SNL has the somber task of putting on a show the day after the tragic attacks in Paris, and they responded with a very moving and classy opening tribute from Cecily Strong. It may be the most memorable part of the episode though, as Elizabeth Banks gives it her all, but the skits, as usual, suffer from subpar writing.
COLD OPEN: A short, sweet and lovely tribute from Cecily to the people of Paris, both in English and in French (which she obviously speaks fluently). It strikes the perfect note on a sad day for the world.
MONOLOGUE: Elizabeth Banks (who I'm calling Liz, just because it's shorter) comes onstage for the first singing monologue in a while, as she decides to warble Flashdance, What a Feeling! while "directing" herself in camera shots as a nod to her burgeoning career as a director of the Pitch Perfect movies. It's alright, but the camera guy actually flubs some of the movements, funnily enough.
ARON'S LIST: An ad for Vanessa hiring handymen off a site that disperses registered sex offenders- this one's kinda amusing, one of the better ones of the night.
BLACK JEOPARDY: I wasn't a huge fan of this sketch the first time they did it- it's just Liz as the clueless white girl not getting the "black" clues, but there is a couple of good jabs at Bill Cosby and Tom Brady. And I also like the ending Tupac joke, but the skit is way too long.
FIRST TIME I GOT HORNY 2: Another music video from the girls, this one about the first celebs they felt that feeling "down there" for- it's funny, but I keep getting distracted by the fact that every celebrity is from the early to mid-90's, and not all these women are the same age, or the right age for that to match up. It just seems like they wanted to reference random 90's people like Hanson and the Menendez brothers.
STUDENT THEATRE SHOWCASE: Ugh. The artsy, faux outrage liberal students are back with their senseless performance art piece- this sketch has always been way too long and the joke is getting old now. I think I'm done with it. Like, forever. Don't bring it back, guys.
UPDATE: Lots of jokes about Trump, Jeb, Carson, Sanders- they can safely go after Trump now that he's not on the show, I guess. Pete comes on to do a bit on the transgender bathroom ballot issue in Texas, and that's okay; Kyle comes on as Bruce Chandling, which is painfully awful (man, never bring that character back); and then Kate as Olya again, which works, as always. Colin and Michael are just so bad at the forced banter though- they still need to be replaced and I'm not going to stop saying it.
ADVENTURES OF YOUNG BEN CARSON: This is sort of a weird way to go after all the recent Ben Carson lies, showing him as young guy in the 60's pretending to stab people- Jay is pretty funny as Carson himself, although to be fair, it’s not hard for anyone to do an impression of that guy. They ought to bring him on Update, probably.
THE BUREAU: Bobby is a walk-on extra for a TV cop show who didn't know he was going to be playing a pervert- it's a fairly mild bit and I almost forgot this skit even happened.
UBER FOR JEN: The once or twice a year skit from writer Mike O'Brien shows up tonight, as he plays an uber driver who ignores Liz's directions, then befriends her, then does it again to his next customer- it's slightly clever I guess.
GHETTO: Oof. This one's bad. Liz, Cecily, Sasheer and Vanessa are all elitist, upper class women with annoying vocal fry complaining about things being "ghetto," but Liz actually lives in the literal ghetto. I hate that voice. I can’t concentrate on anything else when I hear it.
So, that was it. It was a little below mediocre tonight, but Elizabeth Banks was game, although sometimes she blended into the skits so well that I forgot she was hosting- I guess she didn't exactly stand out completely. But this was probably better than last week, so I'll give it a C. Next time it's Matthew McConaughey and Adele, so hopefully they pull off a good Thanksgiving episode. See you guys then!
