Ok, so tonight was basically an inoffensively unfunny SNL episode, which is a lot easier to sit through than on their worst days. I'll take it.
COLD OPEN: Super Bowl jokes! Kenan and Jay are Seahawk stars Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman, who are hosting their own talk show. I gotta say, as a resident of the Pacific Northwest, it's just cool that we're getting all this attention now (although there is a dig at Seattle fans only being fans since 2013- not cool, man. This town's been desperate for a good sports team for decades, trust me). Anyway, Taran plays the awkward white boy Pete Carroll, and the opening is mostly boring.
MONOLOGUE: J.K. Simmons comes out to do a spoof of his movie Whiplash, which I can guarantee about 99% of this audience (in the studio and at home) has not seen. I don't even know if they get these jokes, where he yells at people on the drums, except Leslie, who yells back at him. Couldn't have happened in the movie of course, because the movie was too afraid to put any female students in his class.
SUPER BOWL ACTIVITY PACK: An ad for a Super Bowl party where J.K. give his dimwitted wife a condescending pack of puzzles and games to play while the guys watch the game. It's a decent jab at those kinds of commercials.
MISS TRASH: J.K. hosts a beauty pageant where the contestants are competing for Miss Trash USA. It's too forgettable to bother with- no big laughs.
CINEMA CLASSICS: An alternate ending to Casablanca with J.K. as Rick and Kate as Ilsa. This is just a chance for Kate to do her Ingrid Bergman impression, as Ilsa really wants to get on that plane- Kate's pretty funny here, so I like it.
TEACHER SNOW DAY: A rap video about teachers taking over the school on a snow day and bringing the house down. There are some people who really like these videos- I never laugh at them, but they're not bad, just not laugh out loud funny.
UPDATE: Michael is still flubbing his lines- dude, you have got to get that down. There's a couple of decent jokes tonight, but they bring back Cecily's one-dimensional movie woman character, who I hate. I can't stand most of Cecily's Update characters, I never understand why anyone likes them. On the bright side, Taran's Jebediah Atkinson is back to diss the Grammy nominees! I do love me some Jebediah.
PUSHPIN: Ugh. Worst sketch of the night. Bobby is the annoying push pin on J.K.'s computer who harasses him as he tries to write a letter on Word. Bobby is really annoying here though and this bit is way too long.
THE JAY-Z STORY: Mike O'Brien does a video about Jay-Z's life, where he plays Jay-Z and a bunch of other white guys are rappers he meets on the way. Weird, like most of Mike's humor, although I guess it's a little bit amusing in that way.
CAREER DAY: Last random, odd sketch of the night has J.K. explaining to his son's class on Career Day his job as a Japanese "messy boy" who eats like a pig in front of Japanese women for their amusement. Yeah- very weird, but J.K. kind of sells it as a totally committed salesman.
So, that's it for tonight- nothing great, but nothing totally awful, a couple of funny little bits...I'll give it a C+. J.K. Simmons was pretty game and professional, even though I still wonder how many people know who he is. Next up, it's the big SNL 40th anniversary special taking place on Sunday, February 15th. This is where we'll get lots of cameos from many former cast members, including, drumroll please....Eddie Murphy! Yup, that's right everyone, Eddie Murphy will be coming back for the first time since he left the show in 1984- just for that I'm sure the special will grab a bunch of eyeballs. I for one hope he revives Buckwheat, but that's probably too much to hope for. I'll be recapping as usual, so see you then!
