'Wasn't That Special' Season 41 Clips Package
As always, for those who have signed up for the podcast at the Executive Producer level, we send out notable video and newspaper clips that aided us in preparing for the episode. Below are some of the Saturday Night Live sketches and media clips we reference throughout the episode, to enhance the listening process.
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Here are some of the materials we discuss throughout the Season Forty-One episode:
Meet Your Second Wife
Biting and topical. An all-timer.
Close Encounter
As close as the show has gotten to replicating the Matt Foley magic.
Mafia Meeting
Or as it should forever be known, “Space Pants.”
Santa Baby
Farewell Mr. Bunting
Hillary and Bernie Cold Open
Uber for Jen
A sweet little detour from writer Mike O’Brien.
Undercover Boss: Kylo Ren
Cold Open: The Democratic Debate
Porn Teacher
For some reason, at 100 million views, this is the most watched YouTube clip in show history.
The Day Beyoncé Turned Black
Hotline Bling Parody
A future U.S. President is in this.
Naked and Afraid: Celebrity Edition
A running joke all season on the show is Leslie Jones’ affinity for tiny white men. See:
Bern Your Enthusiasm
An episode of Curb expertly boiled down into a few minutes.
Black Jeopardy with Elizabeth Banks
Yes, they did these before Tom Hanks.
Drake’s Beef
Pretty prescient now that Drake is in the highest-profile beef in America at the moment.
President Barbie
Prescient in that it picked up on something the pollsters weren’t catching on to at the time - that Hillary Clinton may be a lot less popular than people thought.
The Champ
Every time Jonah Hill hosts, there has to be at least one bit where he completely humiliates himself.
Obviously, the big news of the season was presidential candidate Donald Trump’s hosting gig, which drew big numbers. How big? The Washington Post took a look:
The New York Times reviewed the Nov. 7, 2015 Trump episode and found it wanting:
It would be unfair to blame Mr. Trump alone for the deadness of the Nov. 7 episode. It’s hardly the first time the show has worked with a host who struggled with comedy line readings (some were professional actors). The bigger problem was the anodyne material. Mr. Trump said he hosted the episode to show he could “take a joke,” but “S.N.L.” hardly threw any his way.
Instead, having chased ratings by casting the controversial candidate, “S.N.L.” stuck with obvious, anemic political riffs and apolitical sketches that were cringeworthy all around. Mr. Trump himself had said that he had vetoed some material he found too risqué (a prerogative of hosts in the past), so maybe he killed better material that we’ll never see. But “S.N.L.,” having cast a boisterous figure whose political raison d’être is “winning,” delivered an episode that did nothing except play not to lose.
…
And what did “S.N.L.” and producer Lorne Michaels get? The ratings, but then again, any new viewers tuned in to see a joyless, unfunny show, which ended in a curtain call with Mr. Trump and the cast that played like a hostage video.
Naturally, there were protests.
Needless to say, this promo shot probably isn’t on Cecily Strong’s mantle at home:
The Coloradoan newspaper took a look at Leslie Jones’ path from Colorado State University to SNL:
A very subdued Jones discussed her time at Colorado State in an interview:
The Today Show noticed how much Ryan Gosling broke during his hosting gig.
Near the end of the season, the show dedicated one full special to Prince’s presence on the show.
During the season, Jon Hamm discussed his connection to SNL:
Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate to make an appearance on the show that year. National Review’s Jonah Goldberg called Hillary Clinton’s cameo essentially an ad for her campaign.
Cecily Strong was already giving interviews about how she wanted to stretch her talents beyond SNL:
It was also the season the all-female Ghostbusters was released, featuring three current and former SNL cast members:
