Showing posts with label John Goodman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Goodman. Show all posts

Sunday, January 1, 2017

SNL 42.10 Review - Casey Affleck, Chance the Rapper

Original Airdate - 12/17/2016

It's rare that a host makes his SNL debut on the Christmas episode, but alas, this is what Casey Affleck does.  His family does have a track record with the show, as his brother Ben is one of the more recent inductees into the "5-Timers Club."  That makes the Afflecks the first set of brothers to host SNL since Peyton and Eli Manning.  Also, experts say Casey will be an Oscar winner in just a few short months for his new film Manchester by the Sea.  So I guess he is a worthy candidate to host such a big show.  But can he do comedy?

Cold Opening
The last Cold Open of 2016 was the most scathing when it comes to the show's criticism of President-Elect Donald Trump.  As more and more information comes out about the Russians hacking our presidential election, SNL decided to connect the dots by having Putin visit Trump for Christmas.  The sketch also included John Goodman as Rex Tillerson, Exxon CEO and Trump's choice for Secretary of State, acting like BFF's with Putin while Trump cluelessly watches on.  Once they referred to Trump as Putin's Manchurian Candidate, you realize that the SNL writers are not pulling any punches.

Monologue
It really felt like  they didn't know what to do for Casey Affleck's monologue.  He made it very clear throughout the monologue that he wasn't going to sing.  However, he really didn't have anything else to do either.  He talked about his career, and had some good one-liners along the way.  Baldwin and Goodman came out to fulfill the star-studded cameo checkbox.  That was about it.  It was one of the most confusing monologues I can remember.

Best Sketch
This was an easy one.  Casey Affleck is at his best when he is able to be a stereotypical Bostonian.  So here we see him at his best in this commercial for Dunkin' Donuts.  They are trying to brand themselves as a competitor for upscale coffee places like Starbucks, but it will always be the choice for average Joes.

Weekend Update
What would a Christmas episode be without more cameos?  Among the many great jokes from Jost and Che, you also have the not-that-rare cameo of Fred Armisen.  He and Vanessa Bayer reprise their bit as Putin's Best Friends from Growing Up.  It's a great bit, but it didn't quite have the zing it did when it first debuted.

Worst Sketch
There were several mediocre (at best) sketches in this episode.  This was definitely the lowest on the totem poll.  It tells the story of a New York local theater group doing a nativity comedy.  The show is terrible, and so is the sketch.  Making fun of bad comedy doesn't really make good comedy.

Dark Horse Sketch
Like I said, most of the episode was mediocre.  This sketch was clever although not necessarily a "Dark Horse."  The week after this episode aired, the electors were set to cast their votes making Donald Trump's election as president official.  This sketch had Hillary Clinton begging electors for votes in the vein of Christmas film Love Actually.  It was a clever and smart way to show the last ditch effort Hillary had to try and pull off the election win.

Grade

The question coming into the episode was whether Casey Affleck could handle the comedy.  Although he seemed to do an okay job as host, the episode overall seemed to underwhelm.  In fact, several of the sketches were simply less funny retreads of sketches used when Ryan Gosling hosted this time last year.  I find it interesting they put Ryan Gosling and Casey Affleck in the same category of host, but that's a conversation for another time.  Anyways, this episode reminds me of another episode in the last few seasons.  A few years ago, SNL decided their season finale would be hosted by Ben Affleck as he was inducted into the "5 Timers Club."  The episode in general was disappointing and nothing special.  I feel the same about this episode, and it is a complete coincidence that it is another Affleck that was hosting.  However, it holds true.  Honestly, my biggest disappointment was the lack of a Ben Affleck cameo.  It just made too much sense, yet never happened.  So sad...

***C***

And that has us caught up!  Coming next on the SNL lineup is Rogue One star Felicity Jones in only a couple weeks.
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Thursday, December 26, 2013

SNL 39.9 Review - John Goodman, Kings of Leon

Leg two of the three-episode series of Christmas episodes heading into the holidays featured an old favorite.  John Goodman hadn't hosted in awhile, but this was his 13th time hosting the show, making him one of the most loved hosts of all time.  Like the week before, we all knew this had the potential of being a special show with some guest appearances.  Although John Goodman once again shows that he could have been a cast member and will always give a great show, the episode fell short of iconic.

Cold Opening

The cold opening started off the show with President Obama for only the second time this year.  With everything that has been going on with the President, it was about time SNL gave their commentary on it.  However, stealing the show was Kenan playing the fake interpreter for the hearing impaired that popped up at Nelson Mandela's funeral.  The geeky, grinning Kenan made everything Pharaoh's Obama was saying even funnier.

Monologue

It takes a beloved host for them to give a completely random song to them and ask him to go out there and kill it.  That's what they did with John Goodman, and he did.  What does he really want for Christmas?  You will just have to listen to find out in this song that could have been the opportunity to do a Blues Brothers number.  Instead, Kenan fills in admirably.  By the way, John Goodman is a huge man.  You don't quite understand how big until he stands next to Kenan and makes him look short and skinny.

Weekend Update


In what seems to be the Seth Meyers farewell tour, all the favorite Weekend Update characters (that are left) have been coming by to pay their respects.  This week it was Drunk Uncle with John Goodman playing Drunk Uncle's Drunk Uncle.  It was so perfect of a union of character and character actor (much better than any of the others they have tried to guest star with Moynihan).  Once again, Goodman makes a big guy look tiny.  That dude is a giant!  The other guest was a response to the now infamous Megyn Kelly comment that Santa has to be white.  Enter the Black Santa trying to break as stereotypes as he can.  It served its purpose of making a statement on the topic.

Best Sketch

Outside of the greatness of the sketches already mentioned, there wasn't a lot that jumped off the screen.  Probably the best of the rest was the tour de force of impressions that came out of Guy Fieri's Christmas Bash.  Bobby Moynihan does a scary Fieri as the host of what he describes as "a party as random as the food he makes."  Here are a couple things we can take from this sketch: Aidy Bryant looks scarily like Mimi from the Drew Carey Show, anyone can look like Mini Me with a bald cap and a pinky, and Bobby Moynihan can simultaneously look like every member of the cast of Pawn Stars.  Honorable mention goes to the Dance of the Snowflake.  Something just makes me happy inside to see John Goodman wear a giant snowflake outfit.

Worst Sketch

Like I said, not much jumped off the screen, however not much missed either.  The closest thing to a miss was this Will Smith-esque impression and rap about H&M.  It just wasn't my thing.  Honorable mention  would have to be the shameless plug for the new holiday flop Grudge Match with Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro.  The two stars show up and form the Three Wise Guys with Goodman.  There were some pretty funny one-liners which kept it from being too painful.

Dark Horse Sketch

For some reason, and I don't know why, but when John Goodman is hosting, you expect to see him in drag at some point.  It just makes too much comedic sense to put a man of his size in a wig and a skirt.  This comedic gold comes out here as Goodman plays a woman suing her former employer for wrongful termination.  She claims she was fired for being too beautiful.  Let me repeat that.  John Goodman dressed as a woman was fired for being too beautiful.  I agree with Taran Killam's opening statement representing the company: "Really?!?"

Grade
As I said, this episode definitely was a disappointment from what it could be.  John Goodman is such an iconic host that it could have been something magical.  However, it was almost as if the writers were so focused on the final episode to come that they went into cruise control for the couple leading up to it.  With that said, John Goodman is hilarious.  He is so likable and lovable that it was hard to hate anything he did here.  It was a good episode, but much like the Paul Rudd episode the week before, it could have been so much more.

***B***

Watch the full episode here:

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