Well, guys.
It took a long time (two episodes and a damn long hiatus) but they've done it. The writers of SNL 40 have actually pulled out a really funny episode. And the fact that Dwayne Johnson hosted it just makes it that way. Most of the sketches were hilarious, Dwayne was the best as he's ever been, the cast did a great job in some of their roles, and musical gues George Ezra was simply wonderful during his musical set.
So let's journey through this absolute gold mine and find some gems.
The Cold Open takes place at the White House as President Obama (Jay Pharoah) sits down and talks with Senator Tom Colton (Kyle Mooney), Representative of the House John Boehner (Taran Killam) and Senator Ted Cruz about their recent action involving bills and laws being signed behind his back.
These actions have angered the President one too many and causes him to (somehow) turn into...The Rock Obama!
His bulky, Hulky, Rocky state frightens the conservative leaders and sends them running, and in Boehner’s case, flying...out the window.
This was a pretty funny CO. The short, dickish answers from the Republican caricatures was chuckle-worthy and seeing the actual sequence of Obama turning to The Rock was really cool. Not to mention seeing The People’s Champ as the President was awesome. At first, when watching Live, I thought Pharaoh was VO-ing with Johnson mouthing his lines; but No, that really is him talking as Obama, so that made this sketch even more cooler.
And to jack this up to 150%, seeing Michelle also Hulk-out (or Wig-out, I guess) to She-Rock, with LesJo playing the role so great.
Monologue time!! And let me say first that it is awesome!
Dwyane walks to the stage and talks with the audience and viewers about his recent success in starring in film sequels , and turned it into a slowed-down R&B ballad number about it.
Johnson had the charisma and energy to make the song work, and the female cast members make it light up with their vocals.
This may be--will be one of the coolest Mono this season, and one of the best involving singing.
PepBoys/”Genderflect”
The Pre-Tape After is a spoof on Starbucks’ recent screwup of making baristas write hastags involving recent real life scandals on customers’ coffee cups, by featuring Pepboys doing a similar campaign, involving discussions with customers about equality in gender identity and sexual orientation. Straight genius.
I found the employees’ disturbing and inappropriate discussions hilarious, especially the one about being a hermaphrodite and fucking yourself anytime you like like it’s straight sex.
I really can’t get enough of this right here.
In this Sketch After, two wrestlers are ripping a promo in time for Wrestlemania.
Koko WatchOut (The Rock) is trash talking with Trashyard Mutt (Moyni), but Ko begins to take this...a little too personal. About Mutt.
This sketch is like straight-up Anarchism. The WWE and Wrestlemania logos are correct, but the wrestler characters (and announcer [TKill]) look like the came straight out of the late 80s or early 90s. I mean do male wrestlers still wear long and/or sparkling coats with boas optionally attached? I really don’t think so.
Other than that, it was still funny. Rocky using his acquired talents for this made it work, even if it was obviously going to happen. And Bobby was also funny as Trashyard, and his reactions are hilarious.
For the past few years, Disney has been making a questionable choice to its film library: remaking its iconic animated films and turning them into recently-made live-action hit movies. Including Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) and Cinderella, with Beauty and the Beast, Mulan and Dumbo, of all movies, on the way. This decision has pissed a lot of people off, so SNL has taken the liberty to turn those frowns upside down, by mocking Disney with this spoof on another iconic animated film turned into a cash-grabbing exhibition. And an unexpected one, too...Bambi.
Another genius one. The mashup with Bambi and Furious 7 (with both being “directed” by James Wan) was awesome, the dramatic acting from everyone was infectiously great, and...the deer puns, doe. The deer puns were deliciously corny and the performances from Johnson and the cast members were amazing.
Johnson (as Johnson/Bambi), TKill (Vin Diesel/Thumper), Pharaoh (Tyrese/Flower) and CecStrong (Michelle Rodriguez/Faline) were genius choices for the roles/characters, emulating the cast and characters of Furious 7, while portraying the characters of the Disney icon.
Also, that butterfly part had me dying. And Also reminds me of something:
I wish the “Bambi” pre-tape aired after the Mono, so it can drive the point home about starring in sequels home. Also, Disney needs to stop with the live-action remakes. They are the definition of creativity, so this has to be embarrassing. Oh well, as long as money talks, then they’ll be fine.
In “Dinner Date”, a couple Gene & his girlfriend (Kenan and Aidy) are joined by an odd, out-there couple (Dwayne and Cecily [plays Jemma with a convincing British accent]) on a dinner date. The two men met in jury duty, but this meeting is nothing to sneeze at.
No doubt, this was absurdly hilarious. With some of the jokes coming out of nowhere, Johnson playing the weido/cool tag-along man so amazingly, CecStrong playing the flighty Brit GF so well, I couldn’t stop laughing.
“Escape from Jungle Island”
In this 1983 classic film airing on TNT, Doctor Bones (Johnson), his young, eager, Robin-like assistant (Pete Davidson), and his lovely language translator Miss Reese are on a journey for find priceless artifacts on a mysterious island. But when Dr. is shot with poisonous darts, it’s up to one of his assistants to save his life. Guess who it is. (Hint: It’s not Miss Reese, to her chagrin.)
This is hilarious based on Dr. Bones attractiveness, the times he gets shot in the darts and Miss Reese's eagerness to suck his body parts with the darts as scapegoat, and her anger every time she gets shot down. Also, this wouldn’t been noticed back in the 80s, but the Homo-eroticism between the Doctor and Short-Long (heh, nice name) is on full alert here. I actually hope Reese would get the long end (heh, pun)) at least once, but ends up short every
time, and that’s super funny.
In this Pre-Tape, a frat party is in full swing. One brother is dared to a keg stand, and is successful, but that leads to an embarrassing revelation: he’s bald.
I love the little joke based on the recent scandal of a viral video of white male students at the University of Oklahoma reciting a singing chant involving the N-word. Also, the gag with the other frat bro at the spirits store being seen as a grown man, while the old man is seen as young was also hilarious.
In this next sketch, Cooking with Paul, Paul Montaine (Kenan) is an award-winning chef and (as explained in the open VO, for some reason which helped with the plot) is a three-time sex offender. What?
The look on Paul’s face at the start when sex offender was said was very creepy and funny at the same time. His voice doesn’t (or does) help, and Johnson does great work as his straight-man foil of a probation officer. Although, I thought it was a really weak concept: a TV chef cooking a recipe and going to his computer to watch children in an inappropriate behavior and manner, while his probation officer sous stops him from going further. I didn’t find it hilarious, but was chuckle-worthy.
Improv Show
At an improv show, a group is preparing for a performance, and draw some inspiration from an unlikely source: Robert Durst.
Kate Mc was awesome as Durst (in character, not the man; he’s cool in the slightest) and the Improv Show concept with him would’ve been amazing, but there wasn’t much time to let it grow (the time stamp on Yahoo! Screen was almost 3 1/2 minutes), and the rest of the sketch was just confusing as hell. There were some jokes that were funny to me, and some that were funny to the audience, but not me. Plus, Jeanine Pirro’s (CecStrong) appearance here was just a waste and confusing.
Also, the dialogue of the emcee and Prince Charmin’ felt more fake than needed to be. Also, on the looks of the group members’ faces, it seemed like they’re smiling on the outside with some fear hidden within. At least I thought so, as it would’ve been more funnier for their true behaviors to be shown. Also, their seeping fear of Durst could’ve made the sketch. Also, Johnson wasn’t in it, for some reason, All in all, a terrible skit, indeed. (Maybe The Rock could’ve been it’s Viagra)
In Interrogation, two cops are trying to get a suspect to reveal his motive in a crime he committed. But one of the officers is a little in there too excited to get the perp talking.
Okay, his insults were near gut-busting, and the way Johnson said them were hilarious. This obviously isn't one of the best sketches of the episode by far, but it's chuckle-worthy indeed.
those eyes...such blueness.Musical Guest George Ezra is someone I've never heard of or mentioned...ever. Then when I watched a video by Marc Mues about the songs found in the bottom of the Billboard 100 in February 2015 and there he was with a nice, soft tune called "Budapest". I took a quick listen at it, and thought it was a really good song. Then when his name pulls up in the surprise announcement on the SNL social media pages a few weeks ago, I was interested in seeing what song he would be performing (besides "Budapest", of course). And now, he has that song. "Blame It On Me".
But first, the aforementioned "Budapest", which is very calm and mellow, but bursting with enough energy to make it great. It's not too bold, but not dull either. Ezra's vocals are deep and raw but can carry the track all the way, and make it a lovely lively song to listen to at any time and any other mood.
One thing I found irritating about this performance is how Ezra says the "You-Oooh" line, which is different than the original recorded version. This irritates me a lot and I tend to mute it every time I watch this. Other than that it was a wonderful performance.
Now onto "Blame It On Me", which is more fast in pacing and has more understandable lyrics than "Budapest". The beat is really nice and has an advantage in use of electric guitars and bass, which is also really nice. And Ezra has better vocals here than "Budapest".
I think George Ezra is a huge talent and will be a big hit in the near future as a big folk/rock artist. I can just feel it.
Time For an Update:
Part 1:
Part 2: none
I must say, Jost & Che have grown steadily in recent episodes. Here, though, they have gotten better. I will say that they have spoken really slow, as if they are trying to get the Audience and viewers to hear and understand the stories. This was annoying, but the jokes were funny, so I'll give them a pass.
Kate Mc appeared as Russian woman Olya Povlatsky and discussed the Russian economy.
Well, I won't have much to say but...everything Kate McKinnon does is funny. Even the weaker roles she'll play are funny. She'll just take the role, put her style and humor in it, and make it hilarious.
Look at this again.
She's just THAT talented.
Kenan also stopped by as Willie, an optimistic man whom tries to cheer up Michael, who isn't in the best of interest when it comes to Spring.
It wasn't great, but I enjoyed the happy felling Willie showed during his appearance. The "cat dukey" joke also cracked my up. (What? Crap humor jokes can work with me sometimes.)
Anyway, this was a slightly-above-average Update for me.
Che and Jost were cool, but still have work to do. And the jokes were getting better and better. I think they should speed up their talking a bit; I want them to make me laugh, but I also want them to make me stay up for the rest of the show.
Kate and Kenan were pretty good as the characters and bumped up the grade from Average, so it's not too bad.
Was the CO Good?
The-Rock (and She-Rock) Obama
It was Vintage Rock (meaning it was great)
Best Sketches:
Dinner Date
Franchise Viagra Mono
The Jungle Island
honorable mention
WWE Promo Shoot
Worst Sketches: (this time they were more weak than horrible)
Cooking with Paul (for just being a guy on his laptop looking at kids)
Interrogation (just lame puns)
dishonorable mention
Improv Show (for not taking the concept and letting it grow)
In the end this was a really good episode.
Dwayne Johnson is as energetic and awesome as host as he's ever been. He puts his effort and talent from his days in the WWE into his characters and jokes and always amazes me, even though I knew he could do it. There is no way he couldn't be as awesome as he was in his last few appearances. He just plain...Rocks.
Also, the cast have done really well too, especially Kate McKinnon. She is just like Johnson, except she's a petite blonde white woman with a talent for sketches so great, you still wouldn't have it coming when she performs. I can't say more because...that's basically all I want to say. She that good.
I've enjoyed this ep a lot. And I eagerly await the few years The Rock will appear again.
See you then!
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