Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: katy perry, nbc, recap, Review, saturday night live, snl, willem dafoe

Saturday Night Live Goes A-Rod, Please Don't Destroy, Bad Dogs & More

So we learned last night that this weekend's edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live will be the last one until February 26th (damn you, Olympics), with John Mulaney hosting and LCD Soundsystem as the musical guest. This means last night's host Willem Dafoe and musical guest Katy Perry had the extra responsibility of sending the show off on its three-week break on a good note. So did it? Actually, yeah. Because the combination of Dafoe being a first-time host and Dafoe being Dafoe was more than enough for the sketches to work for me. And Perry's second performance in particular ("Never Really Over") just killed it emotionally (with Perry getting bonus points for the dancing, fan-waving "mushroom testicles"). But while the episode worked and there wasn't necessarily a bad sketch in the bunch, a few of them did feel like they could've benefitted by losing 30 seconds here and a minute there (and ending sketches seemed to be a bit shaky this go-around, too). And yes, even "Weekend Update" suffered a bit from that this week, too (and Colin Jost & Michael Che almost never miss our list). But we did get Pete Davidson making another run at Aaron Rodgers during the cold open (which didn't make our cut as a sketch but you can check out here starting at the 4:00 mark because Davidson deserves serious props) so things already kicked off on a strong note.

As for what did work for us, here are the five moments that sold us on SNL the most this weekend:

Please Don't Destroy – Martin's Friend: Second only to "Weekend Update," Ben Marshall, John Higgins & Martin Herlihy's Please Don't Destroy have become my favorite part of SNL. Why? Because this is how they demonstrate the initial awkwardness that comes from a new & different friend being introduced into the "friend group." Bonus points for gratuitous Jost appearance and getting the sweet effects budget for that flying chunk of steak.

Weekend Update: Trend Forecasters on the Latest Trends: As we mentioned earlier, it was a bit of a stumble for Jost & Che this week with "Weekend Update" but Aidy Bryant and Bowen Yang's Trend Forecasters made the save (just be careful with their love/hate relationship with shiny shoes).

"Now I'm Up": In this week's music video sketch, Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd sing about what woke them up, and it turns into a rundown of all the things that turn a decent six hours of sleep into a choppy four hours. And good look getting that hook out of your head… we're still dealing with it this morning (and writing about it now didn't help).

"Nugenix": "Sir" Willem Dafoe, Frank Thomas (Thompson), and Doug Flutie (Kyle Mooney) really want Mikey Day to get help getting hard, whether he needs it or not. The sketch worked on two levels: first, as a parody of those commercials when they spend way too much time dancing around what they're really trying to get at; second, the ending goes so over the top to the absurd that you can't help but appreciate its Adult Swim-like vibe.

"Dog Show": Dafoe and Bryant are spot-on with the perfect combination of pleasant politeness with a slow slide into insanity as the Badminster Dog Show's hosts. But it's Kate McKinnon & Punkie Johnson who get the extra credit for being our tour guides through a line-up of dogs with issues every single dog owner out there can relate to. And bonus points also go to SNL for recognizing that they've had a good run this season with sketches that involved real dogs, with "Dog Show" keeping that record strong leading into the break.

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