Sunday, December 14, 2014

Saturday Night Live 40 Review: Martin Freeman & Charli XCX

Welcome, everyone, to my third review of Saturday Night Live 40.
You know, this season is getting better, in my opinion. The jokes have gotten a little funnier, the memes have gotten more internet-worthy, and I've laughed or smiled more than I have last season...or the season before that. And surprisingly, there still is that miserable Chris Rock episode to drag it down, so the writers have cleaned up their act, and, for better or worse, have cleaned up really well. (We can all agree that that's gonna stop after next week's Christmas episode? I mean, it has to happen. If not, I feel a tear in the time-space continiuum)
Martin Freeman is this week's host. Best known for his roles in The Hobbit films, Sherlock, The original The Office UK (which I didn't know about, but makes him much more awesome) and some show called. Hey, there's more cra--I mean programs in the UK that I haven't heard of, but I Don't Care.

The Cold Open is a spoof on the recent CIA “Torture Report” released by Senate Democrats disguised as an interview on The Charlie Rose Show (with Taran Killam playing the titular host, who, as I know, does not have a clear Southern accent; and yes, I’ve watched his show before, it’s more antiquated, mysterious and questionable. But Lord knows he tried, so I won’t fault him) His guests are James Mitchell and Bruce Jensen (Bobby Moynihan and Kyle Mooney, respectively), the psychologists who devised the report. They talk about how they put together the report and how they were approached by the CIA to create it. They also reveal some other things they invented--like customer service automated recordings (specifically from Time Warner Cable), autocorrect and those self-checkout lines at the supermarkets, where you scan stuff and an annoying-ass feature where you have to wait for assistance pops up, when you really don’t want it to. (Those bastards!!) All while they sit there acting calm and happy.

Anyway, this was a really good CO; Moyni and Mooney were a team on this sketch, bouncing off each other well and giving us some really good laughs. There were a few corny jokes here and there, but really funny otherwise. Now without further adu, LIVE FROM PHILADELPHIA, IT’S THE SUNDAY NIIIIGHT!!!!

(Before I get to the monologue, I want to say that the set looked beautiful with this year’s Christmas decorations lining up the walls and the tree looking amazing.) Now back to the review.

After the usual, Martin came in for his monologue. He mentions the TV shows and films he stars in, and mentions his life before becoming an actor, and his life since (he knows a lot of British actors and musicians); with appearances by Kate McKinnon as Dame Maggie Smith (while in costume as the Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey) and Taran Killam as Alan Rickman (dressed as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films).

It was a good mono, but does the cast have to wear costumes representing characters from TV shows and movies with the intention of hoping the audience know who the actors are? I’m guessing the answer is “yes”. It just works.


After that, a pre-taped musical skit about an elf-turned-pimp in the Christmas spirit named Sump’n Claus. If you’ve done bad and Santa won’t give you a present via the nice list, thus crossing you off (although I find it weird that people believe in Santa when they’re adults, but I won’t get into that), Sump’n Claus will treat you with some cash. This is freaking good. How good?

Yes, it’s freaking catchy, the lines are hilarious, the beat is super danceable and Kenan (along with Cecily Strong and Sasheer Zamata as his backup singers) just kills it as Sir Sump’n himself. The line “He sees you when you sleep; that’s weird!” made me laugh my ass off, and the third verse made me almost die. I seriously thought Sump’n and Ms. Claus (Aidy Bryant) were gonna get busy in Santa’s galley, but sipping her cocoa (literally) and eating her Loco was a travesty to Santa, so he kicked Sump’n out of the North Pole, and Sump’n became the good ol’ money racketeering pimp we know and love today. Also, doesn’t this remind you of commercials of those used-car dealerships or check-cashing places/notary public stores you watch on local TV stations wherever you are? Because it just look and feel like those to me. Anyway, a damn good skit and great job to everyone who participated in this.


The Sketch After, Wedding Objections, takes place at a church where a White man, White Castle owner Ian (Freeman), and a Black woman, WNBA star Alberta (Leslie Jones), are beginning to marry (how sweet); but some people in the crowd (i.e. almost everyone) have objected to this courtship. Including:
--Alberta’s roommate Marnie (Baby Aidy), who tells her she knew Ian for 5 days (they met at a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combination) before the wedding (which may be an eloped marriage for all I know), squicked at the sex they have in their duplex apartment (I assume 10 quickies a day), and hated the full-blown arguments in the porch. She seems like a true friend who doesn’t want this to happen, although she should’ve stopped this on Day 3.
--Ian’s wife (!!!) Patricia (Nessa B), who questions Ian’s throwing away their marriage for one with a tall, easy black woman. He replies he isn’t, but wants love from more than one woman (and race). As sad as it is, I guess the saying “Once you go back, you’ll never go back” is still alive to this day. Oh, and Ian’s a bigamist.
--Alberta’s father (Kenan), who up and tells everybody their personal business: Alberta has 10 children, way more than Ian (and me) thought. Damn, this woman is fucking loose.
--A doctor (TKill), who tells the couple, after a trip to the ER, Ian has a weak penis (no comment) We can blame Alberta for that. (And thanks to the doctor, he has ruined Jenga for me. That starting scene in an episode of The Big Bang Theory is never the same again).
--Alberta’s WNBA teammate Cassidy (CecStrong), who wants her girl to focus on the team or else the $5,000 check (with the rest of the team) goes bye-bye) and,
--Some impliedly racist woman named Evelyn (Kate McKinnon), who just walked by the church, saw the proceedings and walked in like it was her right to object in the name of Cliven Bundy. She’s a psychic and says the marriage will end in murder with Ian being killed by a tall, black, horny, breeding, penis-destroying C-List WNBA player and a big-ass plastic hanger (I’ll just leave this here because it’s funny.)

who all feel they shouldn’t get together for their outrageous reasons. But they fail, as true love prevailed in this strange arrangement of family and...need of chocolate. (ew.) As a part of a family with 10 kids (half of which are adults mind you!), I can kinda relate to the craziness that went on in this sketch, aside from broken penises and murder from hangers.)
Pretty much everything Alberta says in rebuttal is hilarious. Also, everyone who rejected was also hilarious. Ian was hilarious. The parson was hilarious. This whole sketch was hilarious!

And so is this. It could've happened back then.

Next up, another pre-tape: one so powerful, it could either heat up the Internet like a search for the One Ring...or crash and burn like a death by Smaug. I think this is the former. This sketch is a crossover between two classic pieces of viewing medium, both of which Freeman starred in: The Office UK and The Hobbit, entitled “The Office: Middle Earth”.

This was a genius piece of writing and source material. Martin does a great job as Bilbo Baggins working at the Wernham Hogg paper company, Moyni was genius as a David Brent-like version of Gandalf the Grey and TKill was also great as Gollum. The sketch included recreations of some of the show’s iconic scenes including Gollum finding his precious in a plate of Jello, and Gandalf the Brent engaging in some very awkward dancing. I have seen a single episode of the original series, but after this, I better start watching.

Right Side of Bed is another one of those local morning show skits the show loves to do. This one is about the banter between the hosts (TKill and CecStrong), and a quick tease to their guest, a DIY maker named Louie (Freeman), who is embarrassed to be on camera.

This was a “meh” sketch with some cringe-worthy laughs. And the co-hosts voices were irritating as hell, although, that may be the point. I got better laughs from Louie and the sad lady Margene (played by Baby Aidy--heh, rhyme), even though there weren’t many.

This was what I was thinking (and tweeting, clearly) during the sketch, because during sketches when she's supposed to be a white woman, I almost always mistake her for Vanessa. Fortunately, this only happens for a second.

Another pre-taped sketch...sigh. Not their fault, though. It’s a live show, and everyone has to prepare for the next sketches, and these pre-tapes are there to keep everything going smoothly. As I so thought after I made this tweet.
At St. Joseph’s church, everyone is ready to prepare for the annual Christmas mass. And that includes EVERYTHING.

I’ve been to church many times before, and I must say it’s pretty spot-on. The old man (Jay Pharaoh) with the sweaty-ass palm, the organist (Kate Mc) who still can’t get it right, the pastor’s (Moyni) change in speech speed, along with a peek into his chambers (just a table in there), the choir leader (Baby Aidy) who tries really hard, the foreigners who attend because their house is nearby and many others. Really spot-on And it really helped it become hilarious. And the angle of the commercial skit, as if it would air on MTV or Spike or Velocity, really sold it.

Later, at an assembly line, a worker (TKill) gets the tips from his boss (Freeman) on how to do his job. And it’s a really easy job.

Man, this dude looks like the son of Pat from “It’s Pat!” and Ed Grimley. You have to wonder how the hell he got this job or how stupid the boss was to hire him. This dude is as stupid as Chip and Skip from Camp Lazlo.
This was so-so; there were a few good laughs, especially at the end when the light turned blue but still. I was more impressed with Martin’s American accent; made me forget for a minute that he’s British.

A lounge singer (Kenan) at a bed and breakfast is performing with his band, while his sax player Isaac (Martin) just wants to play, and not talk with the audience about the goings-on in his life.

The part about Kenan’s whining in despair about his red boots being missing was hilarious, along with the monotone-looking man wearing said boots. I’ve wished Kenan would put his same-old voice to good, goofy use all season and he finally does it. And he does it well. I FIND THIS THE BEST PART OF THE SKETCH.

And finally, a Waterbed Commercial for local waterbed distributor Waterbed Warehouse. I won’t say more, because everything you need to know is in the name and description.

Baby Aidy was the star of the sketch as Janine, and Martin did great as the store salesman, but Aidy stole the whole thing.


This week’s musical guest Charli XCX is best known as the featured artist in Icona Pop’s “(I Don’t Care) I Love It” and Iggy Azalea’s monster summer smash “Fancy”, Charli has branched out to become one hot item in Pop music...well, besides her own hot items.

Heh heh heh. But she has proved herself with her infectious vocals and talent for writing, as she pretty much to the world by storm, and cemented it when she hit the SNL stage...in more ways than one.

First up, her hit single from the soundtrack of The Fault in Our Stars (the 100th teen novel-turned-teen film-turned-bona fide-Teen Choice Awards-winner...this millenium), “Boom Clap”. First off, the title reminds me of the two basic things an infant does on any normal day: go Boom-boom in his/her diaper and clap his/her hands. Anyway, this was a really good performance; The song is really good, the lyrics are good, her vocals are really good, and that outfit

was very good. Although, I was at first disgusted by it at first sight, when I made this tweet:

Take that however you wish.
The second one, however, I really don’t want to take in any way...or wish. It’s called “Break the Rules”.

This is one song I can definitely do without in life. Just look at the chorus:
“I don’t wanna go to school/I just wanna break the rules
Boys and girls around the world/Putting on their dancing shoes
Going to the discotheque/Getting high and getting wrecked
I don’t wanna go to school/I just wanna break the rules”
Yep, folks. Charli XCX has recorded an anthem for the idiots, horn-dogs, skanks and overall menaces of society. Call a prude if you want, but this is music that glorifies foolish, idiotic, uncontrollable, vapid and downright sad behavior. Throw in the recent riots in Ferguson, MO, for a heart-wrenching example, and I’ve proved my point.
All in all, I loved the first performance and hated the second. And to think...I would’ve loved it when she wore more clothing between performances.

Update time:
part 1

part 2


--Jost and Che continue to get better. Colin is less boring (well slightly) and Michael has gotten more comfortable in his new role as co-anchor. I have enjoyed this new hosting team, and I hope they continue to grow, and not stay at this level for a while.
You got one more week, Jost and Che. Wow me.

--SaZam appears to discuss Emojis...and why there isn’t one with a black face on it. It was pretty good. The emoji she uses looks really creepy (she should stop using it for the good of the African American race), and I loved the bold move of turning controversy into laughs, and they did it well.

--CecStrong returns with a new character and she is a parody of one-dimensional female characters in male-driven comedy films. Her name: A One-Dimensional Female Character From a Male-Driven Comedy. *sigh* Because The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party...just didn’t feel like a mouthful to the writing staff, so they had to make another long-ass name for a Cecily Strong character. And that’s where she came in.
-If they’re wanting to bring her back sometime later on this season, at least I hope they change her hair color and clothes, because the ambiguous nature of the character involves change thanks to more than one movie with more than one fem-char. Or else she’ll be named The Same One-Dimensional Female Character From The Same Male-Driven Comedy.

--Another classic recurrer returns in time for the holidays: Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy! yay. While I find him great, the one thing I find irritating is when he is asked by an anchor about his life, he just looks at them with a creepy smile, and looks into his speech book. I know that’s the joke, but My God, it creeps me out. Other than that, I love him so much, and I wish he comes back soon. Although he could stop looking like he just celebrated his bar mitzvah, instead of celebrating his friends' bar mitzvahs.

Favorite Sketches:
Wedding Objections
Sump'n Claus
Holiday Gig
honorable mentions:
Church/Waterbed Commercial

Worst Sketches:
Assembly Line
Right Side of Bed

So, in conclusion, it was a really good show. Not a sketch I really hate, and the best ones were almost all of them, especially the Wedding sketch and Sump’n Claus pre-tape. Martin was amazing as host
And I must say, while the ladies took last week in , the guys did the dirty work this week, and really shined, especially Moyni, Kenan and TKill. Great job guys!! Keep up the good work!!

Next week, Amy Adams hosts the annual Christmas episode! With music from ONE DIRECTION!!! YAAYYY!! YEAH!!!! WAAAAHHHOOOO!!!!
I’m sorry, but I like One Direction now. Their music has gotten much better since after Take Me Home and I can say this with no shame or regret.
Goodnight!!

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