Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL Second-Guessing: McKinnon & Eilish's Touching, Twisted Holiday

SNL Second-Guessing: Kate McKinnon, Billie Eilish & Sarah Sherman filled holiday stockings with two wild and wonderfully different sketches.

NBC's Saturday Night Live Season 49 headed into the new year on a strong note, with SNL alum, actor & comedian Kate McKinnon and musical guest Billie Eilish helping the show's cast and writers offer a warm, fuzzy, funny, and slightly weird-in-all-the-right-ways stocking filled with sketches representing some of the best work of the season so far. With the episode getting a reairing tonight, this week's edition of "SNL Second-Guessing" looks at two sketches that not only offer a better sense of how wonderfully diverse the sketch lineup was for the night but also exemplify how SNL expertly balances the touching and the twisted – "Whiskers R We," penned by Kent Sublette, and "Pongo," written by Dan Bulla and SNL star Sarah Sherman.

SNL Second-Guessing: Looking Back at "Whiskers R We" and "Pongo"

"Whiskers R We" (Kent Sublette): We need more McKinnon/Eilish team-ups like this when either of them is hosting because this was exactly the kind of touchingly sweet holiday heartstring-tugger that we've come to expect from SNL around the holiday season. It would've been so easy for the cats and that slew of great pun names to be the comedic focus, but it was actually nicely balanced out by the personal story between Barbara DeDrew (McKinnon) and Paw-bree Hep-Purrn (Eilish). At first, we were getting the vibe that they might go in a romantic direction, but implying that they might just be mother/daughter was a much better direction to take things. McKinnon and Eilish

"Pongo" (Dan Bulla, Sarah Sherman): With all due respect to co-writer Bulla, this sketch had Sarah Sherman's brand of humor all over it – and it was brilliant. Parents (Mikey Day & Sherman) purchase a special kind of "pet" for the family (McKinnon, Chloe Fineman & Andrew Dismukes) that addresses their concerns that maybe the family isn't quite ready for a real pet. If that's the case, then… here's Pongo! It's the pet for families that might not have time to feed it or take it outside – because it has no openings! Worried about barking? You don't have to be because it doesn't bark – or make any sounds whatsoever. Also? Pongo can't die. Pongo really likes being a part of your family. Pongo doesn't appreciate anyone trying to get rid of Pongo. You get a sense of where this is going, right? Let's not forget that all of this is going down amid the trappings of Christmas, which only serves to dial up the wonderfully creepy factor. We won't spoil where things go from there (you can check out the sketch below) – but bonus props go out to Sherman, who executes an excellent turn as the only one in the family who just knows that something is very, very wrong with Pongo.

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