'Wasn't That Special' Season 37 Bonus Materials
As the Wasn’t That Special co-hosts watch each season of Saturday Night Live, they compare notes on each episode, chatting back and forth about both popular and long-forgotten sketches. Some of the topics they discuss make it to the final podcast; others are left on the cutting-room floor.
But for those of you who join at the Executive Producer level, you will have access to Christian and Scot’s behind-the-scenes notes, as well as bonus materials the co-hosts used to prepare for the episode.
Please enjoy this edition of the Season Thirty Seven bonus notes section, with the clips coming soon.
Help keep the podcast advertisement-free and upgrade to the Executive Producer level, which will keep these emails coming in the future!
Episode One: Alec Baldwin
Christian: What's left to say about Baldwin? I still hate that he's so good.
Scot: Looks like a pretty darn good premiere to me.
GOP debate with Mitt Romney (Sudeikis), Rick Perry (Baldwin) Jon Huntsman (Killam), Michele Bachmann (Wiig), Newt Gingrich (Moynihan), Ron Paul (Brittain), Herman Cain (Kenan), Rick Santorum (Samberg)
Christian: 11 minutes! You know you're a political dork when you can spell "Michele Bachmann" correctly without looking it up.
Scot: There are some really good moments and Hader is excellent.
WDHX Channel 19 - satellite delay harms conversation with TV reporter (Wiig)
Christian: Maybe a little familiar, but I laughed a lot!
Scot: Feels like we've done this before (JLD and others) and no real laughs here.
Who's On Top - game show contestants mull hypothetical gay male couplings
Christian: I was set to hate this, then... it got stupider and better.
Scot: Timon and Pumbaa section was enough to lift it up.
Child psychologist’s (Baldwin) daughter (Pedrad) acts up during date with Bayer
Christian: "After we have sex you're going to have to leave" bumped it.
Scot: A rare "worth is because of the ending" sketch - Some Rudolph moves for Pedrad in here.
Angels in the Trenches - (Killem) takes soldiers’ final message delivery requests for family
Christian: There is no comedy higher than "yo mama so fat" jokes. But we landed on the same grade on this one. Also, there are charges this sketch was plagiarized.
Scot: Was trending toward something better until the "your mom so fat" stuff, which was just OK.
Episode Two: Melissa McCarthy
Scot: McCarthy was mostly overbearing and unexpectedly bad.
Christian: In 37 seasons, you have never been more wrong. McCarthy steps in and immediately would be one of the best women ever on the show.
Lawrence Welk Show - Dooneese has a muscle-bound sister (McCarthy)
Christian: Number six of these. Duplication theory in effect. Even before we started the podcast, I considered Killam the average line. And I stand by it so far. He and Nealon.
Scot: You don't like Killam? He seems pretty capable so far.
McCarthy & Wiig get close to dancing but not quite
Christian: Wiig and McCarthy were Groundlings together for two years.
Scot: Song-and-almost-dance.
McCarthy engages in sexual harassment of co-worker (Sudeikis)
Christian: Credit to McCarthy for going for it. Haven't seen anything like this on the show before.
Scot: At no time was I amused by this.
The Comments Section - online loudmouths are confronted by victims
Christian: McCarthy effectively playing her character in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, for which she earned an Oscar nomination.
Rock's Way - Chris Rock (Pharoah) inserts his commentary into Broadway shows
Christian: If you are going to do Chris Rock, you have to do jokes that are good enough for him to do.
Scot: Not a fan. Impression is good, though.
Taste Test - enthusiastic (McCarthy) at Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing focus group
Scot: Annoying.
Christian: Clearly I have a higher Melissa McCarthy tolerance than you do because she is great in this.
The Essentials with Robert Osborne - stairs-related injuries crippled Mae West knockoff (McCarthy)
Scot: This stinks and I'm out of goodwill for this episode.
Christian: WHAT? This is at least solid.
Episode Three: Ben Stiller
Scot: Show has settled into a fairly consistent groove to start the year.
Stiller visits Jewish Willy Wonka’s (Samberg) kosher wonderland during Yom Kippur
Christian: This feels like a precursor to John Mulaney's future musical bits.
Best of Both Worlds with Hugh Jackman - manly Daniel Radcliffe (Hugh Jackman) is musical
Christian: Solid. The meta stuff with Jackman is a bit too easy but Hader's Clint Eastwood impression is good.
Columbus Day Assblast - Under-Underground Columbus Day festival features Eckhart Tolle (Stiller)
Scot: A step behind the others.
Tinyballs - Moneyball follow-up dramatizes role of steroids in baseball
Scot: Could've been great, settled for good.
Christian: Could've been good, settled for okay.
Episode Four: Anna Faris
Christian: Big Bayer episode, even with her stumbles in the debate sketch.
Message From the mayor - Michael Bloomberg (Armisen) battles Occupy Wall Street protesters
Christian: Armisen says NYC is a trendsetter on Occupy Wall Street, but it was clearly an outgrowth of the Wisconsin protests in which occupiers took over the State Capitol for weeks.
Scot: Just not much happening here.
Questions from the crowd - Faris finds Hanna Garis (Elliott) in the audience, doing her Faris impression
Christian: Hader takes over what would have been a Forte role.
Scot: Back to cast members asking the questions.
Yet Another GOP Debate - Herman Cain (Kenan) takes center stage, Romney (Sudeikis) is bland
Christian: Choppy and off-kilter, but fine enough.
Scot: Bayer is very stumbly, uncharacteristic - Hader's Perry is much better than Baldwin's.
J-Pop America Fun Time Now - Midwestern kids (Killam) & (Bayer) love Japan
Christian: This is a total cop-out. They want to get laughs by doing Japanese impressions but throw in Sudeikis to add disapproval.
Scot: Sudeikis is this thing's saving grace - This is definitely going to recur, right?
(Wiig) & (Faris) ogle odd Ferrari calendar models
Christian: Wait, they're women, but they're like men!
Episode Five: Charlie Day
Scot: I always think of Day as being kind of one-note as an actor, but things went pretty well tonight. Really fun show.
Christian: You had it higher than I did, but it was fine.
The Ghost of Kaddafi - (Armisen)
Christian: I feel like we have seen Armisen do some version of this two dozen times now.
Scot: "Well, we've got to do something about the news this week."
Kim's Fairytale Divorce - Kardashians make a spectacle of Kim’s (Pedrad) separation
Christian: Wiig making fun of plastic surgery is...prescient?
Scot: There's enough happening here to make it a solid double.
It's Getting Freaky with Cee Loo Green - Cee Lo Green (Kenan) helps (Samberg) & (Elliott) enliven marriage
Scot: Has a very "What Up With That" vibe, less successful.
Christian: "Less Successful" is a kind way to put it. Hader resurrecting his character from Dr. Blackenstein.
Maroon 5 - “Moves Like Jagger”
Christian: I knew the whole dance to this on Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii.
Because of One Dolphin - Actor (Day) has trouble during a scene with a dolphin
Scot: Second dolphin reference tonight - a good Kenan!
Episode Six: Emma Stone
Christian: The average episode is now slightly better than average. This one needed more Bayer. But Stone is a really good host.
Scot: So. We should say something about the writer's room being kind of ruthlessly efficient under Meyers' reign. Like, most things are solid, interesting, consistently OK at worst.
WXPD News - Herb Welch (Hader) flubs reporting on falling ice story
Christian: Hader and Wiig trying not to break is the best part. Feels like this is a replacement for Hamilton Whiteman after Forte left. Old guy with deep voice that says insensitive things.
Wish It Would Rain - lack of precipitation ruins (Samberg) video
Christian: Ooof.
Scot: This is terrible, really bad. The butt thing?
Les Jeunes de Paris - Teens dance & get married
Christian: Someone decided these could be the new What Up With That, with random characters moving in and out.
Bridal Shower Guests - (Stone)’s X-rated gifts are inappropriate for (Wiig)’s bridal shower
Christian: One of the rare examples of a guest host creating a character and killing it.
Scot: Pretty fun and good character work from Stone.
Depressed (Pedrad) & co-workers cry to Adele’s “Someone Like You”
Christian: Really liked this one.
We're Going to Make Technology Hump - devices perform porno plots
Christian: So dumb. So good.
Scot: I'm all for this ridiculous premise and enjoyed the three scenes. Very good.
Episode Seven: Jason Segel
Monologue: Segel tells Muppets that, despite their SNL heritage, this is his solo gig
Christian: Sure, it's a song, but there's a decent bit written around it.
Scot: It's really a Muppets sketch, less a song.
Kelly Ripa (Pedrad) auditions potential replacements for Regis Philbin. Charles Barkley, Garrison Keillor, Zooey Deschanel, Rosie O'Donnell, Antonio Banderas, George Lopez, Denzel Washington, Kathie Lee Gifford
Christian: Impression workout.
Scot: The Zooey impression is pretty good - They didn't bring Kattan back for Banderas?
Retirement Party - at Armisen’s retirement party, Segel hints at a big secret to be revealed
Christian: Latest in the long line of "people keep grabbing the microphones at public events" genre of sketches.
Scot: I did not like this at all. There's enough of a structure that it's not quite a total failure.
The Blue Jean Committee - local band charms townsfolk with rendition of “Massachusetts Afternoon”
Christian: It's not funny, but I sort of just enjoyed the vibe of everyone in the room together having fun. This would eventually become a Documentary Now! episode.
Scot: How many more lounge/bar band songs will be ending shows?
Episode Eight: Steve Buscemi
Barack Obama (Armisen) ranks America’s Most Powerful people.
Christian: How many people sitting at home get Grover Norquist jokes? Also, Obama did an awful lot unilaterally (DACA, etc.) so he was actually pretty confident in his own powers.
Scot: Armisen just using his regular voice to do Obama at this point - NFL clearly #1 right now.
Investigation clears creepy college coach (Buscemi) of pedophilia suspicions
Christian: Buscemi is really good in this.
Scot: First half smokes. Can't quite keep the pace to the end, still excellent.
Erotic chef (Buscemi) contributes to "Sex Ed" Vincent’s (Brittain) tepid Couples Workshop
Christian: Nowhere near the fun of the first one.
Buscemi unpacks & comments on Christmas ornaments for Sheila (Wiig) to hang
Christian: Some fun jokes hung on a virtually invisible premise.
Scot: Seemingly written for Walken, who would murder with this premise.
Episode Nine: Katy Perry
Christian: Cast age check: Armisen is 45, Wiig and Meyers are 38, Sudeikis is 36, Hader and Samberg are 33.
Scot: Show is doing fine, but feels like it's begging for someone to break out.
On the Record with Greta Van Susteren - Donald Trump (Hammond) moderates debate between Santorum and Gingrich
Christian: Hammond's Trump impression pales in comparison to the ones we've seen in the past 10 years.
J Pop America Fun Time Now
Christian: We are never getting away from this are we?
Kalle - Finnish talk show with Katy Perry - they have a clip of everything
Christian: Slow start, but once the clip bit starts it picks up.
Perry and Moynihan bond at a jazz bar - find they have random things in common
Scot: Nice little thing. Moynihan's favorite moment on the show?
Episode Ten: Jimmy Fallon
Christian: Perfectly middling, no real high points. The Jimmy Fallon of episodes.
Boston Teens - Dratch is back, Poehler pops in
Christian: It's fine. The treatment to make it look like VCR tape makes it kind of hard to tell what's going on.
Scot: Thought it was opening to an HBO parody, actually.
Fallon sings a sweaty Christmas song
Christian: Fallon's return, as the prophecy foretold!
Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee - Fallon drops in as Regis Philbin
Christian: Kathie Lee's insults are...actually pretty good? "She calls it the missionary position because having sex with her is charity." Mercifully short, too!
Scot: Fallon's Regis is not bad at all.
Fallon to a mirror, played by Sandberg
Christian: Much like ordinary people should avoid having their photo taken while standing next to Gal Gadot, Fallon should avoid being in sketches with Samberg.
Beethoven (Fallon) introduces members of his band
Christian: This feels like a bit from The Tonight Show. Fun to see all the people in this, I guess (Including Bertram Bertram King.)
Scot: Really loved the concept. Execution was fine. Good sketch.
Tim Tebow (Killam) gives speech in locker room - Jesus (Sudeikis) answers his prayers and is actually a cool guy
Christian: Clearly, Sudeikis expected a much bigger laugh for "Dad bless him."
Episode Eleven: Charles Barkley
Christian: Halfway through the season and there hasn't been a single notable Digital Short. It's totally collapsed.
A Message from Rick Santorum - Discusses his loss in the Iowa caucus, promises to visit every county in America
Christian: Actually pretty easy on Santorum. But this goes on way too long.
Scot: Santorum actually won! - Everything after 3 minutes should have been cut.
Bowl season on ESPN - Samberg lists off crazy bowl game names
Christian: Doesn't every uncle make this joke every holiday season?
Scot: My wife was appalled because there is a Snoop Dogg Bowl this year - I chuckled.
Introduction of the Mayan calendar
Christian: It's flat and Barkley pretty much kills it.
Episode Twelve: Daniel Radcliffe
Christian: Jesus, how long was this episode? Felt like three hours. Actually a little sad to see Paul Brittain go - he was a perfectly plausible cast member. Lana Del Rey got destroyed after this performance, so she went on Letterman to prove to people she could sing.
Scot: I don't think my standards are too high but I can't remember the last time I even considered awarding a "4". Yet the shows don't suck!
Mitt Romney (Sudeikis) ad from diner, tries to walk back comment about firing people
Christian: To be honest, SNL has been really easy on the Republican candidates. They try to get tough here and it's a clunker.
Scot: Is Obama still the President? He's MIA on the show.
Target Lady
Christian: It's getting near to the end of Wiig's run, might as well let her empty the chamber.
You Can Do Anything! Show about high self-esteem of YouTubers
Christian: "You're so self-promotional! And everyone enjoys that!" This is so prescient - every line applies to TikTok.
Scot: Liked it, but didn't quite soar at any time.
Delaware Fellas - it's a cheaper Jersey Boys
Christian: This is high-school level talent show stuff.
Weekend Update: Romney Wins New Hampshire - Kim Jong Un's Best Friends Growing Up (Bayer and Armisen) - Woman undergoing gender reassignment surgery wears penis as a broach - Casey Anthony's adopted Yorkshire terrier (Radcliffe)
Christian: On Nov 7, 2011, I wrote this in an NRO column: "(Maybe Romney’s campaign slogan should be “Vote Mitt Romney, I Guess.”) That exact joke shows up on Weekend Update this week.
Scot: SNL has pilfered from both of us - "I sell drugs" sign great for drug business.
X27B Theater - a look at how people lived in 2012
Christian: The audience didn't get this AT ALL. I got it A LOT.
Scot: I got it. It was good. The wolverine line was funny. Not quite great.
The Jay Pharoah Show - Pharoah interviews Radcliffe, has never heard of Harry Potter
Christian: This is painful. It's supposed to be a joke about how Pharoah does nothing but impressions on the show, but it just highlights that he's got nothing as a performer.
Scot: So, Pharoah naturally kinda sounds like Denzel? - Bad news starts to finish.
Wiig conducts exit polling, asks weird questions
Christian: An attempt at the census taker bit but without Fey's skill. It's a small thing but I bet the ethnic accents probably not happening today.
Scot: "Do you like my new laugh?"
Headz Up App - tells you where you're going
Christian: Feels prescient. Maybe people didn't think you needed this back then, but they all make sense now.
Scot: Yes, prescient. Especially with new car features (I just got one). There's an alert hen the car in front of you begins to move!
Episode Thirteen: Channing Tatum
Christian: Real dog this week. Barely any Hader, Bayer is still basically on the sidelines, and Wiig is playing out the string. Armisen has vanished. The host was below-average.
Scot: Tatum was a terrible host. Writing sucked, too, but boy he was bad.
Newt Gingrich: Moon President - the GOP candidates (and Herman Cain) go to the moon.
Christian: Sound problems, premise problems, joke problems.
Scot: Came closest to laughing at Hader's Reagan impression and that wasn't all that close.
Getting Freaky With Cee Lo Green - Matthew McConaughey (Tatum) is guest - Col. Nasty (Hader) helps lesbian couple (Pedrad and Bayer) with their lovemaking
Christian: I do not find Col. Nasty to be a successful Hader character.
Filming NFL on NBC promos
Christian: It's like the singing friends, only much worse.
Scot: Yes, that's exactly what this tries to be.
Bon Iver, "Holocene"
Christian: Bon Iver: One great album, one pretty good one, then a decade of masturbatory nonsense.
Pedrad does dance with Tatum for her Bat Mizvah
Christian: The crowd knows the whole sketch as soon as they set it up.
Scot: Whole bunch of nothin'.
Sudeikis reprises his strip club DJ bit at Bongo's Clown Room
Christian: Not any better than the first time. Midget strippers? C'mon.
Scot: Feel like this exists for when the show is short, much like Nicholas Fehn.
Episode Fourteen: Zooey Deschanel
Christian: Wiig is everywhere, crowding all the other female cast members out - Lorne probably wants to wring everything out of her before she leaves. Getting a lot of the Greatest Hits as she winds down. Samberg is physically there, but he's missing Taccone and Schaffer as writers. So he's doing his best, but regressing back to the pack of cast members.
Scot: Officially a trough. Long string of barely adequate episodes continues. Abby Elliott has to be the most anonymous cast member ever. She'll be gone and I still won't really know if she's lingering in the background of a sketch.
Romney at home explains away primary election results, says bad losses are good news.
Christian: Sixth Romney cold open appearance this season. The dog liked this one about as much as I did.
Scot: Holy cow. I'm an active GOP voter and even *I* didn't care this much about the 2012 primary.
Les Jeunes De Paris - Jean Dujardin from "The Artist" guest stars, movie goes black and white
Christian: Remember this guy?
Scot: Nope, do not remember.
Wiig and Deschanel are southern women promising their cookout guests crab legs
Christian: Obvious where this one was going but it still pays off. Written by James Anderson.
Scot: Hard disagree. This was four minutes of wheel-spinning and an obvious ending. No laughs detected.
We're Going to Make Technology Hump returns
Christian: Still fine, but basically a rewrite.
Scot: Not as good.
Episode Fifteen: Maya Rudolph
Christian: A strong one, buttressed by the return of Poehler and Timberlake. Barely any Sudeikis and once again, the female cast members are shoved out of the way for the host.
Scot: Alumni night in many ways. Sudeikis is just in What Up With That and Obama Show?
New York Sports one - panel has caught Linsanity
Christian: They're making a joke about anti-Lin racism but also trying to wring jokes out of it. Absolutely not seeing this today.
Scot: What is this and why isn't a sixth-tier GOP candidate talking to me? - I think they get the right tone here. The interpreter video is quite a good joke. But, no, not likely happening today.
Jay-Z (Pharoah) and Beyonce (Rudolph) have visitors to see their baby. Prince (Armisen), LL Cool J (Kenan), Nicki Minaj (Pedrad), Brad and Angelina (Killam and Elliott), Taylor Swift (Wiig), Bon Iver (Timberlake)
Christian: Middling, but not bad. "Bon Iver put himself to sleep" is a good joke.
Scot: "We're about to put our baby to sleep." "Trust me, this will help."
What Up With That? President's Day - Bill O'Reilly, Kate Upton, Lindsey Buckingham
Christian: Exit question - would there be a better punching bag than Lindsey Buckingham?
Super Showcase - Rudolph and Wiig are spokesmodels with accents on game show. Hader is host, Bayer is contestant.
Christian: Wiig never breaks, but she loses it in this one, which is kind of fun to see.
Scot: And Bayer keeps it together! - There's some undeserved breaking here to save what is a failing idea, I think.
"How's He Doing?" Kenan Talk show discusses support for Obama down to 99.2% among blacks
Christian: Another "conservative" point on the show - black voters wouldn't ditch Obama under any circumstances. And yet Kamala Harris (played by Rudolph, ironically)...
Scot: Used this one in my “Politics of SNL” class - The rare sketch that even hints at the current president.
Episode Sixteen: Lindsay Lohan
Christian: Another really good one - again, Wiig was in almost everything. She's going to keel over one of these weeks.
Scot: Moynihan, man. Just totally absent in sketches. Guess he had Newt for a moment. I want more Bayer.
Shepard Smith (Hader) interviews Mitt (Sudeikis) and Ann Romney (Wiig), Samberg as Kid Rock
Christian: They use the "vote Mitt Romney, I guess" joke again. Hader's Shep Smith is outstanding.
Scot: Hader's Shep Smith should be used more frequently.
Real Housewives of Disney
Christian: Bayer getting the tiny hi-fives was the high point. You can just feel the writers stacking jokes on top of the premise.
Scot: Prescient: Pedrad later would star in the 2019 live-action ALADDIN - Solid double.
2012 Psychic Awards - contestants already know if they've won
Christian: Killer premise and it pays off.
Scot: Ah, that's the good stuff. Didn't overstay its welcome, hit on every joke attempt.
Scared Straight - Lohan plays herself
Christian: Lohan is not a generational comedic talent. Sudeikis has always tried to make his sitting down at the end a thing, but it finally gets everyone to break. This is the seventh of these - feels like so many more.
Scot: I would've guessed 12.
Delinquent Girl Teen Gang - Movie of the week - they dance in the street, Armisen keeps getting hit by a car
Christian: Reminiscent of one of Wiig's first sketches, the NASCAR cheerleaders who keep getting run over.
Scot: Stooooooo-pid.
Lohan offers to house-sit for Wiig, who keeps getting threatening calls
Christian: Finally a new Wiig character that carries a sketch into top-notch territory.
Scot: Boy. I, uh, did not find the humor in this one. Also, if she butt-dialed, wouldn't she hear herself coming through the phone?
Rude Buddha - Samberg makes fun of people asking him for enlightenment, offers to have sex with Lohan
Scot: Fine for a Samberg.
Episode Seventeen: Jonah Hill
Christian: Strong start, pretty much tanked in the back half. I really want to see more Pedrad and Bayer, but I guess they are stuck in Triple A at this point.
Rush Limbaugh (Killam) talks about calling Sandra Fluke a slut - reads off new sponsors
Christian: These ad reads sound exactly like Sudeikis doing Twinkle and Stink.
Scot: Yes, my comment exactly. Except nowhere near the quality.
Adam Grossman returns with his dad (Hader), his girlfriend (Bayer) joins
Christian: I perfectly understand if anyone thinks this is annoying, but I love it.
Science Finders - the Human Heart - Hill gets smoked in the nuts by tennis balls over and over
Christian: I was ready to crush this one for being so stupid, but I admit the attempt to revive Hill made me laugh pretty hard.
Scot: You should know this about me: I'm a sucker for "guy gets hit in the nuts stuff." I just am.
J Pop America Funtime Now - Hill guests as wise old Japanese man
Christian: Hill breaks in a sketch that doesn't deserve it.
Liza Minelli tries to turn off a lamp
Christian: Is there a "worst of Kristen Wiig" DVD? This would be on it. A rewrite of "Ann Margret tries to throw away trash."
The Shins, "It's Only Life"
Christian: When did The Shins get a hot guitarist?
Scot: I like The Shins, but by this point all the songs sound like something they've done better before.
Anniversary Song - Hill raps song to Wiig after tricking her into thinking he got an orchestra to play for her
Christian: Nope. Also, including "U" as "You" in song titles was hardly visionary in 1997 - Prince did it through the 80s! Also, kind of anti-prescient: Coolio did die pretty young, in 2022.
Scot: Is there any reason for Wiig to be the lead in this sketch?
Episode Eighteen: Sofia Vergara
Christian: Kate McKinnon joins as a cast member. Moynihan and Hader give it up for McKinnon in the goodnights. A surprisingly strong episode for a host with such a heavy accent (see: Jackie Chan) but it worked.
Scot: Without Digital Shorts, Samberg really just seems mostly lost.
Mitt Romney (Sudeikis) says whatever the group he's speaking to wants to hear
Christian: So the joke is that Mitt Romney is uninteresting, so...he's the cold open in like every other episode?
Scot: One of the stronger political sketches of the year. Romney as panderer works.
Monologue: Vergara talks about coming to America, introduces her son
Christian: A real monologue with good jokes! "This country welcomed me with open arms and pulled-down pants."
Almost Pizza commercial
Christian: Seems prescient - there's a lot of "almost pizza" in stores now. (Cauliflower crust, etc.)
Scot: Big, big laughs at everybody here. Hader and Wiig are perfect. Great commercial. Has a Happy Fun Ball quality to it.
News team promos - Armisen can't get turning to the camera right
Christian: Armisen's essentially doing Martin Short's Lawrence Orbach character.
Scot: Yuck.
Gilly ruins sex ed class taught by Vergara
Christian: Somehow trying to be more creative with this made it worse?
Watch What Happens Live - Andy Cohen (Killam) interviews The Shahs of Sunset and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Christian: Kate McKinnon's first speaking role.
Episode Nineteen: Josh Brolin
Christian: They were due for a bust, and Brolin delivered. McKinnon doesn't get to back up her great debut.
Scot: McKinnon is in the Game of Thrones thing and then ... nothing else? I'd say this is a rare episode this season where the writing really sags. Not much you can do with this batch of sketches. I mentioned last season this "sea change" feel where the younger cast members were taking command at times. That has stopped. Vets have yanked back the wheel.
Romney and Santorum meet at a bar after Santorum drops out, they (and Bachmann and Perry) sing Green Day's "Good Riddance" and tell stories
Scot: A twist on the "Song Memories" sketch, essentially, with campaign foibles the narrative.
Game of Thrones is co-written by a 13 year old boy (Samberg), so there are lots of boobs.
Scot: Easy laughs and they took them.
The Californians debut
Christian: Hader and Wiig can't keep straight faces; this has a better reputation than it deserves.
Scot: This is already terrible. The mugging, the accents. It's too much.
America's Top Empire State of Mind Parody Artist
Christian: This is terrible. So Pharoah can do a Jay-Z impression - so what?
Scot: Andy's Weird Al is the better impression here.
The high school hallway where all the kids move in slow motion
Christian: I'm not mad at the effort, but it never lands.
Scot: Could it have been better? Sure. But passable.
Booker T. Washington High school prom - Pharoah's principal returns
Christian: A lot of undeserved breaking this season.
Scot: Look, maybe Pharoah should have continued *not* speaking in these shows.
Episode Twenty: Eli Manning
Christian: Probably as good as could be expected with Manning as host.
Scot: Unusual that I like a show this year more than you, but here we are.
Madden CGI motion capture - Tim Tebow, Eli Manning, Victor Cruz - Manning has bad celebration dances
Christian: Basically a rewrite of the Peyton Manning sketch where he couldn't throw a boulder.
Scot: Eli throwing the fake grenade made me laugh.
In court, Manning explains texts and emojis sent to women while he's trying to hook up
Scot: Really good way of using Eli's geek nature - it's not the funniest thing in the world, but set-up/execution/acting all is excellent. Sudeikis and Hader having fun, too.
Digital Short - Little Brothers - Manning roughs up problematic big brothers
Christian: A Manning being mean to kids - an SNL staple!
Game Show: What is This? Elliott hosts, asks questions of boyfriend (Manning)
Christian: Feels like "What's Your Sitch" from the Jonah Hill episode a couple years back. Elliott gets to run a sketch on her third-to-last episode.
Scot: I liked it! Nothing special but much better than that Hill sketch for sure.
Helga Lately - Swedish Chelsea Lately (McKinnon)
Christian: It's bad, but a little cruel - after her best moment on the show, Elliott has to essentially watch her spot get stolen from her. And be IN THE SKETCH.
Scot: Not too much here but McKinnon powers it through.
Miss Drag World - Armisen, Moynihan, and Manning are contestants.
Christian: This one shouldn't be done today not because it's drag, but because it sucks.
Scot: No idea how this makes it on-air. A disaster.
Episode Twenty One: Will Ferrell
Christian: When Ferrell hosts, mediocrity is a huge underdog, but it won this week.
Scot: Not a single memorable Ferrell moment, which is pretty incredible.
Digital Short - 100th short
Christian: Star studded, but...pretty bad?
Scot: It's fine, I guess. But it's more like the Keaton family gathering around the kitchen table to reminisce than new and entertaining. What's the phrase, Member Berries?
2012 Funkytown debate
Christian: Nothing here. There's a reason you never hear of this cited as a Ferrell classic.
Scot: I'm generously giving it a point for the premise (a Mayoral debate in Funkytown), but the execution stinks out loud.
Broadway Sizzle - Hader and Wiig are old musical composers
Christian: Four of the sketches so far are song-based.
Scot: Hated every second of this.
Everyone wants to grab the mic at a 25th anniversary wedding event
Christian: Will Forte’s Hamilton Whiteman makes for a grade floor of 3.
Scot: Not even Whiteman (who also was kinda weak this time) could lift this. Slow, slow-moving.
Episode Twenty Two: Mick Jagger
Christian: Only a handful of actual sketches and four of them are recurring. Should I be sadder that Wiig is gone next year or that Cecily Strong starts?
Scot: You mentioned earlier that it's easier to find WU due to the internet. Yes. But the stories have less resonance because they become so generic. Like, is that a real story? Is it made up? It's not commenting on stuff from the week, it's telling you tiny, weird stories for the first time, then dunking on them.
Wiig is one of the most-talented cast members ever. But she's not Ferrell in that others were also top-level at times in her run. I think they didn't write well for her toward the end, either. Gonna be hard to place her correctly, I think. I haven't tried to do it yet.
The Lawrence Welk Show - Jon Hamm cameo as Italian crooner
Christian: Already feeling nostalgic.
Jagger answers all the questions he normally gets on the street
Christian: This is really good! I think I like just regular guy Mick Jagger more than musician Mick Jagger.
Scot: Yeah, surprisingly good. Smooth. Very nice.
Secret Word
Christian: Ok, not feeling THIS nostalgic. I have my limits.
Scot: Gonna be all Wiig, all night, isn't it? - And both of these are just the same thing over and over - At least it was short.
Insurance conference karaoke - Armisen does Jagger imperson in front of nerdy Jagger
Christian: The meta premise is a pretty easy one, but it's funny when Bayer says "it feels like I'm in the room with Mick Jagger."
Scot: It shouldn't work because it's so obvious but it's fun and Jagger sells it. You know Armisen was in heaven.
So You Think You Can Dance at an Outdoor Music Festival? Jagger as Stephen Tyler
Christian: The title tells you the whole sketch and there are no surprises.
Scot: Jagger was too much as Tyler.
Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck do a song Jagger just wrote about the presidential election
Christian: I hate bar blues and this song is absolutely wretched. Is this supposed to be a joke?
Goodbye, Kristen - Graduating class - Arcade fire plays "She's a Rainbow" and "Ruby Tuesday" as current and former cast members say goodbye to Wiig
Christian: Samberg at least deserved some sort of acknowledgment.
Scot: Why does this happen? Lorne's favorite? Just happenstance? Part of this new era where cast members return every other week so the show is more inwardly focused?