The Schitt’s Creek star is joined by musical guest Phoebe Bridgers.
Welcome, Coneheads, to another very specialSNLin Review!
It’s what I love about the show.
NBC
Which brings me to this week’s host:Dan Levy.
A brief strike by the Writers Guild of Americakiboshed their episode, and Levy never appeared.
Levy’s son Dan was just a year old at the time.
Eugene Levy makes a cameo when son Dan Levy hosts ‘SNL’.NBC
Particularly as a second generation member of theSCTVclan Rick Moranis hosted, as didCatherine O’Hara, and Martin Short.
Will he make an appearance tonight?
I’d also love aNoah Levensteinor Moira Rose (!)
FormerSNLcast member Gary Kroeger remembers the elder Levy being asked.
I was always in awe of all of theSCTVpeople.
Catherine O’Hara and Robin Duke are great friends and Catherine would sometimes hang out."
Today all three are experiencing a resurgence thanks toSchitt’s Creek and tonight’s host.
I know formerSNLer Victoria Jackson is among the show’s many fans.
Welcome to the 900th episode ofSNL, folks.
Buckle up let’s see what’s in store!
He salutes the league’s lackluster COVID-19 response, as well as the NFL’s Nickelodeon Guts-flavored twist.
(A nice wink to Thompson’s past.)
Some weird technical glitches too.
The commercial parodies fare a little better.
They cut to a pre-tape ad: Cheez-Itsarehistorically delicious.
There’s also a Papa John’s child trafficking and Q-pon commercial.
(Shout out to the great Comet Ping Pong in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of D.C.
I just split a pepperoni pizza there two days ago and it was exceptional.)
Anti-vaxxers are an important demographic these days, so the Budweiser frogs have a modern pitch for them.
“I love frogs, they’re like turtles without shells,” gigglesBeck Bennett.
They predict Cardi B will do a disturbing commercial for “Wet Ass Pepsi.”
Finally,Aidy Bryantgets to play Coach Andy Reid and also Coach Bruce Arians.
She has to switch off hats, as they look identical, practically.
A nice in-studio performance by Bryant.
Monologue
Here we go!
Levy talks about how wild the last year has been people started watching his show,Schitt’s Creek.
People on the street scream “Ew!”
He talks about this iconic stage he is standing on.
“They’re just a little safer.”
He decides to give us a COVID-friendly tour of Studio 8H.
“Walk with me if you will.”
“Pointing spreads droplets,” she assures him.
The tours are difficult to pull off, in my view as fun as they are.
The hosts are literally detached from the audience, and pacing themselves as they walk.
Bingo!Eugene Levy makes his first appearance.
Fresh from a plane from Los Angeles, he is enclosed in glass.
This is such a fun treat a living legend,SCTVcomedy royalty, who missed his hosting gig.
Hamilton, Ontario’s own.
(Shout outDan’s mom too.)
Tour guide training
Zillow Late 30s sex ad
Bored?
Real estate is an aphrodisiac.
“An updated Colonial?
mmm” This is hilarious and well-observed.
“The guest house has its own little kitchen,” murmurs Levy to Yang.
reach out to the listing agent for a rude awakening.Cecily Strongplays the Remax employee, Donna, injecting reality.
COVID-era Super Bowl party
“Masks off?”
questions Beck Bennett at a small Super Bowl party.
Turns out, all the attendees are beingsupersafe except when theyaren’t.
“Quarantine burnout!”
exposes a lot of mundane hypocrisy.
Again, this is very true-to-life.
They put on hand sanitizer then share from the same batch of Chili.
Which likely speaks to many behaving holier than thou right now.
Here’s the hook:Kate McKinnonshows up as Dr. Fauci.
(Shedid a cold openas him in December.)
“Bored, horny, and borderline nuts,” she says.
This is a PSA ' Bowen Yang is Psy, outdated but funny and surreal way to close this.
He brings out Punkie Johnson and Aidy Bryant, who teaches at Johnson’s school.
This is pretty wry “She is trying but maybe too much?”
This is about needless, embarrassing overcorrection among politically correct, well-meaning progressive white people.
The silly hypocrisy of their earnestness.
“White silence is violence” cries Dan Levy, a frontline activist.
“White people need to listen!”
he says interrupting Chris Redd.
He justhadto post about 2Pac on his Instagram, @Blake4Justice.
He nails the jot down.
Then Kyle Mooney and Ego Nwodim appear they are married.
Mooney likes to dance, so he hates white women and their lack of culture.
“He’s a nice man and has a lot of money,” rationalizes Nwodim.
The money lets him follow his supposed passion: Black art.
I am digging the random skeleton costumes, and ’90s uptempo, bright alt vibe.
This song has earned Bridgers two Grammy rock nominations.
This joke kills, brutal.
Che thengets into Morgan Wallen it is good the show acknowledges their own complicity and hypocrisy here, somewhat.
But at the same time, crushes Jost.
Oh, the Che era of Update.
Has #cancelculture gone too far?
Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day appear to discuss.
They want to cancel kids, including a baby @We_Cancel_Kids is their handle.
“That pig, he’s five.”
They even use #BuhBye as a hashtag, hope David Spade is watching.
Silly, we get it, but fun.
Che has been watching a lot of YouTube.
They went viral a few months back listening to Phil Collins.
Che puts theFriendstheme song on, and they react.
“That guitar hits.”
Then the Baby Shark song.
“That song has eight billion views on YouTube!”
counters Che, before putting on the cat jingle and the ABC song.
It’s all news to them!
Their enthusiasm is infectious.
Finally, Che puts on the saxophone-heavySNLtheme.
Hot Damn football anthem
The bar’s TV is broken during the Super Bowl.
Cecily Strong and Dan Levy are the bartenders they suggest singing football songs while they wait.
Beck Bennett wants an example.
So Strong and Levy sing something called “Hot Damn.”
The crowd is confused.
“We don’t know this song!”
says Kenan Thompson, before the rest of the group breaks out in song too.
“Hot damn, I’m in the zone!”
offers Thompson, being subsumed in the music.
Turns out the TV is just unplugged and the bartenders wanted to perversely flaunt their talent.
We have seen this many times before.
Strong is contractually obligated to sing ineveryepisode yes?
Wedding
Mark (Mikey Day) and Carrie (Ego Nwodim) are getting married.
Her mom, Punkie Johnson, is giving away the bride.
Kate McKinnon and Dan Levy decide to tell Carrie how amazing she is.
Is it an objection?
More of a hint.
“What are we saying?”
McKinnon and Levy continue to be polite but they suggest maybe, just maybe she is settling.
McKinnon and Levy begin texting each other while Day’s vows talk aboutFriendsandGrey’s Anatomy.
“You guys all talk in mean little riddles!”
“I don’t care what you two think!”
His outward, plain-spoken confrontation wins them over.
It is dark and restless.
Very moving, with a great horn section and a searing guitar solo.
Some Arcade Fire vibes, in my opinion.
I love the psychedelic and brooding end, as she demolishes her guitar on stage, kicking the speaker.
Boom, just a hint of danger returns to 8H.
Real life continues to haunt them.
“It’s scary when gay people are mean,” asserts Yang.
He does not like most of his family, even though they accept him.
Kate’s kids forced her to get an oversized iguana.
“It figured out doorknobs.”
Levy sums it up: progress having problems previously only exclusive to straight people.
Final thoughts
-What did you think?
Do not hold back.
Weigh in below, orvote here.
-Pretty fun, mostly!
Bridgers crushed it (literally.)
-Chloe Fineman and Pete Davidson really snubbed here, eh?
And periodic reminder that the show is failing Melissa.
-For those keeping score, if you squint, Dan Levy is the secondDegrassialumnus to hostSNL, following Drake.
He is the producer who hires Paige during the Degrassi Goes Hollywood arc.
#LetStefanBrogrenHostSNL
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