9/28/24: Jean Smart | Jelly Roll

 

World News Tonight

• So far, Maya’s impression is good, and she’s performing this well, but I’m not caring for the writing so far.

• I love seeing Jim Gaffigan here as Tim Walz, because I’m a big fan of Gaffigan, and he seems perfect for this role. It also helps that I can’t really picture any cast members playing this role well, so I can excuse the fact it requires a cameo.

• Didn’t care for the “Big Dad Energy” line, though.

• I love Andy Samberg, but I don’t think anyone was really asking for him to play Doug Emhoff.

• Yikes, the writing Andy is given here is pretty rough. In particular, the “Charlie Brown if he was an Adult” was especially cringeworthy. At least Andy is committed here.

• I finally got a big laugh from Kamala saying she’ll shoot someone if they try to enter her home.

• Now we’ve cut to a Trump rally, and while I do love JAJ’s impression of Trump, I feel like this could’ve ended after Kamala’s section.

• Yeah, JAJ as Trump here just isn’t working for me. JAJ is performing this well as expected, but (once again in this cold open) the writing isn’t really good.

• Oh yeah, Bowen played JD Vance. I know some people didn’t care for this impression, and while I can see why, I don’t mind it. Mainly because it has Bowen in a much more streamlined role, and I would much rather take this than ANOTHER unnecessary cameo.

• I got another good laugh from them taking the Glass covers away right as JD enters.

• Once again in this cold open, Bowen is performing well enough, but the writing just isn’t really good.

• Listen, I love Dana Carvey, he’s one of SNL’s best cast members of all time in my opinion, but he is not necessary here AT ALL. 

• Overall, there were some decent moments, but this was mostly a rough cold open, with some ROUGH writing. Thankfully, everyone in this performed the material as best as they could.

Rating: **

Monologue

• It’ll be interesting to rewatch this, because going into this episode, I knew NOTHING about Jean Smart, and I remember being shocked at how great a monologue this was. 

• Jean’s delivery is really good so far.

• I really like the song that Jean is singing here, and she’s performing this really well.

• Great line from Jean, about how she thought SNL stood for Saturday Night Laughs: Then I watched the show, and I thought “Well that can’t be right”

• Great random line from Jean “Lesbians are obsessed with me”

• Overall, this was just as great as I remembered. 

Rating: ****

The $100,000 Pyramid: Celebrity Edition

• Yikes, I’m cringing at Chloe’s impression of the Hawk Tuah girl.

• I’m getting good laughs from Marcello’s deadpan Bad Bunny impression.

• Devon is decent here as Michael Strahan.

• Kenan as Mark Robinson isn’t working for me, and if I recall correctly, this sketch begins a trend throughout this episode, of SNL catching up to talk about all the “crazy” viral stories that happened over the summer. Which I don’t really think is necessary. Mainly because if a popular story happens during the summer, SNL is not gonna have anything new to say about it, and this sketch is proving that point.

• Jean is performing well here, but her section of this sketch also isn’t working for me.

• The ending of the sketch didn’t work for me, with the monkey threatening to kill the Turkish shooter.

Rating: **

Spirit Halloween

• Funny concept to this pretape.

• Heidi: Spirit Halloween has been creating six week jobs for some of America’s hardest hit perverts.

• Great moment with Chloe giving a costume to a kid, and she complains that it isn’t Taylor Swift “Neither are you”.

• While I had very little to say about this, I really enjoyed it. Heidi, Chloe, and Longfellow were great as the spokesmen here.

Rating: ***½

Textbook Writer

• Okay, I don’t know what the point of the whole “We don’t wear T-Shirts here” bit was, but it BOMBED with the audience, and felt entirely unnecessary.

• I like the idea behind this sketch, with a former romance novelist releasing a math book for kids.

• This is pretty funny so far, and Jean’s delivery is really good.

• The shot of the cover of the book is pretty funny. It’s also worth mentioning that this section of the sketch uses the dress version in my copy of the episode. In the live airing, Jean shows the cover to the wrong camera. 

• Jean: Clarissa had never even considered being with a woman.

• I like the turn this is taking with Kenan and Mikey being interested in the story of the book.

• Great moment with Jean, after hearing Ego’s math problem: Anyone hard? I know I’m not.

• Ashley re-entering and saying “The schools called” for some reason really made me laugh.

• Overall, this was a fun sketch, helped by a solid Jean Smart performance.

Rating: ***½

Weekend Update

• The clip of Trump calling his body “beautiful” is honestly so hilarious, that I don’t think any joke could be funnier.

• None of the jokes so far are anything noteworthy. We get our usual Colin/Che update. Colin stares down the camera deadpan after each joke, Che makes a few groanworthy jokes and reacts to the audience as if he’s never told a groanworthy joke before.

• Oh yeah, Che’s catchphrase throughout the first half of this season was just saying “it’s the 90s” after the audience groaned at one of his jokes. I cannot, for the life of me, get why Che said that so much.

• Between Devon anchoring the lead-off sketch, and getting an Update commentary, I remember thinking that Devon would finally get his breakout year. Ha, the fool I was.

• I’m loving Devon’s energy in this commentary, and his delivery is really good.

• The list of things Eric Adams invented is pretty funny.

• I love the little moments of Eric trying to get Che on his side, it shows the fun chemistry that Devon and Che have had whenever Devon has been on Update.

• Eric’s definition of a Turkish Delight being a briefcase with 100k in it is really funny.

• Overall, I loved this commentary, I’m shocked that I had forgotten it.

• Colin’s Mark Zuckerberg joke was so dumb that it made me laugh. I also liked Che pointing out the audience members that applauded the joke.

• Oh yeah, this Bowen commentary as Moo Deng. This ended up causing some controversy, because people thought that Bowen was making fun of Chappell Roan, since this commentary is satirizing her.

• Yeah, this is not working for me. It doesn’t help that this has aged poorly since it’s a topical reference (Moo Deng) on top of another topical reference (Chappell Roan).

• The moments with the hose water are just WAY too dumb to be funny.

• I will admit Colin yelling to leave Moo Deng alone was really funny.

• Overall, the jokes in this Update were forgettable, and Bowen’s commentary was rough, but Devon’s commentary was very fun, so that evens this out to being an average Update.

Rating: ***

History of the Sitcom

• I love this concept, with a dramatic actress being Lucy before Lucille Ball.

• Jean is great here. Her questioning if Ricky is gay is really funny.

• The “in-between scenes” moments with Bowen are pretty funny.

• Lucy pulling a gun on Ricky was a GREAT moment.

• Overall, I didn’t say much about this but it was a really good sketch, with another solid Jean Smart performance.

Rating: ***½

The Talk Talk Show with Charli XCX

• Oh god, this sketch. I remember thinking that this was the worst sketch of the season, but I’ll try to go into this with an open mind.

• Jeez, the cutaways to Sarah as Troye Sivan just made me cringe. 

• Jean was given practically nothing here, and this sketch was a very poor utilization of her.

• Ego is confident in her role here, but I really just don’t find any of this funny.

• Overall, this was just as bad as I remember it being.

Rating: *

The Real Housewives of Santa Fe

• Dismukes trying to get the Fajitas on the table is pretty funny. And this is the first of MANY showcases for Dismukes throughout this season.

• His increased desperation of trying to get the fajitas on the table is really funny.

• Overall, this was a very short 10-to-1, but was pretty good, and a nice way to end the night.

Rating: ***

CFT: Blonde Dragon People

• I haven’t seen Lord of The Rings (which this sketch is satirizing), but I think this is decent enough so far.

• JAJ is great as his character in this. His unintelligible British accent is very funny, and it reminds me of Doun Go Rounin Roun Re Ro.

• Jean throwing Dragon Seeds is pretty funny.

• I know most don’t really care for the straight men in sketches reacting to everything happening around them, I think it works in this sketch, and Dismukes is particularly great in this.

• Jean: From the ranches of Hidden Valley…

• Hey, it looks like Andy was supposed to appear in another sketch, and hey it’s Jelly Roll!

• Eh, I don’t care for this sketch getting self-aware, with Andy and Jelly turning out to be LOTR characters and realizing they are on the wrong show.

• The part with Kenan pointing out the name changes HBO Max went through felt kind of tacked in. 

• Overall, a decent piece with a fun premise. I would’ve much rather had this make it on air than that Charli XCX sketch.

Rating: ***

CFT: A Father’s Promise

• Good reveal of Andrew as the dad casually saying he actually got fired from his job.

• I love how it’s being revealed gradually that Andrew is a deadbeat dad.

• The back and forth with Andrew and Ashley is great stuff, and Andrew is great in this role.

• Andrew’s plan to create real life Mario Kart is really funny, and the reveal of his plan being drawn on an overdue credit card bill was HILARIOUS.

• Andrew fleeing from the cops in an actual Mario Kart was a great ending to a strong pre-tape. This really should’ve gotten to air.

Rating: ****

Thoughts

A disappointing season premiere, with a consistently forgettable vibe throughout. The Monologue was the ONLY segment in this episode that I felt was strong. The only consistently solid part throughout this episode was Jean Smart as the host. She was a solid host who gave consistently great performances throughout. It’s also impressive considering it was later revealed she had COVID during the week.I remember not being familiar with her going into this episode when it first aired, but after the strong monologue, I was on her side and really enjoyed her throughout. I would love for her to come back, but not with COVID again haha.

Segments ranked Best to Worst

Monologue

CFT: A Father’s Promise

Textbook Writer

Spirit Halloween

History of the Sitcom

The Real Housewives of Santa Fe

CFT: Blonde Dragon People

Weekend Update

World News Tonight

The $100,000 Pyraminx

The Talk Talk Show with Charli XCX

5.6/10