SNL 39.16 Review - Louis CK, Sam Smith

Original Airdate - 3/29/14

One of the highlights of the last season of Saturday Night Live was Louis CK's turn as host amid the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.  He was an obvious choice to bring back as soon as possible.  The decision definitely paid off too.  Having a guy like Louis in the writing room helping develop sketches definitely gives the episode an overall boost.  The show may not have always been funny, but it was definitely interesting from start to finish.  Let's take a look.

Cold Opening

This was one of the weirder cold openings of the year.  For the second straight show, we open with President Obama, this time he is fretting about how many people are signing up for the healthcare.gov services.  The solution is to involve the government's new social media expert who wants the president to go viral.  We then see a parade of e-cigarettes, Pharrell's hat, Kim Kardashian, Harry Stiles, the Pope, and Justin Bieber.  This was probably the most questionable sketch of the night, as well as one of the more disappointing cold opens of the year.  It just wasn't that good.

Monologue

Whatever happened in the cold open was immediately forgotten as soon as Louis CK took the stage for his monologue.  Having a guy like Louis host makes for great monologues because they can simply get up there and give some of their stand-up routine.  This is what Louis did.  It was magical.  Enjoy.

Weekend Update

This was probably the shortest Weekend Update of the season.  Colin Jost is slowly getting more and more comfortable in his new role with the show, and it makes this the type of highlight in the show it should be.  I think with Louis in town they wanted as much sketch time as possible.  The one guest of the show was Stephen A. Smith, who Jay Pharaoh absolutely nails but the bit he does with that character is starting to get a little old.

Best Sketch

It was hard to pick a favorite sketch from this show.  The surprising part is which sketch I picked as my favorite.  This first time the "Office Boss Baby" came around, I hated it.  It was just stupid.  For some reason, everything about the sketch that didn't work the first time around worked this time.  Beck Bennett is a little too good at being a baby, and adding Louis to the sketch can only help.  This went from the worst sketch the first time around to the best in its second installment.

Worst Sketch

For this episode, the worst sketch should really be renamed the weirdest sketch.  Some of them worked great, and some were just weird.  This one was just weird.  Two cops just completed a stressful case and agreed to go on a romantic rendezvous ... in their pajamas.  Then they started talking about cutting holes in them because they didn't want to take them off and ... just watch it.  I can't really explain.

Dark Horse Sketch

Like I said, the beauty of this episode was its quirks.  There were so many laughs packed in so many random places, I could just decide on one dark horse sketch.  They were all kind of dark horse sketches.  The first one features Louis playing himself at the doctor's office getting a check-up.  On his way out the door, he stops to ask one last question that really confuses the doctor.  Apparently, he wasn't the only one with that question as two others (who somehow know each other) ask the doctor to check the same thing ... just in case (as if they wouldn't already know).  I can't give the punchline away.  You just have to watch it.

The second dark horse sketch involves Kyle Mooney's latest installment of "Let's end the show with whatever I feel like doing."  This was one of his funnier pre-recorded shorts as he plays a stoner high school student running for student body president.  This is his campaign video as he makes some pretty random campaign promises as you watch high-speed car accidents.  That's about it.  It's sounds stupid, but all of us knew that kid in high school and can see their face superimposed on Kyle's face during the sketch.  One you do that, it is pure bliss.

Grade

This may have only been Louis's second time hosting, but I predict he will be in the 5-Timers Club within the next five years.  Louis is a writer that brings fresh ideas to the sketches, and he is perfect as the straight man to the goofiness that the SNL cast is so good at.  He kicks the show up to a new level of funny.  It's different than when a guy like Justin Timberlake hosts, but he definitely has added his name to the select group of guest hosts that you want to make sure you catch when it's their turn to be on the show.

***B+***

View the full episode here:

SNL 39.11 Review - Drake

It's the first episode of 2014 after Saturday Night Live took their Christmas break, and there are many things of note here.  Coming off what is as close to a perfect episode as you can get, this episode was going to feel slightly anticlimactic no matter what it held.  Some automatic excitement around this episode surrounded the newest cast member Shasheer Zamata who was hired to fill the "minority female" role on the cast.  Drake brought some excitement too, serving as the third host this season to serve double duty as host and musical guest (3.5 if you consider Timberlake's role in the Fallon episode).  I was wondering how well a guy like Drake could do in this setting.  Although the episode turned out to be pretty vanilla, Drake proved that he was worthy of the honor.

Cold Opening

With a month between episodes, they had to do something that allowed for a crash course in current events to start the show.  Enter Piers Morgan via Taran Killam.  They were able to cover Chris Christie's Bridge-Gate scandal, the A-Rod circus (which allowed for the rare appearance of the host in the Cold Open), and Justin Bieber.  It was quite a fun way to start the show immediately allowed for the audience to see some of the things that Drake was going to bring to the table.

Monologue

This was one of the best monologues of the season so far.  Drake explored the fact that he is a Black Jewish Canadian and flashed back to his Bar-Mitzvah.  All of a sudden, his Bar-Mitzvah recitations turned into a self-deprecating rap.  This was definitely the highlight of the show.  It also showed the first appearance of Zamata who instantly just became part of the gang.

Weekend Update

Seth Meyers only has a couple episodes left, and this episode continued the tour of his favorite Weekend Update guests with Nasim Pedrad's Arianna Huffington (one of her few characters that doesn't annoy me).  She was solid as usual, but the best part of this week's Weekend Update was their commentary on this year's Golden Globes featuring a silly and delirious Jacqueline Bisset brought to us by Vanessa Bayer.  It was a dead on impression of a very awkward moment during the yearly broadcast.

Best Sketch

Drake was great all night.  His monologue was outstanding.  He gave it 100% every time he was out there.  However, the material just wasn't there.  It was hard to pick a best sketch from all the very average sketches there were.  However, the one that had the best moments was probably the sleep over.  Having Zamata in the cast allowed for this sketch to be possible as Drake plays her dorky dad hosting the sleepover.  Every time the dad popped into the room of girls, one of the guests (Aidy Bryant) became more and more attracted to her friend's dad.  What starts as a slightly awkwardly funny sketch goes completely haywire by the end with Bryant showing why she is one of the most naturally funny cast members on the show right now.

Worst Sketch

This decision was easy, however it had nothing to do with the host.  As has been the case for several of my least favorite sketches this season, this sketch revolves around Nasim Pedrad producing yet another quirky Middle Eastern character that is supposed to be funny and really isn't.  This scenario puts her in Disney World experiencing what it was like to be Indiana Jones.  Drake was great trying to hold Rahat's attention and in turn, trying to hold the sketch together, but it ultimately failed.

Dark Horse Sketch

There really wasn't a dark horse sketch this episode.  None of the sketches after the Weekend Update halftime marker were really any good.  So instead I am going to talk about another one of my favorite sketches from earlier in the episode.  One of the interesting bits of trivia surrounding Drake was that he used to star on the TV show Degrassi.  This sketch explores other possibilities of rappers appearing in classic TV shows.  The highlight was Drake impersonating Lil' Wayne impersonating Urkel.  Pretty surreal.  Here is another highlight.  How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions?  Hopefully better than these people...

Grade

This was a successful episode in the sense that it showcased a star in Drake displaying his comedic talent in a very effective way.  He really surprised me here.  I had a lot of fun watching his natural ability for entertaining in more ways than one.  However, it is starting to become a trend that the creative team of Saturday Night Live is not consistently producing material worth the talent the show is showcasing.  With head writer Colin Jost moving into the Update desk to replace Seth Meyers in a couple weeks, hopefully it will jump start the creative juices.  Either way, the show is still so much fun to watch because of the immense talent that is brought every week by the cast and the great run of hosts they have had.

***C+***

Watch the full episode here: