Posted in: NBC, Peacock, Review, TV, YouTube | Tagged: nbc, ramy youssef, Review, saturday night live, season 49, snl, travis scott

Saturday Night Live Team, Ramy Youssef Offer Easter Treat: Review

NBC's Saturday Night Live returned this weekend with a solid effort from the SNL team, host Ramy Youssef, and musical guest Travis Scott.

My expectations for this weekend's return episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live weren't high – but that had nothing to do with host Ramy Youssef and musical guest Travis Scott. It's just that the long-running late-night sketch comedy & music series was coming off of an extended break after two strong outings from Sydney Sweeney and Josh Brolin. – and sometimes, the show doesn't always return on a strong note. In addition, we know that for the first two weekends this April, SNL has heavy hitters Kristen Wiig and Ryan Gosling waiting in the wings. Add into the mix that it was also Easter weekend, and you can understand why I approached last night with cautiously cynical optimism.

Thankfully, the end result was something that had my cynical side left wanting and my optimism side feeling pretty good about the remainder of the season. While it might not be in contention for best episode of the season, it was a fun showing that may not have been heavy on the laugh-out-loud moments but at least had me smiling most of the time. Youssef clearly committed to his sketches, showing a broader comedic range than we've seen in the past – while Scott delivered another pair of on-point performances (along with some "extra credit" with Please Don't Destroy). Now, let's take a look at how it all played out…

What Worked? What Didn't Work? Okay, let's get the negatives out of the way first – because there weren't any. There wasn't anything in Saturday night's lineup that could count as missing the mark – even if some of them left me more amused than anything else. The cold open was a perfect showcase for James Austin Johnson's Donald Trump and needs to be rewatched to truly appreciate everything that Johnson's performance had to offer. Youssef's monologue was one of the strongest this season – and didn't take long to attract attention on social media for one portion of it.

"Couple Goals" featured Youssef, Ego Nwodim, Mikey Day, and Heidi Gardner (with Johnson as the host) as couples who really don't know one another – a reminder that SNL can still grind out great laughs from the "game show" format. "Immigrant Dad Talk Show" may have introduced a new pair of recurring characters in Hahmed Ahmed Mahmoud (Youssef) and Joaquin Antonio (Marcello Hernández) – with Youssef and Hernandez chewing up the screen, with a twisted assist from Day and Andrew Dismukes. "Team Captain" was silliness that worked because of the earnestness of the performances, while "Murder Detective" found a new angle about those "CSI: Miami" openers that found a way to make the topic funny – resurrecting a joke over Easter weekend feels appropriate.

"Tiny Desk Concert" sees a band (Youssef, Johnson & Chloe Troast) getting interrupted during their Tiny Desk Concert at NPR – a serviceable concept on paper that's saved from that fate by Bowen Yang and his exchanges with Youssef. On "Weekend Update," Sarah Sherman's Flaco the Owl's Widow (SNL keeping an overarching joke going) was exactly the kind of widowed owl that we were hoping that she would be – but a little too light on the Colin Jost roasting. Chloe Fineman's Piper Dunster addressed the Kate Middleton drama, and it started off strong but quickly vibed like a sketch that was crawling across its finish line.

What Were the Highlights? "Please Don't Destroy – We Got Too High (ft. Travis Scott)" was the highlight of the night, as Scott rapped & served as ringmaster over Youseff's and Please Don't Destroy's (Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy) social misadventures. Who can't relate to all of the ways that Marshall, Higgins & Herlihy attempted to keep their raging highs in check? For the more sober viewers out there, Youssef tapped into some of the core insecurities we have when we go out. Why did we wear shorts? Why did we bring a rolling backpack?

"Ozempic for Ramadan" was a wonderfully twisted take on the drug that's become "all the rage" in terms of weight loss. The only thing funnier than the sincerity of the sketch (Yousseff really sells it) is that we could absolutely see this being rolled out in real life – don't you? As far as "Weekend Update" goes, Jost and Michael Che have been running strong for most of the season – but over the past few shows, they tended to call out or refer to the audience's reactions (groans and things like that) to their jokes a bit too much. That definitely wasn't the case this week, with Jost & Che offering up the kind of "We don't give a shit because we're funny, and we feed off of how uncomfortable you were with that joke" vibe that we like.

Saturday Night Live Season 49: Ramy Youssef & Travis Scott

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Review by Ray Flook

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7.5/10

My expectations for this weekend's return episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live weren't high - but that had nothing to do with host Ramy Youssef and musical guest Travis Scott. It's just that the long-running late-night sketch comedy & music series was coming off of an extended break after two strong outings from Sydney Sweeney and Josh Brolin. - and sometimes, the show doesn't always return on a strong note. In addition, we know that for the first two weekends this April, SNL has heavy hitters Kristen Wiig and Ryan Gosling waiting in the wings. Add into the mix that it was also Easter weekend, and you can understand why I approached last night with cautiously cynical optimism. Thankfully, the end result was something that had my cynical side left wanting and my optimism side feeling pretty good about the remainder of the season. While it might not be in contention for best episode of the season, it was a fun showing that may not have been heavy on the laugh-out-loud moments but at least had me smiling most of the time. Youssef clearly committed to his sketches, showing a broader comedic range than we've seen in the past - while Scott delivered another pair of on-point performances (along with some "extra credit" with Please Don't Destroy). Now, let's take a look at how it all played out...

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