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SNL, Maya Rudolph, Vampire Weekend Make for Surprisingly Weak Effort
This weekend's Saturday Night Live (with Maya Rudolph & Vampire Weekend) felt more like the SNL team was just going through the motions.
When I heard that Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend and Jake Gyllenhaal/Sabrina Carpenter would be closing out the final two episodes of NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49, I made what I thought was a pretty safe assumption – that the Jacob Elordi-hosted episode would end up holding onto the title of being the worst episode of the season. I'm not exactly sure what happened this weekend, but Elordi's title reign is now in doubt. I'm not sure what happened on Saturday night – maybe the SNL team really took to heart having their moms around to honor Mother's Day, so they pulled their punches. Maybe Vampire Weekend lulled them into a sense of deep introspection. Whatever the reason, this weekend's show was a mixed bag of sketches that had their moments – but overall, it felt more like a going-through-the-motions effort than what we've been getting lately (especially considering we had an SNL icon hosting), a bit too bland and toothless.
What Worked (Not Much), What Didn't (A Lot) & Other Thoughts: I thought the decision to start the show with a Mother's Day Cold Open was a big mistake and set a bad tone. Hear me out. I love the concept behind it, but it could've been filmed and then aired after midnight. With everything going on in the world, SNL's cold open is as much of a headline-grabber as ever – with only two shows left, it felt like a wasted opportunity. Rudolph's performance of "Mother" during her opening monologue was yet another example of why she's a comedic genius on so many levels – but after the cold open, having the show's first ten minutes dedicated to Mother's Day just felt a bit too much.
"Hot Ones with Beyoncé 2" gave Rudolph the opportunity to reprise her take on the global phenomenon. While Rudolph was spot-on, the sketch itself didn't bring anything new to the table compared to the excellent original "Hot Ones with Beyoncé." I'm not sure I've ever written these words about Please Don't Destroy (Ben Marshall, John Higgins & Martin Herlihy) before, "Explore Page" was a disappointment. It was weird seeing Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, and Sarah Sherman – who would usually play themselves in a PDD sketch – playing their respective girlfriends. It was a bit too PDD Universe-breaking for me – with Rudolph's "girlfriend" a little too slapstick than was needed.
"British Cavemen" was a silly-fun sketch that you can't help but find yourself at least smiling with (I was laughing) and forces you to attempt your own worst, over-the-top British accents. "Can You Pick Me Up?" was a sweetly realistic filmed sketch that nicely demonstrated one of the key roles that a mother has to play sometimes – the scapegoat. Rudolph & Kenan Thompson are an amazing comedic team, and it was fun watching them run through their list of reasons/excuses why their daughter has to come home.
"Coffee Commercial" was one of those sketches where you feel every second of its five-plus-minute run – and not in a good way. But even Rudolph's Dawn Farraway and some fart jokes couldn't make it work – and I love a good fart joke. "Nurse Appreciation" was a mean & confusing mix. On one level, it focuses on how Fineman's & Molly Kearney's nurses view the nobility of their profession to Rudolph's & Nwodim's nurses see their profession as pretty much nothing more than cleaning up after old people (with Mikey Day on hand to serve that part). Then, just before it stepped over the line into patient-blaming, it shifted to making a statement on how we forgot about the importance of nurses after the COVID lockdown ended. "Lanzetti's Lawn Care" was an ad for landscapers that digressed into an examination of how Rudolph's character used to sleep with the co-workers, but now… yeah, that's about all I'm going to say about that.
Even "Weekend Update" wasn't immune – except for Michael Che, who gets our "BCTV Unsung Hero Award" for knowing what needed to be done, dropping some great jokes that hit hard – and then digging in deeper despite the groans & mumblings of the audience (bonus points for that "Emmy reel" line). Other than that, Colin Jost was okay (though bonus points for a fun Marvel/Scarlett Johansson joke) – but there was a missed opportunity in not having Bowen Yang portray RFK, Jr.'s brainworm. With Sherman, it was all a bit much, and the shots at Jost felt like they were forced into the segment. Heidi Garner's A Woman Who Insists She's Not Mad was definitely the better of the two "WU" guests in a fun segment that knew exactly when to pull the ripcord before overstaying its welcome.
But all was not lost, SNL fans! Rudolph, Thompson, Gardner, Nwodim, Yang, Sherman, Andrew Dismukes, Punkie Johnson, James Austin Johnson, and Michael Longfellow portrayed teachers with a special end-of-the-year message for their students and their parents: "Y'all won." Based on the reactions from educators on social media during & after the sketch, "Teacher PSA" spoke the words that a whole lot of them have wanted to say for a very long time. While every segment was a standout, bonus points to Nwodim because I had no idea what she was getting at with what "T-S-I-D-D-A-H-N" spelled – and now I can't stop saying it.
Saturday Night Live Season 49: Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend
3.5/10
When I heard that Maya Rudolph/Vampire Weekend and Jake Gyllenhaal/Sabrina Carpenter would be closing out the final two episodes of NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49, I made what I thought was a pretty safe assumption - that the Jacob Elordi-hosted episode would end up holding onto the title of being the worst episode of the season. I'm not exactly sure what happened this weekend, but Elordi's title reign is now in doubt. I'm not sure what happened on Saturday night - maybe the SNL team really took to heart having their moms around to honor Mother's Day, so they pulled their punches. Whatever the reason, this weekend's show was a mixed bag of sketches that had their moments - but overall, it felt more like a going-through-the-motions effort than what we've been getting lately (especially considering we had an SNL icon hosting).
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