Etched by Sketch: SNL Season 44 Episode 5 (Liev Schreiber)

Original Air Date: November 10, 2018

Cold Open: Jeff Sessions Farewell

Grade: C-

• Pretty weak overall, just repeating same jokes they’ve made several times now
• Beck does a surprisingly good pence
• Nothing is really cohesive, again just saying things that are already true. No real heightening
• Don Jr and Eric trying to inject some life into an otherwise tired sketch
• Prison rape jokes are tired and not funny in 2018!
• Song at the end is stupid and tonally off…are we supposed to feel bad for Jeff fucking Sessions?
• DeNiro cameo is ok, but each time they bring him on for a so-so cameo it weakens his impact

Who says “Live From New York”?: McKinnon and DeNiro

Monologue: Liev Schreiber

Grade: D+

• Has all the charisma of a professional athlete in the locker room whose team got stomped
• Writing is so limp it’s almost nonexistent, might as well have read the newspaper
• Almost so bad it’s good
• Weird tangent at the end about the election…why even mention it if you’re not even going to give a real opinion?
• The most milquetoastiest of milquetoast monologues

Invest Twins

Grade: D

• One-joke sketch alert!
• Oh lord I can predict the rest of this sketch after the first minute
• I assume the writers had fun writing this, giggling as pitching phrases, but it plays out as just one long bad joke
• The jokes themselves have minimal punch, but at least the energy stayed high
• Audience is literally groaning, not a good sign!
• One of those sketches that probably started with a writer pitching a funny turn of phrase “incest instead of invest” and just glomming on from there

Unity Song

Grade: C-

• Flawed premise (both sides suck!)
• A lot of easy targets in here (everyone hates the word “moist”), but overall the good jokes/observations balance out the bad
• I swear I’ve seen something similar in a Second City show
• A good example of how SNL’s broad appeal to everyone produces weak political horseshit like this
• The look/editing was very good

Paranormal Occurrence

Grade: B

• Recurring sketch — this is the 3rd iteration I think?
• Just a platform for McKinnon, simple setup with rule of 3’s
• Kate always knows how to deliver the lines to maximum effect
• A little overwritten, but “baby tunnel and gravy funnel” makes it all worth it
• Aidy again struggling to keep it together
• McKinnon again putting on a physical clinic while delivering perfect line delivery
• Deserved the mid-sketch applause
• Formula repeated almost exact same as previous iterations, but Kate still able to get laughs and writing is still elevated, so keep it rocking

Permission

Grade: C+

• Decent premise (woke rappers who respect women)
• Execution is kinda weak, but I’ll give them points for trying
• Uncle butt bit was decent
• Future & Lil Wayne cameos were good
• Overall it was fine

Weekend Update (Excluding Desk Pieces)

Grade: C

• Political jokes were soft, despite every reason to kick Republicans while they’re down
• Florida jokes always appreciated
• Che goes a little harder, but still pulls some punches
• Gritty jokes only make him stronger
• Non-political jokes had a little more punch, fun

Weekend Update Desk Piece #1: White House Press Intern

Grade: C+

• The kind of quick goofy one-off jokes SNL used to do, but now has largely disappeared
• Cecily commits pretty well despite having no reason to
• More of these can help re-establish SNL as a place to see fun unexpected weirdness instead of a tired sludge of the same rote bits
• The callback/obvious doctored video was a little funnier than it should’ve been

Weekend Update Desk Piece #2: Pete Davidson Apologizes to Lt Com Dan Crenshaw

Grade: C

• Apology was not warranted, but was forced into it
• Good delivery as usual from Pete
• SNL has a history of doing this sort of redemption of politicians
• Pete was an especially good sport about the Ariana joke
• I’m assuming Pete wrote all these jokes about himself, pretty strong
• Is this the both sides-ism show? My god what kind of fun-draining crap is this
• Stop giving self-serving craven politicians time to make themselves not look shitty!

The Poddys

Grade: B+

• Nice setup, podcasts are ripe for parody
• Categories are smart, clean, prescient
• An ensemble sketch, most every cast member was in this
• The white girl in places where they don’t belong is especially inspired, executed well
• Writing is tight
• Marc Maron impersonation is spot-on, almost too good
• Hitting every button here, surprisingly in-depth knowledge of stupid/meaningless podcasts
• Overall very good, writing carried it

House Hunters

Grade: B+

• Rote concept turns immediately insane
• Exercise in how to do heightening, even after starting crazy
• Avant garde, almost experimental comedy
• Good example of how almost any concept can be executed well in the hands of a talented writer and willing actors
• Really good sketch, a tad overwritten and too much of a talking head-style, but overall very good

Brothers

Grade: B

• Throwback to a Will Ferrell or Chris Farley-esque sketch
• Playfully stupid in a way that SNL rarely is nowadays
• Cecily with a rare break, Aidy breaking as usual
• Beck and Kyle knew how to heighten to keep things fun
• Feels like it needed another beat to properly push it over the edge

Outside the Women’s Bathroom

Grade: D-

• Concept flawed from the start
• Who green-lit this idea? At the very least should have flipped the genders
• Umm, why is this person portrayed in a sympathetic/funny manner and not a fucking creep like he actually is?
• Missed the mark very, very hard
• No real jokes, just trying to make light of/justify threatening creep behavior

Average grade of all sketches: C

A little more about…

the political aspects of this episode.

By nature, SNL has always had an uncomfortable relationship with politics. As a weekly sketch show that made their name through political impersonations, they are obligated to cover politics and poke fun at current events. However, their wide audience and mass appeal necessitates them to paint with a broad brush, pull punches, and fall victim to the dreaded “both sides-ism” that currently plagues all mass media coverage, who refuse to cover our president like the truly brain dead, Adderall-addicted, big baby that he is.

SNL often treats this both-sidesism as a badge of honor, using it as cover to say that no one is off limits, and that anyone can be ripe for parody at any time. Indeed, when they accurately deploy this attitude with sharp writing and inspired impersonations it feels earned. However, much more likely than not, they use it as an excuse for lazy writing, half-assed impersonations, and toothless political commentary. This week, the week after large Democrat victories, rather than applaud Democrats for what they did right, SNL instead focused on the Republicans. Here are the political sketches/statements that SNL dabbled in this week:

- The firing of Jeff Sessions, within which they attempted to show some sympathy for the man who ordered border security to separate babies from their mothers, which lead to several children’s deaths

- A half-assed statement by the host thanking us for voting, no matter which side it was for

- A pre-filmed sketch with the extremely limp concept that no matter which political party we identify with, we hate the same stuff (but I guess only one side hates putting kids in cages!)

- A weekend update that took a few swings at Trump, but otherwise focused on Democrats who lost (while also taking a swipe at black Democrats)

- A Pete Davidson desk piece where he apologizes in person to Dan Crenshaw (a Republican who won, perhaps because of Pete’s comments from the prior week) for making fun of his appearance. In that same segment the prior week, Pete poked fun of the appearance of many other politicians, including a prominent Democrat. He did not apologize to any of them. Dan was given significant network time to show that he’s a “good sport”, when in fact the network felt incredible pressure to apologize simply because he is a war veteran.

The unabashed joy that the majority of the nation (and vast majority of SNL’s viewership) experienced in the week leading up to this episode was nowhere to be found, smashed down amid the need to highlight Republican victories and stories. A brief mention of Democrats taking over the House of Representatives was immediately dropped, and the only Democrats mentioned by name either lost their elections or were used as a jumping off point for a gay joke. Beto O’Rourke was the subject of a joke whose punchline is that he is a loser (I suppose for losing an election he was expected to lose?). All fun and celebratory attitudes were sucked dry in the name of making sure the losing political party (Republicans) didn’t feel too bad about themselves.

This is the danger of appealing to the soft middle of the nation. All edges are lost, and unless a big obvious target exists (Trump, Bush, Clinton), politicians are treated with kid gloves, no matter how despicable their positions or damage their policies cause. SNL has long been victim to the political failings of needing to broadly appeal to everyone, but this episode puts a fine point on just how far they reach to present both sides as reasonable and “good people” at heart, even when there is no evidence whatsoever to support it. It is a naivety from which their comedy suffers greatly, as without observing hard truths, true satire cannot exist. Until writers are allowed to fully let loose on evil politicians who deserve their ire, SNL will not be a place where consistent political satire can thrive. And because SNL airs on a network concerned with appearing biased, that will never happen.