SNL got really weird this week, which is a really good thing
By Josh Hill
Steve Carell dropped by SNL this weekend but how did things go and was The Office mentioned?
Here’s all that you need to know for the SNL water cooler this week:
SNL Rundown…
1. Kate McKinnon returned to the cold open for a second straight week, this time reprising her Laura Ingraham impression. There wasn’t much reinventing the wheel here, but SNL took a shot at Barstool Sports and the Vape God which has more context than just a viral thing. A while back, Barstool dragged Pete Davidson for his “butthole eyes”, so the fact that it was Davidson taking the shots at the website doesn’t seem like a coincidence.
2. If you saw that Steve Carell was hosting and began prepping for The Office gags, SNL got it all out of the way right at the front of the show. Fitting the Q&A Monologue formula we’ve seen before, The Office cast members all took turns imploring Carell that a revival of the series needs to happen if for nothing other than the fat paycheck they’d all get. Kudos to Ellie Kemper for being effortlessly the best thing about this whole bit.
3. We can’t get any further into this without mentioning the RBG rap. Kate McKinnon has slayed as Ruth Bader Ginsberg ever since she first gifted the world with her impression of the Supreme Court Justice, and tonight it was immortalized in song.
4. There were attempts to get weird early on in the show, and even though it didn’t totally land we need to take some time to appreciate the effort. The first skit of the night, usually the safest slot, was reserved for a bizarre skit in which a dad slowly realizes his life is a lie. It was awkward only because it was a last-skit-of-the-night type of thing jammed into the first skit of the night.
5. Similarly, two other skits n the first half of the show seemed to be things that we’d normally have at the end of the night. A NASA skit about frozen monkeys exploding in space and a Thanksgiving song about erectile dysfunction both had moments of bizarro hilarity but were weirdly placed on the wrong side of the show. Again, the attempt here needs to be applauded especially after a week where things were played almost as safe as possible.
6. One of the early show bright spots was an Amazon skit that talked less about how pissed New Yorkers were about a new HQ being set up in Queens and more about Jeff Bezos flexing all over Donald Trump. From putting orange toupes on his drones to buying Fred Trump’s property and replacing it with urinals, it was fun to laugh with Amazon instead of being laughed at from an ivory tower.
7. Keenan Thompson as LaVar Ball. Just watch an enjoy.
8. Seriously, we don’t deserve Keenan. He’s the best thing about this show next to Kate McKinnon and we can’t fully comprehend how much we’re going to miss him once he’s gone. All signs point to that being at the end of this season (which would dovetail into Keenan getting a sitcom, which is a huge win) and we need to cherish these moments while they last.
9. Mikey Day might not be as front facing as some of SNL’s current stars, but he deserves to be in the conversation. Rarely is he a bad part of a skit and like Thompson he usually rescues them once things go south. His physical comedy is underrated, his writing has produced some of the best skits over the last few years, and his ability to take nothing and make it into something is a gift. We saw that on display on the Update desk where he took things like ‘Congressman’ and ‘Bigfoot Erotica’ and turned it into something you can’t help but laugh at.
10. The final skit of the night was peak SNL Weird. Aliens serving astronauts corn called kern that pleads not to be eaten. Everyone cracked up at some point, which is always a sure fire way to save a skit that might be too weird for the average SNLer to stomach. It at the very least gives it rewatchability, which usually takes a weird skit to new heights of respect.
Verdict
Carell is a tried and tested host, who delivered on the goods as much as he could. This episode should be remembered (as much as it should be) for how much it tried to push the boundaries. There were elements of playing it safe, like rinsing and repeating the cold open and monologue, but the weirdness of the early show sketches sticks out.
Don’t let someone tell you this was a bad show just because some of the laughs fell flat. Give it a day and revisit the NASA skit or the Kern Korn skit at the end of the show and you’ll see there’s some genius at play we just needed to allow to sink in first.
Grade: C+
Season Grades
1. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon — A
2. Adam Drive/Kanye West — B+
3. Akwafina/Travis Scott — C+
4. Steve Carell/Ella Mai — C+
5. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers — C
6. Liev Schreiber/Lil Wayne — D+
Next Week on SNL…
Date: December 1st
Host: Clarie Foy
Musical Guest: Anderson.Paak
TV Channel: NBC
Next: 30 Biggest Hip Hop Feuds of All-Time
Be sure to check out Last Night On for all your SNL highlights.