S42.E11: Felicity Jones / Sturgill Simpson

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Felicity Jones hosts; Sturgill Simpson is the musical guest.

[VCRTracking]

[Maverick]

 So, this is going to be January Jones level bad, isn't it?

[ebk57]

Thank goodness for Sturgill.

[Fabricationary]

I groaned as soon as I saw the first sketch after the monologue was another tired iteration of The Bachelor parody.  I then groaned even harder when tonight's host appeared to flub her first line and seemed to use a different accent at each appearance.   Worst version of this sketch yet.

The rest of the show was just OK.

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: We're covering Trump's press conference and hoooooooooo boy are they making up for lost time. He's a whiz at his constant stream of jobs, we're gonna be showered with jobs. It's almost weird that Trump just happened to pull in people the show already had good impressions for, like Steve Harvey. I was wondering why New Guy was playing Eric Trump and then, yeah, there;s Beck as Shirtless Putin. And of course, he had to preface this with "This is really happening."

Monologue: Oh right, forgot Felicity Jones was Jyn from Rogue One so that means more Star Wars jokes! Always welcome. Hey, it's Tina Fey as Holo Leia. I missed her, and love how she pretty much pointed out, well, every complaint we've said. Leslie Jones appearing to act like herself at the end meant the writers are lazy, Trump will just call this episode sad, etc. At least there was no singing? But man, already she sounds like she's clearly reading off the cue cards. This is gonna be a long night.

Beard Hunk: Ah yes, the Bachelor knockoff with all the girls taking turns hitting on the Hunk. Love seeing this again. Felicity was sadly wooden as hell.

Shondra: I liked this. I was thinking "where are they going with this?" Then the car stalls. I'll admit that I burst out laughing when the car exploded.

Albie Durberry: Speaking of January Jones, I didn't anything would top the stupidity of the farting actress sketch, now here's Felicity Jones feeding an old man yogurt and screwing with his chair. I honestly wanted to see the play Beck & Kate were in. Best part was probably Kenan in the background (then joining in).

The Princess & The Curse: So the curse is...she gets 15 pounds heavier? Doesn't seem so bad. Also, we need Kate as Maleficent, like, always.

Susan B. Anthony: Had a feeling that Kate was going to be Susan B. Anthony because of course she would. Yeah, love that she didn't just leave. But it got just a little too awkard and went on a bit too long for my liking.

WU: Totally had a lot of ground to make up. And, again, simply had to show clips of real things Trump said. "At least Nazi Germany had the guts to stand up to Russia." And hey, Pete Davidson is back! Technically, he was in the cold open, but good to see him doing his thing. Someone had to draw a cartoon warm shrimp cocktail and I love that. Beck Bennet: Emerging Pop Star sounded like a bit that was too weak to be a sketch, so it's relegated to Update.

Hot Robot 3: Journey to Boob Mountain: Here's something I'm sure all these folks are familiar with: press junkets with defending terrible movies. I choose to believe that this was all initially improvised, then written down.

Joke-eoke: This was painful. I'm gonna assume the writers thought everyone checked out by now, or at least after the second Sturgill Simpson performance. I actually said "Oh thank God Kate McKinnon is here" when she showed up.

3 minutes ago, Maverick said:

So, this is going to be January Jones level bad, isn't it?

Tina REALLY should've said January Jones instead of Steven Seagal. Probably because he's an easier target? The show should stop having people named "Jones" to host. But there's one big difference between then and now: January Jones didn't have Kate McKinnon to save the show, so I'm gonna say tonight's show was better. 

I said a few months back after whoever's show that the writers were saving all the good stuff for Tom Hanks, and it seems they'll be doing the same for Aziz Ansari. They're gonna have to TRY to make that one bad.

I liked that they had a (small) tribute to Tony Rosato right at the end. Sure, he was from an era we'd like to forget, but he was still a part of SNL.

[Mumbles]

She came off as so nervous during that opening, I felt uncomfortable watching it. Then I began to wonder if it was part of the joke. But then the way Tina and Leslie hugged her encouragingly at the end made me think it was not a shtick. 

I saw her on Graham Norton a few weeks ago and she was fine as a guest.

Aren't most pharmaceutical reps supposed to be hot?

I don't think I laughed once after the open.

And it's just great that this very slim woman gaining 15 pounds would be a deal-breaker, is supposed to be funny (eye roll)

Sturgill Simpson was great. Loved him since he wrote a song based on a Bertrand Russell joke ("Turtles All the Way Down"). 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Mumbles

[ebk57]

I also laughed when the car blew up.  And at the line about the Nazi's standing up to Russia.  And that was about it.

Loved Sturgill (but I think I already said that...)

[Bruinsfan]

Can't join in with the Sturgill love, though I would happily pay to hear an evening of his band doing instrumental riffs if he was too sick to perform or something—they were awesome. Is he related to someone who owns a record label in Nashville?

The only chuckle the show got out of me tonight was Tina talking about the flaw she introduced in Season 35. WHY did Felicity Jones think she could do this?

[abstractstuff]

I liked the cold open, Kate, and the musical guest. The rest was just awful. 

[TimWil]

Except for the cold open this one was an unmitigated disaster. Beck Bennett in practically every sketch? Rock bottom.

[vb68]

Well this was a weird one to put it mildly.

A lot of the sketches were very original, and there was a decent amount of social commentary sprinkled throughout.  So that's one thing. I didn't burst out laughing at anything, but I appreciated what they were going for in stuff like The Princess and the Curse and Susan B. Anthony.

But yeah, Felicity wasn't very good.  Not that she really shit the bed in anything, but it was kinda like she just wandered in off the street and decided to take part without knowing very much about what was going on.  Even her goodbyes were slightly disconnected.  (But Che doing rabbit ears behind Leslie was one of my favorite things.  It was that kinda night.)  It was a bad omen they decided to just give the monologue to Tina and then go down the Ronda Rousey track with The Bachelor sketch where they try as hard as possible to get the focus off the host. 

It also seemed like it was Saturday Night Live starring Beck Bennett and his players.  He has definitely grown in confidence in sketches and I like how he can go between a straight lead and hella smarmy.   He was in everything tonight.  I think he is relishing his new alpha dog status (and showing off his guns as Putin).

I don't know a thing about Sturgill Simpson, but that was lively.  I liked it.

 

Quote

Tina REALLY should've said January Jones instead of Steven Seagal. Probably because he's an easier target?

Legend has it that he was quite the asshole.  I recall it even being said on the show before (David Spade?)   But suffice it to say they loathed him, and I think it was mutual.  So easy target in that sense. 

Edited January 15, 2017 by vb68

[Bees]

I missed the first few sketches due to football. I jumped in during the Albie sketch. Though looking at the reactions from everybody else, it looks as though I didn't miss anything. So I guess I'll go from there...

Albie Durberry: I think this could've worked better if it was more spread out. I just felt like the placement of everything in this sketch was off. Also, if the nurse was played by someone whom wasn't so wooden. I did want to see more about Kate and Beck's play going on.

The Princess and the Curse: This is actually pretty funny when you think about the shallowness of some folks. It kind of worked, I guess. Thought the ending part after Maleficent put in a possible exchange for the princess' nightly weight gain and Beck and Felicity both agreeing that wasn't going to work.

Susan B. Anthony: Boring. Lazy. Just didn't bring anything. I would've loved to have seen this in a Digital Sketch format and then have them take Susan B. Anthony for a night on the town. I feel like they wanted to go somewhere satirical with it given that Susan B. Anthony did have some rather...err....crummy views on some stuff (also I believe she voted straight Republican ticket when she did vote...but I think this was during the Republicans being the liberals era?) but then kind of held back too much. 

Weekend Update: I thoroughly enjoyed the Update stuff. Pete Davidson's bit seems like it was cut shorter than it was supposed to be. And while I do love Beck Bennett, this was not one of his best. Also, I saw the Ducktales cast reveal video, Beck, I know you can carry a better tune than that, man! I think I liked the whole bit about the term "black on black crime" and how it takes away from the issue by just putting race to it which kind of depersonalizes it for others.

Hot Robot 3 Junket: I wanted to like this, I really did. Though kind of funny they had her play a robot, seems like a bit of an in-joke of sorts. This was a good idea but it just didn't come together at the end. The execution was just off. 

Jokeoke: It's funny because they're women telling really gross jokes, right? RIGHT? Ugh...spare me. Though the second joke was kind of funny. 

Sturgill Simpson: I usually don't review musical guests but my god was this awesome. When I saw that he was nominated for Album of the Year (though I'm guessing Beyonce will take it. While Lemonade is a fantastic album that deserves it, I just don't think that the Grammys would be able to withstand the gallons upon gallons of salt Beyonce fans are gonna have if it doesn't.) But man, this was energetic, fun, had horns and was just a ton of fun. Though if I had any complaint, it's that Sturgill kind of needs to enunciate more or the sound mixer needs to get his shit together. Other than that, fantastic performance. I'm definitely looking more into his stuff.

Man the cast was all kinds of rusty outside of Update from what I've seen. Felicity Jones was just not a good host. I'm sure she's fine in other places, it's just here she was not good. Maybe it was nerves or she just really sucks at live performing. Yeah, this was not a great episode. When the best thing about the episode is the absolutely phenomenal musical guest, you kiiiind of have an issue. 

[helenamonster]

Even as a devout Tina worshipper, I was a little annoyed at her showing up in the monologue, but damn did she save that thing. "If your first line in a sketch is 'this is my friend Ray Ray,' you're not the funny one. If Leslie Jones shows up at the end of a sketch angry and horny, that means the writers couldn't think of a way to end it. And in season 35 I installed a flaw in the system: it's Kenan."

They've scraped the bottom of the Bachelor parody sketches but I still laughed at "I have the most severe ombre of anyone here."

I liked The Princess and the Curse. There are some guys (and girls, if we're being real) who would seriously consider leaving their SO if they gained 15 pounds (and not in a "good" place like your butt).

I didn't get the Susan B. Anthony sketch.

"We're Fandango. We used to just be a website, but now look at us."

27 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Tina REALLY should've said January Jones instead of Steven Seagal. Probably because he's an easier target? The show should stop having people named "Jones" to host. But there's one big difference between then and now: January Jones didn't have Kate McKinnon to save the show, so I'm gonna say tonight's show was better. 

Yeah I think Steven Seagal is an easier host to make fun of because of his public persona. January Jones, by all accounts, seems like a nice person, which is why I always feel bad mocking her hosting stint (also the way some people talk about Betty Draper makes me uncomfortable). But yeah, it was January Jones levels of "deer in the headlights" from Felicity tonight.

I'll be in the minority and say that Sturgill Simpson was awful. If that can be considered singing, then I want record contract. Jesus.

Deliver us from this mediocrity next week, Aziz!

[vb68]

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I didn't get the Susan B. Anthony sketch.

It was something  along the lines of the women being really spoiled with their shallow little problems, and they only called her up as instant gratification for their egos.  I thought the execution was shoddy and could have been much more pointed, starting with giving Susan B. Anthony some better lines. And yeah, they forgot the funny.

Edited January 15, 2017 by vb68

[Mumbles]

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January Jones, by all accounts, seems like a nice person

Well, when they needed to change the kid who played Bobby Draper because the character was getting older, the kid who was being phased out told his replacement to keep away from January (but that the rest of the cast was nice.) So there's that.....

But yeah, Seagall was a legendary jerk. Tina has also talked about how awful Paris Hilton was.

[Lava VaVoom]

I wondered if I am getting old, or if SNL is.  Almost nothing was funny, and what was, was barely entertaining.  I have no idea who Sturgill Simpson is, but Imma go looking for him.  Even the cold open with the very predictable Trump sketch was disappointing.  They have so much material . . . and didn't use it.  Is SNL finally running out of steam?  Do the current crop of comedy writers represent the best of what's out there?  Are there too many performers, and why must we see the same ones all the time?  My favorites are Leslie, Kate, Pete,and Michael.

[burner]

That was awful. My best guess is that they realized Felicity was a terrible host and decided not to waste any good material (that wasn't topical) on her. I imagine next week's episode with Aziz will be much better.

I adore Beck and I like seeing him as the male lead of the show but this just felt like overkill. Not sure why they didn't utilize some of the other guys more. Alex and Bobby were barely in this (was Bobby there?).

I dunno. Tonight just seemed really off. Sturgill was great though and I love that he's getting wider recognition.

[Bruinsfan]

The women in the Jokeoke sketch were so weird I wondered if it was going to be  a callback to that aliens sketch from the Julia Louise Dreyfuss show.

[Princess Sparkle]

I wonder when exactly in the week they all realized that Felicity Jones was going to be a nervous live performer and that they were going to have to start crafting sketches that minimized her.  Because ooof, even in the sketches where she didn't look like a deer caught in headlights, her ability to deliver a punch line was....lacking.  I don't think this was the show they wanted to come back from a big break on. 

I actually put this right on par with the January Jones episode, because while JJ was painful in the live pieces, her pre-taped sketch was hilarious. Whereas for this ep, other than the cold open and WU, I found most of the sketches, including the pre-taped, pretty eh - this is the first time in awhile where I've found sketches so unfunny that I've fast-forwarded them (which I did for the theater and 'joke' sketches). I did think there were some very funny lines sprinkled throughout the show - others have mentioned the Nazi Germany one in WU, and I also liked the "Just in time for parole!" joke.  And while I thought the Susan B Anthony sketch really failed to make the connection they were hoping for, I rewound Vanessa's exasperated "Yes bitch, we've seen your crap!!" quite a few times, because I thought it was delivered so hilariously. 

This does once again prove how hard live tv - and specifically live comedy - can be, and that being a good actor doesn't necessarily mean "good host" (which we've seen a few times with Robert DeNiro). 

[BusyOctober]

Not a good start to the second half of the season. That was awful.  She was not a good (or even mediocre) host.  And the material sucked too, so it wasn't all her fault. I think the only sketch that was kinda good was the Leslie-Keenan one. 

I get where they were going with the Fangango skit, but it fell flat. Same with the Jokeoke one. Why would Felicity use the same robot voice for her pharma rep character?  The Albee Something theatre skit was too stupid for words.  Even though it's so cliche, it might have worked better if Felicity played it as "hot nurse"  to the old guy versus whatever the Hell she did with it instead. Was she supposed to be old? Inept? Mentally challenged? 

And what does Sasheer Zamata have to do to get a lead in a skit? Or not have to play the straight woman to everyone else's "funny" part?  Too often I think this show promotes certain cast (male) members within a season.  Beck has been a funny guy but he is no Jimmy Fallon or Will Ferrell or even Taran Killam. I just don't see the star power there. And I'm getting tired of Pete Davidson, Voice of the Millennials and Weed Smokers popping up on WU with his "humorous" observations.

[Quickbeam]

I taught women's history for years and always thought there was comedy gold is juxtaposing the suffrage leaders with today's women. This wasn't it. It was lame and lackluster. Lost opportunity. Nothing new there. 

To the post upthread, Susan died before the 19th Amendment was passed. She was kicked to the ground in the street when attempting to vote, though. 

[dbro]

Is anyone else just Trumped out? I'm just so tired of the constant media attention given him, mostly brought upon himself, that I've also become weary of Baldwin's impersonation. I was so relieved when I heard, shortly after the election, that AB was going to give up the honour only to have it continue every week on SNL, and then more recently hear that he's considering taking it on tour. OMG... Enough already!! Nothing against AB, I would just like to see a lot less of Trump in any form.

[Primetimer]

Was The Force with the first new episode of 2017?

View the full article

[Fostersmom]

Well…. that was… special. I've never seen a show that can only be categorized as bless their heart, but this was it. It was just bad. I liked the cold open and WU and that was it. I didn't have high hopes since I had no idea who Felicity Jones or Sturgill Simpson are and they did nothing that made me want to learn more. She was wooden and lacking. I thought they were the SNL house band for a few seconds. The whole show was Beck heavy, but I didn't necessarily mind. His boy band character was kind of overkill, but his facial expressions nailed it for me. They were so over the top and hokey, but 100% accurate to tweeny boy band performers, I liked it. 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Fostersmom

[futurechemist]

I don't get the love for Sturgill Simpson.  I could not understand a word he said.  Every line was just 1 giant word slurred together.

I didn't think the show was that funny.  I liked Tina's meta-commentary about the show.  But I worry that the show is too often just re-enacting what Trump did rather than going deeper or providing a unique perspective.  And between WU, Colbert, and the Daily Show, I'm officially done with pee jokes.  More jokes about Trump's policies, less low-hanging fruit about piss and tiny hands..

I thought Felicity Jones was very nervous at first.  She completely ran over her Dropbox joke during the monologue.  But she settled down, sometimes too much into fairly wooden characters. None of the sketches really made me laugh, at most they kept my attention.  Not entirely Felicity's fault, many of the sketches never went beyond a broad premise like "vapid girls flirt with a bachelor" or "modern women meet Susan B Anthony then get bored".

[Ms Blue Jay]

It was incredibly awkward that racism was never brought up in the Susan B. Anthony sketch.  I just kept waiting and waiting for it.  Never happened.  It was cute when Kate McKinnon wanted to know what a cellphone was, but what the hell was the point of that?

Susan B. Anthony has allowed white feminism, spoiled white women to not care about their history and their privilege?  LOL.  Was it going that deep?

Was there any evidence before Felicity was announced as host that she had any comic aptitude?  Honestly, she was better than I expected, because I expected the worst.

I liked the monologue, though Felicity stared straight ahead the entire time without making eye contact with anyone, and I liked the Bachelor sketch.  Other than that it was almost like an experiment of an SNL making points without the laughs.

The 15 lbs thing was smart, I thought.  But yeah not something I could bring myself to laugh at.  It is so extremely real.

I don't care about or for the Trump impersonation either.  It was funny when Trump would get pissed off about it the next day, but to me it's not actually funny.  It's more like a public service.

I kind of thought they'd say more about Carrie Fisher, considering Tina Fey wrote a 30 Rock episode specifically for her, and Felicity is the star of Rogue One.  At the end, when she spoke so effusively about the cast and crew, that's where I thought it was going.  

Edited January 15, 2017 by Ms Blue Jay

[Fabricationary]

26 minutes ago, Fostersmom said:

I didn't have high hopes since I had no idea who Felicity Jones or Sturgill Simpson are and they did nothing that made me want to learn more.

She is, surprisingly, an actress who's garnered Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in recent years, besides her recent turn in Rogue One.  

Mike Ryan's SNL scorecard is up; shockingly, he doesn't lambast Felicity's horrid hosting.  He is surprisingly generous with his final score.

[VCRTracking]

I thought Felicity did look nervous but the fault of her lackluster show was mainly the writing. They gave her terrible material to work with although I did like the last sketch.

Having seen Rogue One, Kenan's impression Forest Whitaker playing Saw Gerrera impression was spot on hilarious.

Liked seeing Tina Fey back and her line about when Leslie Jones shows up in a sketch acting "angry and horny" the writers couldn't think of an ending.

Never heard of Sturgill Simpson but I love old school classic rock so I enjoyed his performances.

[bilgistic]

Is anyone else just Trumped out? I'm just so tired of the constant media attention given him, mostly brought upon himself, that I've also become weary of Baldwin's impersonation. I was so relieved when I heard, shortly after the election, that AB was going to give up the honour only to have it continue every week on SNL, and then more recently hear that he's considering taking it on tour. OMG... Enough already!! Nothing against AB, I would just like to see a lot less of Trump in any form.

:: raises hand ::

I hate Trump so much that I can't even watch Baldwin's impressions of him. They turn my stomach.

[Mumbles]

Quote

It was incredibly awkward that racism was never brought up in the Susan B. Anthony sketch.  I just kept waiting and waiting for it.  Never happened.  It was cute when Kate McKinnon wanted to know what a cellphone was, but what the hell was the point of that?

Susan B. Anthony has allowed white feminism, spoiled white women to not care about their history and their privilege?  LOL.  Was it going that deep?

I too was wondering if they were going to broach the topic of Anthony's racism. That would have been a sharper finishing line than the abortion line, given how the vapid basics were all white.

[cpcathy]

Baldwin's Trump would be more fun if he had lost the election. But yes, "this is really happening."

[okerry]

4 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

I taught women's history for years and always thought there was comedy gold is juxtaposing the suffrage leaders with today's women. This wasn't it. It was lame and lackluster. Lost opportunity. Nothing new there. 

To the post upthread, Susan died before the 19th Amendment was passed. She was kicked to the ground in the street when attempting to vote, though. 

I was hoping that in the sketch, Susan B. would find out that the women there didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates, or couldn't vote online, or had some other lame excuse. That might have been fun.

Kate McKinnon is a treasure but yes, poor Felicity was too far out of her element.

[peeayebee]

5 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

The Albee Something theatre skit was too stupid for words.  Even though it's so cliche, it might have worked better if Felicity played it as "hot nurse"  to the old guy versus whatever the Hell she did with it instead. Was she supposed to be old? Inept? Mentally challenged? 

Yeah, her character was a problem. I can picture Kate as the nurse making this much better, esp if the nurse were played as a strict, Nurse Ratched type, strongly fighting against the old man. I did really enjoy Mikey Day. He put it all in this. He's one of my favorite performers on SNL.

 

Quote

I have no idea who Sturgill Simpson is, but Imma go looking for him. 

Imma go looking for the lyrics of his songs because I couldn't understand him. Oddly, though, I did like his voice.

Felicity Jones was not good. She just wasn't funny, and it wasn't because the material wasn't great.

I always enjoy Baldwin's impression of Trump. "Urine. Urine. Urine." Cheap joke, but it made me laugh. I thought, however, that the joke of this Cold Open would be that the press is focusing on salacious stuff rather than the more important things, like his financial connections to Russia. BTW, Trump called Buzzfeed a "failing pile of garbage," but I wonder if this was kind of a malapropism since the term is FLAMING pile of garbage. 

I didn't really like WU. Beck's bit was unfunny. Pete's new segment, First Impressions, disappointed me for his juvenile superficiality. 

[Ohwell]

I guess I can kind of understand why people liked Sturgill Simpson, but can anybody tell me what the hell he was singing?  The only thing I could make out was stay off the hot stuff (or was is hard stuff?) and stay in school and keep between the lines.  Or something.

[WhosThatGirl]

I really want to laugh at Trump skits but I said it back in December... I can't find it in myself to find it funny anymore. I really wish AB had stuck to his guns if not doing Trump because I would have preferred no Trump skits for four years, that would have made him even angrier if they ignored him.

This was an off show. It didn't feel right.

[AimingforYoko]

16 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Tina REALLY should've said January Jones instead of Steven Seagal. Probably because he's an easier target?

Because January was just bad, Seagal was bad, and actively an asshole. 

[Ohwell]

54 minutes ago, WhosThatGirl said:

I really wish AB had stuck to his guns if not doing Trump because I would have preferred no Trump skits for four years, that would have made him even angrier if they ignored him.

Exactly.  I think he actually looks forward to seeing the skits and tweeting about them afterwards.   I hope AB changes his mind.

[Fabricationary]

And, Trump is back to tweeting about SNL.  Pick your battles, dude.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I was totally expecting it, then I thought he forgot about it.  He tweeted kind of late this time. 

[JZL]

They couldn't let the Trump shenanigans slide, what with the golden showers allegation and the parade o' the fake divestiture reports.  I loved the "You're in?" to "urine" slide.

I thought we may be in trouble when Jone's rushed the "Dropbox" joke in the monologue.  She wasn't committing to the material and her comedic timing isn't that great. 

Oh, since someone mentioned January Jones, how long has it been now since Jon Hamm hosted?

Edited January 16, 2017 by JZL

[redfish]

Quote

 So, this is going to be January Jones level bad, isn't it?

Yes. She was kind of flat with her delivery and missed some of her cues.

The Trump sketch was funny but in a too close to reality kind of feeling.

Quote

I was hoping that in the sketch, Susan B. would find out that the women there didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates, or couldn't vote online, or had some other lame excuse. That might have been fun.

Totally. I had hoped they had let it slip that it was an election year with a woman candidate and then grilled that they didn't vote for her because of lame excuses and then lambasted by Susan B. then regretting her efforts.

Edited January 16, 2017 by redfish

[vb68]

Quote

I was hoping that in the sketch, Susan B. would find out that the women there didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates, or couldn't vote online, or had some other lame excuse. That might have been fun.

Yeah at first I thought they were going to go for a parallel to how the Millennials viewed/treated Hillary, but that never developed.

Quote

Oh, since someone mentioned January Jones, how long has it been now since Jon Hamm hosted?

Way too long. He should had been a Five Timer by now. 

I wonder if Felicity knew what she was getting into when she agreed to host.   I just get the impression this was more her agent's idea. 

[Bruinsfan]

"If Brie Larson can do it, you can too!" [whipcrack]

[Ms Blue Jay]

Well at least Brie Larson has been in comedy movies, like 21 or 22 Jump Street, I think 21.  Felicity Jones, again I say that I don't know her British television history so I can't tell if any of her work on her IMDB page was comedic.  That's why this casting is such a question mark.

[JZL]

I would argue that this wasn't January Jones level bad.  That entire show was one of the low points of SNL history during the Wiig/Meyers years, and Jones was so lost she was audibly asking, "Which camera?"  (To Jones' credit, she's great on The Last Man on Earth)

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/january-jones-snl-which-camera/

But it wasn't good.  At least WU continues to shine, and I at least liked the CO.  I sorta liked the theater sketch; it was fun to see Kate break at someone else instead of the usual other way around. 

Edited January 16, 2017 by JZL

[JTMacc99]

So... the episode was okay, but I did get something out of it. I want to learn more about Sturgill Simpson. And to be honest Felicity Jones too. But to start, I'll be listening to him on Spotify tomorrow. 

[helenamonster]

18 hours ago, burner said:

I adore Beck and I like seeing him as the male lead of the show but this just felt like overkill. Not sure why they didn't utilize some of the other guys more. Alex and Bobby were barely in this (was Bobby there?).

I saw Bobby during the credits and immediately realized he wasn't in a sketch. It was odd.

Yeah, the Susan B. Anthony sketch could have gone in a million different great directions. They could have brought up her racism and other not great ideologies, also all of the women were white so odds are at least two of them voted for Trump, which could have played a part. Damn, they could have had Sasheer play Ida B. Wells as part of it to give her something substantial to do for once. It's sort of astounding how badly they wasted what could have been an awesome premise.

Also, the best part of the cold open was something I didn't notice until I was watching the show's Instagram story earlier today: Donnie was wearing a Russian flag pin, not an American flag. Clap it out for whoever came up with that one.

[peeayebee]

4 hours ago, Fabricationary said:

And, Trump is back to tweeting about SNL.  Pick your battles, dude.

After Tina made the comment about his always tweeting about the show, I thought he'd skip it, but he has no self-control.

[Maverick]

 I like Beck (why was his neck so red in WU?), but this show really highlighted that he can't carry it like Taran could.   The show is really weak on male talent right now, other than Bobby and Keenan.  Beck and Kyle do well in the pre-taped stuff and can carry some skits (particularly Beck) but not at the level their female counterparts do.  Pete's a one trick pony (and I don't like his one trick).  Mikey Day has some potential.