‘Saturday Night Live’ review: ‘Birdman’ spoof, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ Kanye West in Dakota Johnson show (video)
You knew that there would be at least a few jokes about “Fifty Shades of Grey” during this weekend’s edition of “Saturday Night Live.” After all, this was one of the biggest movies of the year, and it is primarily what Dakota Johnson is known for. We did like “Ben & Kate,” though!
We’re going to have some further updates throughout the day, but let’s start with the opening spoof of “Birdman.” Was it a little bit of a stretch to make this into a bit about Rudy Giuliani? Sure, but you had to know that this was going to be coming. The show does love to spoof Oscar winners as much as humanly possible. Good camera-work, though, so that at least should go for something.
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“Fifty Shades of Grey” monologue – Was this fun? We suppose, if you love the Q&A sessions with various members of the audience. Still, we saw this one coming from several miles away. There was nothing to be surprised about at all.
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ISIS ad – Completely random ending, and we wanted to like it more than we did. We suppose the problem here just comes down to taste, and there really is not much about ISIS that we personally find to be very funny.
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Cinderella – For the first few minutes, this actually had promise. Then, that Cecily Strong hick character turned up. We’ve never loved this character, even if we do love Cecily. Can we give it an early retirement already?
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Honesty – This was fun, but we wish there was some sort of real game to the sketch or goal to it as a whole. We love Cecily and the cookie, though! Probably the best part of this.
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Movie junket – The funniest part about this sketch was mostly that this is probably what press junkets are really like. They’re always awkward, even if you are not being interviewed by a middle-schooler who asks extremely perverted questions.
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I Cannot Even! – We laughed a few times at this, mostly because this is the sort of thing that really reflects the way today’s Americans talk. It was almost like the Californians … but thankfully a whole lot shorter.
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Weekend Update – For the most part, the highlight of the show. Good jokes, the Ruth Bader Ginsberg bit was funny, and huge props to Jay Pharoah for that Kanye West rap. As for the return of Bobby Moynihan as Riblet … we wish that this was happening again. Too much!
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Worf MD – We talk a little bit more about the historical significance of this sketch over at the link here. In terms of its quality, it was honestly too awkward given the timing to laugh much. We did really appreciate the card honoring Leonard Nimoy, though.
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Net neutrality – Some good lines in here, but Bobby Moynihan stole this whole thing, right? We just wish that there was something a little more meaty about it, since it did not really do enough with what was a hot topic right now.
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Good Neighbor sketch – Yep, these are back. We found this one to be relatively entertaining unlike some of the others … but we don’t really miss them on the show for the most part.
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Overall, this episode was a little bit of a letdown. There were a few laughs, but this was about the show we thought we would get after the anniversary special. It’s just hard to keep that joy going. Grade: C.
Want to get some other news related to the show? Then be sure to head over to the link here, where you can see who is hosting the next edition of the show! Also, you can sign up right now to get some other updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)