Charli XCX

Here's a quick review of last night's SNL episode.

Cold Open: I am still very tired of Dana Carvey's Biden, but Sarah Sherman's take on Matt Gaetz makes up for it. Also, just Alec Baldwin in general. 8/10

Opening Monologue: Probably isn't as brat as it could be, but still very good. 8/10

Sketches: There were eight sketches last night. Here they are, ranked.

The One That's Not Very Good: It Girl Thanksgiving Special. It just feels kind of bland next to all the other sketches. I like bits and pieces, but overall, the jokes aren't great. 6/10

7: Acting Teacher. It could have been funnier, but the jokes had barely any variety. I still find it pretty funny. 7/10

6: Banger Boyz. Some great moments, and long stretches of nothing special. 7/10

5: Thanksgiving Baking Championship. It moved a bit too fast, and the jokes weren't the most original. Still, it was fairly efficient. 7/10

4: Shrek: The Musical. I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. Very well executed. 8/10

3: Babymoon. Honestly better than the original. The jokes came quicker and were better. 8/10

2: Wicked Auditions. I love the audition sketches, and even though there were a few impressions that I didn't really get, it was great. 9/10

1: Here I Go. Andy Samberg just embodying the spirit of every suburban white male and Charli matching his energy perfectly with some of the greatest Karen vibes in the history of television. It's perfect. 10/10

Weekend Update: Maybe they were just funnier. Maybe the political jokes are just more tolerable with some space from the election. Either way, I laughed a lot more than last week. 9/10

Musical Guest: Charli is so talented. Not only are the songs incredible, her confidence is enviable, and even with all the autotune, she looks so natural on stage. 10/10

Overall: 8/10.

This episode was not brat. I liked Charlie XCX's monologue because she was self aware, but that was the end of the self awareness and any sort of originality and humor. While weekend update was amusing, it was carried by Sarah Squirm as the squirrel, and her tail hitting Jost. There's one episode every season that is objectively bad. I am surprised that this episode is rated higher than the previous Bill Burr episode. I suppose it's because that one was "too political," but the political scenes in this one weren't funny; they weren't funny in a comedic way, nor in a satirical way since the actual political events themselves aren't funny.

Having a sequel to the Domingo skit already started out low because we already know the joke. It's just done again but worse. After (or before) that one was another cooking show skit, which was doomed to fail because nothing can match the cooking skit-or any skit from-the Eddie Murphy episode a few seasons back. The acting coach archetype has also been done before and none of those jokes were funny. I don't remember if the podcast bros skit had been done before, but it was just the same gag over and over throughout the episode, and it was a rerun of a joke established earlier in the episode: Trump's cabinet choices suck.

Then we end with Shrek. I don't know why. Maybe it's because Shrek 5 recently was confirmed. I didn't laugh at all the entire sketch.

Charlie's musical performances weren't very good. I was impressed briefly with the perspective change in the first one, but don't watch either of her musical "performances" if you have epilepsy... or this episode if you enjoy comedy.

Season so far has been at least a 7 out of 10. I liked last season a lot more, although I give Ariana Grande's episode a 10/10, for every skit in that was amazing. And she wasn't even musical guest! It's a shame we have to wait three more weeks for them to return. Maybe in that time they will come up with better material. Hopefully not too many Trump related sketches; it's too real right now, I'm not ready for it.