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S40.E19: Scarlett Johansson / Wiz Khalifa

formerlyfreedom

By formerlyfreedom
in Saturday Night Live

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helenamonster

helenamonster

I realize I could easily look this up, but then I wouldn't have the fun of writing the following question. What the heck is a Wiz Khalifa?

 

A rapper. The only song I know by him is "Black and Yellow" which is a few years old now.

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opus

opus

A rapper. The only song I know by him is "Black and Yellow" which is a few years old now.

Sure, why not. It sort of sounded like a urinary tract infection.

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vb68

vb68

(edited)

How many of the Avengers show up?   I know RDJ and Renner were/are in NYC this week for The Tonight Show.

 

I would love Cobie to be there just because it would be awesome to watch her do a sketch with Taran.

Edited by vb68
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Galileo908

Galileo908

Cold Open: The whitest day of professional sports history aired on NBC today. Hockey, the Kentucky Derby, then Night Golf. The Mayweather/Pacquaio fight was great, I love how they hand waved Aidy playing Manny. Again, any reason to shoehorn Kate as Bieber always makes for a good sketch.

 

Monologue: Enough with the goddamn song monologues, SNL! Even Kenan and Tara looked like they knew it was a bad idea. This was just awkward as hell.

 

Right Side of The Bed: "It's the one with the gay guy and his mom." Scarlett gave an accurate summary of this one. She was good, but I thought the other characters were just dumb and obnoxious.

 

Baltimore: Instead of the clusterfuck that is the Baltimore protests, they did a sketch of the weird empty Orioles game (with tons of uncomfortable jokes). I liked this one more than I thought I would.

 

Black Widow: Age of Me: Here's the requisite Avengers sketch. Love that a Black Widow movie would just be a dumb chick flick. With sex scenes with Ulton and Taran as Thor as the gay best friend. This was so great.

 

Girlfriends Talk Show: I don't quite understand the teen lingo these days. It's all stupid, as well as those prom-posals. Those still happen with college formals and they're still stupid as hell.

 

WU: "Everyone's already on board the Gay Train." And of course Kate continues to be SNL's MVP as Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Barkley & Shaq and Westeros' only couple luckily came in to save the bit.

 

Museum: I wish I didn't know people like Cecily and ScarJo's characters. They were annoying.

 

Blazer: I assume this was made by the same people as Dyke & Fats? I loved this already, but the twists at the end being a commentary for police brutality was what made this fantastic.

 

Robo Flight Attendants: Vanessa and Scarlett were great in this.

 

Jingles: Pretty dumb sketch.

 

This was a pretty scattered episode, more misses than hits. But it wasn't Scarlett's problem, I thought she was great.

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helenamonster

helenamonster

(edited)

Cold Open: I thought this was probably the most creative Cold Open this season. At first I thought Pacquiao (ooh, I spelled that right on the first try!) was played by Bobby, but then when I saw it was Aidy I started busting out laughing. And Kate as Bieber is forever necessary.

 

Monologue: Enough. Just...enough.

 

Right Side of the Bed: Oh. They brought this back. Because everyone was clamoring for it? I thought Scarlett was good. "I have to go back to the hotel, I left my kids in the pool." And this show definitely likes to recycle the sight gag of Kate playing male musicians with beards.

 

Orioles: What was this trying to do, exactly? This is one of the major problems with this show right now. So many times they'll do a sketch where they'll make it clear that they're aware of something going on, but they won't really say anything about it. Idk if it's fear of backlash or what but take a risk once in awhile, maybe.

 

Black Widow: Good concept, but something is still bothering me with some of these pre-taped bits. Something about the editing is just sloppy and I wish I could put my finger on exactly what because I feel like I'm just complaining about nothing.

 

Girlfriends Talk Show: Take this bit out into the woods and shoot it. Shoot it dead.

 

Weekend Update: Oof, any progress these guys were making has taken several giant steps back. The stumbling, ugh! And the "what's up" is still bothering me; I'm going to comment on that every week until they knock it off. The Bruce Jenner thing did not come off that well to me. There is humor to be mined from that kind of thing that doesn't come from making fun of Bruce Jenner himself; pretending you have to walk on eggshells around the whole thing is just lazy. Thank God for Kate and RBG. Were those actual GoT characters? I don't watch the show, but I feel like I do because of the endless gifsets I see on Tumblr, and I don't think I've ever seen them in one. And I think I blacked out from how bored I was by the Barkley/Shaq bit.

 

Museum: I go to a private college in New York City. These girls are EVERYWHERE.

 

Blazer: Ok, this was a much better take on the Baltimore situation than the Orioles thing. It was a lot more subtle (I was wondering for awhile if he was only going after black guys) and just in general smarter and actually had something to say.

 

Virgin Atlantic: This was just so nuts and bizarre that eventually I just gave into it and let it take me wherever it was going. Pretty good as far as post-Update sketches go.

 

Pampers: Eh, not great except: "That's the McDonald's jingle." "That's what Papa John's said."

 

Really a dull show. Not Scarlett's fault (let's be honest, it's rarely the host's fault). I feel like the last three shows last season were not great either. I get it, guys. The weather is getting nice, the season's almost over, you want your nice long summer break. I'm in the same boat with school. But, like, I'm still gonna put an effort in. Y'all only have to work 20 or so weeks a year. Do more.

Edited by helenamonster
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vb68

vb68

(edited)

That was indeed a weird one.  I think they were so self conscious about the big fight that it became a rather awkward elephant in the room.  Scarlett was certainly  game and gave it her all, and there were some really good individual segments (The Black Widow Movie, Ruth Bader Ginsburg--I only wish she "burns" her colleagues like that, the robot flight attendants). But I'm not sure the sum of the parts added up right.

 

I do think they were probably watching the fight backstage, so that might have been distracting.  At some points there was a going through the motions vibe.

 

I'm disappointed that Leslie didn't play the Baltimore mom.  

 

 

Were those actual GoT characters?

 

Yes, they are actual characters, and the impressions were on target.  But I still didn't love it.

Edited by vb68
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Bees

Bees

This episode wasn't entirely unpleasant. Not the best though. 

 

Cold Open: Oh god it WAS the whitest day in professional sports history...I didn't even notice that. I was wondering what was up with night golf. This was pretty fantastic. Definitely one of the best cold opens of the season. I loved the handwaving as well. The real MVP of the sketch was the narrator. Though Kenan sidebarring of sorts to Aidy saying "He's not Spanish..." was amusing too. 

 

Monologue: SNL, it's not even funny anymore. Cut the shit with the goddamn singing monologues. Just because it worked during The Rock and Michael Keaton episodes doesn't mean it's something you should go to every episode. That being said, I did love Taran's face when he first saw her little song. 

 

Right Side of the Bed: Who the hell asked for this to become a recurring sketch?! I don't particularly recall anybody clamoring for this to be recurring. The first one was mildly amusing but that's also pillowed by an excellent episode. Seeing Kate as Hozier at the end was pretty funny. 

 

Orioles Game: While the announcing booth kind of bothered me on an accuracy level (It's Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer in the booth), the sketch was still pretty great. I loved the unfortunate commentary moments. Then Bobby as the hot dog guy kissing the hotdog. The actual broadcast was pretty amusing in its strangeness. I liked this sketch though regardless. It worked. Also, Taran had the right sort of cadence of Palmer but he needed to bring his voice down an octave in order to really get Palmer right.

 

Avengers Age of Me: Oh man, this was great. Somewhere in Marvel, someone is angrily crumpling up their Black Widow script and throwing it in the trash, annoyed that SNL ripped off their idea. Okay maybe not necessarily that but still. I liked Thor as the sassy roommate. 

 

Girlfriends: I thought we had taken this out back and shot it. Prom is lame but I had a wonderful time during mine. I never quite got the whole Promposal thing. I didn't even know it was a thing until a few years ago when someone asked me if I ever got a Promposal which was a big no because I ended up doing the asking myself and it was far from a promposal...more like a last second thing where my friend asked on my behalf after I stammered too much and then I ran into the library out of embarassment....he still said yes though! Anyways...god this sketch is lame. 

 

Weekend Update: This was a pretty good Update. Had some solid jokes (though I feel like the Orioles one could've gone so much better) and Kate as RBG is always lovely. I think the GoT one would be much funnier if I watched the show but alas. I think the Bruce Jenner joke was my favorite just because Colin was trying to come up with something and Michael going "NOPE!" and what not, misgendering aside (though did Bruce say which pronouns just yet? I'd assume she but I'm not too sure and I don't want to overstep anything.) 

 

Museum: Oh god, I know some folks like this. I think this is what everybody thinks I'm like when they first see me. Anyways, I was more distracted by Taran's character constantly flipping his hair than anything else. And the twist of the two girls arriving by themselves was pretty amusing. 

 

Blazer: I really liked this. The ending twists were wonderful. Plus I liked the hint of it being only black dudes when he pushed away the one white guy. Also loved the ending shot with Blazer falling flat on his face. 

 

Virgin Atlantic: The idea was okay and the performances of Johansson and Bayer were pretty good but I don't know...I just couldn't get behind it entirely. It just didn't go anywhere for me. 

 

Advertising Jingles: Is this Advertising thing going to be a regular sketch? Because if so...why?! (thinking back to the Keaton episode) this one was stupid and not the good kind of stupid (the 10 to 1 stupid). 

 

This episode was hit or miss to say the least. They had some great stuff but man did the sucky stuff just suck. 

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Ms Blue Jay

Ms Blue Jay

(edited)

I thought that was a fantastic episode and that Scarlett was brilliant and I really enjoyed the writing.

 

First episode I've enjoyed in a long, long time.

 

Here are my notes

 

- Michael Che cannot get through more than 1 story without tripping over his words.  He only has to say like 5 or 6 of them.  I find this distressing.

- When "Blazer" started, the San Francisco-esque views and Full-House-ish music made it sound a lot like a Full House episode opening, so I was all braced (and excited) for a Fuller House parody -- did anyone else get that vibe?

- I really didn't care for Scarlett updating everyone at the end of the episode and congratulating Mayweather.  For a lot of reasons.

 

Though Kenan sidebarring of sorts to Aidy saying "He's not Spanish..." was amusing too.

 

Though Aidy responding in a fake yellowface-ish Asian accent was not at all amusing.  SNL relies on that cheap humour way too often.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone

(edited)

I found Johansson offputting, which is not what I expected. Her chin was literally up in the air for most of the show. That subtle body language that says, "I'm a STAR; isn't it incredible that I'm consorting with these mere commoners on stage, and deigning to let my hair down for you huddled masses?" She reminded me of Madonna in that way. That aura both emanate that you're supposed to be grateful that a star of awesome awesomeness has come down to earth from the heavens for ninety minutes to be with you. Johannson is gorgeous, no doubt about it, but an attitude of humility for her gifts would go a long way, rather than the neck-stretched, chin-upraised, quasi-royal "my **** don't stink" attitude that came across last night.

 

I'm distinguishing this from some of the sketches in which the whole point was how stuck-up her character was. What I'm talking about suffused everything she did.

Edited by Milburn Stone
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Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone

Someone fire Michael Che already, when he's not flubbing ever single line and ruining the joke, I don't understand a word he mumbles with marbles in his mouth; and when I do understand, he's not funny.

 

The other problem with him is that he chuckles at his own material (and Jost's). That never works. It triggers an automatic response in the audience of "Hold on there, mister, we'll decide what's funny."

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DXD526

DXD526

It's amazing, in a totally unimpressive way, how Che manages to trip over his tongue at least once every week. I keep expecting that at some point he'll get comfortable and relax, but it never happens. I really hope WU gets an upgrade next season.

 

I'd still like to see Jebediah and Riblet do the last Update of the season. 

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helenamonster

helenamonster

That was indeed a weird one.  I think they were so self conscious about the big fight that it became a rather awkward elephant in the room.  Scarlett was certainly  game and gave it her all, and there were some really good individual segments (The Black Widow Movie, Ruth Bader Ginsburg--I only wish she "burns" her colleagues like that, the robot flight attendants). But I'm not sure the sum of the parts added up right.

 

I do think they were probably watching the fight backstage, so that might have been distracting.  At some points there was a going through the motions vibe.

 

The fact that I do not give two shimmy shakes about sports is probably clouding my judgment here, and I've kind of been under a rock for the last week or so with exams coming up so I guess I didn't realize what a big deal it was, but is the fact that the fight was going on during the show a good enough reason for it to be so...blah? I don't mean to imply that that's what you're saying, but I feel like I'm constantly being asked by the show (somewhat subtly) to ignore its shortcomings because something else was going on and the writers got distracted and well of course we couldn't pay attention to doing our actual jobs, two guys are beating the shit out of each other on pay-per-view and we're missing it! I got the same vibe with Seth's last episode (Seth is leaving us for a studio literally thirty feet down the hall, we are DEVASTATED AND CANNOT BE HELD TO ANY STANDARDS THIS WEEK) and it irks. Shit, sometimes stuff happens and you have to miss it and keep doing your job anyway. The only excuse I could ever buy would be another attack of 9/11 proportions hitting NYC, but even the staff at that time managed to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get on with the jobs that they're paid to do.

 

I think the Bruce Jenner joke was my favorite just because Colin was trying to come up with something and Michael going "NOPE!" and what not, misgendering aside (though did Bruce say which pronouns just yet? I'd assume she but I'm not too sure and I don't want to overstep anything.) 

 

I'm fairly certain that Bruce has requested, for the time being, that people still use he/him pronouns. Again, finals have kept me out of the loop with everything, that might have changed.

 

The other problem with him is that he chuckles at his own material (and Jost's). That never works. It triggers an automatic response in the audience of "Hold on there, mister, we'll decide what's funny."

 

I still follow Michael on Instagram (I follow all of the cast because I like seeing BTS pictures; I'll unfollow him when he leaves, which, if God is merciful, will happen at the end of this season) and he's constantly posting things about how unless you're actually in the comedy business, you are unable to judge what is and is not funny. So something tells me he doesn't really care if his little chuckles trigger that audience response. After all, we non-comedians are simply mere peons who lack the ability to judge the funniness of something. Because you need a PhD in comedy to have a sense of humor, apparently.

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buttersister

buttersister

(edited)

Will the real RBG please stomp this shit into the ground? A less funny, less relevant, less worth the time show would be hard to name. I've understood the tradition of "this" SNL isn't as good as "that" SNL for many, many years, but a better example of why SNL should be put out of its misery would be hard to find.

 

Edited because after coffee, it's clearly RBG.

Edited by buttersister
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ratgirlagogo

ratgirlagogo

 

I'd still like to see Jebediah and Riblet do the last Update of the season

They could take over permanently as far as I'm concerned.  I don't know why they didn't grab W. Kamau Bell while they could - maybe it still would be possible even with his CNN gig - he's brilliant, articulate, very political and very funny.

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vb68

vb68

(edited)

 

but is the fact that the fight was going on during the show a good enough reason for it to be so...blah?

 

Oh, no it's not.  I'm not sure there's ever a good reason for that.  I mean, yeah I get that they are also mostly likely exhausted by this point in the season too, but they still have to get through it.

 

I was saying they were very out there in referencing this fight.  When they said at the end of the CO that two cast members had left to go watch the actual fight, it felt very meta.  And then when Scarlett came out, I noticed she actually said something to the audience like "you guys actually came!"    It was a strange vibe.  But that was entirely on them.

Edited by vb68
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cpcathy

cpcathy

Why did they even schedule a show this week?

 

I was thoroughly disappointed in this episode. Scarlett is NOT funny, and that's the end of that. I have no idea why she's a four time host. Now I'm dreading next week with Reese even more.

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lou ann b

lou ann b

Haven't watched all the show yet;just the cold open. Will comment on rest later. But, since I'm in the shallow end, I'll say it: Is Jay Pharoah BUILT or what? I approved so much of what I was seeing that I was barely listening.

Thank you, Jay.

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helenamonster

helenamonster

Oh, no it's not.  I'm not sure there's ever a good reason for that.  I mean, yeah I get that they are also mostly likely exhausted by this point in the season too, but they still have to get through it.

 

I was saying they were very out there in referencing this fight.  When they said at the end of the Co that two cast members had left to go watch the actual fight, it felt very meta.  And then when Scarlett came out, I noticed she actually said something to the audience like "you guys actually came!"    It was a strange vibe.  But that was entirely on them.

 

Yeah I feel like the best way of avoiding having an elephant in the room would have been to not even mention it. I thought the CO was clever, but it could have stopped there. I mean, anyone who really wanted to watch the fight (which I saw somewhere wasn't even that great) would have found a way to do so and wouldn't have been watching SNL; anyone watching SNL live last night probably wasn't too worked up about the fact that they were missing the fight. Idk, I guess I just couldn't see why they couldn't just do the show without that self-conscious aspect.

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Bruinsfan

Bruinsfan

I thought that sketch might take a darker turn once the robo-stewardess turned up in the co-pilot's seat and the pilot didn't know what had happened to him. Like "does anyone know how to fly a plane, and also stop a murder-bot?" dark.

 

The Black Widow movie preview was perfect. I feel out laughing at Thor as Natasha's sassy gay roommate, and again at Bobby with the ice cream cones.

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nowandlater

nowandlater

Why did they even schedule a show this week?

 

I was thoroughly disappointed in this episode. Scarlett is NOT funny, and that's the end of that. I have no idea why she's a four time host. Now I'm dreading next week with Reese even more.

 

1. It's May sweeps.

 

2. They usually do 3 final shows to wrap up the season. The week after the season finale is Memorial Day weekend.

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dbro

dbro

Someone fire Michael Che already, when he's not flubbing ever single line and ruining the joke, I don't understand a word he mumbles with marbles in his mouth; and when I do understand, he's not funny.

 

Yes Please!! Jost and Che have had the season to get the wrinkles out but only Jost has managed to improve. Fire Che's ass and bring in Jessica Williams from The Daily Show!

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helenamonster

helenamonster

I didn't understand the joke in the Museum skit.

 

Cecily and Scarlett's personalities were very specific ones that I guess if you haven't come across, you might not recognize. It's hard to describe, really, but there is just this subset of people whose sense of humor boils down to saying really random, usually obscene things in response to just about anything and passing it off as a well-crafted joke. They also tend to feel the need to make a derisive comment every single time someone else speaks. Not gonna lie, it's usually people who grew up in theater (I was a theater kid so I'm not trying to offend anybody), so I'm not surprised that one of the writers/cast members came up with this, as most of them probably did theater in high school.

 

Unfortunately, like a lot of the humor on SNL these days, it was dumbed down as low as it could go and barely scratched the surface of any kind of intelligent character study or commentary. Sometimes I can't decide whether the writers think their audience is stupid or if the writers themselves are actually stupid, and I'm not sure which one I would hate more if it was the case.

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Blakeston

Blakeston

 

Weekend Update: This was a pretty good Update. Had some solid jokes (though I feel like the Orioles one could've gone so much better) and Kate as RBG is always lovely. I think the GoT one would be much funnier if I watched the show but alas. I think the Bruce Jenner joke was my favorite just because Colin was trying to come up with something and Michael going "NOPE!" and what not, misgendering aside (though did Bruce say which pronouns just yet? I'd assume she but I'm not too sure and I don't want to overstep anything.) 

 

Bruce Jenner has requested that he be referred to by male pronouns. Presumably temporarily.

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JTMacc99

JTMacc99

I was thoroughly disappointed in this episode. Scarlett is NOT funny, and that's the end of that. I have no idea why she's a four time host. Now I'm dreading next week with Reese even more.

I think she interesting, game, and does really well when the material is good.

 

But like most people, doing the live comedy show is not what she is best at.  There are very few Tom Hanks for us to enjoy. We got Jim Carey this season. We got a Dwayne Johnson this season. We got a couple former cast members who were good at it. It hasn't been that bad of a season for hosts, and I didn't think this was that bad of an episode.

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theatremouse

theatremouse

I found Johansson offputting, which is not what I expected. Her chin was literally up in the air for most of the show. That subtle body language that says, "I'm a STAR; isn't it incredible that I'm consorting with these mere commoners on stage, and deigning to let my hair down for you huddled masses?"

I know from experience, SJ does tend to have a holier-than-thou attitude, but her weird chin angle thing to me here was so awkward it looked to me more like "I can't read the cue cards at their current height/distance in conjunction with my fashionable hairdo" moreso than an attempt at haughty derision.
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