Just because Season 49 is over, doesn’t mean our work here is done. While we wait for the historic Season 50 to premiere this Fall, we have plenty of time to look back and maybe even ahead.

For now, let’s start our own version of May Madness and determine which Season 49 sketch was the best. For the tournament, I created a bracket of all the sketches I declared the best for each episode. I broke them down into four groups of five sketches, and arbitrarily decided to simply put them in chronological order. As for the one sketch to get a bye, that’s simply going to be the chronologically first of each division. And it’ll play the winner of the chronologically second and third sketch in the division.

A series of controversial decisions, no doubt. No power protection here, my friends. This is a simple battle for the best. Sure, this may not determine a true second place winner based on traditional seeding, but all this is so subjective there’s no good way to handle that.

Besides, this way is easier, so there it is and here we are.

All that said, twenty sketches enter the arena, but only one will go home with the trophy, the illustrious Golden Gilda. The journey is long. The chance of winning small. But in the end, there will be a victor, and some very proud, very under appreciated writers will earn bragging rights the value of which cannot be measured in dollars - only in comedy glory!

This week we are going to dive in and look at the Round 1 matchups in the Yellow Division:

Round 1 - Bye
The Week 1 Please Don’t Destroy - The Original Princes of Comedy moves on to round two, where it will meet the winner of the following matchup:

The Age of Discovery vs. Washington’s Dream

This is a placement for The Age of Discovery, a sketch that appeared in the Bad Bunny hosted episode 2. It faces a sketch that some (by which I mean me) are calling a tournament favor, Washington’s Dream from the Nate Bargatze episode. Here’s how I described the sketches:

The Age of Discovery:
The first video bit almost always seems to pop up right after the first non-cold open sketch. This week was no exception.

In The Age of Discovery, a Spanish language History Channel style show, two explorers (Mikey and cameo support, Fred Armison) present the King (Bad Bunny) and his son (Marcello Hernandez) with various animals and plants they discovered in the New World while looking for a route to China.

The royals do not care for these finds. A turkey is deemed to be a chicken with testicles on its face, while a llama is simply a “horse, but worse.” The royals are ultimately won over by gold and cigars, which they end up enjoying despite their appearing to be - and I quote - “a dookie” (I had to retype that four times because autocorrect kept wanting to change it to “cookie”).

The Age of Discovery was well executed, and good for some laughs.

Washington’s Dream:
Bargatze is George Washington telling his troops around the campfire of his vision for America, which is essentially using a different series of weights and measures than the rest of the world. But not always.

This sketch was very smart and funny, again made even better by Nate’s delivery. His delivery of “Nobody knows” when asked how many yards are in a mile was perfection. And, Kenan constantly being ignored when asked how Black Americans would be treated after the war added another layer to an already strong sketch.

Let’s go to the tape!

This was a first round blowout. Washington’s Dream easily outshoots The Age of Discovery to advance to the next round where it will do battle with Please Don’t Destroy’s The Original Princes of Comedy. Will Washington repeat history and defeat those royals? We will see next round!

Little Orphan Cassidy vs. Rome Song

Two musical sketches vie for a chance to ease on down the road to the Golden Gilda.

In the Timothee Chalamat helmed episode, new cast member shows off her singing chops as she and Chalamat (as the moon) serenade each other. Meanwhile, the Rome Song Sketch , Jason Momoa and company appear in a pre-taped segment on men’s apparent obsession with the Roman Empire. This was a topical thing at some point.

Here’s what we said at the time:

Little Orphan Cassidy

Chloe Troast gets her big break in this sketch in which an orphan sings to the moon (Chalamet) asking why she hasn’t been adopted.

Troast scores huge points with her somehow hilarious and good singing, and the sketch is genuinely funny as the reasons for Cassidy’s inability to find an adoptive family becomes more and more clear.

Troast knocks it out of the park in her first real at-bat, aided by some strong writing and a great performance by Chalamet.

Rome Song

This is a pre-taped segment that turns into a musical number related to the current trend about men thinking of the Roman empire. It’s well done and funny, and manages to escalate beyond the original premise, diving into kids’ love of dinosaurs as well as others’ obsession with astrology.

It’s a well executed bit of ridiculousness.

Let’s see the highlight reels!

This was a tough match-up. Rome Song was a solid technical player that executed its plan of attack brilliantly. But, Cassidy’s quirky playing style and surprising sideways moves allowed it to put up some serious points.

This one went into OT, but ultimately, Rome Song took the win and will play the winner of the Please Don’t Destroy - Princes vs. Washington’s Dream matchup.

Up next week we move to the green division for more round 1 action. Until then, may your brackets remain unbusted, and stay on the road to the Golden Gilda!

Comments are welcome. Please feel free to share with family, friends, and vague acquaintances.

SNL After Party (S49 Sketch Face Off - Yellow Division Round 1)