Host: Jeff Goldblum
Musical Guest: CMAT
I struggled mightily to determine whether I would return to do season two SNL UK recaps. Towards the end of last season, I began to feel like I was being hypocritical, in part because I may not have understood all the cultural references. On the other hand, I tend to get more hits on the UK episodes than I do the original New York-based episodes, so I had to weigh my ego against my common sense. In the end, my ego won, and we're back for series two.
Cold Open:
The season 2 cold open brings us to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where King Charles and Camilla are enjoying some time away doing nothing, which differs from their usual days of doing nothing. Soon Harry and Meghan Markle join them. Meghan presents Camilla with the gift of ice, which she boasts she made herself.
Harry admits that he has burned through his Netflix money and needs a duchy or two to tide him over, to which Charles replies, "You're lucky your father isn't around to see this."
The meeting is interrupted by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, played by George Fouracres (who is apparently contractually required to play all prime ministers). Burnham comes in with a happy, friendly manner, stating that he will have a number 10 on every street in the United Kingdom, even those with only nine houses. For those streets, they will build one more house so that there can be a number 10. At one point, Harry states that he likes Burnham more than the last guy, to which Burnham replies, "That's my whole thing!"
And with that, Season 2 is off and running.
Monologue
Jeff Goldblum is the first host of the season, and he does pretty much what you would expect him to do for his monologue. He plays piano and does a little soft shoe. He sings is a jazzy little number that references his movie titles while also mentioning various things to clearly and transparently pander to the British audience.
This is as Goldblum a monologue as one could expect, or, if so inclined, hope for.
Professional Baby
In this pre-taped sketch, Fouracres is a British actor who will pretend to be a baby for 8 weeks, so the couples can decide if they want to have one. The pre-taped piece is ridiculous. The "baby" is absurd and has goofy rules. For example, he notes that he may invite his actor friends around the house to sing sea shanties.
This is an exceptionally silly sketch that has a great button at the end with Jeff Goldblum as the actor's father, who is himself a professional baby.
Invisible Friend
Jack Shep is a young schoolboy who is having a difficult time with class. After his father (Alan Nash) bids him good night, the lad's invisible friend, d'Artagnan Gumboot (Goldblum), appears to provide him with a snazzy outfit and help him get ready for school. At that moment, Nash returns and is shocked to see a fully grown, fully visible adult man talking to his child in his room. Celeste Dring as the wife comes in and also sees Mr. Gumboot. At that point, it is revealed that he was, at one time, her invisible friend.
Clarifying the confusion: an invisibility maintenance worker(Hammed Animashaun) arrives to advise everyone that the invisibility network is down and parents everywhere are seeing invisible friends.
At that moment, the dad’s invisible friend Stacy bops in causing consternation. She wants his help picking a fantasy football team as she wore herself out doing the splits all day.
At about that moment, the invisibility network is fixed, and the invisible friends disappear, as does Nash's entire family. For you see, he is just a lonely fellow who fantasizes about having a family. This was a surprisingly effective ending to the sketch and may be the best sketch ender on any version of SNL in quite some time.
Uncle Jeff
New SNL UK cast member Freddie Meredith played Jeff Goldblum's nephew in this modern Cyrano de Bergerac take. In this episode, Goldblum (playing Jeff Goldblum) feeds lines to his nephew as he attempts to impress a date (Annabell Marlow).
The sketch begins amusingly enough as the nephew literally repeats everything Goldblum says, even when the statements are more along the lines of telling him what to do as opposed to what to say. However, the bit really takes off when a thief steals Jeff Goldblum's phone, and the nephew begins to recite the statements that can be heard by the thief.
The situation creates some funny dialogue and amusing reactions. The thing goes meta when Goldblum shows back up and the date recognizes him as the dad from “Cats and Dogs.”
Then, in stark contrast to the invisible friend sketch, this one just abruptly ends. It's a good sketch, but does just come to a screeching halt.
Euston Station
In a pre-taped piece that is reminiscent of various YouTube videos, a piano is placed in a busy London transport hub where individuals are encouraged to tell their stories while playing. Jeff Goldblum plays a man whose family was crushed by a piano on a cruise ship, and he plays the piano as a way to exorcise those demons. However, the station is very busy and distracting, and the host of the video becomes irate that the sentimentality may not be coming through. Ultimately, a child leaves a backpack by the piano by accident, and the bomb squad has to blow it up, rendering the poignant video a loud mess (literally and figuratively). This one didn’t work all that well, but it gave Goldblum another chance to play the piano, for good or ill.
Movement Class
Dring plays an oddball movement instructor in a class that includes Goldblum as a student. The class is very weird and inappropriate. Dring’s assistant (and/or paramour) asks intrusive questions, and when Goldblum protests, they just declare that “It's part of it."
As the class comes to an end, Dring advises the students that they are going to cool down by helping a family of three move. The students leave in outrage, at which point Goldblum's stuck neck releases, and we are told that everything that happened up to that point was just a “part of it.” The sketch itself was not particularly strong, but Dring's strange character itself worked. If I were a wagering man, I’d bet we see this character pop up again.
Weekend Update
Weekend update co-anchors Ania Magliano and Paddy Young have become comfortable behind the desk. The news items are, of course, primarily British-centric. The main story involves mocking a group of protesters who are upset with migrants. "It's time to shout at a dinghy" was one line. They also made fun of the movement's leader, Danny Tommo, who was a one-time web designer as well as a bricklayer. The joke here is that he has "the physique of a web designer and the mind of a brick."
Overall, the update news items reach a certain level of edginess that is appropriate and fun. At one point, Paddy Young begins a joke and then ends it with a fairly tame punchline. He informs the audience that this was a joke that was run by legal and adds, "Thank you, legal team. It was almost funny."
The one desk visit this week comes from Emma Sidi as a French maid. The whole point, I guess, is that French maids are supposed to be sexy, but this bit just did not go anywhere and didn't really work.
King Kong
Well.
The whole premise to this sketch is that King Kong is bisexual. There’s not too much to this, and the sketch predictably ends with Jeff Goldblum intoning, “Twas bisexuality killed the beast.”
45 More Seconds with Fouracres
In this short sketch, Fouracres is having musical guest CMAT over for dinner, but she is upset because he has not prepared any black pudding. As a result, she lifts him off the ground using the Force like Darth Vader. They - or their obvious for comic effect stunt actors - have a lightsaber duel which ends when Fouracres finds he has what appears to be a thermos (that can’t be right) of black pudding in his pocket.
A very strange and unsatisfying ending, but I am willing to concede that I may not fully understand the comic potential of black pudding.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: Invisible Friend. This was funny, original, and even had a pathos filled ending. It was a fully realized piece, which is nice to see. Uncle Jeff was a close second.
Worst Sketch: King Kong. I don’t know, maybe bisexual monkey jokes don’t hit as well as they used to. I’m talking about you, Chris Kattan’s Mango.
Random Notes:
- I am not familiar with CMAT, but the Irish musician was giving me Stevie Nicks vibes. Not sure why, and I suspect this is not a widely shared opinion.
- New cast member Freddie Meredith acquitted himself well in the Uncle Jeff sketch. He is the only additional cast member this season, and all cast members from Season 1 returned. It definitely felt that Animashaun and Ayoade Bamgboye did not see much air time this week. It’s a big cast.
- The next two hosts will skew much more UK-centric. Next week, “Fleabag”’s Jamie Demetriou hosts, and the following week we’ll have Amelia Dimoldenberg of “Chicken Shop Date”.
Last season it felt like SNL UK may be a single series phenomenon. But, the show has come back on solid enough footing. Of course, it’s not the show’s responsibility to entertain us Yanks, but it is managing to do so. It’s a different spice in the late night comedy stew, ironic though that may be.
Grade: B
As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general. If you want to support our content, consider subscribing on Substack
