'Wasn't That Special' Season 43 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-Three bonus notes section, with the clips coming soon. (Apologies for the late delivery of this one, work trips and such got in the way.)
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Episode One: Ryan Gosling
Christian: Pretty strong season debut. Gardner hits the ground running.
The Chaos President - Donald Trump (Baldwin) renews relationship with Jeff Sessions (McKinnon); Bryant as Huckabee Sanders, Moffat as Schumer
Scot: Whole lotta nothin'
Levi's Wokes - unoffensively indeterminate Levi’s Wokes jeans are universally wearable
Christian: Heidi Gardner debut.
Scot: The "uni-fly" is a great concept - This is potentially dangerous territory for the show - "Woke" has entered the language, clearly.
Italian Restaurant - Gosling and Strong are angry about Pizza Hut commercial’s pasta switcheroo
Christian: It's just the Farley Folgers bit recycled?
Scot: Giggly Gosling - Rewrite of the Farley hidden camera commercial from long ago.
Papyrus - Font choice for Avatar logo is Gosling obsession
Scot: Julio Torres - Same intensity Gosling brought to "Santy Baby."
Episode Two: Gal Gadot
Christian: Gadot is very...watchable. Just so-so as a host.
Scot: Nothing really great, nothing truly terrible. Liked Gadot.
First Date - O.J. Simpson (Kenan) has a dinner date with Gadot
Christian: Well done. Perfectly paced.
Scot: Couple of big laughs and a nice idea behind this one.
Safelite Auto Glass commercial - Safelite AutoGlass worker (Bennett) breaks windshields to be near teen (Villaseñor)
Scot: Safelight complained and got this pulled from re-runs. Bennett is actually looking like the real employee in their ads - They've done this sort of thing better.
The Naomi (Gadot) Show - Kenan becomes terrible teen’s (Gardner) father figure
Christian: Good feature debut by Gardner but a joke would have been nice.
Episode Three: Kumail Nanjiani
Christian: Totally fine. Nanjiani was perfectly capable. Fun fact: I roasted Nanjiani on Twitter once and he was a good sport about it.
Scot: Nanjiani actually was very good but, strangely, the writing held things back.
Nanjiani does stand-up about being from Pakistan and dealing with Islamophobia
Christian: The Muslim/racist stuff is strong.
Scot: Was not familiar with his material. This was mostly good!
Potential hepatitis transmission kills fun at an office Halloween party (Bennett, Kenan, Bryant, Jones)
Scot: It's not awful but it's certainly lacking in actual jokes.
Melania Trump (Strong) befriends a Pakistani call center worker (Nanjiani)
Scot: Julio Torres wrote it.
Episode Four: Larry David
Christian: Hated, hated, hated this episode.
Scot: The seams are showing in a way that never was a problem in S42.
Paul Manafort's Apartment - Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) visits house-arrested Paul Manafort (Moffat)
Christian: Moribund.
Scot: Pretty terrible stuff. The Melania angle barely keeps it afloat.
The Price Is Right - Bennett is Carey; Bernie Sanders (David) wins; Liam Hemsworth cameo, Baldwin as Tony Bennett
Christian: Workmanlike.
Scot: Impression workout.
Pre-tape - “Confident” and dismissive Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Bryant) with reporters
Christian: Weak. We've done Spicer, we've done Conway. Getting less interesting as we go.
Scot: Conway last episode, Manafort and Huckabee tonight. These people are not that interesting. Boy I really did not like this.
Ad Council Awards Dinner - Honoree’s (David) old PSAs are offensive; Strong is MC
Christian: Kind of a statement on the show itself.
Scot: Big laughs. The second tag line I was not quite expecting.
Pre-tape - The Baby Step - David refuses to participate in infant-themed rap video; Cyrus helps
Christian: David can't save this.
At a party, (David)’s gay-famous new wife (Strong) performs her club routine
Christian: Did we need an American Gemma? This feels like David trying to pull this dreck out at the end by breaking.
Scot: David breaks badly - I'll give you $5 if you can guess who wrote this one.
Pre-tape - On a sitcom episode, Mooney and Bennett realize David is an alcoholic
Christian: "Here are some things I noticed about sitcoms." Nothing clever, no escalation. I had hoped Lorne framed Mooney for murder.
Scot: I love 80s sitcoms as much as anyone, but this is basically as unsuccessful as the other Mooney and Bennett stuff because they worship form over function/humor.
Episode Five: Tiffany Haddish
Christian: The race is on to be Female Cast Member 2 behind McKinnon. I guess it's Strong? Bryant had an opening, but she's not running through it.
Scot: Strong is absolutely Female 2 and it's not exactly close. Haddish won an Emmy for this episode and I have no idea why that happened.
Roy Moore visits Mike Pence - Mike Pence (Bennett) and Jeff Sessions (McKinnon) ask Roy Moore (Day) to drop out
Scot: The hell are we doing here? Appoach now is less looking for humor than recapping the week in news. McKinnon's Sessions is all sorts of ragged now.
Monologue: Haddish stand-up
Christian: Think Haddish would be nervous her first time hosting? She's a natural. I really enjoyed this.
Scot: Energy! The dress bit is good at the end.
Boo Boo Jeffries - (Kenan) is stuck with non-fighting avatar (Haddish) during video game battle
Christian: It's David S. Pumpkins.
Dems Are Back -Old Democrats declare “We’re Back!” - Moffat/Schumer, Strong/Feinstein, McKinnon/Pelosi, Sudeikis/Biden, David/Sanders
Christian: Making fun of Democrats, again.
Scot: David references his monologue from the previous show - Quibble: Bernie technically is an Independent, right?
Pre-tape - Kyle and Beck - Jost conspires with Bennett to split up Mooney and Jones at the SNL Masquerade Ball
Christian: Really trying to wring blood out of a stone now.
Scot: These pieces are about the only time Lorne is on-camera anymore.
Get Woke With Tamika (Jones) - Bryant is guest
Christian: Just a grab-bag of unrelated stuff. Totally themeless. Why is Breitbart a sponsor?
Scot: The material might be fine, but Jones is the absolute WORST choice to take it off the page. Not suited for her skills.
Pre-tape - The Dolphin Who Learned to Speak solicits handjobs from (Bryant) and (McKinnon)
Christian: Would have been funnier in the context of the #MeToo stuff happening at the time. It's fine.
Whiskers R We - Katt Williams (Robb) joins Barbara and new partner (Haddish)
Christian: What can I say, I'm a sucker for these.
Scot: The cats are crazy tonight.