So, the Thanksgiving show of SNL tonight was pretty mild, although that makes it easier to sit through than a bunch of sketches that are aggressively painful. Still, there was nothing that got above C-level material for me with this one.
COLD OPEN: A Schoolhouse Rock spoof that shows Obama kicking the bill down the steps in favor of the immigration executive order. They seem to want to take the right wing point of view that executive orders are bad, but of course you have to leave out crucial facts in order to make that point- you know, like the fact that the order would be immediately superceded by a congressional bill if Congress EVER wanted to pass one, which they can do at literally any time. That seems like a pretty important detail they left out. Don't you think?
MONOLOGUE: Cameron comes out and takes lame questions from the audience about what it's like to work in movies. Some very lazy stuff here- obviously they couldn't think of anything to have her do in a monologue this week.
BALLER GIRLS: I never really liked this one when they did it last year, but I guess a lot of people did. All the female cast members rap about being home for Thanksgiving, but for me it's just as meh as it was before.
ANNIE: A spoof of Annie, which happens to be Cameron's movie coming out in December. Leslie plays a grown woman version of Annie, but the whole thing isn't funny at all.
NEST-SPRESSO: A weird ad for incubating farm eggs to get real little chicks. I don't honestly know what the joke is here. Forgettable.
THEATER SHOWCASE: A high school theater troupe puts on a performance art play called 'Whispers of America'- more lameness. Every sketch tonight is just making me shrug my shoulders before forgetting it entirely.
UPDATE: More lame immigration jokes that conveniently forget to tell you the KEY details of the order. Do your research, SNL. Michael jokes about Cosby but very reluctantly, because he obviously loved him. Personally, I think comedians that don't go after him for this awful scandal are being cowards. Just because you liked him doesn't mean you knew the guy. Kate comes on as Angela Merkel and is funny, because her Merkel always is, and then Taran and Cecily show up as Charles Manson and his new fiance, but that bit could have been much funnier.
BABY BOSS: You know I've always hated this sketch, but this time I tried to pay really close attention to see what is I might be missing. It's just Beck acting out baby movements, that's all it is. I don't get it.
ANIMAL HOUR: Kenan is the host of an animal show, but the monkey he has on yanked his balls off last time- yeah that's it. Kenan's actually kinda funny here, but it's not that special.
ANDY RYDELL: Kyle's pre-taped high schooler attacks Beck's popular kid- never liked any of Kyle's taped bits, as you know. This one's no different, although at least it's short.
POETRY TEACHER: Vanessa's hippie poetry teacher makes an appearance again, but honestly, this sketch has never figured out what to do with this character. Other people come up and read poems, but it's not funny. Vanessa is, but her teacher doesn't seem to be the actual joke of this skit and she should be. Ugh, the writers SUCK.
PHONE SEX: Cecily, Kate and Cameron want you to call them for phone sex and other favors. They're all going for it, but once again, their jokes aren't funny. Whatever. Thank god we're at the end.
So, Cameron was alright (you might have noticed I barely mentioned her contribution in this one), but not given anything to work with, etc, same old, same old. It's getting hard to come up with new complaints about this show, because it always suffers from the same thing. This episode gets a C-, not because there was anything decent, but mostly because every sketch was at that level, so it averages out. Here's one new thing I can say- if you're going to write political sketches, do your fucking research and at least get the premise of your bad jokes right. I think that's literally the least they can do. I'll be back on Dec 6th with James Franco- until then Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy your one week break from SNL's awful season!
