Yeah, I Got Trapped in a Corn Maze (SNL October 24th 2014)

Jim Carrey returned to host the Halloween episode of SNL.  After the lowest recorded SNL ratings to date in an excellent Bill Hader hosted episode, let’s see how the cast and crew at 30 Rock retaliated this week.

Cold Open – Ebola Czar Press Conference

I have said it week after week, they need to do more with this Obama impersonation.  Jay’s impersonation is spot on, but they don’t let him do more than an interview or a press conference.  I would love to see the leader of the free world poked fun at outside of the weekly weekend update jabs.  Are the writers afraid of some sort of white-house backlash?  Are they afraid Joe Biden will want to host an episode? Back to this sketch, where we see Killam’s  portrayal as Ebola Czar Ron Klain.  This sketch wasn’t very memorable save for a few jokes.  “If you live in a southern state… you might want to avoid large public spaces, such as a polling booth.  One exception, Latinos in Red states are immune”.  As we have seen before in recent weeks, Kenan Thompson swooped in to save the day with my favorite of his impersonations, Al Sharpton.  Watch out Ebola Caesar, Sharpton has this Ebola outbreak on lockdown!  But in the end, it doesn’t matter, as all of New York is contaminated all of the time, from the flocking pigeons all the way to the sewer monsters.

Monologue

Carrey strolled out for.. another… musical monologue.  I think every monologue has been a song this year, save for Sarah Silverman’s extended stand up.  Carrey came out in costume, and his character was the Hell version of Elvis, Helvis.  This was clearly an excuse to do an Elvis impersonation Carrey must have in his back pocket. Last I checked it is 2014 and making jokes about Elvis being fat is a bit… dated.  This was all ok, and they pulled out all of the stops with this song and dance routine.  Why did this exist?  I think they had a good idea with starting out with a song talking about eating all sorts of Elvis-inspired food (PB+B sandwiches, etc) with the lyrics slowly devolving into demands for pecan pie, but they didn’t go all the way with this idea.  I would have imagined a Helvis singing about Pecan pie getting more and more fanatical until the song broke entirely.  Maybe doing some evil things for the cherished kayo-syrup flavored pie.  This was a “meh” from me, as most musical monologues are.

Lincoln Ad 1,2,3

These ads were a slow burn throughout the episode, popping up between sketches.  I liked Carrey’s McConaughey  impersonation, but I wasn’t sold on these commercials at first.  I get it, we are making fun of McConaughey’s weird characters.  This has been done.  These vignettes slowly blended the nonsensical dialogue from these real commercials (Yes, they didn’t have to go far from the source material on these ones) into the insane ramblings of Rust Cohle from “True Detective”.  As the show went on, however, they kept adding more and more to the vignettes that kept them fresh throughout the show, and led to an eventual payoff that was worth it.  Kudos on the attempt to do the All-state guy Kenan, but nobody can do a voice that low. (Maybe Keith David)

Carrey Family Reunion

I mean, I get where they are coming from with this sketch, just like with Christopher Walken, everyone can do a Jim Carrey impression.  This followed the Walken reunion sketch style set before, but it didn’t seem like anyone was doing a great Jim Carrey other than Taran Killam.  This all felt like kind of like “we have to do the walken thing for Jim Carrey right?”. I think a nice twist on this sketch could have been having a cousin that was the “dramatic” Jim Carrey ala Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind .  Moping around, being all dramatic and such.  That would have been a fun twist.  Bobby Moynihan did show up in full “Mask” make-up, so that was a plus.  The highlight of this sketch was Vanessa Bayer’s character talking normally until she had to use her butt to finish the conversation.

Graveyard Song (ft. Paul and Phil)

Up to this point, the show had merely been o.k.  No sketches or bits had stood out as memorable yet.  This was the first sketch of the night that got me to laugh.  Two teens, Zamata and Davidson, snuck into a graveyard, because that is what you do on Halloween.  The graveyard was haunted by a cast of creepy characters, who sing about their haunted graveyard in a children’s movie kind of song.  Paul and Phil, two ghosts who don’t know when to leave, interrupt the song, much to the chagrin of the other dark denizens of the graveyard.  Killam and Carrey played Paul and Phil, and they had some fun chemistry going on.  Singing slightly off tempo and out of tune, they absolutely enraged Bobby Moynihan’s gravestone head character.  I think I would like to be haunted by Paul and Phil, they seem like nice guys.  This sketch really worked for me because it had a really catchy song, and a simple yet clever premise.  What would it be like to be stuck in a graveyard where two polite ghosts ruin your spook-song?  Good? Bad?  All I know is that their names are Paul and Phil.  They did a pretty great job with the physical stuff here, like Davidson attempting to give a beer to Paul and Phil, only to have it drop from their ghostly hands.  This was one of my favorites of the night.

Weekend Update

Another solid weekend update, Jost and Che are doing a pretty great job delivering the jokes, which were a tad bit Ebola heavy.  One note, Che went on a bit of an aside about Ebola equating fear of Ebola with a fear of black people, and It didn’t really work.  The subject of Ebola is still pretty touchy (especially in NYC) and it felt like the audience was afraid to laugh at a African American man making jokes about the treatment of his race as of late.  I hope that everyone in the audience is ready for Chris Rock next week!  SNL hasn’t really had much of this type of humor since Eddie Murphy was making off with children’s toys.  One of the awesome things about how they have diversified the staff by adding Che, Zamata, and Leslie Jones is that we can have some of this type of humor.  We have seen some peeks at racial humor this season, but nothing really substantial.The audience didn’t appear to be ready for the amount of “keeping it real” going on in this bit.  This is probably due to the lack of diversity on the cast up until quite recently.

Vanessa Bayer had a new character Daisy Rose, a Rom-Com expert, who has all of the teeth in the entire world.  I liked this character, it was a funny premise, and while Che was a bit rusty in his back and forth with Bayer, the character still got some good moments in.  I especially liked how they slowly ramped up the generic rock music during Daisy Rose’s plea for a date.  We also saw the return of “Drunk Uncle” who remains as one of my favorite weekend update guests.  Moynihan was absolutely perfect, and the look on his face as he slid over to Michael Che was priceless.  After a quick drunken once-over, the agonizingly slow chair roll over to Colin Jost’s side of the table was silent, awkward, and hilarious.  Drunk Uncle schooled us on his least favorite holiday, “Whoreoween”.  I am with you drunk uncle! We have all been trapped in a Corn Maze at one time in our lives, if we are being honest with ourselves.

 

Secret Billionaire

This was my secret favorite sketch, while a bit technically clunky, this was the best written sketch all season.  In an incredibly unique twist on the dating show scene archetype, we got to see the brand new dating show “Secret Billionaire”.  The idea of this game show is that one of the four bachelors is secretly a billionaire, and the single lady contestant has to pick him out to go on a date with him.  Everyone present did typical “dating game sketch” characters, with one exception.  Jim Carrey played Abbott Bonnerville Cain which ended up being a mash-up of bond-villain, creepy pervert, and Monty Burns.  This was incredible.  Carrey’s mannerisms, physicality and voice made his character stand out.  This sketch was very edgy, as Carrey went all in on the creepiness of his character. He was devising dates that involved pleasuring oneself in a hot air balloon onto the salt-flats below, with a trip to Applebee’s to eat with the dullards afterwards.  Or creating some elaborate social experiment with hundreds of Dennis’s  This was the smartest, edgiest, and most well executed sketch of the season so far.  Great job!

Ghosts: Fact or Fiction?

This was my favorite sketch of the night.  In Leslie Jones’ first real role in a sketch as a full time cast member, she did not disappoint.  “Ghosts: Fact or Fiction” was a well shot and executed parody of the “Ghost-Chaser” style TV show. (This really is a genre of T.V. now, isn’t it)  Killam was the host (British, naturally) of the show, joined by his team of ghost hunting experts.  Jones played the “skeptic” who got completely freaked out by anything and everything that was going on.  She was hilarious, and acted like she had been dragged off of the street to go into a creepy house with these weird people who kept turning off all of the lights for some reason.  This sketch got the loudest laughs of the night out of me, as Jones’ physical comedy abilities were in full  effect.  “Ronda, can you check the fireplace?”  -“No”.  “Why is the lights off!?”  “Ronda, how does science explain this?” -“It don’t, It’s ghosts!”  She ran through a door, and I laughed.  This is an excellent way to start yourself off as a full cast member. I look forward to more.

High School

This wasn’t a very good sketch.  Not only was it a bit reminiscent of a sketch from 2 years ago, but it just wasn’t very funny. Not much to say here, this is kind of a played-out premise, which is weird to think about.  Let’s ponder this for a minute.  The comedic premise of someone who is bitten by a zombie, and tries to get into a group of survivors in full denial of their upcoming zombie infection, is played out.  That is a very specific premise to over-do.  This extremely specific set of circumstances is a cliche now.  What I am saying is that zombies are the new pumpkin-spice latte.  Don’t overdo this kind of sketch, and definitely don’t over-do Pumpkin spice latte’s, like this lady.  You will regret it.

Office Halloween Party

This sketch is a perfect example of SNL doing what only SNL can do best.  Our favorite weekly sketch show is recorded live, that is what the “L” in the name stands for.  No other sketch show is live!  This is SNL’s greatest strength!  Two people trying to out-chandelier dance themselves in front (and all over) a live crowd is something  that only works on live television. This sketch was glorious.  To me, this sketch felt like a blowing off of some steam for an underused Kate McKinnon. This is based on the music video for Sia’s “Chandelier” which stars a “Dance Moms” child doing some oddly mesmerizing interpretive dance.  (Yeah, I hadn’t seen it either)  This sketch had shades of Chris Farley’s Chippendale’s audition, where a cast member and the host get to dance in very revealing clothes in front of the live audience.  This was the live highlight of the night for me.  Also big ups for Aidy Bryant just being “a girl in the city trying to make it work”, that was a really funny, honest line.  I loved it.

Geoff’s Halloween Emporium

This was the last sketch of the night.  We got to see an ad for a halloween store ad for a shop in Appleton, WI, (shout out to my home state!)  Carrey played a demonically inhabited manager who shifted from ordering his workers to stock shelves to coaxing them to gaze into his hell portal clipboard.   This was a simple premise, and a great way to end the show.  Does anyone play an airhead ditzy girl better than Cecily Strong?  Carrey got to break out the patented SNL vomit hose, spewing hell ink all over his co-workers exorcist style to end the bit.  This was fun, and Carrey’s ability to just straight up inhabit (much like the demon posessing this manager) zany characters worked well for this sketch.

Kids (Cut for Time)

You should watch this short film.  It isn’t really particularly funny, but it is interesting, and has a poignant ending.  I can see why it was cut, but I am glad they shared it with us online.

Wrap-up

This episode was the typical SNL mix of good and bad sketches.  The new cast does seem to be gelling together more, and you can see little peeks into the bright and frightening future of the show.  Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney didn’t get to have a sketch this week.  The “Good Neighbors” were on a roll every week with an interesting pre-taped segment in the post weekend-update time slot.  I was looking forward to the sketch they were going to put forth this week, and I was disappointed.

My two favorite cast members are Kate McKinnon and Bobby Moynihan, in that order.  We have gotten to see plenty of Bobby M this year, but Kate McKinnon, who has be very well recieved by the SNL fanbase, has not gotten much airtime this year.  This could easily be the case of some of the cast shake-up has moved the writers focus onto the new cast members.  I am saying this now.  I need more Kate McKinnon in my life!

Carrey did an excellent job hosting.  It felt like he was an old pro getting back to the game after a bit too much time away from the field.  He was rusty in parts, but there were sketches that clearly exemplified Carrey’s comedic chops.  You can’t be a bad comedian if you go to great lengths to create a character, Carrey is one of those people.  His ability to do this is why we can do “Carrey Family Reunion” sketches.

This week’s ratings were a strong rebound from the lows of the Bill Hader episode, which will probably go down as being the both the most humorous and least watched episode of the season.  You can pretty much use that as proof that the ratings of this show will forever be shackled to the overall star-power of the guests they book each week.  If you are writing or producing on this show and thinking about ratings and retaining audience from week to week, you definitely have to make episodes like this one, with a big movie star, count. This episode was probably in the middle of the pack as far as this season is concerned, but that is fine.

Taran Killam is emerging as one of the go-to guys in the cast as far as planning sketches are concerned.  Killam always seems to be involved heavily in the sketches week to week.  I really like Taran Killam’s character style quite a bit.  His comedic energy reminds me of Eric Idle in a lot of ways.  Killam can be that sugary sweet best pal kind of guy one second, and then steal your wife from you in the next.  Eric Idle was so great as the smarmy television host or the secretly creepy party guest.  There is something about being the handsome wholesome looking guy that talented comedic performers can use to great effect.  I will expect Killam to continue his rise towards the main-event status of SNL cast members this season.

There is another big movie star guest in store for us next week as Chris Rock hosts.  Musical guest Prince will be flying all the way down from the armpit of Minnesota to grace us with his god-like musical talents.  I will catch you all next week with a recap of that episode.