S50.E03: Ariana Grande / Stevie Nicks

[Galileo908]

This week's host will be Ariana Grande, with musical guest Stevie Nicks

Airs 10/12/24

[JeanJean]

This was a good energy show.

I really liked the Family Feud sketch. It's too bad Dana Carvey wasn't Biden the past 4 years. Although I agree with those who think Biden should be played smarter.

The bridesmaid sketch needed Chloe Troast. She can really sing and the show needs that. I still don't get why she and Molly were canned. (It seems like Punkie left of her own volition, but who knows if that's true?)

WU is always good and I enjoyed Ego and Oasis.

The 2 Jennifers sketch was fun

Ariana's a good host. So multitalented.

So best show of the season so far for me. Not hilarious but fun enough.

Bring on Pedro Pascale!

Edited October 13 by JeanJean

[vb68]

This episode is all about Stevie Nicks for me.

"The Lighthouse" is incredibly powerful.  For such a revered artist to put herself on the line with a song so charged and relevant is inspiring.

And then Stevie singing "The Edge of Seventeen"?  Be still my aged Gen X heart.

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Well, that's one way to get a Family Feud sketch in here. The GOP side just stopped the sketch cold, but man, when you have Maya, Andy, and Dana on one side, they're gonna be. That and "show me WHITE NONSENSE!" I prefer this to the "politicians react to stuff that actually happened" sketches. I laughed way too hard at "a second gun" being the top answer, somehow getting more votes than just "a gun."

Monologue: Did Ariana look pale? I liked her song, and I liked Bowen in the Glinda dress. Because of course he wanted an excuse to wear it.

Bridesmaid Speech: "And now a sketch Chloe Troast would've killed." Was the singing intentionally bad (because they're all drunk Bridesmaids), or was the music juuust off enough to not pay for an actual song? Either way, it did nothing for me.

My Best Friend's House: Even with the twist that the Dad was a serial killer...it didn't do much for me.

Charades: I got into Ariana Grande playing the mom, even if she's younger than Bowen. And I love it when they bring out the dummy to throw around. This was a fun one.

Celine Dion for UFC: Good Celine impression, I liked the premise.

WU: Che and Jost just don't GAF anymore, and I love them for it. I couldn't believe they got away with that coast hanger joke. And yes, there was a SnoopyWeekly twitter account that got shamed into deleting their account because they posted about supporting Trump, to the point of posting a Peanuts-ified Trump shaking hands with Snoopy.

And man, JAJ and Sarah as Joel and Liam Gallagher! I feel like the audience was way too young, since they didn't seem to recognize them until Sarah starting singing Wonderwall. Or laugh at the R Kelly jokes, for that matter.

Castrato: Yes, castrating little boys so they never hit puberty so their voices never change was an actual thing. The last prominent one died in 1922. The costume and makeup department were killing it as usual with this one. It was considered just as weird back then as the sketch made it out to be. Between "gonad" and "pecker", we've been seeing underused euphemisms all over the place tonight. Ariana was really good and creepy playing a dead-eyed little boy.

Jennifer Coolidge for Maybelline: A fake mirror sketch AND it's dueling Jennifer Coolidges?! And Dana Carvey was a THIRD Jennifer Coolidge?! They saved THIS for the 5-to-1?!

The Hotel Detective: Man, they got Ariana changed from that last sketch really quick! The theory was that this was a pre-taped sketch from the Dress Rehearsal, and I can believe it, especially since a cue card showed up on camera. This was a really fun one. Again, they saved the good one for last.

This one was real uneven, but I liked what I liked. Honestly, my favorite sketches were the ones where Ariana didn't sing in. Ariana Grande came from the same Nickelodeon Kidcom factory Kenan did, so she was a natural at this. And, well...Michael Keaton hosts next week! And I'll be just coming home from NY Comic Con, so I'll probably be less lucid than I am now. I keep saying I won't stay up for that but every year I do.

And man, what was with that hiccup before Edge of Seventeen? It just held on the bumper for a minute before cutting to commercial.

13 minutes ago, vb68 said:

"The Lighthouse" is incredibly powerful.  For such a revered artist to put herself on the line with a song so charged and relevant is inspiring.

The reddit thread only knew Landslide and Edge of Seventeen and they weren't expecting THAT performance. I loved it.

Edited October 13 by Galileo908

[Dirge]

I'm already tired of Dana's Biden. I was hoping that they filmed this last week when everyone was there, and it was the same writers and we won't be seeing this for the whole season, but then everyone being there tonight made me lose that hope.

I wonder how hard it was for Ariana to sing badly in the bridesmaid sketch. 

I thought of all her impressions were good. Especially Celine Dion!

Hey WU: Trump was at Calhoun Ranch, not where the Coachella music festival is held.

Ariana was compelling as the castrato. 

I did like the Jennifer Coolidges. 

It was great to see Stevie Nicks. 

I can't remember if I've ever seen a cue card being shown twice, as in the hotel detectives sketch.

[MarquisDeCarabas]

3 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Bridesmaid Speech: "And now a sketch Chloe Troast would've killed." Was the singing intentionally bad (because they're all drunk Bridesmaids), or was the music juuust off enough to not pay for an actual song? Either way, it did nothing for me.

Pretty sure part of it was they couldn’t sing so it’s not like Chloe Troast would have saved it. 
 

In the live reactions reddit someone said if it wasn’t for Pete, Ariana would either be a five timer or coming up on it. And I can definitely see that. I always seem to forget she has legitimate comedy chops. 
 

Also theory is that Hotel detective was taped from the dress given the cue card errors.
Either way that was impressive diction from the three of them. 

[vb68]

58 minutes ago, JeanJean said:

I really liked the Family Feud sketch.

I just thought it was very lazy and scraping the bottom of the barrel of ideas. That's the best thing they could think of to lead off? The teams weren't even balanced. Even if Scarlett wasn't there, they couldn't even have Chloe do Ivanka? Meh.

I agree it was uneven. My favorite was probably the Celine Dion sketch.

Oh and I meant to say before that I do wonder if Stevie said "NO" to the monologue. 

Edited October 13 by vb68

[txhorns79]

I thought the best moment was the studio audience going crazy when the opening chords of Edge of Seventeen started playing. 

[Lantern7]

36 minutes ago, JeanJean said:

I really liked the Family Feud sketch. It's too bad Dana Carvey wasn't Biden the past 4 years. Although I agree with those who think Biden should be played smarter.

Prediction: if Kamala wins (fingers crossed), they'll have Dana reenact the climatic scene of The Usual Suspects. It would be a nice farewell to Biden as a character in general.

[Trini]

Was expecting Ariana to sing, wasn't expecting three singing sketches in a row, though.

She's really good at impressions!

I didn't catch what Samberg's character in the Castrato sketch said that made Kenan break for a second -- can anyone explain?

[Dirge]

3 minutes ago, Trini said:

I didn't catch what Samberg's character in the Castrato sketch said that made Kenan break for a second -- can anyone explain?

I think he called him Kenan. 

[Andyourlittledog2]

2 minutes ago, Trini said:

I didn't catch what Samberg's character in the Castrato sketch said that made Kenan break for a second -- can anyone explain?

I think it was because he actually called him Kenan in the sketch. Unless I missed something else.

I didn't like all the singing in the sketches because it's hard to understand what the words are without subtitles and there aren't good subtitles in first aired episodes. So I missed a ton of the jokes in those sketches. And she was great in non-singing sketches so they didn't need to lean on her singing that much. She's hosting, let her really do regular sketches.

[DanaK]

I thought this was a pretty good show overall and Ariana showed that she had a pretty good sense of humor. I enjoyed the Trump vs Harris Family Feud opening sketch. I’m enjoying Maya playing VP Harris so I hope we get more of that. “I like my friend’s house” sketch definitely went in an unexpected direction

Stevie Nicks’ first song seemed weird to me so I bailed maybe halfway through but I enjoyed Edge of Seventeen. It’s nice that she can still sing well at 76

Also, it was nice to see a “Wicked” promo that finally leaned into the movie being a musical

Edited October 13 by DanaK

[baldryanr]

7 hours ago, vb68 said:

The teams weren't even balanced. Even if Scarlett wasn't there, they couldn't even have Chloe do Ivanka? Meh.

That's part of the joke, Melania (and Ivanka) have been MIA this time.  Plus the Dem side was loaded with the special guest stars, so they were going to get the lion's share of screentime regardless.  But hey, at least JAJ and Kenan got to say Live from NY.

[driver18]

This was the best ep in a while ti me and I do not like Arianna Grande at all. Other than the Castrato one, I thought every sketch was great, and Arianna was fantastic. Of course, Stevie was great.

[Kimmmmmm]

I thought the whole show was really good and Ariana is a great host!! That's all.

[cdnalor]

I thought Ariana did a much better Coolidge than Chloe because she nailed the voice timbre just right.  I guess being a singer means she has a better ear for that aspect of impressions.

A decent show with a competant guest host and a few daring jokes on WU made this a B+ episode for me.

[vb68]

2 hours ago, baldryanr said:

That's part of the joke, Melania (and Ivanka) have been MIA this time.  Plus the Dem side was loaded with the special guest stars, so they were going to get the lion's share of screentime regardless.  But hey, at least JAJ and Kenan got to say Live from NY.

Yeah I got that. It still didn't work for me. I just couldn't buy into it. As Pete Martell always says, I guess I just wish the writing, and in this case, the premise was stronger.

Edited October 13 by vb68

[Thumper]

Don’t know much about Ariana (except singer, and “Wicked”) so I muted her monologue.  But I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed her in the sketches!  
 

I thought Stevie was shouting and didn’t finish listening to her songs.  Guess I will relisten as I am hearing so much positivity about the messages.

Edit:  just read the lyrics to The Lighthouse.  Wow!!!!!  💪💪💪 

Edited October 13 by Thumper

[baldryanr]

5 hours ago, vb68 said:

Yeah I got that. It still didn't work for me. I just couldn't buy into it. As Pete Martell always says, I guess I just wish the writing, and in this case, the premise was stronger.

To be fair, obviously the show has been all downhill since this:

 

[Psychobunny]

I know Stevie Nicks is a legend but did not really understand why they would have her as a musical guest. Edge of 17 must be almost 50 years old and I still can’t understand the lyrics and I don’t think she sounded that great on it. That said, Lighthouse blew me away. Topical song and great performance. 
 

I am glad they played to Ariana’s strengths. She really is awesome at musical impressions. She is just so talented.

[Avabelle]

16 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

And man, JAJ and Sarah as Joel and Liam Gallagher! I feel like the audience was way too young, since they didn't seem to recognize them until Sarah starting singing Wonderwall. Or laugh at the R Kelly jokes, for that matter

To be honest with how bad the accents were I don’t think JAJ or Sherman know much about Oasis. It was awful and I normally love those two. 

[Red Bridey]

34 minutes ago, Avabelle said:

To be honest with how bad the accents were I don’t think JAJ or Sherman know much about Oasis. It was awful and I normally love those two. 

I *don't* love Sarah and I hated this bit. It was painful to listen to and not funny to me at all. But, as always, ymmv. The local news ran long so the last sketch and final goodbyes were cut off. Will have to remember to record the rerun.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Cold Open:
SNL is determined to have Dana doing his Biden. Does Lorne owe Dana money or something?
Still love Bowen as JD.
Okay, SNL went there with their Family Feud final guess. Yikes.

Bowen as Glinda the Good Witch. I wanted to see more of that.

Ariana lowkey shading Sabrina Carpenter. Guess she had to do it though since Sabrina is arguably the reigning pop princess.

Ariana's look in the best friend's house song was interesting. Was she supposed to be channeling a member of one of those K-pop groups?

Gay guy's mom Diane plays rough. What is a "toad chode"?

Fake Celine sounded a bit Italian to me this time. Otherwise, Ariana has that impression down cold.

Not a fan of Stevie's first performance. It was reminiscent of her old rising crescendo anthems but in a lazy, "cheap imitation" way IMO.

Weekend Update:
The coat hanger joke. Oy.
Can't get an STD if he's got a USB.
I hate that I laughed at "Diddy Freak-off, Nebraska."
White Boy of the Year Award. Ha, Colin has it on lock.

I appreciate Ariana subtly alluding her lessening ability to hit those highest notes. And ugh, the whole concept of castrati seems barbaric.

There it is! Yay, Stevie sang Edge of Seventeen. I got chills as soon as I heard the beginning notes. Brava, Stevie!

I thought Chloe had Jennifer Coolidge's voice down but Ariana had the mannerisms better. Until she broke, anyway. But then Dana's part turned it mean. Why was he involved?

The cue cards for the film noir/Twilight Zone-ish detective sketch must've been insane to try to read live.

What happened to Ariana's mic in the signoff? A chunk of what she said was barely audible.

Ariana is a talented host and is always game. Seems like she's taking her time to earn her 5-timers jacket.

[Galileo908]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

The cue cards for the film noir/Twilight Zone-ish detective sketch must've been insane to try to read live.

There's confirmation that this sketch was pre-taped from dress rehearsal. But I agree, it's a testament to all of them that they were able to pull off the fast talking for their lines.

[Joimiaroxeu]

7 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

There's confirmation that this sketch was pre-taped from dress rehearsal. But I agree, it's a testament to all of them that they were able to pull off the fast talking for their lines.

Wonder why they didn't edit out the brief appearance of a cue card during the sketch?

Edited October 13 by Joimiaroxeu

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Gay guy's mom Diane plays rough. What is a "toad chode"?

There’s a fairly new show on CNN called Have I Got News for You. It’s described as 

Quote

Hosted by Roy Wood Jr. with acclaimed comedians Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black serving as team captains, "Have I Got News for You" is a comedy panel show which delivers comic observations from the satirical to the surreal.

Today I learned more than I wanted to regarding your question, from that show. I’ll leave you to decide if you want to do your own research. 

[omophagia]

I didn't love most of this episode, but it's mostly because I just kept waiting for a Stevie Nicks Fajita Round-Up sequel that never came...

[lou ann b]

3 hours ago, Psychobunny said:

I know Stevie Nicks is a legend but did not really understand why they would have her as a musical guest. Edge of 17 must be almost 50 years old and I still can’t understand the lyrics and I don’t think she sounded that great on it. That said, Lighthouse blew me away. Topical song and great performance. 
 

I am glad they played to Ariana’s strengths. She really is awesome at musical impressions. She is just so talented.

Why not have a legend as musical guest? 

She's released new music and it's season 50. Good enough for me 

[SoMuchTV]

54 minutes ago, lou ann b said:

Why not have a legend as musical guest? 

She's released new music and it's season 50. Good enough for me 

Haha. I’m still a little salty about when, several years ago, Paul McCartney was the musical guest, and there were comments along the lines of, his voice wasn’t the greatest. For Pete’s sake, he’s Paul freaking McCartney. Give us boomers a break!

[possibilities]

Stevie Nicks is the first musical guest I haven't fast forwarded in a long time.

[StatisticalOutlier]

22 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Castrato: ... Ariana was really good and creepy playing a dead-eyed little boy.

The only thing I know about Ariana Grande is that she's some sort of singer and she was involved with Pete Davidson.  I thought she was great in everything she did, but her "dead-eyed little boy" is going to stick with me for a while.  I couldn't take my eyes off her.

[RobertDeSneero]

If they're going to pick a side, "Trump has dementia" seems like the right one, even if his fans disagree.

I was waiting for the twist in My Best Friend's House and it was worth it.  Serial killers are funny.

Castrato was fine.  Gay Friend was fine. Hotel Detective was very fine.  Ariana Grande showed her impersonation ability as Celine Dion and Jennifer Coolidge.

Felt very solid overall, but not much super spectacular best-of-the-season stuff.

 

[peeayebee]

I didn't think this one was all that great, though Ariana is very talented. What a great voice. She's also has pretty good comedic skills.

My favorite part of the Family Feud bit was when Walz mentioned having Runza napkins in his glovebox. Because of him, I went to a Runza that is near us and got an original Runza sandwich. Very good.

Didn't care for the wedding reception sketch, though I appreciated that the bridesmaids were all singing badly.

My Best Friend's House was ok. My favorite part of this was part of the singing. I'm not knowledgeable about musical terminology and such, but she did something with her voice a few times that was really cool sounding.

My takeaway from Game Night is that Ariana looked like an older lady. Good job, Hair and Makeup!

She's good at impressions, but Celine Dion speaking sounded Spanish.

In WU I liked Ego's Amazon worker, esp the thing about Fluesday. Couldn't stand Sarah breaking all thru the Oasis bit. JAJ held it together with no problem.

Andy and Maya are great. When Andy called Kenan Kenan, I thought it was intentional.

I think Chloe's Jennifer Coolidge is very good. The sketch was ok. No need to Dana to appear.

I liked The Hotel Detective the best. The fast-talking was impressive.

[ASpring1900]

Really liked Best Friend's House. Certain scents—like specific perfumes or flowers—still bring me back to my neighbors' house, where I spent countless summer afternoons playing in the early ‘90s. The singing furniture was a bit hokey, but when the dad's line, “She hears them, too!” was clever. And hate to say it, but a lot of the thriller books I read have a similar vibe-- evil lurking evil is right under the main character's nose.

[Avabelle]

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Couldn't stand Sarah breaking all thru the Oasis bit. JAJ held it together with no problem.

The impressions and overall skit was awful. Sarah laughing through it further highlighted how unfunny it was.

[JeanJean]

On 6/16/2024 at 9:33 PM, AR Traveler said:

Minority of two then.  Alexei grew on me; Loren did not.

My favorite part of My Best Friend's House was the Luminol reveal.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Feud was OK, tired of Samberg and Gaffigan and Carvey every week.

Apparently in the minority here, but even as a sentimental Gen Xer, Stevie Nicks was fucking awful. I fast forwarded after 30 seconds on both songs.  Hell, even her promo was bad due to her dentures slipping.

Celine is French, not Spanish.

I liked the serial killer skit/song.  It sounded a little like Sara Bareilles' Brave.

Update keeps killing it.

Samberg in another skit?  Why?

I think the Gallagher brothers are both semi-talented douchebags, so I didn't mind the over the top shtick.

Ariana seemed game and was a decent host.

The writing on this show has always been average. Watch entire episodes from the first few seasons and not just a greatest hits compilation, and you'll see what I mean.

[Crashcourse]

2 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Apparently in the minority here, but even as a sentimental Gen Xer, Stevie Nicks was fucking awful. I fast forwarded after 30 seconds on both songs.  Hell, even her promo was bad due to her dentures slipping.

I'll join you at the table. 

I thought Christine McVie (R.I.P.) was underrated and was a much better singer than Stevie NIcks. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

1 hour ago, Crashcourse said:

I'll join you at the table. 

I thought Christine McVie (R.I.P.) was underrated and was a much better singer than Stevie NIcks. 

She was a more talented musician, too.

[Night Cheese]

32 minutes ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

2 hours ago, Crashcourse said:

I'll join you at the table. 

I thought Christine McVie (R.I.P.) was underrated and was a much better singer than Stevie NIcks. 

She was a more talented musician, too.

100% agree.

[heatherchandler]

5 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Apparently in the minority here, but even as a sentimental Gen Xer, Stevie Nicks was fucking awful. I fast forwarded after 30 seconds on both songs.  Hell, even her promo was bad due to her dentures slipping.

 

I feel bad saying it but I don’t think we are in the minority.