S43.E08: James Franco / SZA

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Hosted by James Franco; musical guest is SZA

[Gemma Violet]

Gift-wrapping sketch:  Shades of Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child.  It's an old gag but still funny.  Especially with everyone breaking up and the prop mishaps (James' leg was cut off before he cut it off).  lol  

[DrivingSideways]

Is it just me or was this episode pretty consistently funny?  I stopped regularly watching years ago and came across the episode.  Even the skits that weren't really all that funny were salvaged by James Franco.

Never paid much attention to Heidi Gardner before, but she got a ton of screen time tonight and she was hilarious!

Edited December 10, 2017 by DrivingSideways

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Whew, a Christmas sketch. About calling out Al Franken. And, well, all the other politicians and issues on the naughty list. So, a breath of fresh air. The kid asking about Matt Lauer actually made me gasp. Yeah, they went there, but only for a second. You can forgive the kids messing up their lines, right? I've been watching instant comparisons to Leslie Jones here and frankly I wish everyone would cool it. 

Monologue: Audience Q&A monologue! We haven't seen one of these in a while. I really wish Seth Rogen being in the audience was not addressed and not the crux of the bit. And then Jonah Hill showed up. And Steve Martin.

Sexual Harassment: Kenan as a creep is honestly hilarious. But weird since James Franco was right to keep calling him out, just seemed to imply hypocrisy and inconsistency. And is making James Franco apologize for sexual harassment (and keep getting called out for that) was definitely apt for him. This was a weird sketch but yeah, Kenan really made me laugh.

Wrapping Department: I was thinking "are they gonna pull a Julia Child on that paper cut?" and yep, here comes the blood. This is where I draw the line, we haven't had a sketch this gross in a while.

Scrudge: A Good Neighbor sketch starring Scrooge? Yes. LOVE that he was the only Victorian person there, apartment and all.

Spelling Bee: Kate's hands are still red, that's so great. This sketch was just weird, but Little Pig Boy saved it for me. Everybody's breaking tonight, Pete was next.

"Country of origin?"
"Little Pig Boy comes from the dirt." Slayed me.

WU: Sooo much crap happened this week. Once again the weird crap Trump said in the past few days does the writers' job for them. Cathy Anne dropped some hard truths tonight. The news is offending her senserbilities. Che's remote about going undercover as a liberal white woman was great, especially since Chris Redd was the only one who saw through it. I seriously hope this isn't the last we see of Gretchen. Also, the show should do more of these "investigative reports," It was definitely a great change of pace.

Trial: Okay, this got stupid. Being obsessed with how to pronounce "lasagna" and "pizza." I'm gonna agree that it is "Peet-SUH."

Christmas Charity: "Get out of my apartment, James Franco!" I was wondering what the punchline was gonna be, it was a sweet sketch. He just had to get a Disaster Artist plug in there, too.

Mandy: I thought they were setting up an "everyone imitates James Franco" sketch, but it was about calling him out on his filmography instead. I oddly relate to Mandy. They saved Dave Franco for literally the last minute, too.

This one was all over the place, but mostly good! So the Christmas show is Kevin Hart & the Foo Fighters. Sounds good to me.

[Peace 47]

Oh man, I was just typing up a post truly eviscerating this episode (even though I’m generally a pretty strong fan of the show), but everyone loves it!   So now I feel bad.  Maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy the show tonight (it happens). 

But I have to say:  what was with that “office sexual harassment resignation” sketch?  I generally don’t think women find old men who say inappropriate things to be endearing (but I know that they could have just been turning that fact on its head for the additional humor beyond the outrageousness of the things that Keenan said).  The twist at the end that Keenan’s firing had nothing to do with sexual harassment was not great, though.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

That cold open was awkward... where DID they get those kids from, indeed. 

Damn Jonah. I barely recognized him. 

This episode fell short for me. My favorite was the wrapping department sketch, it was the only one where I actually laughed out loud. Oh and I guess it was nice to see Cathy Anne again. 

1 hour ago, Peace 47 said:

Oh man, I was just typing up a post truly eviscerating this episode (even though I’m generally a pretty strong fan of the show), but everyone loves it!   So now I feel bad.  Maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy the show tonight (it happens). 

I guess I missed the boat too! Maybe I'm still reminiscing about "Welcome to Hell" from last week, ha. 

Also I didn't understand the sexual harassment office sketch either. It wasn't funny to me....

ETA: SZA's performance was a snoozefest. The most entertaining about it was the double-sided tape on her leg that was showing during her second performance.

Edited December 10, 2017 by MVFrostsMyPie

[vb68]

This was certainly an interesting episode.

I got nervous with the cold open and felt bad for those kids. It kinda felt like there was so much this week, and this was the easiest way to deal with it.

I haven't seen Jonah Hill for awhile and honestly thought he was Dave Franco for a good second. 

The Sexual Harassment Office sketch was more thought provoking than actually funny, but that was kinda the point (I guess).  (I actually wondered if this was some indirect defense of Al Franken with a"all these behaviors are not the same" rationale, but that seems really bold for them to attempt.)

The show got better for me from that point on. Loved the spelling bee sketch (did they pull a Stefon on Franco by not showing him Little Pig Boy beforehand?), Che undercover was a great change of pace and one of the best things he's ever done on the show. And I love Merry Christmas, James Franco. Something like that has probably happened to him. 

Also enjoyed Franco Family Reunion. I expected impressions too, so it was something of a surprise. Heidi really worked that one. 

I will say I was a little embarrassed by how blatantly he mentioned Disaster Artist a few times. We got it, James. And yeah people are saying Oscar noms are possible, but not sure it's a great idea to tempt fate by saying that yourself.  I don't know. Most hosts play it cooler than that.

ETA: 

Quote

This episode fell short for me

The cuts to and from breaks seemed really choppy to me.  I'm not sure what was going on.

Edited December 10, 2017 by vb68

[ebk57]

9 minutes ago, vb68 said:

This was certainly an interesting episode.

I got nervous with the cold open and felt bad for those kids. It kinda felt like there was so much this week, and this was the easiest way to deal with it.

I haven't seen Jonah Hill for awhile and honestly thought he was Dave Franco for a good second. 

The Sexual Harassment Office sketch was more thought provoking than actually funny, but that was kinda the point (I guess).

the show got better for me from that point on. Loved the spelling bee sketch (did they pull a Stefon on Franco by not showing him Little Pig Boy beforehand?), Che undercover was a great change of pace and one of the best things he's ever done on the show. And I love Merry Christmas, James Franco. Something like that has probably happened to him. 

Also enjoyed Franco Family Reunion. I expected impressions too, so it was something of a surprise. Melissa really worked that one. 

I will say I was a little embarrassed by how blatantly he mentioned Disaster Artist a few times. We got it, James. And yeah people are saying Oscar noms are possible, but not sure it's a great idea to tempt fate by saying that yourself.  I don't know. Most hosts play it cooler than that.

ETA: 

The cuts to and from breaks seemed really choppy to me.  I'm not sure what was going on.

I agree with all of this except the last point.  I wasn't embarrassed by his plugging the movie.  I just think that's the way the business operates.  And he didn't seem to have any issues with it.  (And I've heard really great things about it, to the point where I actually might leave my house to go see it.  Might...)

I do think the opening might have been way better if a couple of the kids had been better.  I felt bad for them, but maybe they needed a bit more rehearsal or something.  Most of them were spot on, the the writing worked well for them.

[opus]

I just figure the kids were related to people working on the show and not of the professional variety.

[Lava VaVoom]

I don't like James Franco and didn't enjoy most of the episode.  The trial sketch was interminable and made no sense.  I was hoping Franco would yell, "Save the liver!" at the end of the gift wrap sketch.  I don't know who Dave Franco is.  I took a look at his career history.  It's impressive.  Loved the cold open and the kids, they should have brought them back for the "Live from New York, etc." line.  I think I like the show more when the women are featured. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

30 minutes ago, vb68 said:

Also enjoyed Franco Family Reunion. I expected impressions too, so it was something of a surprise. Melissa really worked that one. 

Heidi.

[Mystery]

I also wondered for a second if the "people being fired for harassment" sketch was supposed to be some kind of defense of Al Franken, but I don't think so-- I don't think Cathy Ann's part would have been the same. I think that this week I've said about half of what Cathy Ann said tonight. That's disturbing! 

Listening to James Franco apologize was eerie because I've heard a lot of bad rumors about him.

I thought almost everything went on too long. 

Edited December 10, 2017 by Mystery

[Spartan Girl]

Wow, Jonah Hill lost more weight!

I liked the Christmas cold open. The kids were cute, even if they messed up lines. I was howling at the Matt Lauer dig.

[Fostersmom]

In defense of the kids, it all started going bad when Kenan skipped some of the lines. The little girl asked for an American Girl doll, and Kenan jumped to tax reform. The real mistake was way too many kids, all of which appeared to be staffers kids, in too little time. Trying to rush that many in and out was just an all-round  bad plan. 

I didn't have high hopes for this one, I can't stand Franco. Nothing about him comes across as likable, ever, to me. I like the rest of his stoner posse just fine, Seth is funny, Jonah is a pretty good actor, and Dave has a charm about him. James, just no. And not surprisingly, he didn't fail to underwhelm me. The only sketch I liked was the family reunion one, and that was 1000% due to Heidi and Dave. And let me just say, Dave's dinosaur sweatshirt was all kinds of awesome. 

[Mumbles]

Quote

Oh man, I was just typing up a post truly eviscerating this episode (even though I’m generally a pretty strong fan of the show), but everyone loves it!   So now I feel bad.  Maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy the show tonight (it happens). 

But I have to say:  what was with that “office sexual harassment resignation” sketch?  I generally don’t think women find old men who say inappropriate things to be endearing (but I know that they could have just been turning that fact on its head for the additional humor beyond the outrageousness of the things that Keenan said).  The twist at the end that Keenan’s firing had nothing to do with sexual harassment was not great, though.

I’m with you, I didn’t like the show at all. I was amused by Scrudge but that is it. And the harassment sketch left a bad taste in my mouth to the extent it suggests that women are inconsistent and fickle about what is harassment. That said, harassment can be situational, and there is a power aspect to it too. So I don’t know. But I’m still a little uncomfortable by it.

[Quickbeam]

I can’t stand it when they have kids on the show. 

[Peace 47]

1 hour ago, Mumbles said:

And the harassment sketch left a bad taste in my mouth to the extent it suggests that women are inconsistent and fickle about what is harassment. That said, harassment can be situational, and there is a power aspect to it too. So I don’t know. But I’m still a little uncomfortable by it.

Yes!  You said exactly what I couldn’t put into words about that.  I also was thinking the somewhat snarky comment as I was having to watch that it’s a strange universe of a sketch where people want to give the working class person of color a break over the powerful white guy. 

[Phishbulb]

1 hour ago, Mumbles said:

I’m with you, I didn’t like the show at all. I was amused by Scrudge but that is it. And the harassment sketch left a bad taste in my mouth to the extent it suggests that women are inconsistent and fickle about what is harassment. 

I thought the joke was going to be that Kenan's character was going to be the one who all the women think is disgusting, and then (handsomer) James Franco comes on and they forgive the harrassment in his case. That idea would probably work better with a more traditionally hunky host like Chris Hemsworth or somebody though.

Now that I think about this, they did this when Tom Brady hosted with the "Sexual Harrassment And You" short film. "How to avoid being accused of harassment...Rule 1, be attractive; Rule 2, don't be unattractive."

I agree that the sketch as it was didn't end up making a whole amount of sense. 

[helenamonster]

I work with child actors so I had a lot of feelings about the cold open. First of all, as someone mentioned, those kids might have been staffers' and not professionals, and some just happened to be better at it than others. For what it's worth, I didn't see a casting call from SNL go out this week. If those were professional actors (and since SNL doesn't put their regular cast together in the same way that other tv shows do, they also might do things differently for these sorts of things), some of them were very good so I was surprised at the ones that were so bad. But I put that solely at the feet of the show, not the kids. Don't put a kid on tv to read a cue card if they can't read what's on said cue card. There are hundreds of kid actors in New York who are more than capable of reading a few lines and walking off the stage. The one girl couldn't even pronounce Tel Aviv; she probably doesn't know what it is! Also I hope they didn't pull any of their infamous last-minute line changes on the kids. Doing it with adults is fine but that's a really shitty thing to do with kids.

Is Jonah Hill ok? I don't think I've seen him in years and found his weight loss alarming.

That workplace sexual harassment sketch reeked of "women are liars/inconsistent about what they consider harassment/just trying to take powerful men down." Maybe I'm being unfair and the sketch was trying to make a different point but since it didn't make that point clearly enough I'm gonna go ahead and write it off as hot garbage.

Sketches with uncontrollable bleeding are an immediate channel changer for me.

Weekend Update was really low energy once again, except for the love of my life, Cathy Anne. Y'all? She gets it.

I've been trying to give this season a chance but it really hasn't been great overall. I agree with others who have been saying that the loss of Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider is very noticeable.

[Branchop]

I watched this with my teenage daughter and I thought this sketch was right on the mark.  I actually said this is very much a workplace situation. If a guy is well liked and non threatening to your job ( Keenan’s character) then everything is okay.   Keenan had no power over these women.  They knew they could reject him with no repurcussions professionally.   Franco’s character was their boss and could potentially fire them if they didn’t respond and therefore he was a threat.

 

Sexual Harrassment is all about power and who has it and who doesn’t.  All that being said, if it is inappropriate for one it is inappropriate for all.   Society is not there yet, and this sketch showed it perfectly.  

[Thumper]

I stopped watching during the gift wrap segment.  Not a huge James Franco fan and he looked like he was very amused with himself.  The sketches I saw went on too long.  Wish the kids had been better prepared.  The thought that they were staffer's kids makes sense, because I kept thinking "they are in New York; they can't find any decent child actors who can memorize two lines???"  Very cute when the one little girl flubbed her line and Keenan very quickly said, "that's okay!"  Loved that.

[Mumbles]

I totally forgot about the Gretchen short during WU but given it was rather toothless I should be forgiven. Yes, well-off performatively "woke" people are fair game but (a) it's not just women who are like that and (b) I have limited patience for Michael Che goofing on women given his previous shitty jokes about women. The sketch last year about the Brooklyn Bubble after the election handled a similar target far better.

[vb68]

27 minutes ago, helenamonster said:

I've been trying to give this season a chance but it really hasn't been great overall. I agree with others who have been saying that the loss of Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider is very noticeable.

Absolutely. I was thinking about this again last night. The writing just isn't as sharp or as nuanced as it needs to be.

37 minutes ago, Branchop said:

Franco’s character was their boss and could potentially fire them if they didn’t respond and therefore he was a threat.

 

Speaking of which, that got completely lost for me in the sketch.

 

Also when Franco started saying his movie could get Oscar nominations, I wanted Cecily to hit back with "you aren't going to host The Oscars again right? Because that went over so well."  

[Phishbulb]

I just remembered that in the monologue Seth Rogen said he's only hosted twice, when in fact he's hosted 3 times. Obviously this was a slip-up on the part of whoever wrote the monologue, but you'd figure Seth would be able to remember how many times he's hosted (then again, weed...)

[Ms Blue Jay]

I really liked this episode.  I didn't fall asleep before the end so that shocked me.  Also, I love SZA and her second song "Love Galore" was one of my favourites this year.  James is super duper passionate.  Remember the "Za" sketch.  I thought it was so stupid but look how insane he took it.  Also his acting in the Spelling Bee sketch was fantastic.  That was my favourite sketch.

Couple of things though
- Cathy Anne called Al Franken "Al Franco" each and every single time.  Was she trying to do a dig at James.... that whole thing was SO weird to me.
- Leslie Jones admitted on Twitter that she actually almost threw up :)

The kids at the beginning who nailed their line readings I actually got a huge kick of.  Like the Matt Lauer kid.  I thought Weekend Update was GREAT except I personally hate Cathy Anne.  

For those who might not know, James Franco admitted on television to flirting with a 17 year old on social media, and there are screenshots and pictures of him doing so.

To the person who asked, Dave is James' younger brother.  I first saw him in Superbad.  Then 21 Jump Street.  He is in The Disaster Artist with James.  He is married to Alison Brie.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Ms Blue Jay

[Quickbeam]

3 hours ago, helenamonster said:

 

Sketches with uncontrollable bleeding are an immediate channel changer for me.

 

Me too! I literally walked out of the room once I saw where this was going. I never find it funny. I’m a nurse so it isn’t squeamish, it just didn’t work for me. 

[peeayebee]

24 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

He is married to Alison Brie.

How did I not know this?

 

5 hours ago, Fostersmom said:

The little girl asked for an American Girl doll, and Kenan jumped to tax reform.

I was wondering what happened here. I thought maybe the girl consistently had a problem at this particular point during rehearsals, so Kenan just jumped in to help her get over the bump. Not that that helped. I felt really bad for the kids. I agree that they probably weren't professionals, but heck, why didn't the show get real actors? To save a buck? I just hope none of the kids who messed up their lines feel bad about this for long. My favorite part was the boy who said, "I hate politics. Instead I want to talk about opiods." 

 

2 hours ago, Branchop said:

I watched this with my teenage daughter and I thought this sketch was right on the mark.  I actually said this is very much a workplace situation. If a guy is well liked and non threatening to your job ( Keenan’s character) then everything is okay.   Keenan had no power over these women.  They knew they could reject him with no repurcussions professionally.   Franco’s character was their boss and could potentially fire them if they didn’t respond and therefore he was a threat.

Sexual Harrassment is all about power and who has it and who doesn’t.  All that being said, if it is inappropriate for one it is inappropriate for all.   Society is not there yet, and this sketch showed it perfectly.  

I see your point, but I still don't think the sketch worked. The examples that the Franco character said were not bad, not fireable offenses imo. Charlie, otoh, would make many women uncomfortable. True, he had no power over them, but they had to interact with him every day. Certainly that would be a real sexual harassment case, creating a hostile work environment. I know that the extremes were supposed to make this funny -- the mildness of Franco's offenses vs the outrageousness of Kenan's -- but what came across to me was that women are hypocrites. I'm sure that wasn't intended. I don't know how this could have been written to be both perceptive and funny. To me it was neither.

As for the show in general, I didn't think it was a good one. The bloody gift wrapping sketch was unfunny. Scrudge was disappointing since I always like the Beck & Mooney sketches. Of course I don't know if they wrote this one, but as it started, I was hopeful, then my hopes were dashed.

The spelling bee sketch was almost good. I liked the randomness of Franco's character. I didn't think the Kate & Alex bits worked very well. 

BTW, I was pretty disappointed in all of Kate's contributions on this ep. I don't know what's happened (either with me or with her), but I didn't think her elf character, gift wrapping character, or spelling bee radio character were funny. It could just be the material and not the performances.

I like Cathy Ann. 

I also liked the silliness of the Za sketch. Franco going on and on about la-ZAHN-ya vs PEET-suh was goofy and tickled me. I'm not sure I liked much else in this.

I FF'd thru Sza's performances. I listened at first but didn't find her interesting.

[Mr. R0b0t]

So is SZA pronounces siz-za or siz-zuh?

[callmebetty]

I had a hard time hearing the kids who had trouble with the cue cards, this includes the Matt Lauer one. What was said?

I like Cathy Anne and have said some of the same things she has.

Didn't know Allison Brie and Dave Franco were married either.

[JakeyJokes]

2 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

Me too! I literally walked out of the room once I saw where this was going. I never find it funny. I’m a nurse so it isn’t squeamish, it just didn’t work for me. 

I watched this with my mom who is also a nurse - she thinks these sketches are hilarious! They did a similar one when Kristen Wiig hosted the first time, at a day spa or something, and she reacted similarly. I can't stand them!! It must be a blood thing, because the skit where Will Ferrell sings on a rotating stage and can't stop puking cracks me up.

Che as Gretchen also cracked me up because I have friends who treat Sunday brunch as a religious experience.

[Galileo908]

1 hour ago, Mr. R0b0t said:

So is SZA pronounces siz-za or siz-zuh?

It was a total missed opportunity to not have SZA show up in that courtroom sketch.

[Caseysgirl]

Did anyone else notice how nearly everyone ignored Steve Martin during the close? Wouldn't you think that SOMEBODY would have given him some attention or is he now considered an old fogey not worthy of the attention of "cool stoners" like James & his posse?

[Thumper]

11 minutes ago, Caseysgirl said:

Did anyone else notice how nearly everyone ignored Steve Martin during the close? Wouldn't you think that SOMEBODY would have given him some attention or is he now considered an old fogey not worthy of the attention of "cool stoners" like James & his posse?

That makes me feel bad (was not watching).  Steve is such a talent in so many ways!

[Milburn Stone]

14 minutes ago, Caseysgirl said:

Did anyone else notice how nearly everyone ignored Steve Martin during the close? Wouldn't you think that SOMEBODY would have given him some attention or is he now considered an old fogey not worthy of the attention of "cool stoners" like James & his posse?

I haven't made it all the way to the end of the episode yet, so I shouldn't have an opinion on something I haven't seen...but I always think it's a mistake to conclude too much from these thirty second segments of random hugging. They may revere Steve Martin but are caught up in greeting others. A person's focus in those moments may be so narrow that he doesn't even know Steve Martin is standing next to him. For all we know right after the fade out someone turned around randomly, saw him, and gave him the biggest hug ever. Or not. We just don't know. 

Edited December 10, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[meep.meep]

Oh, let's judge!  Let's judge harshly!  :-)

I watched the west coast old people's feed which may have colored my opinion, but the only parts I liked were Gretchen and the spelling bee.  Weekend Update was particularly bad.

[Sesquipedalia]

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

The examples that the Franco character said were not bad, not fireable offenses imo. Charlie, otoh, would make many women uncomfortable. True, he had no power over them, but they had to interact with him every day. Certainly that would be a real sexual harassment case, creating a hostile work environment.

Yes, you don't have to be the boss to create a hostile work environment. I thought this sketch was completely tone deaf to the current moment. 

I was bracing for Che's portrait of liberal white women, but I (as a liberal white woman) feel like we got off pretty easy. 

The cold open could have been cute if they had given the poor kids sufficient practice. 

Thanks to everyone here who posted about the blood sketch and thereby helped me avoid watching it. 

[possibilities]

7 hours ago, helenamonster said:

The one girl couldn't even pronounce Tel Aviv; she probably doesn't know what it is!

She also kept saying NBC instead of embassy. I thought it was just my ear, but the captions confirmed it (though captions are also often wrong).

[Unclejosh]

I thought it was pretty well known that Steve Martin for all his talent is very curmudgeonly and not very personable in real life.  That may have affected his end credits demeanor.

[teebax]

The best thing for me in this episode was being exposed to SZA. I added her music to my phone this morning and have been enjoying it all day. 

I'm not a Franco fan, or a fan of his posse, so I knew this wasn't going to work for me. Weekend Update and the spelling bee were the only things I liked besides SZA. 

Edited December 11, 2017 by teebax

[mtlchick]

There are 2 sets of people: those who find Franco so absurd but the stoner part takes a bit of the edge off that he's great...and the rest of us. ;)  What I will say about Franco is this: he will do and perform in anything.  (That and clearly Dave is the more sane brother who I want to carry in my pocket.)

 

I only stayed up after Weekend Update, but oy that was painful.  The bleeding sketch was a mess from the beginning and I had figured Leslie was thisclose to puking without needing the fake puke tube they run through people's sleeves.  Girl looked she wanted OUT ASAP.  I strangely enjoyed Gretchen.  Any put down towards Lena Dunham  is ok by me!

[peeayebee]

5 hours ago, JakeyJokes said:

I watched this with my mom who is also a nurse - she thinks these sketches are hilarious! They did a similar one when Kristen Wiig hosted the first time, at a day spa or something, and she reacted similarly. I can't stand them!! It must be a blood thing, because the skit where Will Ferrell sings on a rotating stage and can't stop puking cracks me up.

I don't get grossed out by blood. I can tolerate vomit also. But snot will make me turn away and gag. There's a scene in Breaking Bad where Walt is pepper-sprayed, and I can not look at him as he sits in the police car with a running nose. GAK!

I find the Julia Child/Dan Aykroyd sketch funny probably because of the personality of Child. Getting such a bad cut yet carrying on stoically was the joke. The show must go on! But just having a department store gift-wrapper do this wasn't enough. However, I can see someone like Will Forte doing it and making it funny. I'm not sure of the difference. I guess Forte is just good at playing characters who face absurdity without blinking. It's always interesting to me how some performers can make jokes work but others fail.

[Irlandesa]

7 hours ago, Caseysgirl said:

Did anyone else notice how nearly everyone ignored Steve Martin during the close? Wouldn't you think that SOMEBODY would have given him some attention or is he now considered an old fogey not worthy of the attention of "cool stoners" like James & his posse?

He wasn't ignored.  When they came back from break, you could see he and Jonah were mid convo.  During the goodbying, Jonah first turned to Dave, who was on the other side of Steve, who had stepped back a bit when James started his sendoff.  Jonah then turned to Steve but Steve was looking out and waving to the crowd so he didn't see him.  Jonah moved on to others.  You can see Steve talking with other people as the credits roll.  Occasionally you'd see him not talking to someone but not for long, really.  I just think his height and hair make him stand out.

And that's all I really have to say about the ep....so clearly not a fave.

[Phishbulb]

11 hours ago, Sesquipedalia said:

The cold open could have been cute if they had given the poor kids sufficient practice. 

The version of the episode that's on Hulu was apparently taken from dress, as it features all the kids getting through their lines fine and is a lot more entertaining to watch. 

Some of the lines that were missed were pretty funny, like one of the little girls saying to Kate "Classic libtard response". The joke about "I'd like a Barbie...that is, if the Feminazis will still let me have that anymore!" was also delivered a lot more cleanly and funnier in the dress version.

So I'm not sure what happened when they did the sketch live, I think it was all the same kids...maybe they didn't actually memorize their lines and were trying to rely on the cue cards and choked when it came time to do it on air. 

[xander874]

Poor Leslie in that gift-wrapping skit. I don't know if the blood spit was supposed to hit her elsewhere because she seemed really shocked when it hit her face and that gagging was very real. I read she confirmed she was trying not to vomit. That would've been a very interesting skit if she had.

I am torn on James Franco (although I love Dave and think he is the cutest) but he seems like is having a good time and obviously the show likes him. He'll do anything, which is a double-edged sword. I enjoyed this episode for the most part, even if none of the skits really will be classic (although I did really like the spelling bee).

And nice Beck booty...even if it was in the guise of Scrooge.

[Princess Sparkle]

This was an ok episode, which I have to say is a bit of a shame, because I actually do think James Franco is funny with the right kind of sketches. The Spelling Bee/Pizza sketches are examples of that; he can make make "straight-laced person becoming unhinged about something mundane" into something hilarious. That's why I loved his "kid mayor" sketch from a few seasons ago, and the Of Mice and Men sketch from the first time he hosted.

That sexual harassment skit was so off the mark that it really made me wonder what in the world they were going for. At first I thought maybe they were going to play off of men asking what they can/can't do in the workplace anymore (since there were a lot of think pieces about that this week), but then they went with "It's ok if an old man does it" which...has not been my experience. Though, I did get a good laugh out of Kenan's "Oh, so it's still kidnapping if you return them?"

I watched on Hulu, so I'm guessing I got the dress version of the cold open, because in the version I saw, the kids were fine and no one skipped any lines. 

Gretchen was one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile. "Hold my Warbys" had me dying.

[Ottis]

On 12/9/2017 at 10:50 PM, DrivingSideways said:

Is it just me or was this episode pretty consistently funny?  I stopped regularly watching years ago and came across the episode.  Even the skits that weren't really all that funny were salvaged by James Franco.

Funny is definitely YMMV, because I was bored to tears and this episode felt particularly like "let's crank SOMETHING out because holidays" to me. Franco was meh.

On 12/9/2017 at 11:20 PM, vb68 said:

The Sexual Harassment Office sketch was more thought provoking than actually funny, but that was kinda the point (I guess). 

This skit felt like they were trying to say something, but it went too weird to make a clear point (kidnapping, etc.). If it had stuck to something along the lines of how inconsistent sexual harassment claims can be, in a more realistic way, it would have been better. Gretchen was sort of similar. In both skits, the women around them didn't come off well, which was surprising for this show. 

[Hanahope]

I wondered if the sexual harassment skit was trying to say something about how some women are inconsistent.  They don't mind when certain men say/do things, but are offended over others.  Sortof how like some defend Franken, but still condem Moore (although the degrees are quite different).  And Franco's character was pointing out that such inconsistency is wrong.  

It wasn't my favorite episode, I thought some of the skits use sex as a joke too often and if we're going to be offended by minor sexual harassment, we shouldn't be making jokes about it either.  

The cold open sketch was good, loved the fist bump of Kate and the girl about the dying coal industry.

I thought the wrapping/blood skit went on a bit long too.

Gretchen was great, hope we see her again.

[vb68]

5 hours ago, xander874 said:

I read she confirmed she was trying not to vomit. That would've been a very interesting skit if she had.

I'm really glad she didn't vomit. That would be near impossible to ever live down. And I'm sure she wouldn't want to talk about it forever.

 

3 hours ago, Princess Sparkle said:

That sexual harassment skit was so off the mark that it really made me wonder what in the world they were going for.

Yeah, I'm still not sure on it either. I even showed it to my Mom, who headed up an office for years and years, so I wanted her take on it. I'm kinda sorry I did. All it did was make her angry. She said that "was not good" with a couple of more colorful words. 

[yogi2014L]

Some of those kids had to be actors, IMO. Others may have been staffers kids. I felt so bad for them messing up. They should have cut the number of kids to the ones who really delivered ( and seemed to be a tad older) because it hurt the sketch when the little cuties messed up. I went from "haha" to oh no I hope they don't feel bad about this!

[AriAu]

Quote

Some of those kids had to be actors, IMO. Others may have been staffers kids. I felt so bad for them messing up. They should have cut the number of kids to the ones who really delivered ( and seemed to be a tad older) because it hurt the sketch when the little cuties messed up. I went from "haha" to oh no I hope they don't feel bad about this!

Or had Vanessa Bayer come back and do Laura Parsons either to Santa or on Update since that is where a lot of the shtick came from.

It was an ok episode, but other than KathyAnn, I felt like the lines were not as tight/cutting as they had been last season or earlier this season. Maybe it is Trump fatigue since he is literally doing their work for them and they think it is too much piling on, but they seem to almost be taking it easy on him and the crazy stuff that has been going on.

YMMV, but KathyAnn was much funnier than usual.."it's a tough time to be a woman....and a drug addict...and a real heavy drinker".

Overall, I have no problem with the number of less topical, frankly silly skits like the paper cut one (altho obviously Julia Child/Ackroyd did it better), which is only funny because it goes on so long. Only funnier way to do that is like last year with the ceiling fan, which counted on surprise.

Quote

So is SZA pronounces siz-za or siz-zuh?

Incredible missed opportunity, especially for a stupid skit. Would not have happened if Lorne Michaels were still alive!

Edited December 11, 2017 by AriAu