Saturday Night Live: Season 40, Episode 19
Pre-Show Thoughts:
I’m not surprised that Saturday Night Live is bringing in a second representative of Avengers: Age of Ultron for hosting duties this season. It’s what the biggest movie of the summer deserves, honestly. While I was hoping to see Chris Evans get his first gig or for Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson to return for the first time since the 90s, I will never complain with more Scarlett Johansson. This woman is pure talent. Tonight is her fourth hosting stint and it makes me very excited that she is one episode away from the Five Timers Club. Maybe they can bring her back next year with Dwayne Johnson! Just do it Lorne Michaels. You know you want to.
Wiz Khalifa is with her making his SNL debut. I’m largely indifferent to him as a musical act, so I’m mainly going into this night with Johansson on the brain.
The Good:
SNL really knocked it out of the park with two excellent pre-recorded segments. The first was a fake trailer that finally gave people what they want: A Black Widow solo film. Except it wasn’t the action packed adventure everyone thought they craved. It was a romantic comedy called Black Widow: Age of Me with Widow dating Ultron, to be released on Valentine’s Day 2016 of course. This really was a humorous send up of the belief that all female lead films need to be about misplaced love. It even had the stereotypical gay character in Taran Killam’s Thor. That final stab where the Marvel slogan is “We Know Women” was the best way to wrap this up. Johansson’s recent turn as an action lead in Lucy is proof that we actually are entering the era of badass women, but we still have a ways to go.
“Blazer” was the second pre-recorded bit. I was on board with this from the beginning as it reminded me of the hilarious “Dyke and Fats” from way back when. It had that VHS 80s cop show vibe, complete with the electricity charged word BLAZER. But then the joke proved to have more layers than anyone thought, and it was amazing. It starts subtly with you thinking, “Is he only punching black men?” Then it becomes more overt with Blazer straight up ignoring a white guy to punch another black man. Finally, it reached blatant territory, where we learn that the “Blazer” video was actually recorded on a body cam, which was edited by Blazer himself and put on YouTube. It sadly doesn’t happen that often, but when SNL is able to stay its hand to really nail a skit, it works wonders.
The same can be said about SNL using its live aspect for humor. It’s rare for a sketch to be as current as the Mayweather-Pacquiao Cold Open where the show acknowledges that everyone is currently focused on “the fight of the century.” What made this work was how relentlessly self-aware and silly it was. The fact that Jay Pharoah is taller than Floyd Mayweather and Aidy Bryant is not a Filipino man is directly attributed to the “bootleg quality” of their pirated footage. It even goes one step further by breaking the fourth wall. Kenan Thompson and Pharoah are announced as just actors when they leave the ring to watch the fight in Wiz Khalifa’s dressing room. Bryant was even “coached” on the fact that Pacquiao doesn’t speak Spanish. It really was one of my favorite Cold Open’s in recent episodes.
The Bad:
Johansson’s monologue was enjoyable. I laughed at the idea of her singing “Love to Love you Baby” to her child, complete with sultry body motions and MILFs (Mothers in Lots of Films). Killam and Thompson were great with their reactions too. However, what makes this sketch “bad” was that it was another musical number. The criticism that the monologues frequently default to three things (musical, Q&A, stand up) is so true, and this is just another example of that. Had this not been our third music piece in four episodes, I’d have no issues, but at this moment I’m craving something different. Most likely won’t get that next week with Reese Witherspoon.
The Weekend Update was sharply divided in terms of quality. Surprising no one, the correspondents were by far the best with Kate McKinnon absolutely slaying Ruth Bader Ginsburg (again). Pharoah’s Shaquille O’Neal is definitely growing on me too, and I’d love to see more of Sam and Gilly (Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer). What really disappointed me with Update was how it looked like Colin Jost and Michael Che have defaulted to their old ways. Che noticeably blew a couple lines, Jost’s delivery was painfully robotic, and the chemistry was completely non-existent. They were doing really well for the past few episodes, so this is especially disappointing. Not even acknowledging Cecily Strong hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner is an unbelievable oversight too.
Every once and a while, SNL airs a segment so terrible, you wonder if someone was under the influence when it was approved to go beyond dress. Last night’s “Dino Bones” falls into this category. It was an unfunny sludge that wasted the talents of both Strong and Johansson. I actually felt like Killam’s tour guide. Befuddled at what I was watching and probably eager for it to end.
Overall Thoughts:
Scarlett Johansson has shown a lot of versatility over the years. She’s a proven actress for comedies, action films, superhero roles, and Broadway productions. Even though last night’s SNL barely scratched the surface of what she can do, it still gave her a far amount of material to work with. She brought back her winning New York persona in “Right Side of the Bed”. Absolutely nailed a stuck up prom queen in “Girlfriend’s Talk Show.” Wasn’t afraid to get a little weird in the final sketch where she was a desert dwelling jingle writer with Aidy Bryant. Interestingly enough, she even surpassed Vanessa Bayer in acting like a robot on that Virgin America segment. Seriously, bring her back for #5.
The rest of the show was good, but not great. There were plenty of funny segments throughout the night. The only one I can say was awful throughout was “Dino Bones,” and even then you have to give Johansson credit for going with it. Yet the laughter was never side splitting, which doesn’t kick off the final three episodes of the season on the best foot possible. Perhaps if the writing was a little stronger or if Johansson was given more control over a skit’s direction, this could have been one of the better episodes of the season.
Rating: 8/10
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