Well, that was disappointing. This was a very weak, very bad episode tonight, compounded by nearly everyone flubbing their lines or having trouble with the cue cards at some point during the show. Sigh. It held promise, but the highlight of the night was Chris Rock's monologue and Prince's 8-minute showcase.
COLD OPEN: They do a Megyn Kelly report on Chris Christie's handling of the ebola quarantine he placed on Kaci Hickocks, but Bobby's Christie really should be a lot funnier- I mean, there's no easier target than that guy, but instead he makes a bunch of old jokes about New Jersey. Then Kate shows up as Kaci the ebola woman, and of course makes it a little brighter, because she's so obviously the most talented cast member at the moment, but it's still weak.
MONOLOGUE: As I told you before, this was the highlight. Chris Rock, one of the great stand-ups of all time, comes out and does his bit, and of course it's funny and sharp and everything you'd want SNL to be on a regular basis but isn't. The only part of the show worth watching, really.
HOW 2 DANCE W/ JANELLE: A lame skit where Sasheer is a teen wanting to dance sexy on the internet, while Chris is her disapproving and tech ignorant dad. Goes on way too long and isn't funny.
GOPROBE: An ad for GoProbe, a colonoscopy that makes Taran, Chris and Beck cringe. Eh. Looking over my notes, I almost forgot this one existed.
HOW'S HE DOING: The Kenan skit where black intellectuals discuss how Obama's doing with black voters- the joke being, as always, that his approval in the community can never fall below 90%. They've done this three times now, and it's been the same exact thing every single time. No variation whatsoever. Hire some new writers, for the love of god.
UPDATE: Colin and Michael deliver some bad jokes, then Pete comes on and does another stand-up bit. His third already? I don't get it, can he not do anything else? He's not totally unfunny, but this is getting old very fast. Michael completely flubs several jokes tonight and I'm sorry but the chemistry between these two is just not getting any better. Get rid of them both. Final Update guests are Kenan & Jay as Katt Williams and Suge Knight, but it's a pretty mild riff on their latest arrest.
SHARK TANK: Okay, this sketch tries to be edgy, but while doing so it completely forgets to be funny. Chris and Kyle pitch their group ISIS to the billionaires, who almost go for it, but don't in the end. I think they thought the idea itself was daring enough to stand on its own without writing any jokes for it. Bad idea. The audience doesn't seem to be too down with this one either.
SWIFTAMINE: An ad for people who have vertigo upon realizing they actually like a Taylor Swift song- I have not experienced nor have met a single person who actually does like Taylor Swift, so if this is a real thing, it's lost on me. Lame again.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Chris and Leslie (featured in the first sketch of her own, I think) are a bickering married couple, but the only notable thing here is that Leslie completely misses the cue cards, walks out of the skit and comes back in, ruining whatever timing they might have had and baffling the audience into awkward silence. Not that the sketch was any good anyway- nothing could have saved it, really.
One of the better things on the show last night
BANK ROBBERY: Pre-taped thing where Kyle, Beck and Bobby are super polite bank robbers who throw the people in the bank a party while they rob it- doesn't work at all.
WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE: Cecily and Kate in a 90's instructional video about behavior in the workplace- really, really bad, which I hate to say, because Kate goes for it in everything she does, and she's not that bad, but again, nothing funny about this.
Ugh. That was pretty brutal actually. You'll notice I didn't mention Chris a whole lot, because aside from the monologue, he didn't bring much to the skits themselves- but they were all so terrible I don't know who could have. Like I said, even though Kate stands out like a shining star among this cast, she can't singlehandedly save these things, and she doesn't seem to come up with enough of her own ideas (probably more a performer than a writer, which unfortunately means she's got to lean on this god awful crew to give her something to work with). I have to give it a D-. Dreadful season so far. Woody Harrelson's up next, coming back to host on the 15th for the first time since 1992- we'll see what kind of material he gets stuck with. See you then.
