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Cameron Diaz hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend for the fourth time, and the episode allowed her to rap, wear lingerie and channel her Annie character. But was this a hard-knocked episode? Keep reading to find out.
After the Schoolhouse Rock! cold open took aim at the immigration bill, the subpar monologue focused on Diaz fielding questions from the audience about Shrek and the fact that she’s hot. By the time Tony Danza got name-checked, it was clear this monologue was not the boss.
Faring better was a pre-taped sketch in which the show’s ladies rapped about being “back-home ballers.” Instead of doing drugs, they just wanted to put cheese on chips. Particularly great were bits about the wifi password and Leslie Jones‘ mom’s love of bowls.
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It was pretty much a no-brainer to assume the show would poke fun at the upcoming film musical Annie, which Diaz is promoting. It was a bit of a disappointment not to see the real Jamie Foxx in this sketch, but Jones did another solid job here, especially without that Bonnie Raitt shout-out.
What the heck was going on in the fake ad for Nest-presso? The sketch seemed to be saying something, but it was not clear what that was. And why exactly was Taran Killam using his Brad Pitt voice here? This was followed up by a sketch involving a high school drama group moving around a lot of boxes, which was a funny sketch despite the fact that mocking pretentious theatrical productions isn’t breaking new ground.
Weekend Update kicked off with material about Bill Cosby‘s abuse allegations. “Hey, Bill Cosby — pull your damn pants up,” Michael Che said. Che reminisced about Cosby Show character Cliff Huxtable: “The only thing [Cliff] tried to sneak while other people were asleep was a hoagie.” There were two great characters on Update this week, with Kate McKinnon doing a hilarious version of Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, while Karam did a funny take on Charles Manson. But seriously, how great was McKinnon’s Merkel?
Read more ‘Annie’ Director Will Gluck Worried He’d “Ruin a Lot of Kids’ Childhoods”
The episode featured a few recurring sketches, including Beck Bennett‘s baby boss and Vanessa Bayer‘s overly naive poetry teacher, the latter of which made us realize we would read a lot more poetry if it were all about Friends.
Kenan Thompson made his animal sketch surprisingly funny despite its repeated joke about his dismembered genitals, while Kyle Mooney‘s school-fight sketch was strong, thanks to randomly inserted video footage of explosions. Diaz ended with a not-great bit about a phone-sex operator needing a package delivered.
All told, there were a few misses in the episode, but the highs made up for that. And let’s hope that Angela Merkel stays in the news, since we need her back on the show as often as possible.
Three Best Sketches of the Episode:
1. Weekend Update, mainly because of Angela Merkel
2. Back-home ballers
3. High school fight
Email: Ryan.Gajewski@pgmedia.org
Twitter: @_RyanGajewski
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