SNL After Party (S49 E15 Air Date 3/30/24 - "Nevertheless, the Ruckus Persisted"

 Host: Ramy Youssef
Musical Guest: Travis Scott

SNL made a smart play this week, dialing in on giving important Christian and Muslim holy days equal representation and lampooning.

Ramy Youssef a stand-up and award winning actor who is the son of Muslim Egyptian immigrants, lead a show that threaded an interesting needle.

But, cultural representation aside, was this an episode of inspired comedy, or was it an unholy mess?

Let’s find out at the After Party

Cold Open

The sketch opens with the three Marys (who note that one day they will see to it that women can have a name other than “Mary”) standing beside the tomb where Jesus was buried.

They hear the stone opening, and, lo! From the tomb emerges . . . Donald Trump. This is an excuse to let James Austin Johnson riff as Trump peddling his Bibles. Which is a real thing, somehow.

Trump touts that the Bibles are made from “100% real Bible” and that this version includes illustrations. One is of Trump as Adam, and JAJ points out “I’d be very good at saying no to the snake from the standpoint of not liking fruit.”

It’s a funny enough bit, but felt a little tired this time out. Still, not bad at all, and some very funny lines.

A solid start.

Monologue

Youssef’s standup is low key and very smart. He comes out talking about division in the country, and states he does not believe in the South as a real area. He notes that the South is just 45 minutes away from wherever you are.

He mocks a political call to action he received from a Muslim supporter for Biden, who advised him that Biden is aware of him, which he noted is a really big deal that the President is aware at all.

He goes on to point out that he is not really a fan of Biden or Trump, and would like to see a woman President, preferably a trans woman.

When this gets a lackluster response from the audience he notes that New Yorkers are not as liberal as they claim to be. “We’re liberal, but we’re also Italian.”

He spends time talking about Muslim prayer in a bit that could just as easily be about any religion’s prayers. He says his non-religious friends ask him to pray on his behalf. So he has one friend who is in a custody fight over a dog, while another friend has family in Gaza and asks for peace.

So, Youssef points out the complex prayer where he pointedly asks for peace in Palestine, the release of hostages, and finally has to say “and while you are at it, can you free Mr. Bojangles.”

This was one of the better monologues I’ve seen in a while. Smart, funny, and cleverly pointed while somehow feeling balanced.

Couple Goals

Is it even SNL if there’s not a game show sketch?

JAJ plays Couple Goals host Bob Dabilda. Which is a brilliant name that I can’t believe hasn’t been used before.

In this Newlywed Game style show, couples (Youssef & Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner & Mikey Day) try to guess how their spouse will answer questions. The whole bit is basically how Youssef is terrified his wife will die in a freak accident and he will be accused of it because of his texts complaining about her to friends.

The humor here is in the convoluted answers, along with some embarrassing ones by Day.

It’s not the best game show sketch ever, but it’s strong enough.

Please Don’t Destroy

Youssef pops by to invite the lads to a night out with musical guest Travis Scott. Youssef promises “a twisted rockin’ ball”. This turns into a song by Scott (and the guys) describing the evening.

The boys and Youssef get super high and do not, in fact, have a twisted rockin’ ball. Youssef laments that he wore shorts and brought a rolling backpack.

It's a very funny segment that gets more and more bizarre and ends with a great punch.

These guys are talented.

Immigrant Dad Talk Show

Youssef and Marcello Hernandez are two immigrant dads talking about how great their daughters are and how awful their sons are. Kenan Thompson joins in.

Their complaints about their sons range from how much they like computers to wanting to live in Brooklyn - “the worst place in the best place.”

Meanwhile, their daughters can do no wrong, despite abusing credit cards, and so on.

Mikey Day shows up as a guest whose son (Andrew Dismukes) doesn’t have a job, but is an “expert” at parkour. Dismukes’ parkour is hilariously terrible.

Not a lot to this one. The bit gets receptive very quickly, and does not pack enough laughs in to justify it’s run time.

Team Captain

This is a cringe fest.

Youssef is the team captain of a high school basketball team trying to pep up the squad at the half of a game.

He tries to get the team to get past the fact that the coach (Kenan Thompson) inadvertently sent the team pictures of himself as a sexy cat (along with an inappropriate video involving a litter box).

This just goes on and on. Some good laughs, but yeesh.

Ozempic for Ramadan

This was a weird commercial piece. It feels like an attempt to wedge in a nod to fasting for Ramadan while also mocking the weight loss drug Ozempic.

It doesn’t really gel.

Update

Solid jokes this week.

A pointed joke noted that Biden is visiting the site of the Baltimore bridge collapse because “Biden, like the bridge, is no longer connecting with Black communities.”

They also take on Boeing noting that the outgoing CEO of Boeing appeared at a press conference where he held up a bunch of nuts an bolt saying “Good luck figuring out where these were supposed to go.”

Two guests visited the desk this week. The first was Chloe Fineman as a Tik Tokker (is that how you spell that?) with some unfortunate videos.

The second guest was Sarah Sherman as the widow of Flaco the owl. Remember Flaco? They had multiple mentions of him back on the Sydney Sweeney episode. He’s the owl that died after flying into a building.

Apparently - and I assume this is true - an autopsy revealed Flaco had pigeon herpes when he died.

Sherman is ludicrously dressed as an owl, keeps making “who” jokes and is generally ridiculous before noting that Colin is her type…. “a nocturnal predator”.

There is no reason this bit should have been funny. At all. And yet, it was fantastic. There’s something about well executed nonsense…

Murder Detective

Andrew Dismukes is a detective who keeps trying to sell a CSI style one liner that doesn’t land about a murder victim outside a pizza parlor. “This guy should have ordered delivery!” just doesn’t seem to cut it with the others at the scene.

However, Ramy’s pun does land, which infuriates Dismukes.

Finally Sherman shows up as the victim’s widow. (Is this her new thing? Playing all widows?). The tension of Dismukes about to tell the line to her is pretty funny.

It’s a one joke sketch, but it works.

Tiny Desk Concert

Youssef leads a band doing an NPR tiny desk concert. This annoys intern Bowen Yang (in his first appearance for the show!) who is trying to get work done on his new podcast.

He repeatedly complains about the “ruckus.”

The sketch is quirky and odd, and Bowen really sells the sketch. It kind of fizzles towards the end, but the trip is worth it.

The Goodbye Wave

Best Sketch: Please Don’t Destroy. I hate to give this spot to these guys too often, but facts is facts.

Worst Sketch: Team Captain. It was just, I don’t know, trying too hard while aiming too low. That sounded deep, didn’t it?

Random Notes:

- Sorry I missed last week’s episode. I was out of town visiting family in Atlanta. We visited the World of Coke. Which is a real thing. Anyway, we got to sample horrible flavors of soda from around the world. If you ever get a chance, try the “Beverly”. It’s a nightmare drink that tastes like the place hope goes to die.

- Musical Guest Travis Scott’s first number (“My Eyes”) featured him lying down before he dramatically stood up. His second number involved complex herky-jerky camera moves. It was disorienting.

- A lot of folks on stage at the end of the night didn’t do much on it (or anything at all) the rest of the evening. I don’t recall seeing Molly Kearney at all during the show. Punkie Johnson did almost nothing (a single line or two during that Team Captain sketch), and Chloe Troast had one line about shaking a milk carton during the Tiny Desk Concert. I don’t know what kind of Thunderdome scenario they have going on at 30 Rock for people to get air time, but Barter Town is getting scary.

- I know the rumors are getting older now, but there’s been speculation that Lorne Michaels will be retiring soon. I have a hard time believing that will happen before we get through next season, which is the 50th. There’s just no way he won’t get through that milestone.

Youssef helmed a solid episode. There was pointed political and religious material, all of which felt more balanced than usual. I think Youssef’s style went a long way here.

There were some great sketches, and some middling ones, but not much that was downright awful.

While I didn’t have a “twisted rockin’ ball” this week, I did feel that the episode was pretty good.

Grade: B

As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general.

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