Best Update joke was the one about the oldest man to hike the Appalachian Trail. “He’s dedicating the journey to the memory of his wife... who died a couple miles back.”

I’m surprised that people liked Sarah. It was three minutes of her screaming and failing to smoothly complete a sentence. She’s too similar to Melissa, who I’m sure is nice but just brings an uncomfortable vibe with her.

Aristotle Athari has been in basically two sketches this entire season, and both of them have been squarely in my wheelhouse. The Laughingtosh 3000 bit was so insanely tight. From the first seconds, it was clear that the studio audience was just looking for the punchlines, but I was riveted immediately by how…

Adam Feldman, the Time Out New York theater critic, pointed out that Cecily and Bowen’s sketch was likely heavily influenced by Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson:

I was really impressed when she hosted...I was going to say “a few years ago,” but it’s probably the better part of a decade ago at this point. Anyway, I thought she was great then, and I’ve been surprised she hasn’t done it again since. Maybe she just decided it was too much work, which I can certainly understand. 

When Sarah Squirm started out with the exaggerated delivery I groaned, thinking it was going to be some schticky nonsense, but she settled into a better natural rhythm, and then kept building with the Jost Cancellations, until I was laughing out loud, which as a sociopath I rarely do. I thought to myself “Boy I feel…

Yeah he definitely seemed to be nervous at first, and swallowed some of the monologue. Though as he warmed up and dropped some asides (getting into the audience response) he improved. Though he was only really comfortable in the Scary Kids and Swinging Pastor sketches. In the others he was just a little too stiff and…

Jonathan Majors is about to become a huge freaking deal (of the sort only bestowed these days on the star of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie)

The song was written and released originally in 2012, and she’s now been in the same relationship for over 4 years, so the Taylor Swift breakup song is now a retro throwback. 

Dude... they all read off cue cards. Painfully. There’s this uncanny valley-ness to the last 10-ish years of SNL where everyone’s blocked to look right at the camera, only sliiiiiightly off like they’re taking a selfie and looking at themselves. In long shots (like last week’s cold open), there are people sitting next…

I dunno about you guys, but I think Pete Davidson making some important decisions in his life (many hinted about) including moving out of Mom’s basement that he owns has made a huge improvement in his sketches. Even dating (the) Kardashian has likely led to a spike in available footwear.

This show deserved higher than B-. I enjoyed all the sketches. I rarely enjoy half of them.

I gotta say, the Strange Kids sketch really tickled me. People these days always try to seem like they’re “above” spooky shit, so it’s gratifying to see “oh HELL no” reactions.

Also, god damn it, I hate this website’s layout. The ad makes it impossible to read the content. How does it only seem to get worse with time, y’all? You’re doing a disservice to the writers, editors, readers, and commenters.

A few thoughts:

Minor quibble, but you really think white audiences were baffled by the sight of Regé-Jean Page? From Bridgerton?? The “wine mom” demographic would like a word with you.

Oof. Jonathan Majors seemed to struggle. There was more than one awkward pause where he must’ve been reading off the cue cards.

This is the first episode of SNL in a while that truly gave the spotlight to the new guard. JAJ was pretty lowkey this week, but he already got so much exposure since the season began, so it’s not an issue, especially if this means giving Aristotle, Please Don’t Destroy and (finally) Sarah Squirm more screentime. If a…

While I overall I enjoyed the episode, I felt this episode really struggled with ending the sketches. Like it’s a common issue with SNL, but here it really came across that they had struggled with figuring out how to end some neat concepts.

I get now why they didn’t have Taylor do double-duty, which she is otherwise more than capable of. That performance must have taken a lot out of her.