The popular opinion of Saturday Night Live in recent years has been less than favorable. You can’t even mention it anymore without eliciting comments about how it’s gone downhill or how much better it was in the 70s/80s/90s/whatever decade your friend’s sense of humor is stuck in. And I mostly agree. Saturday Night Live isn’t consistent. There have been weeks where I’ve watched it and marveled at the fact that it hasn’t been cancelled yet. And yet I still watch every episode. Why do I submit myself to watching what is apparently a failing show week after week? Is it because it’s on Hulu and I can’t eat a meal without watching TV? Yes. But is it also because every episode still has at least one gem of a sketch that I think is worth watching? The answer to that is also yes.
This week’s episode had me worried. Bruno Mars is not exactly known for his comedy or acting skills so the choice to have him not only be the musical guest but also the host didn’t exactly bode well. However, while he didn’t exactly blow my mind, I ended up enjoying a few of his performances and what could have been a disaster of an episode ended up being watchable, if not great.
The evening opened, unsurprisingly, with a political cold open. The premise wasn’t the strongest I’ve ever seen (Obama and Romney are grumpy and want to fight!) but the strength of Sudeikis and Pharoah’s performances sold it for me. I can’t express how happy I am that Jay Pharoah has started playing Obama. Not only does it eliminate one problematic impression (Fred Armisen playing a black man always made me a little uncomfortable) but Pharoah’s impression is just plain better than Armisen’s ever was. The secondary premise (people from Long Island talk funny!) had so much potential but the only things that really made me laugh were Kate McKinnon (who was criminally underused in this episode) reading the wrong pieces of paper and the way Bobby Moynihan said “ass.” Oh god, did it kill me every time he said “ass.” Tag Romney’s brief appearance not only had me cracking up but also justified the fact that I always thought Taran Killam looks like Jason Sudeikis’s son.
Can I just have a moment where I say I really don’t like the new title sequence? The one before this was really cool. I liked how it showed the cast around the city and revealed a little bit about their personality. They’ve replaced this with stills of the cast member that just don’t have the same effect. It seems lazy, I guess, like they couldn’t be bothered to put as much effort into this one. However, the title sequence isn’t exactly going to ruin my viewing experience so I’ll move on.
Bruno Mars’ monologue was not funny. At all. I tend to not like musical comedy so the fact that a good deal of recent monologues have been musical numbers is just soul-crushing for me. The one good moment was Mars’ impression of a New Yorker. It was so adorably bad that I couldn’t help but laugh. Being adorable and trying really hard was what made Mars a tolerable and occasionally funny host but there was just not enough of that in the monologue for me to like it.
I was on board with the first appearance of the Brad Pitt perfume commercials. Taran Killam’s impression wasn’t great but it sounded enough like Brad Pitt to not ruin what was actually a pretty funny sketch. But then it came back. Again. And again. And it stopped being funny. As much as I defend SNL, I have to admit that they have the tendency to take a sketch that was funny once and repeat it until I groan every time I see it (e.g. The Californians, which I didn’t even like that much the first time).
Haters seemed weirdly unfinished for the first proper sketch of the night. It just ended! Out of nowhere! You can’t just dress men like women and have a bunch of people wave their butts at the camera and expect a sketch to be funny. That being said, Bruno Mars makes a pretty lady and if there’s ever a celebrity version of Drag Race, it would be a crime if he wasn’t on it. Cecily Strong has yet to make me laugh once since she joined the cast but, to be fair, I also thought Fred Armisen wasn’t funny before I saw Portlandia, so it’s entirely possible the writers haven’t figured out how to use her yet.
I’m a sucker for impressions. I honestly don’t care how funny they are as long as they’re well-executed and because of this I liked the Pandora HQ sketch. The premise of Bruno Mars doing impressions of other singers had me at hello and even though the sketch never really made me laugh it did make me smile every time Mars actually sounded like someone else. My only problem with this sketch was the fact that Mars kept forgetting the lyrics to the songs he was singing. I don’t know if that was written into the sketch but it certainly didn’t seem like it was. It took me out of it every time and by the end, it was just getting annoying.
As soon as the episode started going downhill, Sad Mouse came out of fuckin’ nowhere and SAVED EVERYTHING. Breaking from the typical SNL aesthetic, Sad Mouse was a weird little indie movie unto itself. Bruno Mars playing a man breaking down juxtaposed perfectly with Sudeikis’ cheerful, clueless boss character as well as with his job wearing a mouse costume in Times Square. I don’t know what it is about someone being sad in a mascot costume but it’s clearly comedy gold. The sketch even had a sweet ending where Mars finds another sad person in a frog costume that warmed my heart in a way that only a Michael Cera movie can. I’ve missed Andy Samberg’s digital shorts so much this season and Sad Mouse filled that void perfectly. It’s going to take a lot to topple this one as my favorite sketch of the season.
The appearance of Stefon in Weekend Update was more than welcome. I complained about the writers running bits into the ground earlier but I don’t think it’s possible to ruin this one. The dynamic writing duo of John Mulaney (who can do no wrong in my eyes) and Bill Hader bring it every time Stefon shows up and this week was no exception. Of course, at this point watching Hader break is just as much of a part of Stefon’s appeal as what he actually says and when he absolutely lost it after saying the Jewish Dracula was Sidney Applebaum, I didn’t even care that I didn’t get the reference because I was losing it too.
The last three sketches of the night weren’t very notable. The creepy animatronic guys were, indeed, creepy and I was impressed at how well everyone involved moved like robots but past that the sketch didn’t have too much going on and it could have ended much earlier than it did. Yeti Point was similarly one-note, with the only real joke sticking out being people looking dramatically at the camera, which is really just a recycled bit from the Californians. The sketch could have been saved by Bill Hader doing what he does best and acting weird but then fact that his bit amounted to nothing but a rape joke ruined it for me. The Under Underground Records was about as good as it always is (Ass Dan is never not funny) but there was nothing about this one that made it stand out from the countless sketches like it we’ve seen before.
Overall, this episode didn’t exactly live up to my assertions that SNL is still worth watching. There were some amazing moments (Sad Mous, Stefon) but in general the episode never really got off the ground, which is too bad because the first few episodes of this season had given me some hope. Louis C.K. is going to be hosting soon, so at least we have that to look forward to and maybe this episode will end up being a fluke in what is overall a good season for the show.
Pop Culture Is My Boyfriend 