Keke Palmer is a goddamned joy to watch.
This was my favorite episode of the season so far, and that’s saying something considering how much I admire Brendan Gleeson. Whether it was a roundabout love letter to New York, or a decades long reunion in the making, the show this week felt smarter to me and that’s a direct reflection on the host, her taste in material and the type of vibe that prevailed during the week.
There was fantastic writing to be had in episode 7 which set up actual beats of laugh-inducing comedy for just about every cast member. Some weeks 85% of the cast are playing straight-man roles in the hopes of setting up the more vibrant cast members for engineered laughs, but this week, the comedy larder was chock full. Andrew Dismukes, for example, had one line this week and he nailed it. James Austin Johnson, who has spent the entire season as various iterations of the straight white man archetype, had one two-word line in the Hello Kitty sketch and killed it. The new cast members are all pulling their weight and making the team better. The episode didn’t score the highest of the season, due to the inherent advantage comedians have with a professional set as a monologue, but it established Keke Palmer as someone with comedy chops that slay.
A word on Laughstatting:
Everyone has a different sense of humor, so the things that I laugh at will most likely not be the exact same things you laugh at. The goal of this exercise is not to convince anyone, but to say “here’s what worked for me” and hopefully, if our tastes are similar enough, maybe it worked for you too and the overall stats for the season will have some value. It also strangely works if you have polar opposite taste to me, because you’ll now the episodes that were a hit for me might not land with you.
I try to be very generous with my rankings in the hopes that eventually a more clear picture of the cast and season will shape itself and contribute to some additional insight. And we get charts.
Errybody likes charts.
Let’s get to the stats!
Cold Open
Concept: A final meeting with “observably stupid” Herschel Walker before he gets smoked in the Georgia runoff and hopefully fades into obscurity where he belongs
Execution: Rough
s – Kenan Thompson: “I came to chew ass and kick bubble gum.”
l – Kenan Thompson: “I do not.”
s – Kenan Thompson: “You can toss a blanket over me and I fall asleep like a parakeet.”
Keke Palmer Monologue
s – Keke Palmer: “And to that I say how’s that crypto goin’?”
s – Keke Palmer: “I don’t care if you was in The Matrix. I’ll whoop Morpheus’ ass!”
s – Keke Palmer: “That’s what I heard.”
s – Keke Palmer: “Delusional queen.”
S – Keke Palmer: “I wanna set the record straight – I am!”
s – Keke Palmer: facial expression as she tries to cover up
s – Keke Palmer: “It’s even worse when they’re correct.”
S – Keke Palmer: “I got a liquor sponsorship on the line.”
s – Keke Palmer: “Let the damn check clear and then we can get to the baby shower.”
S – Keke Palmer: “Baby, I’m Keke Palmer.”
Forceington’s Ridge
Concept: Cheesy pre-2000 rendition of Dynasty-esque night soap with stunt doubles
Execution: Earnest but messy
l – Cecily Strong: “Well, you said that wrong.”
s – Keke Palmer: slap reaction face
s – Bowen Yang: “Okay I feel like that’s a dig at me.”
Big Boys
Concept: A tribute to bigger men
Execution: Nailed it. Good & well written by someone who clearly knows
s – Cecily Strong: “We out here lookin’ for some…”
S – Keke Palmer: “In just one trip.”
l – Ego Nwodim: “Makes his own heat with his bog boy body.”
L – Ego Nwodim: “And then he stops.”
L – Ego Nwodim: “Did this man just die?”
S – Keke Palmer: “If I need a snack he got Snickers in his pocket.”
s – Punkie Johnson: “I wanna be the little spoon sometimes!”
S – Kenan Thompson: “There bears don’t hibernate in the winter!”
S – Kenan Thompson: “We be shovelin’ the snow in shorts.”
Drake PSA
Concept: Every woman Drake ever mentioned in his songs joins a union
Execution: Good
s – Keke Palmer: “There are thousands of us.”
s – Heidi Gardner: “Shawties.”
S – Ego Nwodim: almost breaking
l – Keke Palmer: “That song ruined my damn life.”
S – Keke Palmer: “Stop actin like we smashed and give me my damn six million dollars!”
S – Sarah Sherman: “Next thing I know I’m that goofy shawtie from Virgina Beach who curved him.”
Hello Kitty
Concept: Using Hello Kitty’s bizarre backstory as a conduit for a New York love letter
Execution: Smart and funny and amazing
s – Bowen Yang: mustache reveal
s – Keke Palmer: “Dream job alert!”
S – Marcelo Hernandez: “Wicked innit?”
S – Sarah Sherman: “Cheerio!”
l – Sarah Sherman: “I don’t care about this job it just seems like an insane place to get high.”
S – Keke Palmer: “So she’s 48 years old?”
S – Bowen Yang: throwing over chair
L – Bowen Yang: “But she’s raceless?”
L – Keke Palmer: “Say that little white girl is black.”
s – Cecily Strong: “No, we’re not going to do that!”
l – James Austin Johnson: “I am.”
s – Heide Gardner: as Statue of Liberty
S – Andrew Dismukes: “If you mess with Hello Kitty, you mess with New York.”
L – Bowen Yang: “I got us all tickets to see the Yankees on Broadway at Madison Square Garden.”
Kenan & Kelly
Concept: Reboot of classic show Kenan and Kel
Execution: Awesome. Tight and smart and seeing Kenan and Kel together on SNL was a gift
s – Keke Palmer: “I told the producers we wrote it together.”
S – Keke Palmer: “Uh oh, here comes the bus!”
l – Keke Palmer: “I’m pregnant with your child!”
l – Kenan Thompson: “I thought, that won’t work. And I was right.”
l – Kenan Thompson: reaction to “my mama used to get drunk every day and call me an idiot.”
S – Keke Palmer: “Uh oh, here come the bus!”
l – Kenan Thompson: reaction to “uh oh here come the bus.”
S – Keke Palmer: “Why do I hurt the ones I love most?”
L – Kenan Thompson: “The show is not good.”
Arby’s
Concept: A commentary on the low price of fast food using an Arby’s commercial
Execution: Great
l – Mikey Day: “Arby’s is a for-profit business, right?”
s – Keke Palmer: “But where are you gettin’ the meats?”
s – Mikey Day: “Wait, what?”
S – Bowen Yang: “Okay I don’t like that you changed the topic to Taco Bell.”
S – Mikey Day: reaction to audio mistake
l – Kenan Thompson: “So Arby’s is lookin pretty good by comparison, right?”
l – Kenan Thompson: “I’m physically present at every Arby’s location.”
S – Bowen Yang: “You’re gonna eat three roast beef sandwiches?”
L – Cecily Strong: “You do not shame me! Not in my debut Arby’s commercial!”
Weekend Update
l – Colin Jost: “I like Hitler, which is also the password he used to get into Mar-A-Lago”
s – Colin Jost: “We’re basically dealing with the omicron variant of Kanye.”
s – Colin Jost: “We may have to live with the brain fog of long-haul Kanye.”
S – Colin Jost: “If Jews control the media, explain the 80 foot Christamas tree outside of NBC.”
s – Michael Che: “Okay, but if I marry a white lady, who’s gonna protect me from my mother?”
S – Colin Jost: “Imagine Pete Buttigieg smoking meth shirtless as Gatorland as he battles for the state’s key demographic: grandmas under 30.”
S – Colin Jost: “Florida may not give us FDR or JFK, but it’ll definitely give us HPV.”
l – Michael Che: “The worker’s man demand is more play time.”
s – Michael Che: “I’m shocked, too, guys.”
S – Michael Longfellow: “I wasn’t and don’t call me Shirley.”
l – Michael Longfellow: “Snakes on a plane.”
s – Michael Longfellow: “My newest dad, Terry, who’s a semi-nudist I’ve seen naked 43 times.”
s – Sarah Sherman: Trish Dale reveal
l – Sarah Sherman: “Until they anally enter each other!”
S – Michael Che: “What?”
s – Sarah Sherman: “And one is a doctor so he knows just where it goes!”
S – Sarah Sherman: “It’s not a part of life. It hurts.”
L – Sarah Sherman: “I tried it.”
S – Sarah Sherman: “They grew up and I have no idea where they are.”
s – Sarah Sherman: drawing reveal
S – Michael Che: “The big one is the bottom. That’s good.”
l – Sarah Sherman: “That’s the twist.”
l – Sarah Sherman: “Who are you?”
S – Sarah Sherman: “I love the White Lotus.”
Ultrasound
Concept: A fun way to play off of Keke being legit prego
Execution: Middling but good effort all around
s – Keke Palmer: “You gonna dry mama out child.”
Choir Practice
Concept: A choir song meant to show off Keke Palmer’s impressive voice
Execution: Eh. Fine. Girl can belt, though!
S – Molly Kearney: “We put our whole p-word in it.”
S – Cecily Strong: “Welcome to Christwound High!”
S – Bowen Yang: “That was Broadway, you’re the new Funny Girl.”
s – Bowen Yang: “I’ve consulted with the gods, plural.”
s – Bowen Yang: “Grow up!”
Hawaii Flight
Concept: Slight. Familiar flight attendant setup but minimal depth / payoff
Execution: Decent, considering
s – Keke Palmer: “Wake y’all asses up!”
S – Ego Nwodim: “Oh it’s not just a lot – it’s illegal.”
s – Heidi Gardner: “This plane has been in more than one crash?”
