Saturday Night Live review: Sterling K. Brown show funny, memorable, and timely

Sterling K. Brown was the host of this weekend’s new episode of Saturday Night Live, and with that we imagine that there is at least some intrigue on the subject of whether or not we would get either a spoof of Black Panther or This Is Us. Maybe both. Above all else, we were just thrilled to have someone who is so warm and naturally funny hosting the show since he’s someone who seems to be genuinely grateful and as though he will do a really good job with the gig.

Brown came out sporting a very nice suit and did a few funny jokes, including saying that This Is Us is the saddest thing on TV other than the news. Following that, the big joke was that Sterling couldn’t keep it together because he has a reputation for being a sensitive guy. It was short, it was sweet, and it was perfect for him to skewer himself.

Also funny? Leslie Jones saying “that don’t work with me” after he called her a “queen.”

Related – Our take on the Saturday Night Live cold open this week

Celebrity Family Feud – Really funny, mostly because of Brown’s inspired Common impression in this Oscars edition. Also, there was a surprising self-referential joke directed at Kenan Thompson about his long-term status at the show. It actually did make us wonder for a second if he was going to announce his departure on the spot.

This Is U.S. – This was so inspired and also so wonderful. Basically, the show made a This Is Us promo featuring the Donald Trump administration. It was pretty short, but also pretty brilliant — especially the part where Sterling was Ben Carson and when the departed members of the administration were all in various urns.

Shrek vs. Coco – This was really genius — a great sketch that was all about Sterling getting really upset at a dinner party with his new fiancee over the assertion that Coco was somehow a better movie than Shrek. This was genius and sold almost entirely by Sterling’s performance.

Sasquatch – This was certainly strange, not that we expected anything less from the show to have some sort of weird, gross-out campfire sketch featuring a very bizarre Bigfoot during some very bizarre things. This was probably the closest thing to a miss that we’ve seen so far in this episode — it just felt too lowest-common-denominator.

Related – Read our take on James Bay’s performance

Weekend Update – The jokers were tremendous, and we even mean that for some of the hokier ones that came courtesy of Colin Jost. The real stars tonight, though, were the correspondents. The Donald Trump Jr. – Eric Trump duo get better every single time in which we see them, and beyond that we also appreciated the surprise return of Vanessa Bayer as Dawn Lazarus, the meteorologist who cannot speak on-camera like a normal human being.

Black Panther – We haven’t seen Black Panther yet (we’re that person who’s behind on movies), so we probably didn’t get this sketch as much as some others have. Yet, at the same time it was very much hilarious watching Kenan playing a guy in the middle of Wakanda whose primary talent was burger-flipping.

Dr. Love – This was a slow-burn sketch in which Sterling played a doctor who was very intent on convincing Beck Bennett to admit that he loves his girlfriend — after all, the two had a very sexual relationship and it was clear he wanted more! There were some funny lines here, and while we’ll completely forget it existed in thirty minutes, it was enjoyable.

Scene Work –  This was another good showcase for Sterling as he had to react to crazy script notes while trying to work out his performance. Sterling’s delivery and the commitment to the ridiculous helped here; yet, this is basically the same sketch we’ve seen on a few separate occasions already.

Rock Music vs. Rap – It’s another Kyle Mooney pre-tape, with him this time hitting the street in order to ask people which style of music is better. This was surprisingly funny — uncomfortably funny at times, but still funny. Kyle’s always been great at awkward comedy and this is one of the better examples of why it works so well for him.

Last Words – The whole premise of the final sketch of the night was pretty simple: An elderly woman who died after singing Nickelback lyrics. Who knew that Melissa Villasenor and Sterling could rock out so much? We shouldn’t have liked this, but we did — we have a feeling that there are probably many people who feel the same way about Nickelback.

Overall, this was a really fun show! Not every sketch worked, but there were so many that did that we didn’t quite mind the few that slipped.

What did you think of this week’s Saturday Night Live episode with Sterling K. Brown? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments!

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