The SNL 40 Review Catch-Up continue this week, and joining them is this episode hosted by Bill Hader, the 8-year cast member who makes his return to the show after leaving two years ago at the end of Season 38. I just have to say after the premiere, I was wrong. This is the best episode of the season so far.
Hader hosted the episode guns blazing. He brought back some of his fan-favorite characters and impressions including Herb Welsh of WPXD News New York, war veteran/ventriloquist Anthony Peter Coleman with his puppet Tony, and Weekend Update city correspondent STEFON!! And he didn't miss a beat or slow down; his performance was amazing. So amazing, it's like the other cast members were trying to keep up with him. It's like he never left.
Bill Hader was my all time favorite cast-member of all of SNL, and I loved all of his work on the show, so being excited to hear that he'll be hosting an episode this season, and to see him back on Studio 8H is a complete understatement.
As we begin, the Cold Open takes place in North Korea where Dear Leader to them (and Dear Pain in the Ass to us all) Kim Jong Un (played by Bobby Moynihan) has been away from the public for a long time, and his guards (all the other white male cast members) is worried about his health. Un gets his fat ass up to deny he is horrible shape (he's actually an Olympian), and proves it to his guards in embarrassing ways.
This was a good CO, showing off Mr. Moyni well as the Dear Leader and gave him the chance to do some really good dancing.
After that and the usual, Bill walks out to the stage for his monologue, and instead of standing with the host for a minute, he's there the entire time. And he's nervous. After a brief synopsis of his life before, during and after his time as an SNL cast member He then goes for a song, but mentions he has a voice like Harvey Fierstein.
Fellow former cast member and co-star of his critically-acclaimed film The Skeleton Twins Kristen Wiig joined him on stage to give him a push to sing. Things didn't turn out great. Fortunately, Mr. Fierstein came to save the night, teaching Bill that it's best not to sing from your head, but from your peni--I mean, heart. The Bill gets to sing! This was a really funny Mono.
The Sketch After featured a return of one of Hader's popular characters, Herb Welch, reporter of WPXD News New York. His report this time centers on an epidemic of teen sex and teen pregnancies at a local high school. Of course, things don't go well as planned.
Of course, Bill doesn't miss a beat. That cranky curmudgeon of an old man still makes me laugh with his misunderstandings, racism- and ignorance-tinged remarks and ability to end his reports quickly with not much style and certainly very little grace.
"The Group Hopper" Trailer
Next, a pre-taped trailer spoofing the ever-popular post-apocalyptic, dire-straits, woe-is-me, fight-to-the-death, straight-from-a-book, teen movies. A guy (Pete Davidson) is thrown into a world of choice (but not his actually) as he must be part of a group of people who are born to...be a part of a group.
This spoof was a brilliant one, tackling all the characteristics and tropes of such films and blending them all together in such a perfect package. And Hader was great as a parody of Effie Trinket, a man/woman with hooves that can ruin a low ceiling.
Later on, a brilliant sketch spoofing Hollywood Game Night. Kate McKinnon was great as host Jane Lynch, with everyone else doing amazing as the celebrities they're portraying:
-Cecily Strong as Sofia Vergara
-TKill as Christoph Waltz
-Jay Pharaoh as Morgan Freeman
-Beck Bennett as Nick Offerman (if fact, he was so damn good, the audience either thought so too, or thought that the real Offerman was in the sketch)
-Bill as Al Pacino, and
-Wiig as Kathie Lee Gifford (although I find her portrayal so annoying because of her mean-spirited behavior toward Hoda Kotb)
Although, I wish celebrities portrayed on this show aren't so stupid or absent-minded; it's annoying and doesn't really make a sketch great. I know it can work, but there are other ways to have celebrities in a sketch act normal, and still make it funny. This is kind of an an embarrassment, especially for Freeman and Offerman; they know better, dammit. At least Lynch was on the same page here. Oh, and the contestants (Vanessa Bayer & Aidy Bryant) don't do much. That clearly doesn't happen on HGN. It's like the producers only saw the celebrity parts of the show and used that. Know what? Forget it; it's still great.
39 Cents
Just like this next pre-tape, mocking those commercials in which cheap white people beg other to send pocket change to them to help destitute people of destitute countries survive another day.
My God, this was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Hader was great as Charles Daniels, but the true stars of the show were Kenan, Pharaoh, SaZam and (especially) Leslie Jones as the destitute people. Everything they said and their perfect timing on Daniels really made this sketch. Plus, the fact they chose a low amount of money to send to these companies in their commercials was really spot-on. Makes no sense to give low if these folks want the destitute to survive at least a month. I applaud all who appeared in the sketch, even Nessa B. as the assistant with the coffee.
When I first saw this and laughed hard at Leslie Jones' dialogue, I said to myself, "She has got to be a cast member; they just have to promote her."
And just a few days later, my hopes and wishes (along with those of pretty much everyone else) would come true and by the next episode (hosted by Jim Carrey), Leslie is now a full-fledged featured cast member of SNL.
"Love is A Dream": A Tribute to Jan Hooks
After this, Bill & Kristen return to the main set to present a tribute to Jan Hooks, one of the most memorable and beloved female cast members in the show's history. Jan passed away on October 9, 2014, from cancer. In this tribute is a beautiful pre-recorded video, "Life is A Dream" starring her and fellow cast member of the time, Phil Hartman, who himself is one of the most memorable and beloved male cast members in its history.
This was an absolutely wonderful tribute to Ms. Hooks and sent me to tears after watching it. May she and Mr. Hartman rest in peace.
Puppet Class 2/Coleman & Tony
Another fan-favorite of Hader's characters also returned--Anthony Peter Coleman and his puppet Tony. We start this skit in Puppet Class in the Learning Annex. Three ventriloquists-in-training are learning to master the craft and two of them (CecStrong and Moyni), their puppets and the teacher (TKill) are in for a rude awakening when the other is a part of the class--Coleman and Tony.
This segment is funnier than the last one. The further insight into Coleman & Tony was endearing to the sketch, and all of Tony's jokes were so damn hilarious.
"It like a cookout, and we were the meat. And I used my best friend as an umbrella!"
"I was not charged with war crimes."
"If I had to use emojis to describe my time in Crimea, it would be: palmtree, flamethrower, baby, flamethrower, mosquito, mosquito, mosquito, mosquito..."
"I did not lose a full year of my life in porno theaters."
"Here's a joke--GOD."
"I was a honeypot, a sex trap; I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO."
"Can you tell me how to get--" "How to get THE NIGHTMARES TO STOP?"And I felt that the other puppet-masters (Moyni and CecStrong) were there just so we can ignore them and watch Coleman and Tony. Meh. This was a great skit.
Inside SoCal
After the break, a pre-tape by Mooney & Bennett; sound be good.
I always love the old-school vibe their shorts give. The production makes it fantastic. Also, the weird concepts of these are great; you never expect what happens here. You thing something happens, but something else does. And if something you expect happens, it gets taken up to a high level of insanity. However, the jokes here were flat; I actually laughed only twice. So this isn't the best I've seen from Beck & Kyle this season. I know they'll do better next time; they're that good.
Cat
This Ten-to-One Sketch is something Dr. Seuss would write in a world where he's gotten drunk one day and wrote to release a demon in his brain. One day day, Sally and Nick (Aidy & Pete Dave) are inside during a rainy day. They are bored and ask their mother (CecStrong) what to do. Then someone at the door comes in; it's The Cat in the Hat (Hader)! to the kids' amazement and their mom's...horror. Cat tries to juggle making the kids' day better and making sense of his former flame's new life without him. Then, their father (THING 2! aka TKill) shows up.
This twist in the skit made this one the best, in which Cat hope to save the day, but ends up a pest. And the reveal of what made Cat a bother, is that he may be Sally's so-very true father. This just made me howl like a wolf to the moon, and read people's tweets on Twitter like an affable goon. And Thing 2 showing up would make this much more crazy, with the thing Cat says at the end was extremely hazy.
"But Oh, The Places She Let Me Go."
The two performances he does were just fantastic. The music, the lyrics, the vocals, the vibe. Everything was fantastic.
So instead of just saying how great they were individually, I'll just give a rundown of both songs:
"Take Me to Church" is a gospel-tinged rock love ballad about Hozier comparing his lover's love and sex to religion. It's also written as commentary on sexuality in his native Ireland and on Russia with it's attack on the people of the LGBT community.
"Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene" is a bluesy song of rock & soul about, I assume to be, a guy who falls for a girl whose love is like a drug. The love he receives is painful, but the feelings are so good, he couldn't leave her.
These songs contain beautiful and powerful lyrics that take the listener in, and puts their emotions in a corner, putting you in a dark and dreary world that you can't escape until the song ends (In fact this dark and dreary world in his music is based on our dark and dreary world, so it has a touch of real life in it). But it sounds so amazing that that you want to get locked in it again. It's so damn good. He's so damn good. He has so much talent that it would be a crime for him not to pursue music.
Overall, Hozier did that shit and he rocked it. He will go very far in music; I just know it.
(On a side note, I just love the part of his "Angel of Small Death" performance when he gives a big smile during his guitar solo. Made me give a big smile as well. I just love it.)
Update Time:
Well, Jost & Che have gotten better as a team. Colin is still boring, but he has gotten the hang of anchoring, and Michael has stopped flubbing lines and proven himself. I honestly see they both doing better each week, but the fans of the show and people giving them shit for no reason just isn't giving them the time or credit. I will though.
Anyway, it's (at the time) fall in New York and--you know where I'm going with this. STEFON'S BACK!!!
He really hasn't missed a beat with him. The kid we all know and love with his strange recommendations to even stranger New York hotspots over the years has become a hallmark of modern-day SNL. So to be super-excited for his return (something we all still know would happen) was an understatement. His jokes all worked (like they wouldn't):
-His puzzled look after meeting Jost & Che ("One of each." "Barack, Mitt.")
-His way of pronouncing and enunciating the names of the hotspots
-The repeated mention of former MTV VJ Dan Cortese
-and of course, those weird, creepy hotspots that Stefon has recomended for years.
Another great thing of note: Stefon's pregnant!!
Congrats to him and husband Seth Meyers.
And with that, the end to another show and another review.
My God, what an episode! Every sketch was great, made me laugh, and featured some well beloved characters that Bill just couldn't pass up to reprise and us to watch again and fall in love with one more time.
Everyone did great in some capasity this week (even writer Leslie Jones), with the biggest offenders being Moyni and CacStrong appearing in almost all of them. I did get annoyed by this, but I didn't mind. They did great. Everyone did.
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