SNL Season 41: Ep.11

SNL continued on through "Winter Storm Jonas" with MMA fighter Ronda Rousey. So was this show a knock out..........onto the review (I'll show myself out)

Palin Endorsement: Cold Open: This cold open was a given, with Sarah Palin's inane endorsement speech earlier this week. It was a little odd how they did this, with Darrell Hammond as Trump having these cut-away scenes on what he thought of the speech. And with how wild Palin's original speech, its almost impossible to parody it (and that's been the problem with this election cycle so far for SNL). But Tina Fey as Palin is always a crowd pleaser, and was still enjoyable here. (8.0)

Monologue: Going in, I wasn't sure what kind of monologue they would go for with Ronda, but I liked the direction here. They constructed it like a MMA fight, with some different segments in each round (including slapping Kate McKinnon as Bieber). It had a little bit of everything, and was pretty well done as far as monologues go and what they had to work with. (6.4)


Screen Guild Awards: I was curious how SNL would take on #OscarsSoWhite, and they did it with this "Screen Guild Awards" sketch. This was done perfectly, from Taran Killam as a boxing coach in a "Creed" like movie....all the way down to Bobby Moynihan as "White guy with a camera". What hit this home even further were the looks in the audience from Leslie Jones, Kenan and Jay. SNL was able to effectively take this issue on. (8.4)




Love Struck (short): This was like a "carrie" esque premise. Beck Bennett "invites" Ronda to a date at the gym, where she's filmed by a click of girls headed by Vanessa Bayer eating dogfood. Ronda goes on to beat her up, in what turns out to be a PSA for bullies messing with mixed martial artists. I'm not sure how well the premise worked, but Vanessa Bayer really did her best. (6.6)


Bland Man: A recurring sketch SNL's done a while back, this was a take-off of "The Bachelor", utilizing the female cast. There was some decent writing, but this just dragged on...and on....and on. Really, the only legit "laugh out loud" line was Selena Gomez in the end, describing how on the "25th season" she was conceived back during the 2nd. (5.0)


(Selena Gomez - Good For You/Same Old Love): (4.8)



Weekend Update: There were some good lines, but much like the show as a whole, the energy seemed to be drained from the winter storm. Michael Che had a good riff on #OscarsSoWhite, while Colin Jost had a memorable joke for "National Compliment's Day".

The first guest saw Leslie Jones, who through thick and thin has a solid rapport with Jost now. She gave her take on "The Revenant", and went on to talk about how she's ready to be with Leonardo DiCaprio. This was probably the most Jost has cracked up during a Leslie segment.

Leslie Jones

Next saw the return of Kenan Thompson as Che's Neighbor Willie. Slowly but surely this character is growing on me, but at the moment its still just average. (6.7)


Teacher Trial: This has been another recurring sketch, as we see Pete Davidson on a witness stand playing a teenager who slept with 2 of his teachers. On top of being a little skeevy in dealing with statutory rape, this just came off as pretty lazy (although Kenan was good as the judge). (5.1)


Super Crew: This sketch took place as a bunch of avengers-styled super heroes arrive to introduce themselves before fighting. This certainly seemed like it was trying to be an ensemble sketch. The premise here was that after a while the super powers started to get really lame and suspect. Unfortunately, this sketch was just as lame and suspect. (4.3)


At The Club (short): This short got the show moving again. Jay, Taran and Beck played a group of guys trying to find a hook-up through a rap. Beck in particular really carried this one, as he rapped about being "willing to just leave his pants on and go down on them". Beck can be under-utilized at times, but he certainly wasn't with this. (7.0)


City Council: Yet another city council sketch, as usual this was used to show us a bunch of character ideas thrown against a wall. There was some continuity, as we saw Kyle Mooney's European rapper character. Aidy Bryant and Kate Mckinnon did their best to make this work, but the sketch just closed out on a whimper. (4.7)


(Selena Gomez - "Hands To Myself"): (6.2)


Football Party: This was an incredibly weak sketch to close the show on. Beck and Kyle played some office workers who for some reason had no idea what a party was as Ronda invited them over for a football party......and that was pretty much it. (2.0)



A down show more or less. Maybe it was the blizzard, but the show seemed to lack energy. Ronda Rousey wasn't all that present as a host. I actually think a lot of this could be written off from a lack of enthusiasm from the audience and the travel bans/closures, but we'll see if SNL can kick back up in a couple of weeks.


 Overall Score - 5.78

Tracy Morgan - 7.94
Elizabeth Banks - 7.53

Adam Driver - 7.22

Chris Hemsworth - 7.20
Amy Schumer - 7.18

Matthew McConaughey - 7.13

Tina Fey/Amy Poehler - 7.03
Ryan Gosling - 6.92
Miley Cyrus - 6.07

Ronda Rousey - 5.78
Donald Trump - 4.92