COLD OPENING: The 95th Annual Christmas Awards

PREMISE: Awards are given for the worst in Christmas related activities and traditions.

• Heidi and Bowen in an awards sketch? Let’s see how this turns out.
• A big groan at the ozempic joke.
• The award categories are pretty funny; I got a good laugh at JAJ as the grandad with the Frasier board game.
• Devon’s panicked “Please play us off” when his white girlfriend (Sarah) kept talking was perfectly delivered.
• Chloe Troast once again absolutely crushes it with another fantastic comic use of her impressive singing ability. Her incorrect lyrics to Do You Hear What I Hear? were funny.
• Great description of Mario Lopez as “the Leonardo DiCaprio…of hotel tv.”
• Marcelo as Mario Lopez saying the award for Worst Plug was given posthumously was hilarious.
• Huge applause for Kenan as the grandpa who had trouble in the bathroom, and I liked his “I’m horrified to accept this award.”
• Bowen and Heidi are doing a good job as your typical corny award show hosts.
• A pretty good cold opening and a refreshing turnaround from last week’s disastrous opening. It was also really nice to get an opening that utilized the entire cast.

RATING: ***

MONOLOGUE: Kate McKinnon talks about how she’s constructed a human personality through her sketch work, sings I’ll Be Home for Christmas, reminisces with Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig.

• Man, this a hot crowd.
• Aw, Kate! You can see how meaningful it is for Kate to be back at SNL and on that stage again. For all my faults with Kate’s last few seasons, I still love Kate and cherish her best years as much as any performer of her caliber.
• I like how Kate talks about how we rarely see her out of character: it felt both funny and very real and vulnerable. Kate is coming off as super charming and likable throughout this.
• “Ever since I left this job I’ve been trying to assemble a human personality. So far? I have a hat.” Great line.
• The montage of Kate as freakish characters next to hot celebrities was a great bit.
• I was worried when they brought out the piano, but Kate’s alternate lyrics to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” were very funny.
• Yet another fantastic bit with Kate showing her original NBC ID photo.
• The cameos from Maya and Kristen were utterly pointless and dragged down a great, fun monologue. None of their jokes about their Wikipedia pages landed with me, and their presence felt obsequious as it often does for both Maya and Kristen.

RATING: ****

Sketch: North Pole Special Report

PREMISE: A bizarre Scottish woman (Kate McKinnon) frantically informs a reporter (Mikey Day) of a whale attack on local elves.

• Oh, come on, SNL! Really? A sketch starring Eddie Murphy from four years ago rewritten for Kate to do a goofy accent? Do better.
• That said, Kate’s delivery and some of her lines are making me chuckle, even if this is nowhere near as funny as Eddie’s.
• Kate vomiting elves as candy was funny and a nice subversion of the expected grossout.
• Weak ending.

RATING: ** ½

COMMERCIAL / FILM: PONGO

PREMISE: Anatomtically correct pet Pongo haunts mother (Sarah Sherman) to the point of insanity.

• I always like seeing Dismukes and Sarah in a sketch. That said, the premise to this sketch didn’t sell me at first.
• The visual of the anatamoically correct, featureless Pongo is amusing.
• The ‘horror movie’ twist with Sarah was good and gave this sketch a bit of a boost. Squirm gave a great performance and the constant stalking of her by Pongo was really funny.
• Kate doing her usual solid work as a demented character.
• Good ending.

RATING: ***

SKETCH: ABBA Christmas Album

PREMISE: ABBA (Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Bowen Yang, Maya Rudolph) promote their 1978 Christmas album.

• JAJ describing ABBA as the “Fleetwood Mac of cold weather” was hilarious and accurate.
• WHY IN THE EVERLOVING MOTHERFUCKING HELL ARE MAYA AND KRISTEN FRONT AND CENTER IN SKETCHES TONIGHT? They have virtually zero connection to Kate’s tenure on SNL.
• A sketch with four performers oscillate wildly between fantastic and unbearable? Oh boy.
• Yea, this is doing nothing for me. The song parodies just aren’t funny.
• Okay, the Fa La La La parody of Mamma Mia has me in hysterics.
• JAJ has some good lines as the announcer.
• Overall, a dumb and tepid sketch, but not without highlights.

RATING: **

SKETCH: Embarrassed Mother

PREMISE: Mother (Kate McKinnon) reveals her insecurity when giving Christmas gifts.

• Oh, god. This was un-fucking-bearable. Everything about this screamed ‘leftover Wiig’ piece. Kate’s gestures and cadences were eerily Wiig-like. I laughed at nothing here.
• Not even JAJ as the douchey dad could save this, but it’s nice to see so much of him tonight.

RATING: *

MUSIC VIDEO: Tampon Farm

PREMISE: Folk singer (Kate McKinnon) sings of a farm where women gather to make tampons.

• MORE KRISTEN & MAYA??????
• A nice showcase of Kate’s underrated singing voice.
• Great reveal of the Tampon Farm punchline through the soaring, catchy chorus.
• The description of how the tampon is cultivated was hilarious.
• PAULA PELL!
• Funny visual of Billie Eilish shaking tampons from a tree.
• Good little bit at the end with Marcelo.

RATING: *** ½

WEEKEND UPDATE WITH COLIN JOST & MICHAEL CHE

FEATURING: Rich Auntie with No Kids (Ego Nwodim), activist Hattie Davis (Daphne Skeeter).

• Best Jokes: Rudy Giuliani, Obamacare, Nikki Haley / Chris Sununu, Teenage Boys Not Having Sex, Vincent Van Gough AI, Albert Einswine, Bald Eagle Killing 
• The Chris Sununu joke was so lame it made me laugh.
• Jost and Che seem noticeably peppier and sharper tonight. I wonder if it’s in anticipation of a later segment.
• Ego’s Rich Auntie commentary was a lot of fun. As usual, Ego did a great job with the characterization and her delivery was excellent, drawing big laughs out of even some of the weaker jokes here. She had a lot of funny lines, but the best was probably Django Unchained one. Pitch-perfect performances like this show why Ego deserves to be one of the major cornerstones of this era.
• The Christmas Joke Swap…wow. An absolutely hilarious, instant classic segment that kept topping itself with each joke. It was an absolutely brilliant twist to bring out the African American activist (played by Daphne Skeeter), which just added to the awkward hilarity of the bit. 
• The “Am I right?” bit was absolutely priceless.
• HOLY SHIT the Coretta Scott King joke.
• Overall, the best Update in quite some time. I’m probaby overrating it a bit, but the Joke Swap was such an all-timer moment that it gives it a deserved boost.

RATING: ****

SKETCH: Yankee Swap

PREMISE: A yankee swap between coworkers goes in surprising directions.

• This is Kenan’s first appearance since the cold opening.
• A promising premise.
• Kenan’s joyful reactions to the Boogie Woogie Santa are great, as is him swapping the sickle cell cure for it.
• Another very funny, scene-stealing Punkie Johnson performance to add to the great season she’s been having.
• Kenan’s “I’m a little burrito” was a great ending.

RATING: *** ½

SKETCH: Cinema Classics

PREMISE: A look at the holiday classic Meet Me in St. Louis.

• The return of Reese De’What.
• Chloe Troast does a great Judy Garland.
• Not much to the premise of this, just Kate screaming and bugging her eyes for five minutes.
• The whole “F You” bit fell flat.
• The bloody ending was unexpected at least.

RATING: * ½

SKETCH: Whiskers R We

PREMISE: Barbara DeDrew and her new intern (Billie Eilish) celebrate the annual holiday cattacular.

• The return of a Kate favorite and a good vehicle for Kate and Billie to display the excellent chemistry they had in Billie’s 2021 episode.
• Several funny lines at the beginning of the sketch, particularly “a cat is a dog who’s a bitch.”
• Bille’s character’s name being Pawdrey Hepburn seemed to trip her up and make both her and Kate laugh.
• Very funny lines about the named Mrs. Claws sleeping with Santa Claus.
• Billie’s vocal imitation of Kate’s character keeps slipping in and out.
• The cat’s names are all making me laugh (Cindy Clawford, Cat Sajak, etc.) as are the descriptions of their behavior.
• Predictable twist with Billie being Kate’s daughter, but it was executed well.

RATING: *** ½  

EPISODE MVP: Kate McKinnon. Despite some of her more polarizing traits popping up, Kate for the most part performed admirably as host and lifted up some lesser material. It was great to have her back and her return lent the show a fun energy.

BOTTOM LINE: A weird episode. Little was great, but I can honestly say they at least really tried with almost everything. Several promising premises tonight, even if very little made me laugh out loud. We at least got an absolute all-timer moment with the Joke Swap, which was as ballsy and off the beaten path as SNL gets these days.