To put a cap on another year of SNL, let’s count down the 10 best sketches from Season 40, with honorable mentions given to “Wishing Boot,” “Black Widow: Age of Me,” and that one from the Chris Hemsworth episode with the chicken. I expect big things from that chicken.
Anyway, here’s the best of the best (sketches… we left out monologues). What’s your favorite?
10. “The Group Hopper” (Bill Hader)
What we said then:
Adapted from a YA novel written entirely in the comments section of The Hunger Games comes The Group Hopper, an impossible to comprehend mashup of every YA book to come out this decade. SNL sketches with high production values don’t always turn out well, but there was an attention to detail that works here. Plus, Bill Hader as Effie Trinket.
There’s nothing to not like about that. (Via)
Instead of OTM SHANK-type games, the Alamo Drafthouse shows content related to whichever movie they’re about to screen. For instance, prior to Mad Max: Fury Road, there was a bunch of old-school footage about stunts and cars going fast, and before The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the pre-roll was dedicated to all things YA, including showing “The Group Hopper.” The guy sitting next to me thought it was an actual movie, not a parody. Even though “Hopper” wasn’t real, it was still the best SNL feature to be shown in a theater since Wayne’s World 2.
9. “High School Theater Show” (Cameron Diaz)
What we said then:
A sketch like this takes on new meaning if you’ve ever actually been to one of these type of indulgent shows. My gosh, the way Taran Killam delivered the line, “the Internet” is just so spot on. Everything about this sketch was amazing—something tells me Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney were heavily involved—from the choreography to the dialogue to Kenan Thompson and Vanessa Bayer’s audience reactions. (Via)
I’m not a parent, and I’m not sure if I want to be after watching “High School Theater Show.” Sitting through my child’s pretentious play about whispers of America and ordering a double shot of compassion at Starbucks? The only thing worse than that is having to lie to your daughter about “how good she was.” It’s much easier to not have kids and waste your life recapping SNL.
8. “Singing Sisters” (Amy Adams)
What we said then:
You’re either going to love or hate “Singing Sisters.” With a sketch this weird, there’s going to be very little middle ground. I happen to love it, because holy sh*t, that’s not an ending I expected, and that doesn’t happen very often on SNL. But I know someone who hates it: every One Direction fan. Apparently, the boys were supposed to be in a second sketch, after dancing their way through “Girlfriends Talk Show,” but it was cut for time. Seems the Directioners focused their fury on those garbage-eating siblings. (Via)
Yup, still love this weird thing, doubly so because SNL tagged the video on YouTube as, “Singing Sisters (ft. Amy Adams Golden Globe® 2015 Winner) – Saturday Night Live.” When’s the last time fellow Golden Globe winner Annette Bening turned into a raccoon, huh?
7. “Bushwick, Brooklyn 2015” (Kevin Hart)
What we said then:
Everything about this short was about misdirection, and they pulled if off pretty wonderfully. (Kevin Hart strolling into the mayonnaise shop was a pretty great shot.) And, by the end, just when you think you’ve figured out where this is going, it pulls the rug out from underneath you again. This actually felt more like good filmmaking than just a good SNL pretaped short. (Via)
Kevin Hart is usually a chaotic, loud ball of energy, and he’s earned millions of fans doing so. But in “Bushwick, Brooklyn 2015,” he plays the role of a corner boy walking into an “artisanal mayonnaise spot” with subtlety. The set-up dictates the characters, not the other way around, like in The Wedding Ringer. And Think Like a Man Too. And pretty much all of Hart’s movies.
6. “Easter Candy” (Michael Keaton)
What we said then:
Good gracious, this was an odd thing — but there has to be an appreciation for any sketch that can make a Fatal Attraction and a Friday reference within 15 seconds of each other. (Followed by Kate McKinnon “hiding” eggs by smashing them up against the wall.) Anyway, it’s nice to know that with Easter upon us and Lent over, this guy can have cocaine again, almost. (I really hope Michael Keaton doesn’t wait another 23 years to host SNL again – and I hope Bobby Moynihan’s “nut” character gets his own sketch someday.) (Via)
Michael Keaton holding a copy of Friday on DVD wasn’t a dream I knew I had until this sketch.
5. “Campfire Song” (Woody Harrelson)
What we said then:
I had “Paul and Phil” stuck in my head for weeks after the Jim Carrey episode. Eventually, it was replaced by the “Too Many Cooks” theme song, which has now been usurped by “Apples, In the Usual Way.” I don’t know why I loved this stupid sketch so much, but I did. It might be Woody’s playful enthusiasm, or the reveal that all his friends actually know the weird song he’s singing, or “bad job, Eva,” or, most likely, “apples, apples”…
Well, there goes the next two weeks of my life. (Via)
Yup, still stuck in my head.
4. “New Disney Movie” (The Rock)
What we said then:
The live action remake of Cinderella just made Disney a ton of money, and thanks to the casting of Bill Murray, Idris Elba, and Emma Watson, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast will probably be even more successful. Good thing, too, because I was beginning to worry that Star Wars, The Avengers, and Frozen wasn’t enough for Di$ney.
Remaking old animated movies with flesh-and-blood actors is clearly working for them, so it’s only a matter of time before production begins on Bambi, and when it does, I hope it looks like SNL‘s parody with the Rock.
Bambi’s out for revenge. The hunters that killed his mom are going to pay…deerly. (Via)
The episode hosted by Dwayne Johnson was probably my favorite of the season — I have it ranked a lot higher than Mike Ryan, who gave the honor to Martin Freeman — and “Bambi” was the obvious highlight. It took something that’s happening in real life (Disney raiding their own vault), and exaggerated it to a comical degree. Taran Killam’s Vin Diesel needs a spin-off.
3. “Lincoln Ads” (Jim Carrey)
What we said then:
South Park (and Kate Hudson) did it, but SNL found a new angle on making fun of Matthew McConaughey’s self-serious Lincoln ads: by making them about boogers, mysterious children in the backseat, and running over the Allstate Insurance guy. The trio of clips was a funny runner throughout last night’s episode, but they beg the question: when will Rust Cohle himself, who hasn’t hosted since 2003, return to SNL? If he wants to be “MUSICAL GUEST…NAKED BONGO PLAYER,” that’d work, too. (Via)
Maybe more than any sketch this season, “Lincoln Ads” is the one that most permeated culture. It’s nearly as iconic as the thing it’s spoofing. That rarely happens with SNL anymore.
2. “Neurotology” (Michael Keaton)
What we said then:
Still haven’t seen HBO’s Going Clear? Don’t bother.
SNL condensed everything you need to know about Scientology into one music video from the 1990s about Neurotology, a made-up, spaced-out religion that requires a billion year contract. It’s damning and clever, with the framing device allowing viewers to see where the singers are up to 25 years later. Most are missing, some have written tell-alls, while others are straight-up dead, having been “thrown off a boat.”
Scientologists are pissed they didn’t think of chaining Katie Holmes to a toilet. (Via)
The attention to detail is superb, as is the song and the fates of everyone in the video. My personal favorite is “in a hole.” Plus, Colin Jost’s best role to date.
1. “That’s When You Break” (SNL40)
What we said then:
Set to the tune of “Simply the Best,” this catchy song and music video celebrates all the times our favorite featured players lost their sh*t during sketches, from Will Ferrell losing Molly Shannon’s baby at a BoDeans concert to Mike Myers and Dana Carvey fumbling with their Top 10 board on tonight’s show. And it wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t single out one particular cast member for being the all-time worst offender. (Via)
How would you define Season 40 of SNL? By Kate McKinnon becoming the Next Great Cast Member? The quick rise of rookie Pete Davidson? The lack of Bobby Moynihan? For me, it’s what happened on Feb. 15, 2015, the SNL 40th Anniversary Special. So much time and effort was spent on SNL40 that the episodes around it felt like total throwaways, the Friday before a five-day vacation. That’s why I’m choosing “That’s When You Break” as the best sketch of the season, despite not feeling like there really was a “best” this season. But it’s the most emblematic of where the show’s at… pre-recorded, catchy song, and often coasting on the likability of its cast. The dream of SNL is for the audience to look as happy as the cast. During this digital short, we were.
