Round one action continues this week in the Season 49 SNL Sketch Face Off. This week, the nation turns its eyes to the Green Division, in which the regular season winners from weeks 6-10 face off to see who will advance on the road to the coveted Golden Gilda.

Hang on tight, because Green Division Round 1 starts now!

*Current Standings going into this week.*

Round 1 - Bye
Each Division’s chronologically earliest regular season winner gets an automatic bye. Why? Math, baby! The Green Division’s Round 1 winner is the tourney’s only cold open competitor. George Santos. Bowen Yang’s apparent retiring character will take on the winner of this matchup:

Airplane Baby v. Weekend Update - Joke Swap 1

The absurd vs. the outrageous in a powerhouse Round 1 matchup. Does Adam Driver as a disturbing baby have the…drive…to defeat the ferocity of Che and Jost passing flaming barbs down the court? Let’s see what the commentators said:

Airplane Baby:
Sarah Sherman is traveling with her 11-month old baby on a plane. However, the baby is Adam Driver. Or rather, it’s Adam Driver’s head poking out the top of a puppet baby body. He also speaks like an adult, but reacting to things like a baby.

It’s a wonderful, bizarre and hilarious sketch. Adam Driver throws his entire Oscar-nominated abilities into this piece, which really pays off. The oddness, hilarious material, and fantastic performances come together in a funny, original sketch.

WU Update - Joke Exchange 1:

Let’s waste no time here with Ego Nwodim’s rich aunt character or the usual (though high quality) news jokes that get a lot of laughs and appreciative groans this week.

The highlight was the annual “joke exchange" where Che and Colin write jokes for each other that they are reading for the first time live. At least that’s the claim. I choose to believe. I’m also a sucker for Miracle on 34th Street, what can I say?

This year, Che upped the stakes by having “poet, author and activist Dr. Hattie Davis” (who appeared on SNL season 3, says Che) sit next to Colin in her wheelchair. This was a brilliant increasing of the stakes. But what’s even more brilliant is - from what I can tell - there is no Dr. Hattie Davis. So, maybe that cane in the house at the end of Miracle on 34th Street is a coincidence after all. Nonetheless, while watching the jokes, the temporary belief that Colin had to tell horribly offensive jokes - particularly one about his wife - while sitting next to a civil rights activist from the 1960s really made this the best joke exchange to date.

The jokes were hugely offensive and hilarious, and the believable ruse with Dr. Davis was a thing of beauty.

I’ll post the link below, but every single trigger warning in the books is hereby being issued.
(Note: If I am wrong, and Dr. Davis is a real person, I apologize for my ignorance. But, whether she’s a real person or not, her presence during this sketch was spectacular). (Editor’s Note: She was fictional).

Let’s go to the tape!

This was a tough round. The Weekend Update piece was brutal and hilarious, and the addition of “Dr. Hattie Davis” really added depth to the field.

But, Driver’s Airplane Baby slam dunked the combo of original and funny in a memorable and creative sketch that allowed that piece to advance to the next round.

Alaska Airlines vs. Big Dumb Cups

Fake Commercials fill this match-up. One pre-taped and one live. Will airlines soar past giant mugs? Let’s see the scouting reports.

Alaska Airlines

Fortunately, no one was hurt in a recent Alaska Airlines misadventure in which a “door plug” (a term no one had ever heard before the incident) flew off the plane in mid-air, causing a boy’s shirt to somehow jettison off his body and into into space.

The lack of any injury made it perfectly okay for SNL to do a pre-taped commercial touting the excitement one can have while flying on Alaska Airlines.

The absurd situation made for a funny commercial that we don’t have to feel guilty about laughing at.

Big Dumb Cups

Heidi Gardner, [Dakota] Johnson, and Chloe Fineman mock the Stanley Cup craze. The three are “still rocking our big dumb hats” but are now rocking their “big dumb cups.”

This sketch gets progressively more ridiculous and is full of great lines like “You can really taste the bacteria” and “Each cup weighs up to 35 pounds.”

It’s a fun, silly sketch. Not all the jokes land, but I really appreciate the commitment to the ridiculous here.

Here are the highlights!

This is definitely a middle-seed matchup. It was a close one, but Big Dumb Cups is so ridiculous and a well done that the absurdity of the piece gave it the advantage, so Big Dumb Cups makes the move into the next round!

Up next week we have round 1 excitement in the Red Division! Until next week, 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 - Green Division Round 1)