Monday, May 18, 2015

Saturday Night Live 40 Review: Louis CK & Rihanna (THE FINALE)

Well, everyone. The time has come. This is the final review of Saturday Night Live 40.

The Cold Open is pretty much like musicals that take place in the summer. Everyone is at the beach, having a great time and enjoying themselves. That’s when Hillary Clinton comes in.
You know where this’ll go.

I won’t say much, but Kate Mc continues to kill it as Clinton, and I can’t wait for next season to come so she can kill it again. The same with former-cast-member/current-announcer/occasional-cast-member-when-needed Darrell Hammond (who I should give a nickname, too, from now on. I guess; is D-Hamm okay?) with his ever-so-great portrayal of Bill Clinton (aka Billary Rodham Clinton).
What made the CO even more special is that all the cast members this season (repertory and featured) are in the Open, and put in almost as much as they did as Kate Mc did, even though Kate Mc was clearly the star of this. It was sweet seeing everyone get a line, as this season was all over the.place with cast members getting dominence, especially with Taran Killam, Bobby Moynihan, Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson getting more screentime, and the other members being lucky to have even a line in just one sketch. It’s sad as I don’t know what, so it’s good to watch all of them get together for the CO, and it felt really nice. Also seeing every cast member say “Live from New York, it’s ‘Saturday Night”!” was really sweet.

After the open, Louis CK came to the stage for the final monologue of the season.

The things he said from the topics he chose for it just blew my mind.
As funny as most of it was, it was also really boring..The lapses of raunchy and shocking material was great, though. The Mono also seriously divided social media. Everyone either thought it was disgusting, inappropriate and unwanted or bold, funny and awesome, with some middle ground.
Here’s my thoughts:
Comedians will make fun of anything for a laugh, whether cheap or strong. And they have the right to talk about whatever they want, whenever they want, just like we can say our thoughts about them whatever we want, whenever we want. People should know that when a comedian is saying a dirty, raunchy or controversial joke, they wouldn’t really take what they’re saying seriously. Any topic is up for discussion, and they will treat it like fair game. In hindsight, I do agree that these jokes should not have been touched on TV, and that whoever cleared them should not have a done so, and should be suspended (even if SNL was known for stuff like this before). If people are going to rant on about this, that’s fine. It’s their opinion, and others should respect that--that is if it’s more dignified and readable. I thought the Mono was bold and funny, with the transition between the joke about child molestation and the joke about Mounds bars being brutally hilarious. It’s not really my cup of Frog, but I can enjoy it while I can.

In the Sketch After is the retold story of The Shoemaker and the Elves. And it’s a creepy one.

Apparently, for not doing their jobs, they want to be punished. Intentionally. And Sexually.
The elves sound like gay robots. Their voices are annoying. Kenan and Nessa B did do the roles right, though. Also, the visual effects with the elves was amazing. The producers really did great putting the Elves on the set via green screen and the magic of live television.
The genius part came in at the end, when CK’s character breaks the fourth wall to ask the viewers what the Shoemaker will do: stay faithful or fuck his little shoe-making sickos. This was grossly hilarious at the end.

This is How I Talk
At a Sprint store, three employees are about to work, when one of them begins to mock the boss. And, as used by the great TVTropes.org, Hilarity ensues.

I don't know, if I should laugh or feel offended. But Louis CK talking like a straight-up black woman from the ghetto was somewhat delightful to me. His mannerisms, tone and accent are just right and the

Another thing I should mention is glaringly obvious. During the near-start of the sketch, Leslie Jones accidentally interrupted CK giving a line, apologized and, after a second of silence, the skit picks back up, though terribly. It was uncomfortable and a little cringing. This is the second time a mistake with her happened. Fortunately, they happened at very far different parts of the season, so all is not bad for her.
This sketch was strangely hilarious.

Dinner Date 2: Cabana
Remember that couple from the Dinner Date sketch a few episodes back? The one with the many onions rings? Yeah, well, they’re back. And Jemma, too.

When I first watched this, I recognized the couple almost immediately as that couple from the Dinner Date sketch from Episode 16, hosted by Dwayne Johnson. Then my mind got much clearer when the British chick Jemma also returned to annoy Gene into submission. And she has another man next to her-- except The Rock is replaced by Louis CK. Which makes her a down-ass chick. It was funny, though, especially with a lot that came out of Jemma’s mouth. And CK acting like Michael Rappaport was strangely awesome.

Uhh...no. And how the hell do they do that so quickly?
--
At a police station, the officer (Kenan) is helping a guy (Pete Davidson) prove a guy who mugged him on the street. All the guys (Taran Killam, Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett & Louis CK) that appear in in a line-up (also looking like hipsters) are asked to repeat the line that led up to the mugging. And yet they like like start-up actors. Because they are start-up actors.

The guys in the line-up were hilarious with their reactions as if their auditioning for a role in an indie film. And they’re treating this line-up as if they’re auditioning for a role off Broadway--magic.
--
Reese De’What returns once again for the final sketch of the season, Forgotten TV Gems. This final gen of the sketch is “Whoops! I Married a Lesbian” (sigh), a sitcom from the 1950s that tackled the understandable taboo of lesbianism.

Everyone did great in their roles, especially Bobby Moynihan, who played the actions and mannerisms of a 1950s TV character up to the hilt. And that’s all I can say positively.
There are so much I want to point out about how wrong and anarchic this is, but I’d just annoy you all (and myself) with the many details.So I’ll just leave this here. This wasn't very funny and was really boring. A sad, pathetic end to this episode, and to a pretty middle of the road season.

The Lumberjack

During the show, there was a recurring sketch with a Lumberjack walking around places and watching people discuss things, which involving products made of trees. When they don’t buy them, the Jack cries. It was kinda stupid, yet pretty funny.

This is a perfect use of CK’s dry absurdist humor.

Rihanna is the final musical guest of the 40.
And let’s just say...I couldn't give much less of a shit if I tried. But since I have a love for a

She performed “Bitch Better Have My Money”.
As much as I said this on Twitter,

I couldn’t have done that, because someone else was in the room, and they wanted to watch it. So in hindsight, I’m glad I did. It looked like a music video shoot: She was in a fake, removable car, with an extra in the back as a woman she captured; the crew taking the car apart and moving it away; the performance later ending up a true SNL performance; and a crew member clicking a marker board. This was an interesting set-up... and that was genius. I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen, and I actually enjoyed what I saw. Great job, Riri. Even greater job, producers.

Also genius, this.
I love when a big name guest has enough star power to convince Lorne to change the performance set to whatever they want for a performance. Here, Riri uses large projection screens to provide images of classic America during her performance of “American Oxygen”.

I like this song much better, because it was a more real and emotional look at our country after the turn of the century. Also because it was not “Bitch Better Have My Money”. Well, the song, not the performance; I find “BBHMM’s” set-up a little better than “Ame. Oxygen”.
(And here’s something ironic: this song with “American” in the title is sung by a Barbadian musician. Strange.)
But other than that, I thought this was a great performance set by Rihanna. The set-up was amazing, her vocals were fantastic and I honestly enjoyed more than I thought I would. What a great end to a fantastic year of music performances on SNL.

Time for an Update:
Part 1:

Part 2:

These guys surely came in a long way from the start of the season, but they gotten to a better place (at least for me). So let’s see where they stand now:
They were good. Their jokes were really good and some carried some edge. The best came from the joke about Jost about Chinese soldiers being prohibited from wearing Apple Watches because of cyber safety.
“But my daughter made it for me”. That was bold and hilarious.
--

Tom Brady stopped by to discuss his involvement in Deflategate, but he instead tries to sweet-talk Che into getting out the interview (and successfully did it to Jost). I loved Che’s performance here, as will as Killam’s performance as Brady, although it was pretty bad.
--

Resident Young Person Pete Davidson returned once again, and is in a special position. Not only did he appear in the first episode, but he also is appearing in this last episode as well. So that’s gotta be awesome for him. And he was as funny as he ever was. His topics related to his age were really funny.
--

Yep, that's right! Riblet returned once again to show us why we love him: by taking over Michael Che's jorb, and showing him how he do's it. And he do's it well.

Well, that's it. The final episode. And I think it was...eh, meh. The jokes were funny, but were pretty weak, outside of the China Soldiers Banned from Apple Watches line.

They really have. I can;t wait to see what happens at Update next season.


Well, guys. This was a huge year for me. I can’t believe I’ve done it, I can’t believe I’ve went this far, and I can’t believe I’ve gotten a chunk of my life out to doing this. And I’m proud to have done it. These past few months have been special doing this review of this series. It’s the first regular TV series I’ve ever reviewed, and I’ve gotten to do this all season, all 21 episodes, all the sketches, musical performances and everything else in between. And I've been proud of these reviews, for better or worse, and I've enjoyed all it gave me and this blog. And I can't wait for late September so I can continue this review under the "Saturday Night Live Review" name. And I hope you'll all join me.
Thank You. Goodnight.

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