'Wasn't That Special' Season 42 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 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 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 Forty-Two bonus notes section, with the clips coming soon.
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Episode One: Margot Robbie
Christian: REALLY strong season premiere. Show has a bounce it was missing at the end of last season.
Scot: Alex Moffat already shows some qualities the show has been lacking. Really solid premiere, which hasn't always been the case recently - No Bayer?
Presidential Debate - Che as Lester Holt - Hillary Clinton (McKinnon) lets Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) fumble debate
Christian: Jim Downey-esque.
Scot: "She is a strong, beautiful, political prop that I almost forgot to mention." - If Hillary won, "I think I'm going to be president" would be as remembered as "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."
Action 9 News at Five - TV news team (Strong, Bennett, Jones) can’t get why hottie (Robbie) married dork Matt Shatt (Day)
Christian: Debut for Mikey Day and Alex Moffatt and it might be their best sketch.
Scot: Great escalation and a classic Kenan performance.
Family Feud: Bernie Sanders (Larry David) and Team Clinton meet Team Trump—McKinnon as KellyAnne Conway, Bennett as Putin, Villaseñor as Sarah Silverman, and Moffett and Day as Trump Bros.
Christian: Melissa Villaseñor debuts with a strong Sarah Silverman.
Women's Round Table - older actress Debette Goldry (McKinnon) relays tales of Hollywood's past
Christian: It's Colleen Rafferty but with an old actress and it works.
Scot: This has some potential.
Mr. Robot - hacking victim Jones enlists the help of Elliot (Davidson)
Christian: Again, the sketch is dependent on you knowing all about Leslie Jones.
Scot: I don't know the show, it didn't do much for me.
Episode Two: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Scot: The light usage of Bayer and Moynihan does not portend well for the season.
VP Debate Kaine (Day), Pence (Bennett) / Breaking News - Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) handles Access Hollywood bus remark fallout
Christian: McKinnon is SO good here.
"America's Dad, Sen. Tim Kaine" Boy, that sounds familiar.
Monologue: Miranda performs “My Shot” variant to express his excitement at being on SNL
Christian: Raps "never going to be president" next to the picture of Trump. I got news for you, Lin.
Pine Ridge Campground - Overly-amorous siblings (McKinnon) and (Bayer) sing obnoxiously
Scot: Doesn't work on either level, the singing or the siblings/lovers angle
Christian: Eh, it's not historically bad. Might have been better as a 10-to1.
Crucible Cast Party - High school theater celebration is tame
Christian: The fourth installment of "a Song about badass ladies doing relatable things."
The Music Man - The Wells Fargo Wagon brings bad financial instruments
Scot: Is Villaseñor doing an impression of a Pedrad character? Is that how she talks?
Episode Three: Emily Blunt
Christian: Cards on the table: I love Julio Torres and will always be partial to anything he writes. Day, Moffatt and Villaseñor are a shot in the arm so far. Show feels fresher.
Presidential Debate - Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) and "President" Hillary Clinton (McKinnon) debate a la town hall, Moynihan as Ken Bone
Christian: Prescient: Ken Bone was a weirdo.
Scot: This is one of the great McKinnon performances as Hillary - the fake reaction to Bill's women is excellent - a good debate sketch, probably better than Episode 1.
Escorts (Blunt and Jones) lay out unsexy ground rules for Moffat and Day
Christian: I was kind of waiting for the two women to be cops, which I think would have been a funnier closer.
Scot: Blunt is showing off, she's already exceedingly competent at this.
Short Film Festival - Festival attendee (Bayer) is the only person not in the cast or crew, who asks questions
Scot: Already can tell by Moffat's use how much they missed someone like him in the cast.
A long limo containing eccentric artists visits a Burger King drive-thru
Christian: Randy Candy: "I peddle in whimsy."
Scot: Man, this is the third(?) sketch creeping toward the inevitable David S. Pumpkins endpoint - All fun performance, no writing.
Episode Four: Tom Hanks
Christian: Seems like Moynihan and Bayer are underused and yet the show is still surging. Getting a big bump during an election season just as they did in 2008 with Palin. According to our grades, the best first four episodes to start a season since Season 16 (Kyle McLachlan, Susan Lucci, George Steinbrenner, Patrick Swayze)
Scot: Break out the record books to see the last time we had a show this strong.
Presidential Debate - Hanks as Chris Wallace - Trump (Baldwin) and Clinton (McKinnon) debate for 3rd time
Christian: Still think these are bringing the goods.
Scot: Baldwin's facial things actually detract from the impression IMO - "Mr. Trump, it's become very clear you're probably going to lose" - The election denial stuff obviously is prescient for 2020.
Black Jeopardy! - Trump voter Doug (Hanks) finds common ground with contestants
Christian: Basically predicted the whole shift of minority voters to Trump. Saw what nobody else saw at the time. Written by Bryan Tucker (who wrote for Chappelle) and Michael Che. Evidently, Hanks ad-libbed the hesitance to shake Kenan's hand.
Scot: The way they slow play the similarities is very nice. It's just a wonderful build and a great twist on the expected formula. Plus, it identifies something that was bubbling under in society (class, not race, as a dividing line). Essentially, it's a flawless sketch. It's an all-timer.
Haunted Elevator - It's David S. Pumpkins (Hanks)! Kenan runs the elevator, McKinnon and Bennett
Scot: Just silly, stupid fun, played perfectly by Hanks.
A Girl's Halloween - Bryant, Strong, and Bayer have a drunken disaster
Christian: A simple concept done really well.
Scot: Very similar in tone to the Golden Globes one from S41, which I also liked a lot - Everybody is really strong.
Episode Five: Benedict Cumberbatch
Christian: Bennett is from Wilmette, IL, and thus a Cubs fan. Moynihan has completely vanished.
Scot: Solid episode but also not much to write home about. Wonder if everyone was kinda distracted.
Erin Burnett Outfront - Trump/Clinton quarrel - Alec Baldwin [cameo] and McKinnon stop sketch for Times Square recess
Scot: Really the first time there's a serious acknowledgment that Clinton could actually lose - "We can't tell you who to vote for, but on Tuesday we all get a chance to choose what kind of country we want to live in."
Gemma and Ricky - Gemma (Strong) and magician boyfriend (Cumberbatch) meet Kenan and Bayer
Christian: Strong's British accent is better than Cumberbatch's American one.
Episode Six: Dave Chappelle
Christian: A great episode with a horrifying cold open. Seems like half the cast could have just taken the night off, but Chappelle was humming.
Hillary Clinton (McKinnon) plays piano and sings “Hallelujah”
Scot: I hate that losing an election is treated with the same gravity as 9/11. I hate that everyone thought this was fine response. I hate that Lorne forgot his credo, "“We’ve got the whole country watching – all fifty states.” I hate that it's essentialy wishcasting a Hillary response to the loss.
Chapelle does stand up about angry whites, shootings, the presidency
Scot: Surprised, but I thought this was just ... OK?
Christian: Oh man, I thought this was great. Absolutely perfect tone. One of the best monologues in show history.
Election Night - Unlike their white friends, Chapelle and Rock take the election result in stride
Christian: Of all the political sketches in the show's history, this one might be the most honest about the liberal bubble they all live in. It's perfection.
Scot: Feels like the material mined here could have had a home in the monologue. Maybe that's why it didn't? To avoid repeating?
Jheri's Place/Inside SNL - press conference follows bad sketch
Christian: "A wig can't carry an entire sketch." I believe I have said exactly this in our notes.
Scot: Interesting premise/set-up for this one. You initially think Jones has blown another line.
A Tribe Called Quest - “The Space Program”
Christian: I think this episode officially breaks the n-word record for SNL.
Love and Leslie - Backstage romance between Jones and Mooney
Christian: Yep, more contrast with Leslie and a tiny white.
Scot: To steal your line, this only works because of the personas outside of sketches (Jones is loud and aggressive, Mooney is a timid loser).
Episode Seven: Kristen Wiig
Scot: With all the ringers and the political focus, Bryant, Moynihan, and Bayer are just invisible. But shaping up to be quite the first half of the season.
Trump National Golf Club - Donald Trump (Baldwin) is confronted with promises and spurns Mitt Romney (Sudeikis), McKinnon as Conway
Scot: Trump: “I love you, Mike. You’re the reason I’ll never get impeached.” Reverse prescient. ThereIs a lot of life to these, and the Trump writing is MILES AHEAD of last year's struggles.
The Bubble - exclusive community contains Americans avoiding Donald Trump’s USA
Christian: More recognition of their insular views. Every time I heard of McSweeney's over the past nine years I thought of the "hm, clever" joke.
Scot: A conservative-slanted look at how liberals might handle things, no police/fire, 1BR apartments starting at $1.9M.
Secret Word - Mindy Grayson and Italian bombshell (Strong); you know what happens
Christian: What's this? I laughed a couple of times? Funny that Hader phoned in a cameo.
Scot: New thought: Villaseñor is the child of Nasim Pedrad and Sarah Sherman - Not the worst of these.
Anderson Cooper 360 (Moffat) - pundits get caught in loops a la Westworld
Scot: I don't remember Westworld, but it doesn't matter. The way they paint the wash/rinse/repeat cycle of the media is brilliant because it's true.
Christian: Yep, it's prescient in how Trump would be handled over the next four years. But is it...funny? Eh.
Target commercial- Target offers a respite from your family during the holiday season
Christian: I noticed this during COVID - a lot of people sitting in their cars outside of department stores, just taking a moment.
QVC Auditions - rival neighbors (Strong) and (Wiig) make competing audition tapes to be on QVC
Christian: Surprised Bayer wasn't in this one - she would go on to have her own show about QVC and said she was a QVC fanatic growing up.
Scot: Enjoyed the "0-to-60 in no time flat" feel to this one.
Episode Eight: Emma Stone
Christian: Another banger. Stone is gold.
Student Theater Showcase - Stone and others
Scot: The weakest (and I think final?) one of these. Way too much exposition from the crowd, but it's b/c the bits aren't good.
Christian: LOL. I thought this was the best of these!
Hunt for Hil - Hillary Clinton (McKinnon) is elusive in the Chappaqua woods
Christian: What's this? A decent Mooney/Bennett film? I am questioning my entire life now.
Wells for Boys commercial - Fisher-Price’s wells are for sensitive boys
Christian: Perfect.
Scot: Julio Torres wrote - A+ acting from everyone here, it's set up really well.
Episode Nine: John Cena
The Karate Teen - Martial arts big-guy (Cena) destroys Day
Scot: Feels like "Love Struck" from S41. A number of these pre-tapes have recycled plots in some way.
Alabama football player’s (Cena) bad science project is graded leniently
Christian: Another way to get at the "least qualified contestant in a contest" theme, a la Chippendale's. But it doesn't make sense - why do the other students get worse grades because Cena gets a good one?
Through Donald's Eyes - Donald Trump’s first-person view is selective in what it sees/hears
Scot: Julio Torres wrote - really interesting idea/perspective.
Erotic Bookstore - Bookstore workers (Bryant) and (Cena) behave like romance novel characters
Scot: This was spinning wheels until Kenan saved it right at the end.
Episode Ten: Casey Affleck
Christian: I can't even call it a dud, but it's definitely a step down from the rest of the season.
Scot: A lot of Anderson/Sublette-type humor here and that's not usually a good sign. Not going to be anyone's favorite Christmas episode.
Trump Christmas- Vladimir Putin (Bennett) and Rex Tillerson (Goodman) pay Donald Trump (Baldwin) a Christmas visit
Christian: The stuntcasting commences once again. Paper-thin writing.
Robot Presentation - McKinnon and Armisen - Affleck is puzzled by gay androids (Bennett and Mooney)
Christian: I'll give it a little bump because it's satirizing PC culture. Maybe it's just because Armisen's in it but it has a Portlandia vibe.
Scot: It wants to say something about obsession with sexuality but instead just makes gay jokes.
Jingle Barack - Kenan, Chance the Rapper, Darryl McDaniels [cameo] rap about Obama Christmas
Christian: Trying to cash in on some of the "Dick in a Box" 80s nostalgia. Were you aware Leslie Jones liked white men?
Scot: No actual Obama impression, just stock footage. A perfect encapsulation of how the show handled the whole presidency - Good song, actually.
Hillary Actually - Hillary Clinton (McKinnon) asks Strong to change the Electoral vote a la Love Actually
Christian: Again, prescient - Pushing a candidate to rig the Electoral College count. Just wait four years.
Scot: Enjoyed the rhythm/flow of this and the cards provided some laughs.
Affleck and fellow elves (Kenan, Bryant) seek discipline from Mrs. Claus (Bryant)
Christian: Hate these every year they do them.
Scot: Nope.
Episode Eleven: Felicity Jones
Christian: Somewhere between average and good. It was only as this episode finished that I realized Felicity Jones is a different person than Daisy Ridley. When Beck Bennett is the biggest star of the episode, there is a ceiling to its quality.
Scot: Big, big Beck Bennett night. Are laws of gravity beginning to take hold?
Beard Hunk (Bennett) - reality show bachelorettes all possess various flaws
Christian: These are such a good reflection of how stupid the Bachelor is.
Shondra and Malik - Car trouble preempts an urban turf war between Jones and Kenan
Christian: Took a while, but it got rolling (pun intended.) Vanessa Bayer is miscast.
Theater Donor - 106-year-old (Day) disrupts the theater-in-the-round production he funded
Christian: It's not the genius physical comedy of Melissa McCarthy, but solid. And the end was good.
Scot: Some physical comedy here that we haven't seen for a while.
Summoned Susan B. Anthony (McKinnon) can’t keep modern women’s attention
Christian: I really liked this!
Fandango All Access - Robot sex comedy creators (Jones), (Bennett), (Mooney) chat
Scot: Treating lowbrow as highbrow - "Now more than ever, artists much speak truth to power. That's what the whole horny grandmother scene is about."
Christian: Could have been better. Mooney has improved to "just a bad cast member" instead of "strangling the show to death."
Timid (Strong), (Jones), (Villasenior) tell intercourse jokes at a corporate retreat
Christian: It's like half a sketch?
Scot: The contrast jokes are fine, but once McKinnon enters it all falls apart. Strange back half to this one.
Episode Twelve: Aziz Ansari
Scot: The rare show shape is one of weakness at the beginning and end but strength through the middle. A couple of cast members (Bayer, Bryant) are wearing Women's March shirts at Goodnights.
Paid message from Russian Federation - Vladimir Putin (Bennett) addresses post-inauguration America; with Olya Povlatsky (McKinnon)
Scot: Alec Baldwin was participating in the women’s march that night and could not play Trump. Seriously.
Beat the Bookworm - Pop culture category benefits contestant (Bayer) over The Bookworm (Ansari)
Christian: That's it?
Scot: Perfectly fine but a little underdeveloped, actually.
Kellyanne Conway (McKinnon) does lots of media and sings “Roxie” variant
Christian: I vaguely remember some one-day controversy about this, with people saying it was sexist. (It is not.)
Scot: It's a nice performance. I'll point out if all these shows didn't like her and/or thought she was an attention-seeking liar, they did not have to book her.
Dirty Talk - Villaseñor's dirty talk doesn't work for Ansari
Christian: I knew she had it in her!
Scot: First time for Villaseñor to really shine. She does flub a line in there.
Episode Thirteen: Kristen Stewart
Christian: Zack Bornstein joined the writing staff this year, and he's good on social media. Also, are Day and Moffatt a step up from Pharoah and Killam? I think maybe?
Scot: Quality material overcomes a shaky host. This season is more than halfway through, and it is not falling off a cliff.
Oval Office - Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) hostile phone calls alienate world leaders
Scot: Playing Bannon as a straight-up skeleton ghoul is a choice. Saddam, OBL, Ted K, just funny misunderstood guys. Bannon is literal death.
Monologue: Stewart is the subject of Trump tweets, then McKinnon and Bryant pretend to be cool
Scot: Stewart says "fuck" I guess? It's really hard to tell. Nothing else really works here anyway.
Totino's Pizza Rolls - Bayer and Stewart make out as guys wait for pizza rolls
Christian: The best of the group by a longshot.
Press Conference - Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) briefs and berates the press
Christian: No problem putting this as an all-timer. McCarthy is great and everything works. I remember the first time I saw it and couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Scot: Should've been the cold open, yes - Media kind of treated Bannon the same way they're treating Elon Musk - This works the first time. We'll see about subsequent efforts.
Meet Cute - (Davidson) and (Stewart) agree to date without exchanging information
Scot: The best Stewart performance of the night by far.
Episode Fourteen: Alec Baldwin
Scot: Baldwin doesn't add much tonight. It's just replacement-level hosting. You like the Trump stuff more than I do, and I like WU more than you do. It should balance in the end.
Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and Jeff Sessions (McKinnon) address reporters
Christian: I know I have complained about stuntcasting, but McCarthy is still great.
Scot: Prescient: Later in this show Trump would be in The People's Court.
Russell Stover's Black History Heart-Shaped Box commercial
Christian: Once again, a more nuanced take on race than you'll see anywhere else.
Scot: Great concept, love the idea and execution.
Pitch Meeting - Cheetos seeks socially-conscious pitches - Baldwin and Bryant and Villaseñor and Mooney pitch
Scot: The Chester Cheetah with breasts thing made me laugh. There's something slightly off with the rhythm of this, though, which holds it back.
Day repeatedly farts while breaking his high school’s sit-up record
Christian: Fart jokes are great.
Scot: Farting is really, really really funny.
Episode Fifteen: Octavia Spencer
Scot: Dynamite WU tonight, but a late collapse. Moynihan is in witness protection. Also, this is Bryant's fifth season. What does she do here?
Jeff Sessions Gump - Sessions (McKinnon) recounts his misdeeds
Christian: Just waiting for Putin to show up, and...there he is.
Courage, Compassion, Country: The TBD Story commercial - biopic of TBD GOPer who stands up to Trump
Christian: Would retroactively become the Mitt Romney story.
Drug company hearing - Merck swiped drug names from former employee’s (Spencer) relatives and friends
Scot: This seems like a reeeeaaally old premise by 2017, no?
Girl at a Bar - Guys cal Strong a bitch when she denies them even though they are feminists
Christian: Prescient! Kamala shout-out.
Scot: I don't know where I'm supposed to laugh.
Zoo-Opolis Voice Actors - (Villaseñor), (Moffat), (Spencer) fill in for celebrities voicing cartoon characters
Christian: Villaseñor getting to flex her impression muscles. She's good!
Scot: Voice impression workout. But Villaseñor shows some skills!
Bar Centrale - Strong and Spenceer have a weird friendship
Christian: Good commentary on racial code-switching - making fun of lefties once again. Bayer's face when she is dying inside but still smiling is always laugh-worthy.
Scot: Not working.
Episode Sixteen: Scarlett Johansson
Christian: We are way off on this one. There were some weaknesses near the end, but I thought this was overall a strong effort.
Scot: ScoJo episodes never seem to leave a mark.
Monologue: Kenan marks ScoJo's Five-Timer status with clips featuring mostly himself
Christian: Maybe my standards for monologues have fallen, but I thought the Kenan bit was just enough to make this fine.
Good Day Denver - Show mislabels animal photographer (Day) as a pornographer
Christian: They took a chance and it paid off.
Pet Translator - Thought-vocalizing device creator (ScoJo) learns her dog (Bennett) is a Trump fan
Christian: This one is a riot.
Scot: "If Poquito was born here, he has nothing to worry about" - Some funny lines inside this one.
Bennett gives odd directions to actors shooting an Olive Garden commercial.
Christian: If laughing a lot is a measure of a good sketch, this one passes.
Scot: Simple idea, silly prompts. It works. A couple of big laughs.
True Tales From the Sea - Shud (McKinnon) and anglerfish-mermaid (ScoJo) put the moves on marooned pilot (Day)
Christian: Just exists for duplication theory.
A Sketch for the Women - female cast members are sidelined in a pro-women sketch written by Bennett and Mooney
Christian: Clever premise, super successful beats.
Episode Seventeen: Louis C.K.
Christian: We are at the point where this season might be flop-proof. It's going to be an all-timer.
Scot: C.K. is not coming back and that's frankly a very big loss for the show.
Monologue: C.K. does stand-up on racist chickens and leveraging his white privilege
Christian: Louis C.K. joke structure: Set a trap by saying something outrageous, then see if you can wriggle out of it.
Scot: Closed very very strong. And ... in 7 months everything changes for him.
Thank You, Scott - Song about activist (C.K.) who does his part on social media
Christian: Again, more skewering of liberal activism.
Older soda jerk (C.K.) asks teen (Strong) on a pretend date
Christian: The allegations against C.K. were reported by the New York Times in November of that year.
Scot: Whoa. The power dynamics on display here are ... going to be important soon.
The O'Reilly Factor - Bill O’Reilly’s (Alec Baldwin) sexual harassment woes chase sponsors
Christian: It's just so distasteful to have someone as personally wretched as Alec Baldwin dance on the graves of other wretched people.
Scot: Everything was fine until Trump joined the program.
Birthday Clown - A depressed 53-year-old (C.K.) hires a children’s clown (Moynihan) for his birthday
Christian: Another Moynihan classic.
Scot: Plagiarized?
Sectional Sofa Emporium - C.K. shares his sectional couch obsession in what appears to be a commercial, but is not - Bryant too
Christian: I would be shocked if Julio Torres didn't have something to do with this.
Tenement Museum actors (C.K.) and (McKinnon) portray racist Polish immigrants
Scot: Neither C.K. nor McKinnon can keep it together.
Episode Eighteen: Jimmy Fallon
Christian: Ended up only being slightly less than average, but for this season, this is the Hindenburg. I assume they signed Baldwin to a season-long contract, which was a mistake given they came up with a better cold open halfway through the season.
Monologue: Fallon leads caravan backstage as Nile Rodgers [cameo] performs “Let’s Dance”
Christian: The words "I can't wait to see Jimmy Fallon sing and dance" have never been spoken in world history.
Middle schoolers overrate the quality of their Legally Blonde musical staging
Christian: Theater kids making fun of theater kids.
Scot: Third(?) in the series of quick-cut contrast pre-tapes. My least favorite but still fine.
Sully (Fallon) and Denise (Dratch cameo) join their Harvard-accepted daughter (McKinnon) on a campus tour
Christian: There is an alternate universe where Dratch had Fallon's future career and it is far more enticing.
Episode Nineteen: Chris Pine
Christian: I knew I jinxed it when I said this season couldn't be ruined. This one’s a total dog.
Scot: This is ... the worst episode of the season? Clearly?
Song for Peace - Slavic Stav D (Bennett) bemoans crises, particularly porn
Christian: The opposite of entertainment.
Scot: Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to this.
Boss (Bryant) and personnel rep (Bayer) fight over Pine via “The Boy Is Mine”
Christian: Kind of half-baked, but it's fine.
TV Land Future Classics - Kenan as Neil DeGrasse Tyson; Moynihan played a wild Italian Vulcan in an unaired Star Trek episode
Christian: Wait, who is playing Sulu? The Wall Street Journal told me I've never heard of him.
Scot: Akira Yoshimura! -- too bad he's the highlight.
Couples Game Night - (Pine) and (Strong) derail couples’ game night with Joe Frazier musical theme
Scot: Anderson/Sublette dreck.
Episode Twenty: Melissa McCarthy
Scot: Pretty standard McCarthy episode.
Trump Interview - Lester Holt (Che) questions Donald Trump (Baldwin) about James Comey
Christian: We get it. Trump calls black people names of other famous black people. The "Coltrane" is stolen from the Royal Tenenbaums.
Just Desserts! - Day hosts; McCarthy gets pies and cakes in the face
Scot: McCarthy being messy just doesn't do much for me.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Bryant) and then Sean Spicer (McCarthy) explains the Russia investigation with a doll
Christian: McCarthy's eyes still look irritated from the pies. The scene with Baldwin was entirely unnecessary.
Scot: Terrible last two minutes.
Film Society of Lincoln Center - Bayer hosts; Debette Goldry (McKinnon) and fellow veteran actress (McCarthy) describe sacrifices made
Christian: Duplication theory.
Episode Twenty-One: Dwayne Johnson
Scot: After ignoring Moynihan and Bayer most of the season, the show gives them an earned spotlight tonight. Zero McKinnon tonight after the cold open?
Ivanka (Scarlett Johansson) and the rest of team Trump (Baldwin) sing “Hallelujah”
Christian: I guess this is to blunt criticism over McKinnon's bit as Hillary? Still unsuccessful.
Scot: First time Trump is wearing a Russia pin, not a U.S. pin? - It's going to be a great season, but how much even better without the three gigantic Clinton/Trump/Obama clunkers and also (IMO) severe overuse of Trump/Baldwin?
Cartier Fidget Spinner commercial- Bayer needs to be occupied at parties
Christian: Not sure this really works - what is the connection between a horrible date and a fidget spinner?
Scot: Hope this sets up for a strong Bayer finale.
One Voice - eighteen additional artists are featured on Big Chris’ (Kenan) rap song; David S. Pimpkins (Hanks)
Christian: Grew on me. Please refer to me as "Big Chris."
Scot: Like the Under-Underground sketches, the names/artists are pretty much good to sell the premise.
Jurassic River Rapids - Gemma (Strong) is part of an unplanned double date (Kenan, Bayer) on a splashy Universal Studios ride
Scot: This character's continued return is inexplicable.
RKO Movie Set - in 1948, star actress (Bayer) can’t stop farting while shooting film noir
Christian: This is 100% a Kristen Wiig character. Juvenile? Yes. Did I laugh every time? Yes.
Scot: Bayer is charming, but .... no.
International Mad Scientist Society - Johnson invents child-molesting robot for mad scientist evil invention contest
Christian: People were not pleased with The Rock after this sketch.
Scot: OK, well, here's the show taking a chance. Johnson has a bunch of great lines. The White Castle turn (though I'm a big fan!) keeps this from an all-timer.
Senior Skit - Hgh school seniors (Bennett), (Mooney), (Moynihan), (Bayer) perform valedictory sketch
Christian: Moynihan and Bayer deserved so much better.
Scot: Nothing special on paper, but good performances and a proper send-off.