Tina Fey and Amy Poehler come back to host a high energy but hit and miss affair, benefited by a great Bruce Springsteen performance to pad out the proceedings as always. Still, a Christmas SNL show is always fun, and this one mostly was too.
COLD OPEN: We open on another GOP debate that brings back Darrell Hammond as Trump, who never should have stopped playing him in the first place. Taran has switched over to Ted Cruz, who suits him better than Trump did at least, while Beck is the loser Jeb who aimlessly tries to knock out Trump and fails each time. It's a pretty good opening, although I don't understand why this new guy Jon keeps getting cast as the debate moderators- first Anderson Cooper and now Wolf Blitzer, both of whom he plays exactly the same (not funny).
MONOLOGUE: Tina and Amy's monologue is a mash-up of two different kinds of Christmas carols, but the bit falls flat and goes on too long, especially for a singing monologue.
CLINTON CHRISTMAS: I should have known this would happen. Kate's Hillary goes to bed only to be woken up by Amy's "Hillary from '08," who gets to be told the good news, that all the Republican candidates suck. They're soon joined by Tina's Sarah Palin, and the novelty of seeing them all together is the draw for this. I still prefer Kate's Hillary to Amy's.
MEET YOUR SECOND WIFE: Okay, this one was good. Tina and Amy host a game show where they bring out increasingly younger girls as the male contestant's soon to be "second wives." The audience goes nuts for this one as we move from a teenager to a child to an unborn baby- it's really funny.
HOVER BOARD: An ad by the guys for hover boards that go fast- so forgettable I can't even remember it myself.
SARAH'S DESIRE: Kenan's sketch where he's the director who forces his actors to give cartoonish reactions to every random line- this skit is usually funny but it depends on the actors’ ability to really go for those ridiculous facial expressions, and Amy didn't seem to want to play along here for some reason. Tina tries much harder and works it, but that's kind of odd that Amy couldn't pull this off. Huh.
UPDATE: Colin and Michael rattle off some GOP candidate jokes- meh. Kate debuts a new character, somebody's "mom" who can't remember any of the names of the people on all the shows she watches- as always, Kate sells it 100%, but I don't think this is one of her best. Finally Tina and Amy come back to the desk to deliver the last two Update jokes of the year. Hey, it's better than Jost and Che, who still suck as the SNL anchors (worst in history, and no, I'm not going to stop saying that no matter how hard they're trying to improve).
CHRISTMAS FLASHBACK: Taran and Vanessa are former variety show co-hosts looking back on holiday highlights from the 70's and 80's in an informercial. Maya Rudolph makes an appearance as a drunk soul singer carelessly tossing presents at the studio children (funny!), Amy is a coked up 80's pop star barreling through a dance number (ok), and Tina is a 70's starlet almost being drugged by Kenan's Bill Cosby (heh).
TINA & AMY'S DOPE SQUAD: Again, every time the show does a reference/spoof of Taylor Swift, I have absolutely no idea what the context is, because I make it a point to ignore everything that Taylor Swift does. But this is a parody of her video using all their assistants and Amy Schumer shows up in it. It's alright.
BRONX BEAT: Amy and Maya reprise their old talk show sketch, and it's pretty good, as the gals have the same rapport they always did. Tina shows up as the guest, and the show closes out with the familiarity of an old sweater.
So that's it guys- the best part of the night was the big ending, where Bruce sings "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with the cast joining in plus Paul McCartney (who I think must live under the stage or something), and it's all good for the Christmas show, leaving you feeling warm and fuzzy no matter if the skits all hit or not. I give it a B-. Adam Driver is hosting on the 16th, so see you in the new year, people! Happy Holidays!
