tell you how tired I am of Sarah roasting Colin. I guess I HAVE told you that. 

Brian Cox? He's certainly been speaking his mind. I have no idea how aware of that people are.

[Kimmmmmm]

5 hours ago, cinsays said:

Agreed on Keenan being the best of the guys but besides Heidi I love Ego

Love Ego, but I detest Heidi.

[Pete Martell]

2 hours ago, HC87 said:

The writing on this show is so generally piss-poor today.

"British Cavemen?" ....just cringeworthy.

The guys not named Keenan on SNL have 0 presence.

Heidi Gardner is easily the most talented of a very low-bar cast....

Major changes are needed imo.

I think a number of the men in the cast have strengths (I think the male cast is overall stronger than the female cast in the last few seasons), but they aren't properly used. Mikey is so often involved in material he feels too tired to still work with. Michael's quirky, sardonic Update pieces have mostly been phased out and given to Marcello, even though I don't think they suit him (neither did the attempt at turning him into Pete Davidson with the Dune bucket song). JAJ is fine in the straight man roles but he has some edge and weirdness I wish they'd do more with. Devon has a steady presence, even if he still hasn't fully found his groove. I think other than Kenan, Andrew has been the best used male cast member this season.

Another inspiration for that fart sketch:

Dress rehearsal report:

 

[Tachi Rocinante]

Jeebus Christmas does Vampire Weeknd suck.  Not even garage-band level, at least from a live perspective. 

British Cavemen was dumb. Ditto for the sleepover sketch.  The entire premise was fucking stupid.  A throwaway line from the daughter about wanting to keep trying would've done wonders.

They could have done so much more with the Cahoot screen names.

Old lady fart jokes are always funny.

[proserpina65]

The Beyonce skit was funny, as was the one at the end with the landscaping company, but otherwise this was underwhelming.  I actually thought last week was better; at least it had good music.

 

 

[Tango64]

2 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

A throwaway line from the daughter about wanting to keep trying would've done wonders.

Yep, that's all that was needed to pull that skit together.  Without it, you kept wondering what the hell was up with that daughter and why they kept going along with it.

The parental excuses also should have started out plausible, then a little less plausible, and escalated to the absurd as they ran out of ideas. They jumped right to the absurd and killed the joke.

[Dirge]

On 5/12/2024 at 7:18 AM, juno said:

One of the best WU in a long time. Che was on fire this week. He just needs to stop looking around every time he makes a joke.

PREACH

 

On 5/12/2024 at 10:35 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Maya's Mother song was a bop. The cast seemed genuinely thrilled to have her back, even the ones who hadn't worked with her before.

I did like that. 

[Trini]

Behind the Scenes: Maya Rudolph's Mother's Day Monologue

 

[Milburn Stone]

On 5/12/2024 at 6:19 AM, rmontro said:

That coffee commercial based on Lauren Bacall was a really deep cut, I wonder how many people remember that?  I'm even more surprised anyone on the show remembers it.

That amazes me too. I did remember it, instantly--knew absolutely that the sketch was referencing that. But what was it, 40 years ago?!??

[Shanna Marie]

On 5/12/2024 at 6:20 PM, peeayebee said:

I can't tell you how tired I am of Sarah roasting Colin.

He seems to get roasted by a lot of people. It seems to be some kind of running gag that he's a racist, sexist, elitist jerk who's a sexual predator. I get the impression that these jokes are more of an inside thing and are funnier to the people involved with the show than they are to the audience. I doubt this is the kind of humor that's funny because it's true because if he were that bad, he probably wouldn't be able to keep his job, and if he were powerful enough to keep his job in spite of being that bad, he could keep them from doing jokes about it. So I have to think that this is all supposed to be funny because it's the exact opposite of the truth, but since I don't know what Colin Jost is like in real life, it's not funny to me. I guess they figure that a successful straight white guy married to a major movie star is the perfect "punching up" target, and he seems to be a pretty good sport about it, even though he sometimes turns red and gets a bit flustered. I find myself cringing on his behalf during those bits.