
āIām not an actor, Iām a [movie/standup] star!ā
Kevin Hart gets damned with coded faint praise a lot, something along the lines of, āWell, heās very energetic.ā Translated: āHeās not very funny, but heās loud and plays to his (mostly black) audience.ā But Hart is a funny guy (even if the movie heās here to promote is apparently a bit of a dud), and his undeniably live-wire energy comes off as a measure of both commitment and professionalism on SNL, something my esteemed predecessor nailed down accurately when he reviewed Hartās first hosting gig. Hart threw himself into every sketch last time, and he did the same tonightāthere are worse qualities for a host to bring to the table. His monologue was entertaining and funny, breezing through his fears at the wildlife surrounding his suburban home with a precise physicality and punctuationāsure, his standup benefits from his animation, but Hart is an expert at framing a joke and then punching it home.
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That being said, the guy has a tendency to outrun his lines from time to time. Hardly an anomaly with this cast over the past two season, certainlyāthereās been an inordinate amount of flubbing all aroundāand at least this time, some of the awkwardness wasnāt Hartās fault. In the Instagram sketch right after the monologueāa sketch with a lot of moving parts which nonetheless must have been rehearsed a lotāHart was forced to vamp for a long, long time when the video screen prop just didnāt work. Props to the guy for keeping it together as well as he didāthe prop was the central point of the sketch (intended to show the terrible Instagram pictures that bought his guests their spots on the show in the first place), and if it hadnāt come back, the stage was set for the biggest technical blunder in recent SNL history. I dunno if his ad-libbed smacking brought the thing back, but the instinct was understandable. (The way the ejector-seat couch gag slammed poor Vanessa Bayer into the side of the set was yet another miscueāa recurring issue that the show needs to take in hand before said disaster actually happens. You knowāwith the first sketch of the night or something crazy like that.)
Weekend Update update
Colin and Michael, Michael and Colināthe worst thing that can be said about this anchor-team at this point in their tenure is that they have no chemistry together. Itās something the show isnāt trying to build, and is hardly bothering to hide any more. Each had a higher percentage of hits than misses in a brief Update tonight, but they never connected with each other, barely even appearing on the screen together.
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In isolation, Jost and Che had some decent jokes. Jost comparing Mitt Romneyās plans to take another run at the White House to Charlie Brown and the football landed well, the punch line and graphic lining up just right. And the NFL/āLet It Goā domestic violence joke had a touch of un-Jost-like edge to it. (Itās always a good sign when the studio audience lets out a little gasp before laughing at an Update joke.) The idea of giving Che a little Daily Show-like monologue in the middle of Update is something I can get behind, too. Che seems far more comfortable delivering (one assumes) his own jokesāthey have his personality more than the current Update one-liners, which remain largely generic. (And, to be honest, he made a muddle out of the timing on the ālady who cut off the guyās penisā joke). His take on the Oscars had bite, reminding how Oscar-winning black actors havenāt found their wins all that helpful in Hollywood, and spotlighting how āblack people with āfunnyā namesā is still an insulting side-story every year.
Kate McKinnon was the only guest this week, her gleefully passive-aggressive Mrs. Santini delivering her notes to the neighbors that are driving her crazy with seamless timing and a signature McKinnon gleam of madness. Not her strongest bit, but, as ever, McKinnon simply sellsāher line, āDear elephant family in in 6H, I am very sorry you are elephants and every step you take ruins my lifeā lived in the performance. Some people have the āitā that makes them right at home anywhere on Saturday Night Live. Kate McKinnon has the āit.ā
Best/Worst sketch of the night
Always a treat when itās too tough to call on the best sketch, so letās call it a tie between the James Brown and the Bushwick sketches. Perhaps buoyed by thoughts of Eddie Murphy from the āSNL Vintageā 10 p.m. episode tonight (from the Ebersol yearsāLorne must be mellowing), the sight of Hart doing a good but not great James Brown impression was initially a letdown, until the sketch veered onto a giddily silly track, with Brownās famous rhetorical mid-song questions turning into strange, awkward mid-song conversations with his huge band. Hartās great, keeping the energy and the impression intact while coping with band members who arenāt unanimously sure whether they should, indeed, get more funky, or who question why heās the only one who gets a cape, or, why one of his backup singers changed her first name when she got married. Itās a sketch all about performance, timing, and odd little logical swerves, and I laughed all though it. (āShould we take it to the bridge?ā āNo.ā āJust a flat ānoā?ā)
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The Bushwick sketch has turns, too, the digital short following a trio of corner guys (Hart, Jay Pharoah, Kenan Thompson) as their conversation about their evolving neighborhood reveals their conflicted feelings about the new challenges posed by the areaās gentrification. Each twist is delivered impeccably by the three, their blustery outrage shading into tales about artisanal mayonnaise shops, spin classes, a dog walking business, and raging parties involving watercolors, wine and cheese, and folk singing. (Thompsonās line, āYou actinā like somebody put gluten in your muffinā encapsulates the premise with impeccable brevity.) And the final twistārevealing the complexities of the charactersā world even in the midst of $8 mayo, is outstanding. A triumph of writing and acting all around.

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For worst sketch, sadly, itās too close to call as well, with the aforementioned Instagram sketch (technical problems aside) undeserving of its prominent position on the show. Hart, perhaps thrown by the snafu, gabbled his lines a bit, and the premise wasnāt strong enough to justify the length. People take lousy pictures and clutter up social mediaāfair enough. But five minutes is far too long (Hartās quick, final summation, āDonāt take pictures of coffeeā would have sufficed.)
Vying with that was the sketch where Hart meets his supposed son, played by Jay Pharoah. A few problems here. One, Leslie Jones continues to make me justifiably nervous every time sheās on stage. Here again, she looked uncertain as Hartās supposed former lover and baby-mother, tripping over a few lines and lacking confidence and timing. I like Jones a lotāsheās got a brashness SNL sorely needsābut she has yet to prove she can carry a sketch without going wobbly. (Conversely, both the visual of the towering Jones picking up Hart and bodily hurling him around and the reminiscence of her swaddling a post-coital Hart to her breast were pretty damned striking, and funny.) But the biggest problem with this sketch was that, in what should have been a showcase for Jay Pharoah, the ādueling Kevin Hartsā just didnāt come off. Jay Pharoah is a very good impressionistāa world-class one if he gets the right character and scriptābut, here, as with the rest of the sketch, his mimicry just doesnāt land. Whether he simply doesnāt have the strongest impression in the first place, or due to the sketch being written around only the most exaggerated small bursts of behavior, what should have been a show-stopper fizzled out.
āWhat do you call that act?ā āThe Californians!āāRecurring sketch report.
None. Not even an alum dropped by to take advantage of what seems to be Lorneās open-door ādo an old character if you feel like itā policy of late. (Although Kate McKinnonās Update character has appeared under another name on Comedy Bang! Bang!, itās a whole other show. My categories, my rules, people.)
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I am hip to the musics of today
Hereās to weirdness! I know Siaās relatively popular and all, but if every top-selling musical guest wants to bring in an element of odd, offputting performance art to their segments, I say SNL will be more entertaining for it. The evidence tonight: Siaās never-removed duck-billed veil, two bodysuited dancers in Sia wigs performing deliberately-awkward interpretive dance throughout āElastic Heart,ā a mime signing ASL to āChandelier,ā and Siaās entire stage demeanor, which, unconnected to the audience, left it to appear that all the stage business going on around her was a visualization of what was going on in her mind while singing. Remember when David Bowie stood in a flower pot and wore a dress and fondled a phallic puppet and brought Klaus Nomi on as a backup singer on SNL? More like that, please.
Most/Least Valuable (Not Ready For Prime Time) Player
Bobby Moynihan had two bit parts in two sketches this week, so the LVNRFPTP spot should go to him. (Itās a big cast, and sometimes on SNL you just get lost.) By the same logic, Kenan Thompson should get āmost valuableā simply by virtue of his screen time this weekābut Iām giving the edge to Kate McKinnon who, in addition to her Update solo spot, trotted out her Justin Bieber for a show-long runner making fun of the wee little ābad boyā and his current Calvin Klein ad campaign. McKinnonās Bieber is always so funny because the impressionās accuracy struts hand-in-hand with a knowing mockery of the very fact that anyone would take the liāl guy seriously in the first place. McKinnonās Bieber preened in tough guy self-regard while Cecily Strongās model unsuccessfully attempted to hide her embarrassment at having to feign arousal at a diminutive, tighty-whitied manchild.
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As for Kenan, his second place showing says more about sameness. Not an impressionist, heās given impressions (Dr. King in the cold open tonight), all of which sound precisely like Kenan Thompson doing an exaggerated Kenan Thompson voice. The exemplar of āworkmanlikeā without being especially useful, Thompson, in his 11 year stretch on the show, has been a pleasant, reliable workhorse whoās sucked up a lot of air time. In baseball terms, heās an inning-eater, not an ace. In shows where heās the dominant performer, his journeyman skills bring a lot of that sameness to the show as a whole. That being said, his second banana in the James Brown sketch played to his strengths and added to the best sketch of the night.
āWhat the hell is that thing?āāThe Ten-To-Oneland Report
Hartās commitment helped sell tonightās Ten-To-Oneland sketch, with his rapperās new song dropping his entourageās every last secret between the rhymes. In all, a middling sketch that wasnāt weird enough to truly reside here, although the final revelation that two of his crew have accidentally killed another and are trying to pull off āa Weekend At Bernieās situationā edges it a bit closer.
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Stray observations:
- In other sketches, the soap opera reunion bit made me laugh. Of course, fart noises are funny because I am 12, apparently, but Vanessa Bayerās attempts to maintain her dignity in the face of her inexplicably farty theme music was funny, as was Taran Killamās staunchly pompous former soap star mien. And the idea that Hartās stage manager resolutely denies speaking English or knowing anything about āthe music I picked for herā supplied just enough weirdness to the proceedings.
- Killam similarly shone in the musical dragon sketch, with Hartās sensible footman attempting to get everyone to stop singing about leaving before they all get roasted by a rampaging dragon and actually leave before they all get roasted by a rampaging dragon. Actually, Killam, Thompson, Cecily Strong, and Sasheer Zamata all busted out some serious pipes, but it was Killamās exaggerated reprise that stole the sketch. Shame about the (nonexistent) ending.
- The cold open, with Pete Davidsonās student sheepishly assuring Thompsonās ghost of Martin Luther King that his legacy still has meaning (despite some evidence to the contrary) never took off, but it was sweet in its own way. Kenanās MLK impression is, as noted, not one, but the conversation between he and Davidson managed to score a few points (cue the first Selma Oscar snub joke of two tonight), and the two managed a measure of chemistry. Of course, there was little bite to the discussion of Kingās lasting legacy in the black community, but thatās what we had The Boondocks (and Kevin Michael Richardsonās actual MLK impression) for:
- āI need to hear from each person individually!ā āWhy?ā
- āThatās not good enough, Ricky! I need a verbal commitment!ā
- āCan I take it to the bridge?ā āI donāt know, Jamesācan you?ā āMay I?ā
- Siaās smaller dancer was Maddie Ziegler, veteran of the videos for both āChandelierā and āElastic Heart.ā I thought the adult dancer was Chris Kattan in a wig at first, but then realizedāthereās no reason why anyone would bring back Chris Kattan.
- And just because I said āEddie Murphyā and āJames Brownā in the same review:
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