I hadn’t seen Austin Butler since The Shannara Chronicles where he was, like the show, pretty and kind of forgettable. The Butler who hosted SNL, however, has a little more depth and a little more charisma and I liked him immensely. What ended up killing the stats for this particular episode was the lack of belly laughs (for the second straight week). The show was fun and engaging, but not necessarily ha-ha funny. Every sketch Butler was in was good, and he was good in it.
Though he’s been blessed with astounding looks and a voice that we have come to realize is Elvis-y as hell, in Butler’s monologue, he tugged on our heartstrings, explaining his love of SNL, his crippling shyness as a child, and the loss of his mother, to whom he dedicated the episode. So how was he as a host? Pretty damn good, I thought. He zigged when he was supposed to zig and zagged when he was supposed to zag and made it look easy. It kind of sucks, frankly, that both he and series premiere host Miles Teller can’t be SNL players because they both played a very good straight white dummy. That said, the show played better than the final numbers would indicate, and Butler was enjoyable.
This week featured maybe the longest Weekend Update ever, but strangely it wasn’t a great one. Colin Jost looked overwhelmed when it started. Maybe he was torn up about Cecily Strong’s last show? Not sure but he was a bit flummoxed when Update began.
The real hit of the show was the exit and farewell to Cecily Strong. I cried. Several times. I think she ended up beating Kate McKinnon by one episode as the longest tenured female player. What an amazing run she had, and will be sorely missed.
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 know 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.
Everybody likes charts.
Cold Open
Concept: Is this really a Trump sketch? Seriously? What’s wrong with these people?
Execution: Ugh. Pretty good actually. They mocked Trump for being a crook but if I never have to see him again it’ll be too soon.
s – Cecily Strong: scream-singing
S – James Austin Johnson: “What a terrible couple.”
s – James Austin Johnson: “Four if you count Epstein.”
Austin Butler Monologue
s – Host: “You are scaring iCarly.”
S – Host: “Luckily my mom decided to homeschool me and my sisters so I was also weird.”
S – Host: Gollum impression
s – Host: “My mom, like all moms, is a huge Gollum fan.”
S – Host: “Is now standing on this stage.”
The Phrase That Pays
Concept: A game show
Execution: Tight. Well done.
s – James Austin Johnson: “Don’t do that.”
s – Punkie Johnson: “mama”
s – Heidi Gardner: “How about X?”
s – James Austin Johnson: “Read a book?”
l – Host: “My favorite letter is B because I’m a bad one.”
S – Punkie Johnson: “What?”
S – Heidi Gardner: “He’s got a device in his ass like that chess player.”
S – James Austin Johnson: “Who cares.”
A Christmas Epiphany
Concept: A wacky twist on It’s A Wonderful Life
Execution: Pretty good.
S- Heidi Gardner: “There is a man…”
l – Host: screaming in window
S – Marcello Hernandez: “Dad, I think the man wants to kill me.”
l – Andrew Dismukes: “I’m not going out there, are you crazy?”
Marzipan
Concept: Someone on staff thought “wtf is marzipan, anyway?” And wrote an insane and fun sketch about it.
Execution: Solid
s – Kenan Thompson: reveal with wig
S – Bowen Yang: screaming
s – Kenan Thompson: breaking
s – Michael Longfellow: stirring
S – Michael Longfellow: “Yuck, it’s perfect!”
s – Bowen Yang: grimacing
S – Sarah Sherman: “Mine’s a baby’s ass.”
Jewish Elvis
Concept: An Elvis impersonator at a retirement home leans into the Yiddish
Execution: Really good
l – Host: reveal as Lois
S – Sarah Sherman: “I’m schvitzing like a hounddog up here.”
l – Host: “I’m so horny I’m gonna friggin explode.”
l – Cecily Strong: “Get yah fat ass off the stage.”
s – Sarah Sherman: breaking
S – Sarah Sherman: “We can’t go on together with delicious cheese.”
l – Host: “We all get diarrhea from delicious cheese.”
Weekend Update
s – Colin Jost: “Seen here giving the eulogy at a pimp’s funeral.”
S – Bowen Yang: “Brenee Brown has this great quote about shame.”
S – Bowen Yang: “Ghislaine Maxwell.”
S – Michael Che: “Yuck, Cathy Anne.”
l – Mikey Day: “I need money fo Christmas.”
S – Colin Jost: Sloe Gin Jizz Reaction
S – Heidi Gardner: “You’re TV muppets.”
White Elephant
Concept: Things go bad at a gift exchange
Execution: Weirdly good-ish? It felt short and the button was insane but it was okay.
S – Cecily Strong: “Ok well let’s move on.”
S – Host: “That’s mean as hell.”
l – Host: “Jeanett’s house stinks.”
Jennifer Coolidge Is Impressed by Christmas Stuff
Concept: Jennifer Coolidge talking about Christmas stuff
Execution: Spot on
s – Chloe Fineman: voice reveal
s – Chloe Fineman: “Kinda weird.”
l – Chloe Fineman: “Seems like I’m drinking Santa’s __.”
l – Punkie Johnson: reaction
s – Chloe Fineman: blowing out the menorah
Please Don’t Destroy – Plirts
s – Host: “Kinda early but okay.”
S – Host: side eye
S – John Higgins – PDD: “His date night just turned into a sex night.”
S – Host: “Plastic shirts? No.”
S – Martin Herlihy – PDD: “Exactly but I was hoping you would.”
