SNL After Party (S49 E13 Air Date 3/2/24) - "I Got Played by Bowen Yang"
Host: Sydney Sweeney
Musical Guest: Kacey Musgraves
After last week’s debacle, would host Sydney Sweeney help SNL bounce back to a state of Euphoria (after perhaps a comical skadoosh off a fat guy’s stomach like in Kung Fu Panda)?
Let’s test the waters at the After Party to see if the mood has improved since last week.
Cold Open
Heidi Gardner is Dana Bash interviewing various people who are trying to play down Biden’s age and improbably bolster his vigor. Mainly by claiming he uses the phrase “youngblood” (Fun fact, Youngblood was a 1986 Rob Lowe vehicle about hockey).
The Biden is old thing is already, well, old, and it appears to be about all the crew on SNL is really willing or able to hit the sitting President with. Surely, they can find some other way to lampoon Biden. If they can’t, the slog to November is going to be even longer than it already will inevitably seem to be.
This was a dud.
Monologue
Well, nobody said Sydney Sweeney was a stand-up. Nor should they.
Sweeney’s monologue was devoid of anything resembling comedy. There was a weak Powerpoint bit she purportedly showed her parents to get them to let her act. She made a self-deprecating joke about Madame Web. That movie’s co-star, Dakota Johnson, hosted a few weeks ago, and it seemed weird to have two stars from the same movie show up so closely. I suspect no one predicted (how ironic!) how quickly the Marvel film would tank. Fortunately, Sweeney has a new movie out (Immaculate). So, I guess she could be promoting that.
There’s a joke where she addresses internet rumors about an alleged dalliance with Anyone But You co-star Glen Powell. Sweeney denies that and says her fiancee is at the show tonight. Which, of course, leads the camera to show us Powell. Sweeney then has to earnestly let us know her fiancee is actually in her dressing room, so don’t worry about that funny comedy bit!
Not a good start to the week, and certainly not a palate cleanser to last week. (Have I mentioned last week’s show was really not good?)
Detectives
Sweeney and Chloe Fineman are young interns at a police briefing. The joke is that where seasoned detectives can’t find a suspect, the Gen Z interns can do so instantly using social media.
It’s a one joke sketch that overstays its welcome, even if it does have a few funny moments (like James Austin Johnson trying to talk in the kids’ language).
Someone should have put out a BOLO for some jokes here.
Please Don’t Destroy
A welcome return! In this episode, the boys are mourning the loss of a friend, and explain his demise to Sweeney. Suffice to say the method of the death of their friend - one Reverend Buttcheek P. Rosenthal - is hysterical, ridiculous and complex. When Sweeney does not believe their story, they prove it by showing a YouTube video of the incident complete with hilarious comments, including from some famous folks (Malala Yousafzai, for example, commented it was ‘Unfortunately hilarious’). And then, the ending adds another delicious layer as the Reverend’s celebrity father shows up and the whole thing turns out to be a commercial.
Perfection.
Air Bud
Sweeney is a cheerleader putting the moves on the team’s new star player. Who is a dog. And is Air Bud. And that is a movie that came out in 1997.
Based on this and the Forrest Gump bit last week, it seems that someone on the writing staff really loves movies from the 90’s and/or had a lot of material that they wrote for a high school sketch troupe that never got used.
The bit is one that relies the fact that a dog is on stage being a dog to attempt to generate laughs. Fairness where it is due, Sweeney’s acting opposite a dog is solid.
Big Bench
It’s a judge show, but with 17 judges instead of one! Led by Ego Nwodim, the judges include a cranky judge, a Hispanic judge, a gay judge, and….a dog. Two dog sketches in a row! This has to be some kind of record.
The verdict on this sketch is “Not that funny”.
Bowen’s Straight
This taped piece posits that Bowen Yang’s homosexuality is all a front to advance in showbiz (and to get easy laughs according to Heidi Gardner in the sketch). Sweeney and Yang hook up, and, in the end, Sweeney feels played as Yang flys off to Paris.
It’s a kind of weird segment that is almost more of a short film showcasing everyone’s acting abilities than it is a comedy piece. But, still, entertaining enough for its oddness (Gina Gershon cameos as one of Yang’s women).
Makeup Artists
I have no idea what the pitch for this sketch was, but it can not possibly be what aired.
Sweeney and Sarah Sherman are makeup artists for a bride (Heidi Gardner) who is dumped on her wedding day.
The makeup artists are overly annoying saying “Shooot” and making demands for payment, reviews, and a photo.
It feels like an attempt to create a new recurring catch-phrase. Let’s hope this one gets left at the altar.
Weekend Update
For the second week in a row, something felt a little off. Jost and Che were not firing on all cylinders and some of the cracking up did not feel legit.
Even Che’s reaction to a joke getting a negative reaction did not feel organic. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being hyper-critical, or maybe the guys are just on a glidepath lately.
There was a series of “Mitch McConnell, seen here….” jokes. Since the long-time GOP leader is stepping down from his role, the Update crew wanted to make sure they got them all in. So we got that grinning photo of Mitch McConnell “seen here watching a single mother sell blood for diaper money” and “seen here leaving the theater after seeing 12 Years a Slave.”
They also had the obligatory Biden is old joke (see!), noting his doctor said he was fit as a fiddle, meaning he is “old timey and held together by string.”
There were two desk guests. Heidi Gardner popped on as a woman “aging gracefully”. The bit was not great, but Gardner always does strong character work when she visits the desk. Ego Nwodim also dropped in as a stingray who got pregnant despite the lack of a male stingray in her tank. Nwodim pointed to Che as the father, and things were just weird and awkward enough to be entertaining.
Hooters Waitress
Well. I’ll give them some credit. It took them this long before doing the “Sydney Sweeney is hot” sketch.
In this outing, Sweeney is a Hooters waitress who receives great tips compared to her co-workers (particularly Yang, who got 12 cents and a note saying ‘You ruined my day.’”).
The customer reactions to Sweeney are reasonably funny, and at least it’s a new approach to the “hot host” trope. A more blatant and pandering one than heretofore seen. But, different…
Airbnb Designers
In this taped commercial parody, Sweeney and Chloe Troast are Channel and Channel (they are pronounced differently) sell their services as Airbnb designers. They offer touches to improve your Airbnb such as bland furniture, that poster of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue and a “single unsettling photo of the family that actually lives here.”
It’s a funny skewering of the unregulated hospitality industry, and the two leads are great as vapid pitch-persons.
Loud Table
Sweeney (was she in every sketch other than the cold open? I think so) and Andrew Dismukes are on a date and are disrupted by a table of loud dudes. Dismukes fixes the issue by getting the guys to admit their feelings for each other, which makes things so awkward they can’t talk anymore.
A table of loud women are dealt with by Sweeney, who confronts them with their mothers’ humanity.
Then the sketch abruptly ends when Sweeney’s co-star from Anyone But You shows up to steal her from Dismukes.
And, we have a tidy ribbon to tie this final sketch to the monologue! Neat! (If not necessarily hilarious).
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: Please Don’t Destroy. This sketch was a real donkey kick to the …. guts. Very funny and twisty.
Worst Sketch: This was a very, very difficult call. A number of sketches could have taken this honor. But, in the end, I am going with Makeup Artists. There just wasn’t anything to this…other than annoyance.
Random Notes:
- Musical Guest Kasey Musgraves performed to relatively low production numbers (“Deeper Well” and “Too Good to Be True”). High production value pieces can be impressive. But, then again, so can a simple, strong performance. I will add that I did not know they made wearable quilts.
- It seems like Sweeney and Chloe Fineman became BFFs this week. Maybe I’m reading too much into casting and the hugs at the end of the show. Anyway, if these two want to start solving crimes or something, I’d be okay with it.
- There’s no way they intended to double promote Madame Web, right?
Let’s cut to the chase. Was this show as bad as the Shane Gillis affair? No.
But was it good? Also, no.
Credit where credit is due, Sweeney was a game performer and her acting skills were strong. The comedic material, however…
This was a weak episode that could cause alarmists to feel that SNL is skidding into the curb.
But I am no alarmist. I think the show will course correct soon and that better days are ahead. I am just hopeful that we don’t get a sketches based on Pulp Fiction and The Blair Witch Project in the coming weeks.
Grade: D+
As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general.
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