Melissa McCarthy comes back to host SNL and it's for sure one of the better episodes of the season. She's such a pro, she would have easily been a breakout cast member had she gotten her start on this show.
COLD OPEN: A different kind of political open tonight, with some of the cast at a restaurant debating Hillary vs. Bernie, and agreeing that Hillary's most qualified, but they just like Bernie better, which causes Kate to come in and do a musical number as Hillary, begging to be allowed to make them love her. It's a bit more clever than the norm at least, and with appearances by Darrell's Bill Clinton and Beck's sad Jeb Bush, it mostly works.
MONOLOGUE: Melissa comes onstage and does a big number about being a member of the 5 timer's club, only to have Kenan come out and interrupt her to say she's only hosted four times, and gives her a tiny 5 timer's jacket on a banana (to show scale, lol). It's alright, but nothing much to write home about.
THE DAY BEYONCE TURNED BLACK: A recorded bit about white people freaking out over Beyonce's Super Bowl performance- it's fine, but all I think when they do sketches like this now is how they themselves were under the biggest firestorm about diversity until very recently and now all the smug "we're the best" attitude over the whole thing is quite a a lot of braggadocio on their part, don't you think?
CUL-DE-SAC: A movie studio does a test screening where they record people's reactions to a scary movie in the night vision, and Melissa's freakouts are way over the top compared to everyone else. This one made me crack up from start to finish, all because of Melissa's hysterical, Chris Farley-esque ability to really throw herself into these physical comedy bits.
TERMINATOR: Melissa, Pete and Bobby are a family watching Terminator together when the sex scene comes on and they all start thinking about how to break the awkward silence. This seems like a very Pete-type skit, but there's a couple of pretty good lines in here from all three of them. It goes on a little too long, but still funny enough to work.
UPDATE: Another surprisingly solid Update this week, with some good GOP and Democratic debate jokes, but then Vanessa comes out as "Rachel" from Friends and does a absolutely dead on, eerily accurate Jennifer Aniston impersonation, and the audience kinda freaks out over it it's so good. Where has she been keeping that impression??? Why have we not seen it before now? Man, it practically steals the whole episode. Super Bowl MVP Von Miller comes out to brag about beating Cam Newton, and then Leslie comes on to do her regular stand-up bit for Valentine's Day that I can't stand. I'm sorry, but her humor is obviously love it or hate it and I have never been able to warm to her style here. It's not my thing and they do it way too much.
PICK-UP BAR: Another Melissa showcase, as she practices tips for picking up guys in a bar and seems to ad-lib 90% of her routine as she harasses Kyle and Kenan in ever more inexplicable ways. It's so funny that Leslie can't keep a straight face throughout this whole thing, but Melissa doesn't crack once in spite of it. God, she's awesome.
KANYE RAP BATTLE: A Kyle pre-taped parody of a Behind the Music style story of him wanting to become the greatest rapper of all time by challenging Kanye to a battle. This goes on a little too long, but the punchline is pretty good, as when Kyle finally comes face to face with Kanye backstage, he is predictably destroyed and humiliated. Takes too long to get to that, but at least it was decent.
BUS LADY: Leslie is trapped on a bus with Melissa as an old, casually racist white lady who keeps talking her ear off about Roots and black movies, while Leslie increasingly wants to jump out the window. The whole thing ends in a Speed joke, mostly because it has nowhere to go, but again, Melissa is so completely in natural character that she never even looks at the cue cards! How was she never a cast member?
WHISKERS R WE: Kate brings back the old lady cat sketch with Melissa as her new paramour, and it's good as always with a couple of great lines about one of the cats being called OJ because he's a murderer, hee. Nice one to end on.
So that was it, guys. Melissa rocked it and I continue to be in awe of her effortless hosting abilities, even if they might have actually underused her, if anything, this time. I give it a B+. On March 5th, the show comes back with Jonah Hill, so I'll see you guys then!
