SNL After Party (S50 E2 Air Date 10/05/24) - "Why is That Guy Dressed Like Dracula?
Host: Nate Bargatze
Musical Guest: Coldplay
In Episode 3 last season, a clean comic from Nashville blew the roof off of Studio 8H. Now, slightly less than one year later, Nate Bargatze returns to host. Was his first appearance a fluke, or can we catch lightning in a bottle twice?
Let’s make our way to the bar and find out in this week’s After Party.
Cold Open
It surprised no one (nor should it) that this week the cold open focused on the Vice Presidential debate.
The whole gang is back from last week. Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as her husband “GRILF” Doug. As “Momala and Pooh-Bear” watch Bowen Yang as J.D. Vance and Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz.
Even Dana Carvey pops back in as Joe Biden.
The sketch is funny and well done, and far more compact than last week’s saga of a cold open.
Everyone is great, and we can probably expect to see this gang a lot until the election is over next month.
Kudos to Rudolph for her spit take, and to Carvey for some clearly improvised use of an ice cream cone that appeared to make Rudolph lose her Kamala composure.
Walz took as may hits in the sketch as did Vance in the debate in which the two found they may have a bit of a bromance.
Monologue
Bargatze takes a second to get warmed up into his well executed take on community colleges, speech classes, and his naivety when it comes to food. A menu lists extra virgin olive oil for a pizza, and he asked them just to give him a regular amount. “And no one really knew what to say about that.”
He then riffed on DoorDash and the use of dueling drivers to avoid embarrassment for extra items ordered.
It’s a solid set, and Bargatze is very likable. And, as they say in Pulp Fiction, personality goes a long way.
Washington’s Dream 2
This was inevitable, and, indeed, looked forward to. In Bargatze’s first time as host, he helmed a sketch as George Washington explaining how weights and measures will be different in the United States than anywhere else. It was very funny (Indeed, it came in as second best sketch of last year in the Iiaugural Sketch Face-Off tourney last season).
But, how do you repeat that magic without being a boring rehash? Go from weights and measures to words, of course!
This time around, while crossing the Delaware, Bargatze’s Washington explains the word usage that will be changed in our new nation. For example, the number 12 can be called a dozen, and it is the only number that will work like that. “Only 12 shall have it’s own word, because we are free men.”
He also explains that animals will have different names when they become food (cows are beef and pigs are pork), but chickens wiil still be called chicken, and no one will ever know what’s in a hot dog.
Although this is almost a beat for beat re-doing of the first Washington’s Dream, it is still very funny and well done, despite losing some points for not having the same novelty and impact as the first time around.
Golf Tournament
In this pre-taped bit, Bargaztze is golfer Brady Knoll, who has an unfortunate habit of doing harm to wildlife during a tournament.
This is a very funny sketch, which starts with a tee shot that causes a bird to explode in mid-air. From there, the sketch shows the comedic power of escalation.
It’s well done and very funny. And I applaud everyone’s restraint in not making a “birdie” or “eagle” joke. I guess they are implied.
Sabado Gigante
Bargatze is a non-Spanish speaker, who finds himself on the Spanish language game show (hosted by Marcello Hernandez).
The single joke really is that he can’t speak Spanish while appearing on an over the top game show, complete with random trumpeters, a young child dressed to look like Bargatze, and a puppet that is an orange.
It works pretty well, and does give us a chance to at least see new cast member, Ashley Padilla. (Grumpy old man observation: Can we at least let new cast members actually do something before we just throw them in a sketch that only objectifies them? I know, I know.).
The sketch is very silly and gets good laughs, and it avoids being labelled as inappropriate, because the joke is clearly on Bargatze’s good-natured character.
Devil Dog Drop
Ok. A lot of times you see the joke coming from the very beginning of a sketch. This is one of those sketches.
But, the twist here is that the sketch knows you know the joke, and it knows you know that it knows you know. And that makes it work.
Here, an elderly man has died at the top of a water slide, and the debate is whether or not the EMTs (Bargatze and Michael Longfellow) will take the corpse down the stairs or will…..well, you know what the other option is.
Devon Walker and new cast member Jane Wickline (getting significantly more air time this week than her fellow newbies) stand by expressing their opinions on how the situation should be resolved.
This sketch only works because you know what point B is, and they don’t try to hide the ball. In that regard, it’s fairly clever, if not hilarious. But, in any case, it’s an interesting bit of writing that plays well into audience expectations.
Weekend Update
I don’t know. I enjoy Che and Jost, but the shtick with Che’s being overly loose sometimes wears thin.
This week, however, was an exception.
Jokes covered the expected topics such as Elon Musk at a Trump rally, which will be the last time they are seen together until SNL has them host the Christmas show (a nice self slam), a Jost self burn about Trump reading Twitter during Jan. 6, which Jost points out was “infuriating to this of us who were fighting for him,” and a story on Democratic president nominee Kamala Harris visiting storm damage from Helen noting it’s the “second time she’s swooped in after a huge disaster” (cue: photo of the Biden-Trump debate).
Che gets more applause than the usual groans and riffs “Two claps Che; no claps Jost,” which was a funny break.
On the other hand there was a lazy dyslexia joke and an unfortunate desk appearance by new cast member Jane Wickline who performed a song about staying at a club too late (presumably a bit from her viral TikTok videos). I know it’s somewhat traditional to let the new cast members do parts of their act at the desk as an introduction. But this one just tanked. I’m not going to judge her yet, but this was not a promising start to her tenure.
Mile High Burger Challenge
Heidi Gardner reminds us here that she is a terrific physical comic. In this sketch, family members are at a restaurant discussing how to care for their father who has dementia. Gardner is the partner of one of the siblings (Bargatze), and she inadvertently orders one of those giant burger challenges (complete with enormous shake!)
Gardner proceeds to attempt the challenge with outstanding over the top physicality, making a giant mess of the burger and covering herself and fellow cast-mates with ice cream (a running theme this week!).
Bowen Yang and Mikey Day can’t stay in character, and understandably so. Look, this isn’t a smart sketch, or even one with much of a script. But it’s a big, dumb mess that relies on Gardner’s physical comedy prowess, and sometimes that’s good enough.
Digital Short
Are the Please Don’t Destroy boys back? No, but Lonely Island is!
In this one, Samberg and Akiva Schaffer make a business presentation to Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph and Bowen Yang.
In a song somewhat reminiscent of the classic “D in a box”, Samberg and Schaffer sing about their business idea of a chain called “Sushi Glory Hole”. It’s exactly what you think it is. And the video is pretty much what you’d expect.
As always, the Lonely Island SNL video (the first in around seven years!) is a little naughty, a little childish, and a lot of fun.
Hear it out!
Locker Room
In a common set up, coaches (Andrew Dismukes) and Bargatze give a halftime pep talk. At least Dismukes does, while Bargatze is focused on getting reimbursements from the players for jerseys.
The tone of the sketch feels like Bargatze’s stand-up, as the need for reimbursement takes a rambling chase of rabbits (how checks should be made out; not understanding Venmo, etc.)
There’s not much too this sketch that ends quite abruptly. Which, frankly, is okay.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: I could make an argument for George Washington’s Dream 2. It is smart and very funny. But, it really is just a re-skin of the first one. So, I’m going to go with the Golf Tournament, just because it is a well constructed piece of layered heightening that really works, and is very funny.
Worst Sketch: I almost went with Jane Wickline’s Update appearance. I would be justified, but I want to let her have a practice game before making it count, so appropriately I went with Football Locker Room instead. The whole sketch felt like it was just a punt in the final minutes of the game, so I’m going with that. On a typical night, this would likely be a more middle of the pack sketch, which speaks well for this episode. I was also tempted to put Coldplay here, but that would be breaking my internal rule of not considering the musical act for best or worst accolades.
Random Notes:
- The cold open was about five minutes shorter than last week’s. The election shadow cast is fun, and I don’t see myself tiring of them as I have other extended cameos (Alec Baldwin’s Trump grew tiresome. And was it ever actually good? I guess it must have been at some point).
- Coldplay’s appearance made me ask “Are they still a band, and if so, why?” The first number was a minimalist bit with Chris Martin at a player piano (“All My Love”) and a second number (“We Pray”) with support from Palestinian/Chilean artist Elyanna and Argentinian performer TINI. It was an earnest piece, but Martin’s vocals - if nothing else - proved he wasn’t lip-synching to a recorded track.
- There was an in memoriam bumper card for Kris Kristofferson, who hosted the show during season 1 in 1976. He passed away on September 28.
This was a good episode. Most of the cameos were part of the cold open, and a Lonely Island video offered us a welcome surprise (at least more welcome than fancy fish through a hole).
Bargatze was good, but this appearance just didn’t have the same impact as his first appearance last season. I think a lot of us were taken by surprise last time and found him refreshing and different.
This time, he was still great and the show was good. But we just can’t recapture the magic the first visit brought.
But even for all that, it was still a strong episode with a lot of laughs that was a good booster following the season premier last week.
Grade: A-
As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general.
If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us on Patreon.