Saturday Night Live review: Drunk Uncle, Dwayne Johnson, David S. Pumpkins, and Coco (video)
Ultimately, the show tonight opted to start off the show by effectively spoofing itself from earlier this season. Remember when Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton went out on stage to sing “Hallelujah” after the election? Well, the show did so again tonight mocking the Donald Trump administration, bringing back many of the characters from most of the season to date. There was an appearance from Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump, and then also quick pop-ins from everyone via Kate McKinnon as Kellyanne Conway to the show’s version of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Pence, and some of Donald Trump’s children.
This was subtle humor if there was, mostly because of the fact that it was effectively the show spoofing itself just as much as it was anything with Trump. Maybe this was a great send-off for these characters … but we figure that we’ll see a little more of them in some shape or form moving forward.
Be sure to refresh this review for further updates over the course of the show!
Dwayne Johnson monologue – Hilarious. Apparently The Rock is now running for President with Tom Hanks as his running mate. This was a great use of both Hanks and Baldwin, who came on thinking that Johnson was going to ask him to be the running mate instead.
Fidget Spinner – We’ve only just started to see these things out there, but it’s pretty clear precisely who this video was parodying. Suffice it to say, it was pretty accurate.
The return of Coco – Let’s be real — this was basically a recreation of the last time Johnson and Bobby Moynihan came on the show as these characters. This wasn’t anywhere near as earth-shattering as the first time, but the first time is one of the best sketches in the history of the show. This still was really funny, but it was hard to top the first go-around.
Superhero fashion sense – Completely ridiculous, but also ridiculously funny and true in terms of superheroes who magically have great costumes.
New Money Crew – This was a great spoof of all of the different rap videos out there that have around a billion different people featuring in them. The list got more and more ridiculous as time went on, but also killed us when Katy Perry showed up with some random woman. Also, David S. Pumpkins!
Gene and Gene’s wife – This is another returning sketch, but we weren’t as high on this one the first time. It had some merits this time just in terms of seeing what Vanessa Bayer went through on his final show. She was forced onto a Jurassic Park ride multiple times, and it got worse for her with each passing occasion.
Zentrex – A fake pharmaceutical commercial for a product that “works” to stop erections in their tracks. It also has a billion side effects and no doctor would ever recommend it. While somewhat predictable, it was also fairly amusing from start to finish.
Music – Head over here for some more on Katy’s performances tonight!
Weekend Update – This was super cool of the show to give us both a Vanessa Bayer and a Bobby piece in the last show. It wasn’t that long ago that Vanessa brought out Dawn Lazarus the meteorologist, but this was still a funny piece. Meanwhile, Drunk Uncle! What a perfect way to celebrate Bobby than one of his best characters.
Farts – Seriously, this was a whole sketch about Bayer’s character farting. Remember, THIS IS HER FINAL SHOW AND SHE DID A FART SKETCH. It’s almost like she just wanted to do a bunch of really weird stuff for her last outing.
Mad Scientist Convention – This was DARK. Seriously dark. Having Johnson’s character play a man who invested a molesting robot was one of the most disturbing ideas in years and it’s a surprise it even got on the air. It was probably too much for some, but it did bring some shock-value humor. The White Castle ad randomly at the end was just as disturbing as anything.
Threesome – Johnson’s character was fine with having a threesome — just not if Beck Bennett was involved. This was SO silly, but still worthy of some laughs.
Graduation – Didn’t this end abruptly for anyone else? The graduation theme seemed to be in part a way to send-off Moynihan and Bayer, and that was sad enough that it distracted somewhat from any humor.
Overall – A really entertaining finale, and a chance to celebrate what was a historic year for the show. Great sketches from start to finish, a great host, and a number of fantastic cameos in between Johansson and Hanks. Grade: A.
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