SNL After Party (S49 E19 Air Date 05/11/24) - "Excuse me. My Bones Are Still on Fire"

 Host: Maya Rudolph
Musical Guest: Vampire Weekend

Maya Rudolph returns to the roost for this year’s SNL Mother’s Day show.

Did she triumph as fellow alumna Kristen Wiig did recently, or was her return as disappointing as a store bought Mother’s Day card?

Let’s find out at this week’s After Party

Cold Open

In one of SNL’s sweetest traditions, the cast introduces their moms, who all have some cute scripted comments to make.

Kenan’s mom was disappointed that the cold open wasn’t political, as she wanted to know who’d play Stormy Daniels.

Andrew Dismukes’ mom shows up with bathtub photos of her child.

Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang’s mothers make Tom Brady jokes (due to a roast earlier this week) “Tom Brady is so handsome….he should give me a call,” Bowen’s mom says. It’s cute.

Meanwhile James Austin Johnson’s mother brags about her son’s abilities to imitate people, so she does her own imitation of him crying after losing a Game Boy while Sarah Sherman’s mom expresses surprise that her daughter is on SNL, assuming she’d have needed up on “Jackass” instead. But she does hope to see her portray RFK Jr.’s brain worm.

The bit is sweet and heartwarming, and is as funny as it needs to be.

It’s a lovely 30 Rock tradition.

Monologue

Maya starts things off with a bang breaking into a musical number as the Queen of the House of Rockefeller introduced by Kenan’s Infinity Decor.

Maya slays (did I use that right?) as she sings “I’m Your Mother!”. It’s funny, high energy, and full of gay music club phrases.

We are off to a start that is fire! (Again, I think I’m using that phrase right. If not, leave me alone).

Hot Ones

Last week, the post-monologue sketch featured Young Spicy. This week, it featured super spicy….hot wings!

In a parody of the “Hot Ones” show (where celebrities are interviewed while eating progressively hotter wings), Maya is none other than Beyonce and Mikey Day is a surprisingly spot on host, Sean Evans.

Despite the fact that this is the second time the show has used this premise with the host, Maya is fantastic as Beyonce in her Cowboy Carter get-up as she tries sauces with such names as Sargent Sphincters Volcanpeno sauce and a sauce that has no name, but the label is simply a picture of a flaming toilet.

Maya’s increasing physical and vocal comedy (that amps up with the Scoville ratings) is a joy to behold. She proclaims that her bones are on fire, douses Mikey with milk, and speaks in tongues. By the time she is lapping down skin lotion provided by her assistant (Kenan)), the laughs are strong.

So far, so good!

Please Don’t Destroy

After an extended absence, the boys are back in town with a sketch that breaks format. Instead of hanging out in their office, they are all at a restaurant where their dates show their Instagram explore pages. The lads don’t want to reciprocate. The ladies, assuming it’s just going to be girls in bikinis are surprised when they see the feeds are full of videos by Maya’s character “Unesee Confidence” who tries to instill confidence with oddly suggestive videos.

It’s an odd bit, and not really as funny as usual, though Maya’s portrayal is funny. Still, it’s kind of a meh for me.

Teacher PSA

As the end of the school year draws to end, teachers declare to kids “y’all won.”

Example include inexplicable lingo ( “Sizzler” and “Fanum Tax”. My child advises me those terms mean someone with charisma and stealing food off someone’s tray, respectively). Other issues include general rudeness (telling a teacher she has a “funky neck”), starting a GoFundMe for a teacher who was drinking Crystal Light, and Ego living by the word TSIDDAHN ("I’m not going to tell you again to TSIDDAHN), rude Cahoot names and finally hanging a rotisserie chicken over a urinal.

This one fell into the funny because it’s true category, and has good button at the end.

British Cavemen

And so the worm turns.

This is an absolutely idiotic sketch based on the premise of cavemen in England with cockney accents.

Bowen and Maya seem to be having fun, but honestly this is less a sketch than it is a premise.

Can You Pick Me Up

A pre-taped piece where Maya picks up her daughter from various funerals because she wants to come home. Maya keeps making up excuses for her daughter to keep her from being embarrassed.

Then Kenan does the pick ups while being sometimes too truthful.

The funniest bit is where Maya simply releases insects while saying “Cicadas!”

It ends on a sweet Mother’s Day note. It’s actually a nice, sentimental little bit.

Weekend Update

No one enjoys Che bombing as much as Che does. And he does it a lot this week. So much so that he declares this to be his favorite episode.

One joke (involving rock, scissors, paper) tanks so hard that Colin simply says “So dumb.”

Jokes this week ranged from Stormy Daniels (her explicit descriptions of her encounter with Trump turned the sky green this weekend) to Biden’s comments on antisemitism (There’s no place in America for it, “But on the other hand, Colin’s country club”) to Ozempic babies (“which was all the theme for this year’s "Met Gala.”). Colin notes that there is no Marvel movie opening the Summer season for the first time in years “which is bad news for people who rely on Marvel movies to pay for the ferries they bought.”)

There was also time spent on RFK Jr.’s brain worm. (He said on social media “‘I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.’ Which is such an insane thing to probably be right about.”)

And speaking of RFK, Jr.’s brain worm (welcome to our brave new world!), as foretold by prophecy, or at least the cold open, Sarah Sherman shows up as said worm.

The bit is very Sarah and very funny, and includes some terrible done (on purpose, one suspects) sound effects as the worm sips on a brain (which is actually just a big cup).

The other desk guest this week is Heidi as A Woman Who Says She’s Not Mad. As always, Heidi commits to the character and her acting is strong. But, the character itself is a tad one-note and -while funny for a bit - leaves us wondering what the point of that was.

I am concerned, however, for kids named Liam and Noah after this weeks.

Coffee Commercial

If ever a sketch were to scream it was written by Bowen Yang, this one is it.

Maya Rudolph is “Dawn Farraway”, but is really a terrific Faye Dunaway impression. The actress is doing a coffee commercial. And, although she has never had coffee before, she learns she loves it. Unfortunately it affects her gastrointestinal system. Between the gas issues and playing off of Dunaway’s alleged on-set difficulties, the shoot is a disaster.

It’s juvenile, but darn funny due to Maya’s ability to play this sort of material brilliantly..

Nurses’ Week

Nurses extoll how rewarding their careers are. Except for Maya and Ego who take care of a cantankerous old man. (Mikey Day).

There’s really not a lot to this one, particularly laughs. This one should have been put on the DNR list.

Landscaping Service

Mikey and Maya appear in an ad for Vanzetti’s Lawn Care. Their big selling point is their “landscapers won’t get with your wife.”

That’s because they only hire “hopeless sexually awkward zeroes.”

The ad shows the dweeby landscapers in cringey interactions with clients. They do dumb voices, panic with women, and come up with strange “what-if” scenarios such as pondering what it would be like if Eminem were cutting the grass?

It’s funny and takes a weird (and hilarious) turn near the end. A quality 11:55 sketch!

The Goodbye Wave

Best Sketch: Hot Ones. This played to all of Maya’s strengths and was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. The perfect level of spice!

Worst Sketch: Nurses’ Week edges out British Cavemen. The Nurse sketch just didn’t have much going for it. And I really appreciated when it ended.

Random Notes:

- The Coffee Commercial is funnier when you know that Bowen Yang’s Instagram handle is “fayedunaway”.

-Vampire Weekend did two fairly straight forward sets (with video projection for both numbers). Vampire Weekend is the kind of rock that engenders a kind of neutrality with me. I’m not mad they are playing, but I wouldn’t add them to a playlist. But, I’m no music critic, and I’ve probably already drifted too far outside of my lane here.

-Speaking of music (what a segue!), cut for time was a sketch selling an album by Maya and Kenan as T.T. and Mario, with their sexy mood music. It’s the usual hilarious R&B/Soul ridiculousness that both performers are hilarious at. The 70’s duo now performs relatable sexy songs for long-married couples. It’s a shame this got cut. Lamb vindaloo has never been so sensual (and nap inducing!).

Maya Rudolph is always fun and fully commits to ridiculousness. She had some inconsistent material this week, but, still, she remains a delight.

Some disappointments here, but gamely played by the guest and cast alike. An overall pleasant episode with sweet Mother’s Day content.

Grade: B-

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

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