Pre-Show Thoughts
I’m not afraid to admit that Sarah Silverman isn’t one of my favorite comedians. Her humor simply didn’t work for me for a while and her persona was really obnoxious. I tried watching her show on Comedy Central but really never went beyond leaving it as background noise. Has that changed in recent years? Absolutely. My own comedic tastes have evolved and I’m starting to see what all the Silverman fuss is about. Plus, I’d be lying if I said her Emmy win for writing Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles didn’t catch my eye. So while Silverman still isn’t on my personal “top list,” she’s far from the bottom and I’m confident her first return to SNL after being fired in 1994 will be great. Maroon 5 is with her too, which I find sufficiently less interesting. They’ve had mainstream popularity for over 10 years now and 2014 just added to that with “Maps” and “Animals” This is their third SNL appearance. I guess this is exciting if you’re a diehard fan, but it feels very “business as usual.” You can’t knock their catchy tunes though.
The Good
While the 60 Minutes Cold Open generated nothing more than a snicker, Silverman’s monologue left me in stitches. It straight up demolished the fourth wall. After starting off the monologue in a typical fashion, Silverman exclaims that this is all live TV and proceeds to chat up a random woman in the audience. This even included Silverman sitting on this amazingly game woman’s lap. Could this have been staged? Possibly, but this really could be an example of a bit that toed a risky line and succeeded in a big way. And Silverman wasn’t even done once she went back to the stage. She continued messing with the monologue formula by asking questions to herself from her one year stint as a cast member. Turns out she was used a lot as a fake audience member. Easily one of the cleverest ways to honor a mere blip in SNL’s 40 year lifespan.
Considering how popular The Fault in our Stars was this year, it’s not surprising that SNL would parody it. Though I’m sure none of us expected these writers to give it an ebola centered twist. The Fault in our Stars: The Ebola in our Everything would make a terrible movie, but as a brief skit, it’s hilarious. The build up and delivery is what sold this for me. You know that something is going to go wrong and yet have absolutely no idea what it is. So when Silverman dropped the Ebola bomb, I lost it. This skit was perfect. Taran Killam’s physical comedy in his attempt to get away from Silverman was incredibly on point, but that’s hardly a surprise for a real professional like him. Even though the film came out months ago, this skit’s material really worked.
The Weekend Update is clearly being revised for this season and I liked the potential I saw last night. The highlight for me was Colin Jost and Michael Che joking about what they can or cannot say based on their race. Not only were there some good one-liners here, I loved actually seeing the two anchors build a rapport. This is something Cecily Strong and Jost lacked, and even Strong and Seth Meyers didn’t have much before that. It’s been a while since some legitimate camaraderie came to the Update desk and it made me smile at the potential. And thankfully the rest of the Update was good too. Kenan Thompson did an on-point Al Sharpton, successfully displaying the Reverend’s keen ability to comment on what he really doesn’t know, and Kate McKinnon and Silverman were great as feminist music duo Garage & Her. Hopefully this is a sign of a bright Update future.
The Bad
Using the Cold Open as a means to make political and social commentary is regular practice for SNL. As of late, this is usually when Jay Pharoah does his Barack Obama impression. This week’s Cold Open decided to focus on ISIS and its terrifying ability to recruit people on social media. The ever expanding conflict with ISIS made it a guarantee for some jokes on a Saturday evening, but last night wasn’t the right way to do it. It felt way too simple for such a dark, dark topic. Subversive joke tweets like“Die all infidels #thankyoujeter” orated by Pharoah’s Obama just don’t have the same punch as, say, someone mocking ISIS by actually pretending to be a member who’s frighteningly good at online communication. Remember the old days when Will Ferrell openly parodied Saddam Hussein? This type of skit could have used that same punch.
In retrospect, I’m a little surprised Joan Rivers wasn’t honored during last week’s premiere, but I guess they wanted to wait for the right skit to fit it in. That came last night with Silverman as Rivers roasting the likes of Richard Pryor (Jay Pharoah), Ben Franklin (Bobby Moynihan), and Freddie Mercury (Adam Levin), among others. As a tribute, I’d say it worked. Silverman did a solid Rivers impression and successfully emulated the late comedian’s raunchy style. As a good source of laughs though, this bit missed the mark. Silverman served up the jabs with emotion (perhaps too much, she stumbled a bit), but the absence of response for anyone else made this disappointingly one sided. How can you put Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Kyle Mooney in a skit and give them absolutely nothing to do? What a waste.
“This blender is expensive” was the backbone of last night’s final skit. I’m not joking. It was literally Silverman and Vanessa Bayer talking about a blender and then getting torn apart by the price. Talk about a complete lack of humor. The audience was following it for a short time but even they bailed out near the end. If only the night could have ended on a high note…
Overall Thoughts
Last night was a great show. I personally think it was better than Chris Pratt’s premiere. Silverman, despite her brief stint, proved that she still has the live comedic chops as she did an excellent job with all of her material. Even when she was put into an extremely forgettable bit like those Riverboat Singers, she was able to keep herself afloat. Thankfully the rest of the cast stayed up with her too. Featured players Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, and Sasheer Zamata got a lot of attention and they easily proved why the other new 2013 crop was left in the dust.
Maroon 5’s performances were exactly what you’d expect. Catchy, fun, enjoyable, and safe. I’d say Adam Levine’s cameos were much more memorable, especially during the car driving skit. That one was a lot of fun to watch. But while I enjoyed Levine, I couldn’t help but wonder: Where is Pete Davidson? Davidson was amazing last week. The cast isn’t that huge anymore so they surely could have fit him in somewhere. Honestly, I said this a lot last year but it deserves mentioning again. I don’t think it’s fair for musical acts to edge out people who actually make their living working on the show. I get it, Levine it a big deal, but Davidson is brand new. He’s needs the experience and the exposure. Even if he’s off to the side with a few lines. We really didn’t need to have Levine play Mercury during the Rivers bit. Davidson could have fit in there with someone else easily, I’m sure.
Rating: 8/10
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television and every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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