It’s now four episodes into season thirty-eight of Saturday Night Live. The new cast members are falling into place and the skits are becoming better and better. In Edward Norton’s episode there were skit highlights and lowlights.
It was Norton’s first time hosting the show and, for a rookie, he did pretty well. The musical guest, Janelle Monae, showed that females can perform well without taking off all of their clothes. The episode was probably the best of the season thus far.
Norton was relatively well used as a host. Sure, his monologue was bad, cluttered with Miley Cyrus and Alec Baldwin, but as he played zany characters, the terrible monologue was forgotten.
SNL this week got a little weird with really bad skits about Halloween candy and one about a bunch of virgin waiters. But, the good outweighed the bad. It seemed that, when SNL was doing their normal one-joke skits, it was terrible but when they stepped outside the box, that’s when they got the biggest laughs.
It was a big week for Kate McKinnon and Nasim Pedrad as that their parts stuck out the most. McKinnon is easily becoming the funniest woman on the show, a spot that Kristen Wiig used to hold. Cecily Strong is noteworthy as well though, she didn’t do much this episode. Four episodes in, it’s clear that the women (and Taran Killam) are the ones holding the show up.
Below are the top five skits of the episode.
5.New Horror Trailer
This was a skit that was either loved or hated. Nevertheless, it completely matched the style of Wes Anderson. Alec Baldwin narrated this fake trailer for a horror film. It was completely hipster and wonderful. The only problem with the skit was the Gwyneth Paltrow impression. I wasn’t a fan but other than that, it was a completely accurate skit.
4. Cold Open: Obamacare
It is no surprise that SNL made fun of the technical glitches for the healtcare.gov website. However, McKinnon killed the part of the Secretary of Health. She offered solutions such as restarting your computer. She even told the viewers to got to Kayak.com to buy a ticket to Canada to get universal healthcare there. The funniest part was when she pretended that she had frozen before getting to tell the audience what not to do.
3. Critter Control
This skit would have been much better if it weren’t for the business meeting going on in the background. However, it was still incredibly amusing. Russell and the exterminator were trying to get possums out of the air vent. However, the possums were charismatic, could do impressions and were holding a memorial. While the guys were hanging out with the possum, the camera kept turning toward the awkward business people.
2. Weekend Update
Weekend Update is almost always the best skit of the night. There is something about sarcastic readings of the news that can bring the laughs. This episode didn’t disappoint. The funniest line, hands down, was when Seth Meyers commented on the man from Hawaii who punched a shark. He stated that, “meanwhile, I saw a cockroach in my bathroom and now I shower at the gym.”
1. School Visit
School Visit was the best skit of the night. It featured Norton as a police officer trying to teach kids not to talk to strangers. However, his lesson derailed when the “vans of acting” student took control of the rhetoric. Pedrad shined in this skit, getting laughs with every single line that she spoke.
What was your favorite skit of the night?