SNL Season 42: Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson joined the 5-timer's club. How did Scarlett do? Onto the review

Alien Attack Cold Open: A notable difference from last week's cold open, as Alec Baldwin was front and center as Trump. You could just spot the energy difference as the crowd erupted at the sight of Baldwin. In this cold open, we saw a futuristic alien invasion in 2018, with Trump tasked to rally the troops...but with middling results. The best line may have been Sasheer Zamata's "oh, ok, no" as Trump posits that Leslie Jones and Zamata could be aliens. A pretty out there cold open (though I liked how it featured the entire cast). (7.1)

Monologue: (6.8)

Zoo Pornographer: A classic miscommunication style of sketch, we see a news interviewer with a "Zoo Photographer", but chyron hilarity ensues. Scarlett and Mikey Day brought this to a different level there. (7.5)

Fire Island (short): (7.7)

Translator: When you add live animals, it seems you're always going to get a top-grade sketch. That was the case here, as a tech team tries to translate Scarlett's pug. This sketch hit on a number of issues; how would we react to our pet's political opinions, and how we try to immediately shut down opinions that go against ours. Instead of trying to reason with 'max', they just dismiss him. This all goes to a larger point of how we can become uncomfortable with differing views, instead of trying to understand and defend one's own views. (9.1)

Olive Garden: Beck Bennett tries to film reaction shots for an Olive Garden ad. There were so many great moments here, from some awkward asks of Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson, to bewildered takes from Scarlett and Mikey. Just in general a perfect parody of Olive Garden. (8.5)

Complicit (ad): A spot-on take of Ivanka Trump. In this ad for her new fragrance "complicit", it points out how she's mostly looked the other way on some of her father's more questionable comments. It isn't a personal attack, but more on how she's reacting and benefiting to the Trump presidency, without really saying a lot. (9.2)

(Lorde): (8.6)

Weekend Update: With the energy of the show, Jost and Che came out firing on Update.

The first guests were Al Franken (Alex Moffat) and Jeff Sessions (McKinnon). This was a perfect duo, as Kate gets to play Sessions more and more. And Alex's Franken impression was picture perfect. Who knows, we may be seeing a lot more of it come 2019 and 2020.....

Then Pete Davidson returned, giving some of his first impressions of Trump's surrogate team. It was nice seeing Pete back as an Update guest, as its seemingly been a little while. (8.2)

Shud The Mermaid: This was a recurring character I wasn't expecting. Kate took on her role as the blobfish mermaid 'Shud'. She can pull off any character it seems. (7.5)

Shanice Goodwin - Ninja Rivals: (7.4)

(Lorde): (9.0)

A Sketch For The Women: "A Day Without Women" was this past week, and to recognize that, Kyle and Beck "wrote a sketch recognizing it". They go on to mansplain women's problems as Scarlett and Aidy watch on, interjecting with agreements. Paired with last week's "Girl At A Bar", this goes on to show how representation is a problem that affects both sides of the political spectrum. (Which you know must be true, given how I loathe 'both sides' takes). (8.7)

Funeral Service: (6.4)

Scarlett entered JT/Melissa McCarthy territory with this episode. She's a reliably solid host, who always seems to bring a ton of energy to a show. She has those comedic nuances, where she can drive a sketch just with her delivery, even if she isn't the main player in it. (7.98)

Dave Chappelle: 8.83
Kristen Stewart: 8.13

Tom Hanks: 8.03

Scarlett Johansson: 7.98

Aziz Ansari: 7.82

Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74

Felicity Jones: 7.62

Alec Baldwin: 7.58

Emma Stone: 7.56

Casey Affleck: 7.40

Margot Robbie: 7.38

John Cena: 7.19

Kristen Wiig: 7.09

Emily Blunt: 7.07

Benedict Cumberbatch: 6.60

Octavia Spencer: 6.49