Cold Open – The Resurrection
- Why does the opening setup give me a bad feeling about what’s to come?
- (*groan*) Another cold open focusing on James-as-Trump. Didn’t we already do this last Easter? Please tell me this isn’t gonna become a yearly thing.
- Ugh at the bit with James quoting Eminem’s “Without Me”.
- Blah at the premise of Trump promoting his Bibles.
- (*sigh*) At this point, I’m beyond numb to these sketches with Trump rambling. Look, I love James as much as the next guy, but they really should stop giving his Trump impression this lame material.
- All these visuals aren’t doing a thing for me.
- I certainly don’t need to hear a mention of Destiny’s Child.
- Okay, I did get a chuckle from the toast bit.
Rating: *½
Monologue
- I’ll be totally honest, I’m not familiar with Ramy’s standup at all. In fact, prior to him being announced as host, I had never heard of him. So consider this as an introduction to his work.
- Right off the bat, I’m liking Ramy’s demeanor. He’s coming off very approachable.
- Ramy’s already getting good laughs from me with his talk about love.
- Ramy: “You know which prophet: the best one, the last one.”
- More solid bits from Ramy regarding Joe Biden.
- Holy hell at Ramy telling us that our next President should be a woman.
- Ramy: “I’m out of ideas.”
- Very inspiring words from Ramy at the end, and I liked the punchline involving Mr. Bojangles.
Rating: ****
Couple Goals
- Is it just me, or does this era really like doing game show sketches in the lead-off spot?
- Always a treat to see James play a game show host, as he’s obviously a natural. That said, I didn’t care for the joke of his name being Bob Dabilda.
- Fitting pairing of Mikey and Heidi, as both are so out-of-place in the current cast that every time they’re on screen, I have to say to myself, “oh yeah, you’re still here”.
- Weird hearing a second mention of the Bible tonight.
- A laugh from Ramy’s first long-winded answer.
- Wait, is the joke just gonna be the couples getting the answer wrong every time? I find that kinda worrisome.
- I’m also unsure if the joke of Ramy’s long-winded answers will sustain itself for the entire sketch.
- I love James’ delivery of “odd but pleasant people”.
- Did we need to see Ego repeat the joke of Ramy’s answers?
- Okay, the joke of Ramy having multiple cards is working for me, partially due to James’ solid delivery.
- A laugh from the reveal of Ramy and Ego’s grand prize.
Rating: ***
Please Don’t Destroy – We Got Too High
- Boy, the audience is going crazy over the PDD title card.
- Uh-oh, I don’t think I’m liking where this short is going.
- Wow, the PDD guys can’t sing.
- Meh at the obligatory use of Travis Scott. This isn’t good for me, as I am not a fan of him nor the type of music that he represents.
- This premise doesn’t really work, even for PDD standards.
- I will admit that the melody and beat aren’t too bad. I just wish I cared for the comedy.
- Interesting bit with the PDD guys visiting a doctor.
Rating: **½
Immigrant Dad Talk Show
- Hmm, not too sure about this premise.
- I’m liking Ramy’s performance. I just wish I could say the same for Marcello. In fact, his delivery is pretty grating.
- The bits with Kenan aren’t doing much for me.
- Okay, Ramy’s angry delivery during his ranting is very solid.
- Aaaaaaannnnd to make me like this sketch even less, the bit with Andrew and Mikey kissing each other on the lips is made as a big deal.
- Overall, blah.
Rating: **
Team Captain
- Hmm, that sounds like James’ voice.
- I didn’t care for Kenan’s exaggerated delivery of “fundamental”.
- A laugh from Ramy revealing that Kenan accidentally sent a weird photo of himself to the group chat.
- Very funny reveals of Kenan’s subsequent pics.
- Boy, Marcello comes off extremely out of his element in this sketch.
- I love the cutaways to Devon.
- This ends up being Punkie’s only appearance all night.
- Good cutaway to James.
- Meh, a “newspaper headline” ending. At least the rest of the sketch was decent.
Rating: ***
Ozempic for Ramadan
- God, that Ozempic jingle causes me pain every time I hear it.
- Solid voiceover delivery from Fineman.
- Some okay laughs from the testimonials.
- I love Andrew’s delivery during his testimonial.
- Not too much to say about this overall fake ad, but it was fine.
Rating: ***
Weekend Update
- God, that Trump clip made me cringe.
- Meh at the joke of Biden being a “lesser-known celebrity”.
- A good laugh from Colin’s “seen here” joke.
- I like Che wondering why Hootie is being ignored.
- Looks like a typical Fineman role. I hope this works for me, seeing as how I’ve been let down by a lot of the guest commentaries these last few episodes.
- A laugh from Fineman’s first TikTok.
- Damn at the George Santos TikTok.
- Meh, Fineman’s overdoing it with her facial expressions whenever the camera cuts back to her.
- A laugh from Colin’s joke regarding the cast of Stranger Things.
- Given how Sarah’s last two commentaries didn’t work for me, I’m at least hoping this one does.
- Meh, so far, this commentary is not working for me at all. I’m not quite sure what it is, but this whole thing is just a bunch of nothingness.
- Aaaaaand this commentary has just ended. Y’know, I never thought I would ask this, but my God, what is HAPPENING with Sarah this year? During her first two seasons, I was such a champion of her, and she could do pretty much no wrong in my eyes. So far, this year has been heavily hit-or-miss for her. In fact, she’s probably had more misses for me this year. So…what’s going on? Is she running out of gas, or is she working with weaker writers? Someone please help me!
Rating: ***
Murder Detective
- James is obviously a natural for this role. In fact, his look in this sketch reminds me of someone, but I’m not quite sure who.
- A laugh from Andrew’s corny line, complete with CSI-style music.
- Wait, is that gonna be the joke throughout the whole sketch? I find that kinda worrisome, but Andrew seems like he’ll make this work.
- Sorry, SNL, but I’m just not gonna buy Marcello as a cop.
- A big laugh from Ramy doing the same “corny joke” bit as Andrew, leading to some tension between the two.
- Surprisingly, this is Longfellow’s first appearance all night.
- Why does Sarah look like she’s about to break?
- Funny text ending.
Rating: ***½
Tiny Desk Concert
- Oh hi, Troast. Where have you been all night?
- I like the look of Ramy, James, and Troast as members of an indie band. Very believable.
- Surprisingly, this is Bowen’s only appearance all night. Certainly no complaints from me.
- (*groan*) And of course, with this being Bowen’s only appearance, this sketch has to be aaaaaallll about him.
- And now we have Bowen talking about unfunny shit that I don’t care about. Wow, he just looooooves to hear himself talk, doesn’t he?
- For fuck’s sake, will someone please just shut Bowen up already? And yes, I know that him being annoying is the point, but that doesn’t automatically make it funny.
- Lame ending.
- Overall, this was a bust, and further argument as to why Bowen should not come back next year.
Rating: *½
Goodnights
- Oh hi, Molly. How does it feel to be shut out of tonight’s episode?
- Oh, and by the way, really?! No In Memoriam photo for Louis Gosset, Jr.? Y’know, between this and Carl Weathers, I’m beginning to wonder if SNL has any respect for the dead.
Final Thoughts
- Certainly a step up from the preceding episode with Josh Brolin, but this episode as a whole was still pretty middling. Even though there were only a few bombs throughout the night, most of the good segments were just okay, and the only segment that rose above average was the monologue. I will say that Ramy Youssef was a solid host who gave enjoyable performances throughout.
Cast Member / Host Count Down:
CHE: 1 sketch (Update)
DAY: 4 sketches (Couple Goals, Please Don’t Destroy, Immigrant Dad Talk Show, Team Captain)
DISMUKES: 4 sketches (Immigrant Dad Talk Show, Team Captain, Ozempic, Murder Detective)
FINEMAN: 2 sketches (Cold Open, Update)
GARDNER: 2 sketches (Cold Open, Couple Goals)
JOHNSON: 5 sketches (Cold Open, Couple Goals, Team Captain, Murder Detective, Tiny Desk Concert)
JOHNSON: 1 sketch (Team Captain)
JOST: 1 sketch (Update)
NWODIM: 3 sketches (Couple Goals, Ozempic, Murder Detective)
SHERMAN: 4 sketches (Cold Open, Update, Murder Detective, Tiny Desk Concert)
THOMPSON: 3 sketches (Immigrant Dad Talk Show, Team Captain, Ozempic)
YANG: 1 sketch (Tiny Desk Concert)
HERNANDEZ: 3 sketches (Immigrant Dad Talk Show, Team Captain, Murder Detective)
KEARNEY: 0 sketches
LONGFELLOW: 2 sketches (Murder Detective, Tiny Desk Concert)
TROAST: 1 sketch (Tiny Desk Concert)
WALKER: 2 sketches (Team Captain, Murder Detective)
YOUSSEF: 8 sketches (Monologue, Couple Goals, Please Don’t Destroy, Immigrant Dad Talk Show, Team Captain, Ozempic, Murder Detective, Tiny Desk Concert)
Next Week:
Kristen Wiig hosts with musical guest Raye
Until then, this is Jesse, saying that if you wanna be starting something, well, you gotta be starting something.
Jesse's SNL Reviews 