After last week featured so many big-name cameos it overwhelmed fans, sending them into sheer ecstasy (or sometimes fits of sheer confusion, and sometimes both), Saturday Night Live would revert back this week to letting its cast members play, unperturbed by celebrity interruptions. And yet, more than slightly perturbed by their guest host. Would they get thrown off more by Michael B. Jordan’s acting ability or by his hotness? Place your bets!
What’s The Deal For The SNL Cold Open For Last Night (1/28/23)?
A bold voiceover from producer Steve Higgins sets us up for stone-cold tough-as-nails U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, so obviously the joke is how meek Merrick (Mikey Day) actually is. Mikey’s take is giving us a slight hint of influenced by What Would Will Forte Do? Meanwhile, he’s mostly introducing FBI agents to report on how many classified documents they’ve discovered at the homes/offices of other former presidents and vice presidents (Kenan Thompson for Mike Pence; Ego Nwodim for Kamala Harris; Bowen Yang for Obama). Which makes this a very tell, and no-show, sketch. Only Bowen does anything fun with it, thanks to his impersonating Obama impersonating Lin-Manuel Miranda, acting out reading of fan mail begging Obama to see “Hamilton” on Broadway.
There’s also a quick reference by Kenan to seeking “justice” in Memphis (say his name: Tyre Nichols; but they didn’t), which just makes this feel shoehorned in and completely ineffective.
Some SNL cold opens feel so perfunctory when they decide to address the week’s biggest political news, but have nothing funny to say about it. This was definitely one of those.
How Did The SNL Guest Host Michael B. Jordan Do?
Our host came out of the gate punning on his name: Michael B. Hosting, Michael B. Joking, Michael B. Nervous, Michael B. A’ight, Michael B. In Therapy. We’ll allow it. We won’t allow The Wire erasure, as Jordan reminisced and shared a clip instead of his gig the year after Baltimore, when he was a teenager in NYC on All My Children. But as soon as he mentioned he was single and on Raya, he got hit on during the monologue by Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and even Punkie Johnson.
As for the sketches?
He started off strong thanks to Sarah Sherman and her latest triumph in keeping a straight face when your face ain’t anything but. In this case, Sarah and Michael are part of the team at “Good Morning Today” (her segment is Cuisine with Francine, while he’s the weatherman), only they just got back to the studio after a terrifying time stuck on a rollercoaster. So terrifying, their faces frozen in a wind-blown state, along with their hair and wardrobe. It’s one sight gag after another, and it’s a sight to behold.
In the first and lesser of two pre-taped mockeries of ad campaigns this evening, several employees of Southwest Airlines promise they’ve made improvements since their Christmas debacle. Sort of. They’ve upgraded from 2002 Thinkpad laptops to 2008 Dells. They got a Dell! They’re also sorting and shipping your luggage by color now. The kicker: “You obviously don’t respect yourself, so why should we?”
Multiple live sketches didn’t have much going for them, however.
One set at a hotel in the Dominican Republic found Michael supervising two towel guys (Marcello Hernandez and Kenan, still getting use out of his Big Papi voice), but the premise flipped back and forth between who held the worst/laughable stereotypes: the towel guys or the ugly American tourists staying at the hotel? There didn’t seem to be any hook on which to hang this towel sketch.
Likewise, a voiceover session for the “Street Fighter 6” video game only had Bowen’s effeminate fighting style to play with, and even introducing an actual fight late in the sketch didn’t seem to resolve it or make it funnier.
There were some laughs in having Michael mock Andrew Dismukes as the beta male masquerading as Male Confidence Seminar guru, ultimately having Andrew’s clients join in the heckling and leave with Michael’s cooler watercooler delivery man. “Jimmy Neutron if he did street magic.”
The funniest thing about the Palm Springs bachelorette party sketch was seeing one of the other cameras moving into the shot. Second funniest may have gone to Heidi as the stripper’s wife interrupting with a dead Galaxy phone and a pregnant belly to kill the vibe.
How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Lil Baby?
Lil Baby made his first appearance as musical guest. The Grammy Award winner’s latest album, “It’s Only Me,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and his first song of the evening, “California Breeze,” hit #4 on the Billboard charts late last year
For his second song, Lil Baby rapped another top 10 hit from his album, “Forever.”
Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing: “Jake From State Farm”
He’s no Drake from State Farm, but then again, he’s not Drake. He’s Michael B. Jordan as Jake from State Farm, and he’s here to take your woman, your kids and your whole wholesome family life. Sorry, Mikey. But don’t jump! There’s always Emu and Doug to the rescue!
Who Stopped By Weekend Update?
New takes on old ideas were the trend this week at the Update desk.
Kenan played Carl, the new doorman at Michael Che’s building (fun fact: Kenan wore almost the same outfit he sported when he played Norman the doorman in the classic game show sketch “What’s That Name?” from 2010…that means the suit still fits! different hat, tho). Anyhow. Carl wants to reveal all of Che’s secrets, including things Che wasn’t aware of but probably should be.
Heidi brought back Angel, every boxer’s every girlfriend from every boxing movie ever. Yes, you read that correctly. We have a recurring character back on the scene. Angel’s fourth appearance on Update, but only her first since 2018! This time, she’s looking for revenge as Creed knocked out Tommy’s eye. You want Creed? You got Creed! And more. Turns out, “before Tommy, there was Creedy.” And Creedy’s Angel’s baby daddy. Surprise.
What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?
At 12:51 a.m. Eastern, we’ve got ourselves an ad for King Brothers Toyota, and Andrew and JAJ are mustachioed and hot-and-bothered by the traffic for the Raising Cane’s drive-thru blocking customers from entering their Texas car dealership. So they’ve employed an even tougher, jacked salesman (Michael), who delivers an ultimatum to the fast-food chains surrounding the dealership, and to one particular city councilman who they place the blame on for all of this. Fix the traffic situation, or Michael’s gonna start revealing their secret ingredients! Who’s gonna tell them there’s an actual King Brothers Auto in Houston, tho? I guess me?
And just before good-nights, we’ve got a short video of Michael falling on his face all over the SNL offices inside 30 Rock, and right in front of Andrew each time. Can you believe it? There’s a cute plot twist in the middle of this featuring Bowen and Sarah, and actually…why did they play this video at the end of the show? Everything about it screams cold open! It even references a moment happening just before showtime. Why didn’t they just have Michael and Andrew fly into a live shot to deliver “Live from New York…”??? Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda.
Who Was The Episode’s MVP?
Good question. Andrew Dismukes and Heidi Gardner were the two main beneficiaries this week of the extra screen time they can now have, thanks to all of the recent departures from their colleagues, and the lack of celeb cameos this time. But the funniest moments came from our new usual suspects for actual LOLs: Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang.
Next week, Pedro Pascal hosts with musical guest Coldplay.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
