Fun
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Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Remember a few days ago, when everyone lit up seeing NBC’s promo of Brendan Gleeson shredding the Saturday Night Live studios on a skateboard? Even if you didn’t buy Gleeson as a skater boi, you found yourself excited about the potential for this weekend’s episode. Sell. Sell. Sell. This was most definitely a transition episode in a transition year. And Cecily Strong remains out in La la land, performing her one-woman show, so who will step up?
What’s The Deal For The SNL Cold Open For Last Night (10/08/22)?
Sometimes when the show has no strong idea for a cold open, they just throw a bunch of half-baked headlines together and call it a sketch. When they do it in the form of a game show, then you know they’re really at wit’s end, because they don’t even have any celebrity impersonations to dangle in front of us as distractions.
Enter Bowen Yang in a blue suit, bellowing: “Hello, America!” Alas, he’s not playing himself, but the host of a game show called “So You Think You Won’t Snap!” where he provokes seemingly normal, stable Americans into snapping just by telling them what’s in the news this past week. As a Vermont yoga teacher who’s sober 15 years, Heidi Gardner’s character guzzles a “Today show-sized glass of wine” after watching a clip of President Biden on 60 Minutes. Chloe Fineman’s pickleball-curious mother of four hits a flight attendant (Sarah Sherman) after watching the new Mario movie trailer voiced by Chris Pratt. Kenan Thompson might play old and smooth, but Elon Musk’s name is enough to get him going. And as a Michigan college student, Devon Walker can only handle so much Kanye West news, and his “White Lives Matter” trolling is too much.
None of it is particularly funny, perhaps because nothing in this sketch seems dangerous or even surprising?! More surprising and dangerous overnight was watching Kanye in real-time go off on Twitter. Also not funny.
Perhaps the better question is wondering when SNL will make viewers snap?
How Did The SNL Guest Host Brendan Gleeson Do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22S93yktIs
Much happier surprises to start season 48 have been the guest hosts and their ability to charm us, despite not having deep backgrounds in comedy. Miles Teller kicked things off last week, and this week, it was Brendan Gleeson, breaking out a mandolin and making us all smile with a little help from his friendly fellow Irish co-star, Colin Farrell. I’d watch the two of them goof off for the next 75 minutes following the monologue and be fine with that.
And we did get one more sketch in that vein, with Farrell cameoing as himself, and Gleeson as a grandpa who catches the attention of a headshot photographer (Andrew Dismukes), to the dismay of Gleeson’s grandson (Michael Longfellow), who just wanted headshots for his aspiring acting career. “Show me brooding.” “Get your smile on.” “Bite that lip and pop that hip.” “Now how about we do a silly one?”
Earlier, though, we saw a CNN sketch with Ego Nwodim as the anchor, and Gleeson as White House correspondent Colin O’Doherty, who’s more keenly interested in the “breaking news” involving YouTubers the Try Guys, and relishes the opportunity to interview the guys (Bowen, Mikey Day and Andrew Dismukes) to the dismay of Ego. This could’ve been the cold open and made sense, at least, and had some jokes to it, whether or not you’ve been paying attention to this influencer melodrama.
We also got a “please don’t destroy” video (huzzah!) that embraced the ethos of Gleeson reliving his 17 again years, as in the skateboarding promo, but with a more-involved backstory for the 67-year-old to explain why he might want to relive his senior year of high school again.
The other slightly bright spot was a slight but effective gag involving blood splattering all over the place and all over everyone when Gleeson’s Ancient European tribesmen “blood oath” cuts too deep into his hand.
As for “Blonde“? That idea was so bad you might’ve not been faulted for thinking the director of Blonde wrote that sketch. More apologies to Marilyn Monroe (and perhaps Chloe Fineman) are in order.
How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Willow?
Willow Smith was a vision last season when she showed up to perform alongside Camila Cabello. While she might no longer be sporting hair to whip back and forth, Willow is ready to bring back Headbanger’s Ball. Even if MTV isn’t. Willow dropped her new album, “Coping Mechanism,” on Friday. It boasts a lot of musical styles, including metal.
As she explained in a recent interview: “I think the only reason why it’s older, white men mostly listening to this music is because metal has been gatekept for a long time by these people. [Now,] new people of color are coming to say that that’s really not the way that it should be. Rock is for everyone [and] I’m gonna bring my people to the space and we are gonna vibe it out like we always do… hopefully the old white dudes vibe it out too.”
For her first song, Willow showcased her “curious/furious” side.
The metal side really came out in her second performance: “ur a stranger.”
Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing: “New Cast Advice”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WicS_5aTffs
Would you look at this? A nice touch for the four new kids in Season 48, giving them each a chance at some air time in this short film about how Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker are fitting in so far, and what advice they’ve received from Lorne Michaels as well as present and former cast members. It’s all played mostly straight and sincere, except for Molly’s story of how Lorne sent them on a mission to kill Vladimir Putin. It’s no Spies Like Us, but hey hey, what do you say?
Who Stopped By Weekend Update?
Two visits to the Update desk this week. First up, Ego as “Black Ariel,” to answer everyone’s questions about this new look at The Little Mermaid, as well as all sorts of questions we never dared to ask. TMI, Ego! TMI!
And we’re 2-for-2 at the plate this season in terms of rookie cast members getting Update segments to essentially do their stand-up bits. Last week, Longfellow. This week, Hernandez with his thoughts on baseball, considering the MLB playoffs just started, with an added perspective from a kid whose parents hailed from Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Not a walk-off home run, exactly, but Hernandez stood up to swing his hips in the batter’s box and roped a few singles around the park.
What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDF6SuYmqBM
At 12:52 a.m. Eastern, an office meeting finds Gleeson asking Ego, Bowen and Michael for pitches on a new slogan for Denver tourism, but it’s all upstaged by Sarah and her new googly eyes. “Nobody noticed I got my eyes replaced!?” she shouts in wonder. Yes, everyone noticed.
Who Was The Episode’s MVP?
Great Googly Moogly! Sarah Sherman will save this season of SNL, even if it takes SNL far too long to recognize that. We had to wait until the end of the show for Sherman to bring a spark to it. I mean, just notice how she carried herself in that sketch, as well as all of the comedy, despite not being able to see. This might be reminiscent of Season 6, the first huge transition season for the show, where it took the first showrunner not named Lorne several episodes to discover they had Eddie Murphy in their cast. Heck, even the hiring of Longfellow feels a bit reminiscent of the late Charles Rocket, in terms of sensibilities and mannerisms?! But yeah, everything about the show elevates when they let Sherman’s voice fly free. There are others in the cast with potential to become big stars, too. But none of them have the aplomb Sherman has. At least so far.
Next week, Megan Thee Stallion hosts and performs as the musical guest!
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
Watch Season 48, Episode 2 of Saturday Night Live on Peacock.
