Well, it was the night of Paul Rudd and a million cameos, as many of the old cast made an appearance (possibly to rescue the current one from what's been a pretty dismal season?) and he was a good host as usual, but all in all, a pretty mediocre episode, once again.
COLD OPEN: SNL spoofs The Sound of Music in response to the huge ratings from the live stage show on Thursday, with Kate as Maria and Taran as Captain Von Trapp, but Kristin Wiig's baby hands freak makes an appearance as one of the children. Honestly, I've never been a fan of that character, so this sketch did nothing for me (although Kate and Taran are good), but if you like her, then you'll probably go for it. We also get Fred Armisen back as Lawrence Welk, which makes it feel like an episode from last year. I don't know why he was there though, because we don't see him again.
MONOLOGUE: Well, this was the funniest and best thing in the episode, so I hope you enjoyed it. Paul Rudd comes out and makes fun of how every time he hosts he's overshadowed by the musical guest (first Beyonce, then Paul McCartney), and tonight's no exception, as One Direction comes out onstage to join him. But Paul brings out his own gang, the cast of Anchorman, as Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Steve Carell show up for a sing-off of "Afternoon Delight." Awesome.
POLITICS NATION: I don't know what happened here tonight. This sketch is usually good, because Kenan does a funny Al Sharpton, but there just weren't enough jokes in this one. It also ended so abruptly, and after only a couple minutes. Most skits are too long, for some reason this felt truncated.
ONE DIRECTION'S NUMBER ONE FAN: Pre-recorded bit with Paul as One Direction's biggest fan and fighting a bunch of little girls over it while they wait in line. It's mildly funny, which is something that affects a lot of skits tonight.
DIVORCE: Paul and Vanessa as a divorcing couple who can't stop dancing to Fleetwood Mac. It's mostly weird and not funny. Forgettable.
WEEKEND UPDATE: Some lame jokes (that's been a problem with Update lately) and then Vanessa comes on as Jacob for what might be the last time, but I can't say I'll miss him all that much. Jacob can be funny, but he's been way overdone recently. I can't say Cecily Strong's settled into Weekend Update that well- she's still got a fairly average delivery and I'm not sure it's going to go smoothly at all if she's going to be on her own when Seth leaves. Then Taran shows up as 19th century critic Jebediah (I called that, but man that was QUICK!) to review classic Christmas specials. He doesn't seem as funny this time, but maybe they just shouldn't have brought him back so fast- are they really running low on material this season?
MICHELANGELO UNVEILS DAVID: Paul is the model for Michelangelo's statue, who's embarrassed to be revealed as having a tiny you-know-what. Mostly dick jokes, but it's ok.
WHITE CHRISTMAS: An odd trailer for a Christmas Best Man Holiday type movie, but for white people. I honestly don't get what's so funny about this- I guess I don't think the differences between black people and white people in these movies are so drastically different as to be a hilarious joke. It's kind of weird actually.
SANTA'S WORKSHOP: The elves welcome Paul's Santa back to the North Pole after he's lost 150lbs and is now a jerk to everyone with a hot girlfriend. It's middling and could have been a lot funnier, like almost everything in this episode.
MEMORIES: Cecily is an upper class New Yorker haunted by her past lovers, except one, who's Paul as the scruffy, working class cook Victor who won't stop bugging her. It's actually okay, kind of random and odd, but there's some kind of effort here, like an old school SNL skit, at least. Paul's been good with everything, he just hasn't had much to work with.
BILL BRASKY: Yay! A classic SNL skit is brought back, as Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Taran are the three drunk guys in a bar, and Paul and Kenan jump in to tell stories about Bill Brasky. Just seeing a new Brasky skit is cool, even if it's not as good as the old ones.
And that's it, everybody. Paul does what he can with some very mediocre material. For not having anything too painful (the divorce one was the closest to that), but also nothing too uproarious, I give it a C. Seriously though, I'm wondering if Beck Bennett might be better at the Update desk, given his deadpan humor, than Cecily. Many of the past Update anchors came out of not being great at sketches, and given Seth's imminent departure, I do think they should consider auditioning people just for that position, because I don't think she's nearly ready to go solo there. See you next week, when the great John Goodman makes his return appearance!
