SNL After Party (S48 E16 - Air Date 4/1/23) - "Pulling a Jim From The Office"
Host: Quinta Brunson
Musical Guest: Lil Yachty
After a two-week hiatus, the gang at 30 Rock returns with an episode hosted by Abbott Elementary creator and star, Quinta Brunson. Does the episode get a “Good Job” sticker or does it get sent to detention?
Cold Open – Trump Indictment
Let’s face it. We all knew that this week was going to kick off with James Austin Johnson’s impeccable Trump impersonation in light of recent events. And we were not disappointed. JAJ – as always – nailed the impression, as Trump admitted his guilt before declaring he had pulled a “Jim from The Office” as an April Fools’ joke.
Trump is pitching a fundraising album that allowed for appearances by Don King (Kenan Thompson) and Afroman (Devon Walker) singing songs with Trump. This was to mock the J6 Prison Choir album release. Look it up. It’s a real thing. I was as shocked as you are.
The cold open was funny enough, but not as strong as the usual Trump sketches. Still, JAJ is just so good at it, it almost doesn’t matter.
Monologue
Quinta Brunson’s monologue was more sweet than funny. She gave a nice shout out to teachers – as did former President Obama in a video clip. There was not a lot of hilarity here, but it was pleasant enough. This really set the tone for Brunson’s appearance on the show. She’s a talented performer, but her strength is kind of in not being an aggressive personality type. With some exceptions, she kind of blended into the background this week. This is not the insult it sounds like it is. Brunson simply doesn’t tend to dominate her scenes this week, and that’s not always a bad thing.
Drug Dealers
Devon Walker and Andrew Dismukes are tourists out to score some cocaine, and a series of dealers try to help them out by offering the drug while pitching how pure it is. This quickly turns into a series of “white” jokes that are pretty funny. “My stuff’s so white, it’s like Gwyneth Paltrow skiing in Utah” promises one dealer, while another claims their stuff is as white as “season two of The Wire.”
Things get uncomfortable when Michael Longfellow shows up selling black tar heroin. The writers wisely chose to let the discomfort be the joke.
This sketch almost felt like Michael Che left a bunch of Colin jokes on his desk and someone swiped them.
I Was A Bridesmaid
This was a well-executed parody of a Netflix documentary in the vein of any of the approximately 112,000 cult documentaries put out on the streaming service. In this case, instead of a cult, various bridesmaids tell their tales of the horrors related to their duties. The sociologist talking head in the piece notes that almost all of these rituals lead to a weekend in Nashville.
This pre-taped piece did a great job of mocking both the cultumentary format and the whole bridesmaid industrial complex.
Couple Goals
JAJ hosted a Newlywed Game style game show where the spouses don’t really know their mates all that well. This feels like a comedy vein that has already been tapped out, but to the writer’s credit, they did find a new twist here with Kenan playing a husband who has an intense fear of his wife (Brunson) falling and ending up paralyzed. The sketch ends with Kenan’s screaming “Noooo!” when he and his wife win a trip to Bali’s Temple of a Thousand Steps. You would not think that Kenan simply screaming “Noooo!” would be funny. You would be mistaken.
Traffic Altercation
This is the sketch in which Brunson shines brightest. She and Mikey Day are drivers in a traffic jam who communicate their ire towards each other with the type of bad mime-work people use while driving. This one is juvenile and funny in a good way, before taking a seeming turn towards sweetness, and finally ending with a great punctuation mark. This is one of the better sketch endings in recent memory, and kudos to Chloe FIneman as Mikey’s daughter and Ego Nwodim as Brunson’s mom. They both brought some fun energy to this jam.
Weekend Update
Well, Michael Che pulled an absolutely brilliant “Jim from The Office” here.
There was a very odd energy at the beginning of Update. Colin’s jokes were falling flat and it felt like Studio 8H barely had a live audience for some reason. After a few jokes, Che revealed he had told the audience not to laugh at Colin’s jokes as an April Fool’s joke.
This was an amazing piece of live TV, as we watched Colin get hit with the prank and then double over in laughter and relief when it was revealed. If this was not genuine surprise, then the wrong member of Colin’s household is in the acting business. This was a classic moment that will show up in clips for years to come.
Otherwise, Update was nothing too special. Michael Longfellow showing up as Michelangelo’s David was a highlight, but Marcello Hernandez doing material about “short kings” fell a little, dare I say, short of the mark. (Apparently I do dare).
But, really, nothing mattered after that amazing April Fools’ joke.
The Midwife
The joke here was that Bowen Yang as a midwife who is annoyed that Brunson’s doctor character doesn’t recognize him following a backyard barbecue several years earlier. Also, he mispronounces things. The latter feels like it’s becoming a bit overused. But maybe I dreamed that.
This sketch felt like it should have been in the 11:50 slot, as it was definitely odd and ambitious in its multiple time jumps (and wig changes!).
Ambitious though it may be, it was more baffling than funny.
Bosses
This sketch with Sarah Sherman and Brunson as middle aged male bosses harassing Chloe FIneman felt like a very bad training video to combat sexual harassment. It, of course, only worked because Sherman and Brunson were playing men (a legal violation in some states these days?). If Marcello and Andrew had played the bosses in this sketch, NBC’s HR department would have been on red alert. Even as it is, the sketch felt a little icky.
Please Don’t Destroy – Street Eats
The boys break format and play characters instead of themselves. Here they are a group of Connecticut residents who moved to New York for college and are doing a show on authentic New York experiences.
They are loud, annoying, and enjoy their food bland.
Though I prefer their usual antics more, it’s always good to see a stretch, and this was a very funny piece. I’m not sure why it was placed in the 11:50 slot, as it was not particularly odd or experimental. But, it did let the show end with some good laughs.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: I normally balk at listing Weekend Update here as, frankly, I could likely list it as the best every week. But the April Fools’ joke was so epic that I am making an exception this time.
Worst Sketch: The Bosses are duking it out with The Midwife for the honors on this one. But, in the end, the Midwife delivers this prize.
Random Notes:
- So many cast members seemed to do almost nothing this week. While we saw most of them, it just didn’t feel like they did much. Heidi Gardner (who is usually nearly omnipresent) and Molly Kearney were barely there, and even Ego Nwodim who got some good laughs didn’t seem to be that present in the show. Marcello Hernandez and Michael Longfellow got more screen time this week.
- Speaking of Heidi Gardner, I have new found respect for her based on her performance in the Apple TV show Shrinking. The show is brilliant, and features Harrison Ford in a role that he is absolutely perfect in. Everyone on the show is great, and it is sad, sweet, funny, and tragic all at once. Sorry, I got sidetracked. But, seriously, watch Shrinking.
- Something felt off about the episode that I can’t put my finger on. I hate to use words like “vibe,” but there it is and here we are. There was just some weird energy on this one. I don’t know, maybe I’m just not properly hydrated or something.
- Lil Yachty’s first number felt like a very strange combination of hip hop, Led Zepplin/Rush, and a Yoko Ono performance artist piece. I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. But I can guarantee there’s no name for this specific genre.
Quinta Brunson is talented and charming, but it just did not feel like she made much of an imprint on this week’s show. Overall the episode was even keeled and amusing, but not devastatingly funny. But, the episode certainly won’t cause the show to be held back for a season, and it gets an average grade.
Grade: C