Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Chris Pine sing until he hosted SNL. I don’t think I’ve ever even pondered the notion of him singing. Now, I don’t think there was some grand scheme on his part in which he showed up and demanded to sing. Most likely instead, like pretty much every SNL, that’s just the way it worked out.
This was an SNL that at least felt like it took a break from politics a bit compared to recent past shows. Admittedly, it was kind of refreshing! It’s going to be a long four years and if we don’t take a break from this madness here and there, we are going to go insane. Maybe we are already insane? Maybe that’s why we think we saw Chris Pine singing in an awfully large percentage of his sketches last night.
Sketch of the Night
“Swat Recon” In a show that had a sillier vibe, this was the king of “silly,” so why not? What sells this is just how much fun Chris Pine and Mikey Day looked like they were having. I truly believed they were at a fun party. Just like the SWAT team, I wanted to join this party. We should all be so lucky as to be able to attend a party like this. Heck, maybe I’ll organize my own backpack fashion show later today? No one is going to confuse this sketch for an “important” piece of comedy, but that’s why I like it so much. I’ve seen so much important comedy over the last few months to last me a lifetime and, sometimes, I just want to see a two grown men jump up and down and eat cotton candy.
Score: 8.2
Other Highlights
“Star Trek Lost Episode” First of all, a couple years ago I hung out with the SNL set designers to see what a normal week for them is like at the show. It’s insane. As one of the set designers, Leo Yoshimura has only missed one show in his now 42 years at SNL. And with last night’s show, he’s now played Sulu with John Belushi as Kirk, with William Shatner as Kirk, and now with Chris Pine as Kirk.
Look, obviously I was in the mood for silly, stupid sketches last night because this one made me laugh way more than it probably should have. By the third time Bobby Moynihan’s Spocko (I have no idea if I’m spelling that correctly) said, “now that’s a star trek!,” I couldn’t resist. And also, it’s true, some of those third season episodes of the original Star Trek are pretty rough. If “Spock’s Secret” was an actual episode, it wouldn’t be too far off from some of the lousy ones. (If you don’t believe me, maybe check out “The Way to Eden.”)
Score: 7.8
“The House” It’s funny, the last time they did this sketch it was with Chris Hemsworth. Based on Chris Pine’s monologue, I like to think there’s a deeper inside joke here. Regardless, these sketches are weird because they feel like sketches that should have been on the show maybe ten years ago when the reality show craze was a little closer to its apex, but they are still so well made. Kyle Mooney was born to give talking head updates to what he’s doing on the show. His voice is perfect.
Score: 7.0
“Chris Pine Monologue” Yes, this is another installment of “handsome famous person makes fun of himself,” but, whatever, it was charming. And the photos that were used of every handsome, famous Chris working today were pretty funny – if nothing else for than the fact they were all wearing the same outfit. I chose to believe this is true and not photoshopped for affect.
Score: 6.5
***
Average Overall Score for this Show: 6.84
· Dave Chappelle 7.44
· Kristen Stewart 7.38
· Tom Hanks 7.35
· Jimmy Fallon 7.08
· Lin-Manuel Miranda 6.99
· Margot Robbie 6.95
· Scarlett Johansson 6.92
· Louis C.K. 6.90
· Alec Baldwin 6.89
· Chris Pine 6.84
· Aziz Ansari 6.82
· Octavia Spencer 6.77
· Emma Stone 6.46
· Casey Affleck 6.37
· John Cena 6.17
· Kristen Wiig 6.12
· Felicity Jones 5.97
· Benedict Cumberbatch 5.73
· Emily Blunt 5.45
You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
