S44.E13: Don Cheadle / Gary Clark Jr.

[MrWhyt]

23 hours ago, Peace 47 said:

I wasn’t familiar with Gary Clark Jr.  That second song was very powerful. 

the uncensored official video. 

[Cloudly]

13 hours ago, Giuseppe said:

Okay, I swear that vomiting cake was based on some cartoon i've seen before. Some hybrid human/frog combination or something who was in misery and kept barfing while pleading for someone to kill it.. Anyone know what I'm taking about? It's right there in my mind, but I can't bring it forward. It was Family Guy-type humor, if i remember right.

The original "kill me", in my opinion, will always be Aliens – I feel like Simpson et al vomiting are spoofs thereof. It is said that someone says "Kill me" at least once in every Alien movie...

Edited February 18, 2019 by Cloudly
Because embed code

[Tachi Rocinante]

Loved "Sean" the cake.

Disappointed in Gary Clark Jr.  He's got decent chops, but has no stage presence whatsoever.

[Cyranetta]

I thought the Extreme Baking sketch was a pretty dead-on parody of "Nailed It".

[Thinbalina]

I actually laughed from after the Trump opening until the end. Like others, I'm over Baldwin's Trump. I need some type of parody to it. Like Phil Harmon's Clinton - 

[xaxat]

I really want one of those jerseys.

[SoMuchTV]

I know that Olaf cake didn't look like the original vision, but I thought it really captured the essence of Olaf. Better than I could do! Maybe that contestant has a future in caricature cakes.

And I thought the WU supercentenarian was just okay, but then he got me with so-and-so "will be joining Hamilton next week."

[BTBAM310]

7 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Loved "Sean" the cake.

Disappointed in Gary Clark Jr.  He's got decent chops, but has no stage presence whatsoever.

Best show of the season, but was also disappointed in Gary Clark Jr. Thought he would be more of a virtuoso like John Mayer (say what you want about the man's songs, but he absolutely rips on guitar live), and more bluesy/rock instead of the limp pop-type of songs he performed here. His stage presence was bad, but not as bad as Greta Van Fleet a few weeks ago.

[Trini]

Just here to say that the 'Lollipop' Bar fight sketch was one of the few in a while that I think worked all the way through from beginning to end. And yep, I watched it several times again!

Don Cheadle was great, they should have him back again.

[Dejana]

On 2/17/2019 at 12:24 PM, helenamonster said:

What was Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali doing on the "Newbies" side of Family Feud?

On 2/17/2019 at 9:03 PM, Princess Sparkle said:

Yeah, they played a little fast and loose there, because for that matter, Lady Gaga also has been nominated for an Oscar before, whereas this is Sam Elliot (Who was over on the ‘Vets’ side) first nomination. They should’ve just come up with some other kind of designation, because I spent more time focusing on that than I spent paying attention to the sketch.

Celebrity Family Feud sketches have always been more about the impressions than anything else: the survey responses almost never add up to 100, so the teams being "off" here almost seemed part of the charm.  With the roster of stars they were able/willing to impersonate, the number of new vs. returning nominees was unbalanced. I can sort of see how the thought process went: Sam Elliott has been acting for ages; the joke that most Americans have never heard of Olivia Colman despite her vast acting experience works even better, if she's grouped with the Vets; Lady Gaga is far better known for singing than acting, so she's a Movie Newbie. With Mahershala Ali, it does sort of seem like they gave up and had to put him somewhere. IMO, they included him just for the Green Book dig.

However the writers did decide to divvy up the celebs, one of the jokes the sketch was making was that Bradley Cooper should have been on the opposing team, but chose the wrong side just to be around Lady Gaga. Some background, they've been incredibly effusive about each other while promoting A Star Is Born, and when they recently performed a song from the movie together, ostensibly as themselves, it went like this. Lady Gaga's buzz-in response ("If 99 people are surveyed...") was also a take on her real-life repetitiveness on the PR/campaign circuit:

[peeayebee]

On 2/16/2019 at 10:19 PM, Mibbitmaker said:

That was a great one, right down to the last sketch, but I have the perfect (observational, not snarky) MST3K-style riff of one of the characters: "Kate McKinnon IS Christopher Walken  as some guy with an accent!"

I also was thinking how much she resembled Walken. I hope she works up an impression.

On 2/16/2019 at 10:19 PM, vb68 said:

But I think Kate's Pelosi still needs some work. I can't tell what's missing, but something is just not there.

I agree. I thought one of the times she did it was pretty good, at least the looks of her. 

On 2/17/2019 at 5:57 AM, Ottis said:

Pete said he actually had built a ladder (because the slats were horizontal). It was a clever line but he muffed it.

This bit could have been a lot funnier. I agree that he muffed the line, and frankly just didn't present well at all.  

On 2/17/2019 at 9:24 AM, helenamonster said:

That "Lollipop" sketch was a delight. Don's got moves! I loved when it morphed into a full-on choreographed number at the end.

It was the best sketch of the night, and yes, great from beginning to end.

Don Cheadle was also great from beginning to end. He created different character, each one funny. Great job.

I for one loved the CO. Alec's Trump impression always cracks me up. Obviously I'm in the minority. I agree there are better impressions out there (like the guy who does The President Show), but Alec's exaggerations -- the pouting mouth, e.g. -- tickle me. I also liked that he added some traits of Trump's, like leaning backwards as he's speaking to address someone. 

What is up with "wall" without an article? Trump says it, other admin people have said it -- "We need wall." -- and it's even been written by the Administration that way. It's obviously a deliberate choice, but frankly it reminds me of the kid in "Room" addressing objects in the room that way.

I didn't care for the Family Feud sketch. I didn't think Cecily as Olivia Colman was funny. Glenn Close was ok, but... it just did nothing for me. Beck does an excellent Sam Elliott, complete with head tilt.

Loved Cosmo & Olympia Sparadukis advertising their Regal Promenade Pavilion. So weird and funny. And Cheadle added so much.

[Phishbulb]

19 hours ago, Cyranetta said:

I thought the Extreme Baking sketch was a pretty dead-on parody of "Nailed It".

Yes! As funny as it was, the whole time I was thinking. "Wait, this is already a show!" 

[One Imaginary Girl]

The writers missed a laugh in the Fresh Takes sketch by not naming the boy characters Aidan, Brayden, Cayden, Jayden, etc.  Scott and Chrissy aren't very 21st-century.

[proserpina65]

I had no idea who Gary Clark, Jr., was before this, but I was definitely digging his performances.

 

On 2/17/2019 at 7:57 AM, Ottis said:

Aside from the first two cakes, I didn’t laugh at anything in the show. Cheadle was fine. The writing wasn’t, again. 

I feel a bit out of sync with a lot of the posters here because I thought, although Cheadle really committed, he wasn't funny for the most part.  A lot of it was the writing, but not all of it.

 

8 hours ago, peeayebee said:

for one loved the CO. Alec's Trump impression always cracks me up. Obviously I'm in the minority. I agree there are better impressions out there (like the guy who does The President Show), but Alec's exaggerations -- the pouting mouth, e.g. -- tickle me. I also liked that he added some traits of Trump's, like leaning backwards as he's speaking to address someone. 

Me, too.

[wknt3]

On 2/17/2019 at 1:19 AM, vb68 said:

I watched the real press conference, and this was a little tooclose to the real one to be  that funny for me.

On 2/17/2019 at 9:45 AM, blueray said:

I felt this way too. Having caught a bit of the real one it was way to close to how ridiculous it really was. I know we aren't supposed to discuss politics but that "speech" was more of a parody than SNL ever could be.  Maybe they would have been better off using something else as the cold opening and then expanding the real discussion on Weekend update.

On 2/17/2019 at 2:12 PM, meowmommy said:

I just felt like whatever energy he once had for the part, he's completely lost.  He doesn't even put any effort into the impression any more, and just counts on the audience's instinct to laugh.  When he said the line about being 6'7" and 185 pounds, that should have been funny, and the audience didn't even react.  He's said he wants to retire from the character.  Let him.  Bring back Darrell Hammond or hire Anthony Atamanuik, who is so good you might think he was the real deal if you met him on the street.

I think these posts pretty much sum up the two problems with the cold open. I was surprised by how negative the reaction was as I thought it was meh to OK until I saw some actual clips. I had seen some mentions and articles and thought the sketch was supposed to playing on the reaction to parody the original, but having seen it now I have to agree that it was beyond parody or satire. The other bigger problem is the one I've brought up before - Alec simply isn't inspired unless he is particularly pissed off at something Trump has said or done recently. When there isn't passion, but simply a general disgust it always is at least a little flat unless the writing is spectacular. I think one of the lines summed it pretty well when he talked about his personal hell of playing president. I agree that they should let him retire, but I'm not sure that solves the bigger problem of how to deal with a reality that is already verging on self-parody and farce and requires a different approach than SNL is used to.

[heatherchandler]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:35 AM, Phishbulb said:

Yes! As funny as it was, the whole time I was thinking. "Wait, this is already a show!" 

And a website - cakewrecks.com !

On 2/19/2019 at 10:44 AM, One Imaginary Girl said:

The writers missed a laugh in the Fresh Takes sketch by not naming the boy characters Aidan, Brayden, Cayden, Jayden, etc.  Scott and Chrissy aren't very 21st-century.

I think the Jaydens, Caydens, & Braydens are a little too young to be in high school.  High school kids now were born in early 2000s, so Aiden (with proper spelling) may be in there, but you still have mostly Jacobs, Christophers and Ethans.

[hendersonrocks]

I just remembered that Beck's zipper was down for the entire lollipop sketch. I was mildly concerned we were going to have an appearance from Lil' Beck given all the movement, and also wondered what was wrong with me for noticing it RIGHT AWAY despite everything happening on screen.

[Miss Scarlet]

The first half of the episode dragged for me. I just can't laugh at the Trump stuff at this point.

It's nice that they're finally getting sensitive (sort of) to racism against African-American but not sure why they think other races/ethnicities are still fair game? I realize that they framed it as Trump seeing it this way and doing this but really it's SNL as a show and knowing they can get away with it.

Beck was on fire tonight. I love Jules. He's like way too many people I've known and I think I get a cathartic release watching him.

Loved the Lollipop sketch. I'm a sucker for the random song sketches. I still think about Taran Killam doing Savage Garden and laugh. This was super cute and Beck's a good dancer.

I'm off to go wash my hands with pink soap that hates them. 

[Shawshanked]

Very weak cold open but the rest of the episode was good. Loved Fresh Takes the most. 

[spaceghostess]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:57 AM, Ottis said:

What the he’ll wasbtgat wedding location skit at the end? Is that a NY thing? 

 

Yeah. Our high school prom (back in '89; I'm old) was at just such a place-- Marina del Rey--but in the Bronx, not Queens.

I'm the Don Cheadle-in-Boogie-Nights fan from the monologue. Expected him to be great, and he was. His Spike Lee was a little off, I thought, but all other characters were distinct and really funny. Roach-ex was brilliant and probably my favorite ad or sketch of the season so far.

 Add me to those looking forward to John Mulaney!

[Ottis]

1 hour ago, spaceghostess said:

Add me to those looking forward to John Mulaney!

I may be the only person who finds Mulaney's voice, and his manner, off putting. I can barely stand it on Smashmouth, and that's only his voice. On stage, Mulaney resembles Horshack stuck in a 1940s time warp.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Ottis

[lou ann b]

I don't get Mulaney,either.  although I'm glad he's a Friend Of Pete Davidson. 

[Pete Martell]