‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Maya Rudolph, Bronx Beat return; Tina Fey – Amy Poehler highlights
Tonight, “Saturday Night Live” brought us the return of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but to go along with that they also brought you more Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump for the show’s latest GOP Debate sketch.
This is the first time that “SNL” has used Hammond’s Trump for a debate this year, though they did bring him out for the monologue when the candidate himself was hosting earlier in the fall. There were some great moments throughout this, mostly because everyone got some screen time. Beck Bennett had a really fun Jeb Bush, while Jay Pharoah is really just getting better and better at his impersonation of Ben Carson. It’s so absurd, but we cannot help but snickering whenever he comes onstage. This helped to lift up what in some ways felt like a series of big talking points from the debate; often, the humor was supposed to be in things that were actually said.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
We’re going to have more throughout the night, so be sure to refresh!
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler monologue – Some nice banner between the two, but we don’t really think the whole opening song worked. The joke was that Poehler sang a vapid and meaningless song while Fey sang about Biblical events that were rather depressing. The singing and switching around was impressive, but the content wasn’t that funny.
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
Hillary Clinton’s dream – We figured that the show would find a way to get Poehler’s impression of Hillary Clinton in some form, but we did not expect to see Fey bring back Sarah Palin for this. Both she and Poehler’s Clinton visited the modern-day Clinton in a dream to give her some warnings. Mostly predictable humor, but it was nice to get these characters back.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Meet Your Second Wife – By far the best sketch of the night so far, really highlighted mostly by the performance of Fey and Poehler as two hosts showing men that they were eventually going to marry people significantly younger than them. Suffice it to say, it was disturbing, but carried mostly by the super-funny performances of everyone involved.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Hoverboard – In case you hadn’t heard, apparently hoverboards are making people blow up. This was right up commercial-parody alley, and while it was funny, the show could’ve done much more with it.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Sarah’s Desires – We expected Kenan Thompson to get a ton of air time tonight, and here he played a director who wanted two women at the center of a movie to act out everything as though it was “The Jeffersons.” This could have been so much better; instead it just felt like a lame version of the director game from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” years back.
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
Weekend Update – We dig this new Kate McKinnon character Dini, mostly because whatever she was eating was so disgusting that she and Colin Jost really couldn’t keep it together. The banter between Jost and Che was for the most part fun, but we’re shocked that “SNL” didn’t want Tina and Amy out there for more than just a single joke.
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
Holiday DVD – Maya Rudolph is back! We hoped she’d be back, and this helped to make the sketch all the funnier … but we certainly think that Kenan doing Bill Cosby during a controversial “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” bit helped.
[ot-video][/ot-video]
Dope Squad – A pretty perfect “Bad Blood” parody discussing the real “squad” that helps Tina and Amy succeed in life. It was both an opportunity for a great Amy Schumer cameo, a rap solo for Aidy Bryant, and then also a chance to mock the press for asking inane questions about how women “balance” everything.
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
Bronx Beat – The moment that you heard that Rudolph was in the building, you knew this was coming. There were some good laughs in here, but it’s almost like Brian Fellows earlier this year in that it’s mostly just warm, welcome nostalgia. That’s what most of the show felt like. It wasn’t amazing, but it was fun by and large. Grade: B.
[ot-video]
[/ot-video]
To see more on the music of Bruce Springsteen tonight, head over here!
Also, you can sign up now to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)