Kind of a meh episode tonight, but destined to be overshadowed by the very special guest who showed up in the middle of the monologue. Check it out below as Jonah HIll returns for his third time hosting SNL.
COLD OPEN: A fairly amusing opening that shows the Winter Olympics broadcasters presiding over "heterosexual" figure skating, where Bobby and Jay do their best to stumble over the ice. It's decent.
MONOLOGUE: Jonah comes down, excited about host- LEO!!! Sorry, my inner 12-year-old fangirl made an involuntary reappearance when Leonardo Dicaprio actually steps out onstage to recreate a Titanic moment with a nervous Jonah. It's awesome and I can't believe he showed up!
BENIHANA: Jonah's recurring character, the 6-year-old jewish boy, is cracking jokes at the restaurant, but the appeal of this sketch is lost on me. None of the jokes worked and it went on way too long.
THE HIT: A mild recorded bit with Taran, Kenan and Jay as gangsters who get distracted by the beauty of the snowfall before a shootout. Not that funny, but harmless. Kinda weird that Jonah's not in it at all.
COUPLES QUIZ: Kenan as the game show host interrogates one of the contestants (Jonah) for clogging up their bathroom and denying it. It's kinda funny, but again, fairly mild, as is the trend tonight.
WEEKEND UPDATE: The jokes are actually funnier than the guests for once, as both Seth and Cecily get in some good digs at Justin Bieber, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee for their various continuing scandals and stupid remarks. Kenan comes on as the cop who arrested Bieber, and that's pretty good, while Kate shows up as a rural Russian woman looking forward to the Olympics.
SWEETHAND RANCH: Ugh. Definitely worst of the night, as Cecily and Jonah are two horse trainers who keep getting attacked by the horse- really not funny.
SPIKE JONZE TRAILER: A good one! Jonah spoofs Her, playing Joaquin Phoenix who falls in love with his OS, but this time it's his own voice. It's funny, but probably more so if you've actually seen the movie, so it may be a bit insider-y.
BOSS DINNER: Jonah gives it his all as a nervous guest at a dinner party who keeps retreating to the bathroom to scream really loud at himself and make everything awkward. His commitment to it makes it more amusing.
INSIDE SOCAL: Sigh. Another recorded bit with Beck and Kyle, who are desperate to make these things work. Thankfully, this one is a little bit funnier than their others, as their douchey college guys putting on a basement tv show is pretty on the mark.
PORN STARS: One of my favorite recurring sketches is slightly less funny tonight, with Jonah getting in the best joke about The Wolf of Wall Street as a porn movie. It ends the show on the consistent "okay" note that ran through the whole night.
So, Jonah was fine as host, but the episode just had too many middling skits and not enough real laughs. I'd give it a C+, but for Leo's cameo appearance it gets bumped to a B-. That's how cool it was to see him show up. Next week, it's Melissa McCarthy, yay! She's usually a terrific host, so that will almost surely be a better episode. See you then!
