Chris Rock has a rarified place as a Saturday Night time Stay alumnus, in that the present very a lot helped put him and his comedian model on the map, but by most accounts he wasn’t all that profitable or glad throughout his abbreviated three seasons as a forged member (and, certainly, already had a fairly respectable film profession earlier than he left). Rock was a part of an period the place the present was loading up on brash stand-up comics who popped on digicam however didn’t all the time appear to know find out how to write themselves sketches (and even, in accordance with some interviews, that they had been supposed to put in writing themselves sketches); he’s simply essentially the most achieved stand-up of that group, and possibly the least comfy doing loopy make-em-ups and foolish characters. Rock merely appeared to have a restricted urge for food for pretending to be another person; isn’t Nat X actually simply the form of heightened point-of-view stand-ups typically undertake for amusing, not an act of inhabiting a completely sketched-in persona?
But Rock additionally got here again to host should quicker than his fellow “dangerous boys” and/or Grown Ups forged members David Spade, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, or the still-waiting-for-his-invite Rob Schneider, reflecting simply how rapidly he hit his stride after leaving the present. And he’s hosted extra incessantly than any of these guys, for, nicely, quite a lot of causes, however it does align him extra with alumni like Tina Fey or Julia Louis-Dreyfus (repeatedly returning having conquered one other space of media) moreso than, say, Spade and even semi-frequent host and visitor star Dana Carvey, who was absent from this week’s Rock-hosted episode for the primary time all season. (Apparently, Carvey did cameo on Rock’s first internet hosting gig, again in 1996.)
One other, bigger-name cameo turned up within the again half of the episode, type of encapsulating Rock’s complete deal as a number. In a hospital-set sketch that first gave the impression to be some odd mixture of Gen-Z sensitivity satire and bid for a extra normie Sarah Sherman recurring bit, Sherman performed Leslie, a nurse making repeated, large errors throughout surgical procedure, then demanding to know if everyone seems to be mad at her. The primary twist was Rock’s physician character repeatedly defending Leslie, not less than partly as a consequence of her magnificence; then the affected person wakes up, seems to be performed by Adam Sandler, and the sketch turns into an under-rehearsed massacre with the Sandman making a sport of squirting pretend blood at every actor in flip (regardless of some preliminary hassle with Sherman), and at one level congratulating Emil Wakim for scoring some screentime regardless of probably not having a job within the “skit” (ouch, Sandman). All collectively, you’ve Rock stumbling over his strains and never particularly convincing at the same time as a comedy physician; Sherman doing a personality that the sketch appears to surrender on midway via; Sandler showing and taking on the sketch to make it extra meta; and a number of throwback vibes directly (pretend blood spray; deliberately annoying character). It’s a large number of a sketch. (Truly, Sandler may be proper. It actually may be a skit.) And it landed as weirdly humorous and charming anyway, a ramshackle admission that typically the present actually is simply dressing up foolish and squirting blood at your comic associates.
Different sketches in Rock’s episode labored in additional conventional, held-together methods. However the one which felt for a couple of minute as if it’d flip into an easy-layup traditional (and may but flip up on this yr’s Christmas compilation regardless) was equally sloppy: Rock performs a division retailer elf gleefully welcoming white households to decide on between a white Santa (James Austin Johnson) and a Black Santa (Devon Walker), the time period for which isn’t “Blanta,” irrespective of how onerous Chloe Fineman’s mother character tries. Nice premise, however the execution turned out to only be Rock standing round awkwardly, basically repeating the joke with minor variation. Perhaps it wanted higher lead-up; as-is, it felt as if the sketch was ready for an enormous second of catharsis that it rushed towards with out ever reaching, regardless of loads of smaller laughs.
For that matter, that energized seek for one thing larger was there in Rock’s stand-up monologue, too. First feinting towards a scolding over the United Healthcare CEO assassination, he sharply and succinctly pivoted from expressing sympathy to a fantastic punchline: “Typically drug sellers get shot.” Then he rambled a bit about Trump and labored in a few Menendez Brothers jokes… there have been laughs for certain, as a result of Rock stays a talented comic who clearly thinks by way of stand-up greater than sketches or screenplays, however you possibly can nonetheless catch a glimpse of the man who acquired publicly slapped for doing a G.I. Jane joke 25 years late. Furthermore, watching him again on SNL, nonetheless not precisely reveling in dwell sketch comedy whereas nonetheless giving it a shot, was a reminder that typically the present’s odds-and-ends moments can generate extra compelling comedian rigidity than the smoothest professionalism.
What was on
When it comes to purely well-written, old school sketch comedy that made unexpectedly good use of Rock’s admirable enthusiasm for, and questionable talent at, taking part in Bizarre Guys Who Hold Saying Bizarre Stuff, that Secret Santa piece was terrific. Humorous strains and moments within the margins, Rock’s character not simply loving his Secret Santa reward however permitting it to activate his creativeness and doubtlessly questionable understanding of The Simpsons, and the cheerfulness of the entire enterprise made this a winner. The blind-date sketch with Rock that closed out the evening didn’t precisely fall flat, however it was placing to see one other Bizarre Man Saying Bizarre Stuff sketch, with a extra conventional hook at that, not work fairly so nicely.
I additionally thought Jane Wickline’s second Replace track was very humorous, a neatly off-center tackle pop music fandom along with her singing “as” Sabrina Carpenter protesting in regards to the full lack of suspicion over her sexuality. To this point, Wickline, regardless of her TikTok background hewing nearer to sketches than stand-up, is extra within the custom of these early-’90s SNL gamers like Rock, the place her particular persona, greater than a wide-ranging versatility, appears to be the rationale for her hiring. However although I’ve been impatient with the present’s seeming curiosity in recreating a Pete Davidson dynamic in recent times, the present in 2024 has a greater deal with on balancing conventional ensemble performers like Ashley Padilla with these extra idiosyncratic personalities like Wickline. The 1993 model of Jane Wickline can be inspired to give you a one-note recurring sketch ASAP.
What was off
Kenan actually sells the bit in regards to the safety man whose harassment engenders far more affection from a sternly disapproving group of workplace staff than a extra historically piggish exec or higher-up. However really, there was no cause to deliver this one out, what was it, a 3rd time? It simply can’t maintain a candle to everybody’s favourite recurring sketch: Michael Che protesting “it’s the ’90s” after a Weekend Replace joke.
Most worthy participant (who will not be prepared for prime time)
Even given how surprisingly nicely Sarah Sherman has built-in her sensibility into the present, it was an enormous week for her, particularly contemplating her hair and costuming by no means went additional than “considerably outlandish”—and that was largely in service of her taking part in licensed precise individual Nancy Grace. The Nancy Grace opener was an actual revelation within the sense that I had no concept Nancy Grace was nonetheless round (although, yeah, in fact she is). As an actually-funny sketch, nicely, Sherman did deliver some bizarre touches to it, and the interrupting YouTube advertisements (with Marcello Hernandez well-cast as “insanely loud man”) added a enjoyable structural wrinkle. “Finest” isn’t all the time “most,” however Sherman actually tied the episode collectively this week.
Subsequent time
Martin Brief will get that five-timer bag in his newest December internet hosting gig, and likewise Hozier apparently nonetheless exists!
Stray observations
• I might like to get extra into music discussions in these recaps, and will in some unspecified time in the future, however nothing I’ve to say about Gracie Abrams goes to look wildly unique. She feels like Taylor Swift. Like, so much like Taylor Swift. She seems to be a bit like Dua Lipa meets Phoebe Bridgers. I noticed somebody on the web say that she’s like “if Phoebe Bridgers was gifted” and that made me form of depressed for a couple of minutes till I spotted some individuals are simply very younger.
• Dismukes taking part in a super-defensive bald man on Replace made me snort, though it was a complicated space to cowl so quickly after that bald-guy track they did on the Invoice Burr episode nearly a month in the past.
• The 2 filmed items, “Grandpa’s Magic Automobile” and “Your Workplace Christmas Social gathering,” each felt like they might have been pulled out from Rock’s second time internet hosting, in 2014, or (barring COVID), his third, in 2020; each had been humorous sufficient, however I’d give the sting to “Your Workplace Christmas Social gathering” as a result of frankly, I’m a sucker for sketches that make ironic use of the monster-truck-rally-style announcer voice. In that area, this was no “Kick-Spit Underground Rock Competition” or aggro Black Friday advert (“Discover him! Contact him! Win!”), as an alternative taking part in extra like an amped-up model of the Thanksgiving traditional advert for “Your Hometown.”
