Fred Armisen helps close out this season of SNL with a bang, even if it’s not entirely our sort of bang.
SNL tends to close out the season with either a former cast member or another equally heavy hitter (Louis CK, John Hamm, Justin Timberlake) hat they know can rally the cast for one last hurrah before summer break. This year, they chose Fred Armisen, who is one of the cast members who has the opposite sense of humor from me. That didn’t stop me from finding things to like, but it did make for only an okay send-off to what I’d say was a good season overall.
What You Missed
Hilary/Bernie Intro
This was a nice wind down to the SNL political year that went wonderfully surreal at the end.
Lewis and Clark
Okay, I’m down for actor-y schtick, even if the weird sexual turn this took was a bit odd. Andy killed it as the social studies teacher.
SNL Digital Short
Hey, Conor4Real! Just a reminder (courtesy SNL) that The Lonely Island has a movie coming out in a few weeks
Farewell, Mr. Bunting
Okay, this Dead Poets Society parody went exactly where I wanted it to, but didn’t think it would.
Weekend Update
- Che & Jost on the NRA and Trump killed it
- Maya Rudolph as disgraced Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was a lovely casting choice
- “So, yeah, you’re going to fart during that massage”
- I was in tears from the “rejected jokes” bit to finish the year.
- Willie, everyone! The “candy van” portion was super dark.
Student Theater Showcase
I love these sketches, and not even Fred can ruin them.
What You Didn’t Miss
- Fred’s monologue was not really my thing. SNL’s done “bad one-man show” gags before and better.
- I vaguely remembered the setup of the New Girlfriend sketch and then Jason Sudeikis showed up with Fred in that wig and everything came back to me.
- The Escape Pod sketch got a little too mired in its own details
- I know Fred likes specific music references (The Blue Jean Committee, that one sketch where he sings about sparkling apple cider), but the ending sketch was just sort of a way to have the whole cast on stage at once.
