‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Jan Hooks, Stefon, Bill Hader, puppet sketch, Herb Welch, and more
Tonight, “Saturday Night Live” is giving us a show that almost everyone should love. After all, we’ve got a great host in Bill Hader, some great cameos, and even a few moments where you may actually feel somewhat emotional. Also, this show may as well been co-hosted by Kristen Wiig.
We’re going to break down everything below, but spoiler alert: Most of this show had us on the floor, at least at the time of publication.
Kim Jong Un cold open – Basically, this was an excuse to watch Bobby Moynihan act silly for a few minutes. This was not amazing by any means, but we still laughed. If this was anyone other than Bobby, it would have been a complete dud. No question.
Bill Hader opening – Hilarious. The Kristen Wiig and Harvey Fierstein cameos were perfect, especially with this whole thing being a mockery of the “I want to sing on SNL” gags that we see so many times by hosts who want to do something like this.
Herb Welch – This is one of those sketches that we didn’t always love when Hader was on the show years ago, but now that it’s been a while, we’re pretty darn stoked to see Herb back and in action again. There was nothing that special, but we still laughed.
The Group Hopper – All the references to “Divergent” and other young-adult novels in here was hysterical, and this was a giant mash-up starring Pete Davidson that played to a T all of the common tropes of these movies, from all of the bizarre names to the weird characters and so much more.
Hollywood Game Night – Hilarious. Ironically, the best impression was neither Hader’s Al Pacino or Wiig’s Kathie Lee Gifford. Instead, we’re giving it to Beck Bennett as Nick Offerman. Tremendous. The writing once again was a hero here.
Feed the Children – Brilliant idea. We know that some will find this particularly controversial, but the execution of it was great. Plus, bonus Leslie Jones cameo!
Jan Hooks tribute – When “SNL” goes deep, they do it beautifully. This was a lovely remembrance to a great former cast member, and it also reminded us of how much we miss Phil Hartman, as well. So touching, a nice moment to reflect amidst the funny.
Weekend Update – At first, we were a little worried. Pete Davidson probably returned to Update a little too soon, and some of the early jokes took a little bit of time. Then, Stefon came around and completely destroyed. We do feel like Seth Meyers would’ve done better than Michael Che, but we love how the writers screwed with his cue cards again and he was cracking himself up at the end.
Puppet Sketch – Okay, now we are really loving this show. This was one of our favorite sketches the first time we saw it, with Hader playing the PTSD war veteran from some messed-up action movie. Completely hilarious.
Inside SoCal – One of the best ideas that Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney have done for the show. We like this time how they also expanded the universe somewhat. There were appearances in here from Hader, Kate McKinnon and others, and while bizarre, it’s getting stronger almost every time we see it.
Cat in the Hat – Somehow, the story of the Cat in the Hat being in love with Cecily Strong’s character was so bizarre and sweet that we like it, even the dirty joke at the end when Thing 2 showed up.
Seriously, this was in the end our favorite episode of “SNL” in years. We laughed at every single sketch, and as you can see here, even Hozier was excellent. This is the first time we’ve given this grade out this fall, but this time, it’s worth it. Grade: A+.
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