SNL After Party (S50 E6 Air Date 11/09/24) - "Clearly I've Been Spending Too Much Time With You White Liberals and Your Goofy Optimism"
Host: Bill Burr
Musical Guest: Mk.gee
“What our audience really needs after that election is a middle aged white comic whose material borders on the mysogynistic and racist. Someone get me Bill Burr.” - Lorne Michaels’ weird inner monologue.
Let’s get this over with.
Cold Open
Look. I get it. It’s tough to do a cold open when everyone involved in the show is bummed out. And nothing is going to have the visceral impact (pro or con) of Kate McKinnon singing “Hallelujah” as Hillary in 2016.
But this, well this was just sad. Here the cast just joked they have been supporters of Trump all along. James Austin Johnson came out as the new “Hot Jacked Trump”, and, in a baffling decision, Dana Carvey popped in as Elon Musk (Maya Rudolph was not back this week).
The whole thing ended with them riffing on “YMCA”.
A weak start. And yet, possibly one of the highlights of this show.
Monologue
For the second week in a row, a stand-up comic did material for the opening monologue.
Why anyone thought Bill Burr was the right choice for THIS WEEK’s episode is beyond me.
Burr can be be funny. His edgy material that criticizes both sides has its place. But that place is not SNL on the week following an election that has left a lot of people feeling raw.
And it was certainly not the week to do a hack joke about feminists being “ugly”.
Watch the clip and see how utterly unamused some members of the band are with Burr.
The guitarist’s disdain really says it all.
Rorschach Test
Heidi Gardner is a mental health profession administering Rorschach tests to Boston firefighters (Burr, Andrew Dismukes. Marcello Hernandez and Emil Wakim)
Everyone sees the usual stuff in the ink blots, except for Burr who sees things such as a sexy Mike from Monsters, Inc., Olaf stealing Elsa’s top, and Bluey’s dad in bondage.
It’s a one joke premise, that ends with Gardner declaring that Burr is the “craziest man in Boston.”
Meh.
Buffalo Wild Wings
A pre-taped commercial for Buffalo Wild Wings has fans enjoying NFL games at the chain. Burr is a loud, obnoxious Patriots fan who fights with his son (Mikey Day).
The humor is about as mild as one of Buffalo Wild Wings’ lower numbered sauces.
But, it’s not terrible. (Which could also be a slogan for Buffalo Wild Wings).
Snakeskin
In what feels like one of those old commercials for “Freedom Rock”, Bill Burr explains to his son (Wakim) the glory days of “80’s sex rock,” a genre of “Rockin’ tunes about living fast, dying young, and doing sex.”
This is a set up for a pitch for collection of tunes by Snakeskin, a band that liked to dress up in women’s clothes and rock out.
The band (Dismukes, JAJ, and Sarah Sherman) sing such hits as “Nah-Nah Train,” “Having Sex on an Escalator (Sex-Scalator),” and power ballad “Tear It Down.”
Again, there’s not a lot to this sketch. The joke appears to hinge on the basic fact that some hair bands in the 1980’s liked to wear some feminine clothing.
It is 2024.
The Janitor
A pre-taped and timely parody of Good Will Hunting in which an MIT janitor (Michael Longfellow) solves a complex equation, but fails to clean up “a barf”.
This leads to gross vomit comedy, a fairly amusing Kenan Thompson attacking the janitor with a belt, and a surprising good Robin Williams impression by JAJ.
Quick reminder, Good Will Hunting was released 27 years ago.
Calling Dad
After a round (or set, or whatever it is) of pickleball, Dismukes and Devon Walker call their dads (Burr and Thompson).
Neither dad can really talk about their true feelings, so they mask their conversations by referring to the Philadelphia Eagles and cars.
This was kinda depressing.
Weekend Update
The Update crew really just phoned it in this week. Jost was lethargic, and Che was drinking (I assume for real) at the desk.
The best joke of the night was Che pointing out that Trump was elected despite his felonies. “That’s it, I’m listening to R. Kelly again,” he said.
Che continues his now crutch of claiming it’s the ‘90’s whenever a joke bombs (a Diddy in jail joke did).
The desk guests didn’t add much to the party. Ego Nwodim was a woman talking while looking for something in her purse, and Kenan returned as Che’s shady neighbor Willie.
The whole Update segment just felt downbeat.
Bald Guys
Last week, people enjoyed the musical number that parodied multiple Broadway shows. So, maybe they can strike gold twice with a musical number.
This time, it’s bald men singing about being bald in a restaurant.
Did AI just generate a prompt for this or something?
Trauma Support Group
Bowen Yang takes over a trauma support group led by Bill Burr (who is really giving woke guys what for!). Not much to this, but Yang seems to be having fun, as does Ashley Padilla, getting some good screen time this episode.
This sketch didn’t cause trauma, but it sure didn’t alleviate any by means of humor.
I Got One
Well. At a dinner with friends, Padilla tells the same ambling, unfunny joke repeatedly. (Something about dogs going to the park, and coming home to smell poop in the house, but realize it was not one of them because if it was “It wouldn’t smell like thaaaaat!”)
Look, Padilla is doing good character work, but if this sketch were funny, well, it wouldn’t go like thaaaat!
Yeesh!
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: There wasn’t one.
Apparently, I have to pick one anyway. So I guess I’ll go with Rorschach Test. My choice is not defensible.
Worst Sketch: Oof. I could make a strong case for almost any sketch this week. But, Burr’s monologue tanked so badly and was so ill timed that it seemed to be emblematic of this whole affair. So, I’ll give this one to Burr.
Random Notes:
- Now that the election is over, the new cast members are getting some screen time. Jane Wickline didn’t do much, but Emil Wakim and Ashley Padilla got substantive screen time. Wakim seems like he can be a solid glue guy type, and Padilla seems like she is capable of fun character work. Neither had great material this week, but at least they got real air time.
- There was a bumper card for Quincy Jones. The legendary music producer who died this week hosted the show in 1990.
- Musical guest Mk.gee (if that is his real name!) seemed to channel “Dream of the Blue Turtles” era Sting in his first number, “Alesis”.
- We got a Lorne Michaels sighting during a commercial interstitial. Always a treat to see him wander around in a suit.
Last week’s show was great from top to bottom. This week was like a bizarro version of that. The energy this week was just dead. I get that a lot of people with the show are bummed because of the election, but this was a week we needed them to up their game, not watch them be all sad and low key. It would have been a good week for a goofy Please Don’t Destroy, or some weird Bowen or Sherman material. SNL has in the past dished up what was needed to a divided nation (See post 9/11 show, post 2016 election, and so on). This week, the show abrogated all its responsibilities.
We didn’t get many silly laughs or a poignant “Hallelujah”. All we got was a kind of depressing episode helmed by the wrong guy at the wrong time.
Grade: D-
As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general.
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