Sketch of the Night
“Mafia Meeting” (Dinklage, Moynihan, Davidson, Pharoah, Rudnitsky, Stefani) Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day have now written “Kevin Roberts” and “Space Pants” in the same season. (This sketch is officially called “Mafia Meeting,” but it will forever be known as “Space Pants.”) I love the misdirect here, that this sketch is really going to be about some sort of mafia meeting. Then here comes Dinklage, who was somehow born to play the guy wearing Space Pants and singing about Space Pants. If this song is released on iTunes, I would buy it. I want to throw one of those trendy rooftop parties and project Peter Dinklage singing “Space Pants” onto a brick wall. (And all this despite a huge mess up early in the sketch that obviously threw people off … and then it still didn’t matter because this is so glorious.)
Score: 9.5
The Good
“Naked and Afraid” (Dinklage, Jones) The worst part about this sketch is that this show with Peter Dinklage and Leslie Jones as contestants doesn’t actually exist.
Score: 8.0
“Winnie the Pooh” (Dinklage, Ensemble) I can’t quite explain it, but I find the name “Denny the Real” very funny, especially with (a) Jay Pharoah’s delivery and (b) while Pharoah is sitting next to Peter Dinklage dressed up as Winnie the Pooh. A Winnie the Pooh sketch! Why not?
Score: 8.0
“Undersea Hotel” (Dinklage, Strong, Bennett, Pharoah, Killam) First of all, just the fact that there’s an Eagle Eye Cherry reference in this sketch earns it a small score bump on its own. This was the dumbest thing, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Dumb things are good sometimes – especially when it involves an eel eating Taran Killam’s face.
Score: 7.5
“Weekend Update” (Jost, Che, Davidson, Thompson) It’s safe to say “Weekend Update” has found its groove now, right? It was groove-less for so long that I still feel the urge to point out “this is good,” but I suppose I should stop now. Jost and Che are consistently “loose” now, which is good. Pete Davidson’s segment was good, but kind of ran out of steam by the end. And does anyone have more fun playing a character than when Kenan Thompson plays David Ortiz?
Score: 7.0
“Game of Thrones Sneak Peek” (Dinklage, McKinnon, Moynihan, Killam) Honestly, I kind of wish everything in this were true. And what were the odds Bobby Moynihan would be in a Game of Thrones sketch and not be George R.R. Martin?
Score: 6.4
“Corporate Magic Show” (Killam, Dinklage, McKinnon, Bayer) I can’t decide if a sketch about a corporate boss being angry because a magician insinuated that the corporate boss’ underwear stinks after a benign magic trick is the fourth least “ten to one” sketch of the night or the most “ten to one” sketch of the night. I mean, it technically is the ten to one sketch. Now that I reread the sentence before this, I think I might have to go with most. It’s not the “weirdest” thing of the night, but it’s the most “how in the world is this is thing?” sketch of the night. (Also, Dinklage nails the mannerisms of a “corporate boss.”)
Score:6.0
The Bad
“Vacation Nightmares” (Dinklage, Strong, Killam, Bennett, Bayer, McKinnon, Bryant, Mooney) This is a great concept, but didn’t quite hit. Watching a couple respond directly to the dramatized reenactments is pretty great, but something about the setting didn’t work. I don’t know, I don’t have all the answers. I do know that I wanted to like this.
Score: 5.0
“Peter Dinklage Monologue” (Dinklage, Moynihan, Thompson, McKinnon, Bayer, Bennett, Jones) It’s at this point I was actually a little worried that the whole show would just be some version, “Hey, Game of Thrones, right?” Now knowing how good Dinklage is, I kind of wish he could of used this time to sing “Space Pants.”
Score: 4.7
“Cold Open: At This Hour” (McKinnon, Strong, Hanmond, Moynihan) SNL was in a weird spot politically this week. We, as humans, got a relative breather from this never-ending election because there was no primary or debate this past week. But SNL has been off so long, they probably felt that needed to do something. Well, this was it. Maybe it would have been a good week for Pharoah’s Obama. I still can’t believe we haven’t seen Obama all season.
Score: 4.0
The Ugly
“Trendy Restaurant” Dinklage, Bryant, Bayer, Bennett, Killam, Mooney, Pharoah) I really liked how this started, with the typical New York City couple showing their Ohio friends from out of town “how it’s done.” On Friday, a few friends of mine went to a New York City restaurant called Ninja. At Ninja, ninjas attack you while you’re trying to eat. This is a real place. I have no interest in ever eating at Ninja. The whole “glory hole” element of this sketch seemed much less intrusive than Ninja.
Score: 4.0
Average Score for this Show: 6.37
· Ariana Grande 7.21
· Tracy Morgan 7.12
· Larry David 7.08
· Elizabeth Banks 6.98
· Amy Schumer 6.53
· Peter Dinklage 6.37
· Chris Hemsworth 6.35
· Ryan Gosling 6.07
· Adam Driver 5.98
· Tina Fey and Amy Poehler 5.90
· Melissa McCarthy 5.79
· Matthew McConaughey 5.78
· Miley Cyrus 5.41
· Ronda Rousey 5.09
· Jonah Hill 4.80
· Donald Trump 4.48
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
