Although Dafoe was game to do anything, SNL underutilized the actor.
Welcome, my Coneheads, toSNLin Review.
(It’s Walter Hill’s follow-up to48 Hours, and also features a young Rick Moranis.)
Willem Dafoe hosts ‘Saturday Night Live’.Saturday Night Live/Youtube
He was not well known but was an amazing theater actor.
Just a fascinating, extraordinary actor."
And just warm, kind, funny, compassionate just a great person.
And he’s scary as bleepin [Streets of Fire]!"
And I have a feeling he will.
I’m one of those people that loves most ofSaturday Night Livenow.
I think some of the people on that show are as good as have ever been.
I’m excited to see Willem, and what they give him to do.
I’m sure there will be [the sketch] where he’s the villain, obviously.
He’ll be as great at this as he is at everything else.
Remember: He’s a theater actor at his roots.
He’s done a ton of improv, which is valuable atSNL.
He’ll come up with things during rehearsals.
That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.
I hope they let him go crazy."
Let’s jump in!
More meme humor from the show too the tail is wagging the dog.
Chloe Fineman the “face of Pantene’s Conditioner Collective”(?)
plays Mikaela, a social media operative consulting on how to combat the disinformation efforts.
Everyone has a role you know, Sarah Squirm as a sexy nurse.
The only thing lacking here is a Beck Bennett cameo.
(Remember whenSNLcold open premises were as simple as Adam Sandler serenading Santa on guitar?)
He comes from experimental theater, as Laurance notes, and jokes about his expressive face.
When he mentions his hometown of Appleton, Wisc., two Midwestern visitors played byAidy BryantandMikey Daypop up.
They won tickets to the show in the lottery.
The payoff is a fun joke aboutSpeed 2: Cruise Control,which is fun.
They goad him into reviving his Wisconsin accent.
He seems affable and nice.
I believe Mike DiCenzo and Jake Nordwind had a hand in writing this.
Punkie Johnson is a resident who is only there for the Munchkins.
Sarah Sherman is upset her maintenance fee was raised by 12 dollars this month.
She has fun, loud energy.
Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner are also unhappy tenants.
Mr. Fillmore (Willem Dafoe) wants to know, “What the hell happened to this city?”
He recalls Iggy Pop puking on his face at CBGB back in the day.
Oof, remember the school board meeting sketch from last October?
Nearly the entire cast gets in on the business.
I hate these overstuffed, self-amusement parades.
They do not click.
The crowd applauds at Pete Davidson saying: “Bad.”
For the second time in under 25 minutes, 37-year-old Kyle Mooney is playing a student.
I love his vocals here.
He stays up watching an infomercial hosted by Dafoe and Gardner.
Dog Show
It’s the Badminster Dog Show!
I believe this sketch was originally planned to run during Paul Rudd’s holiday episode last month.
It’s hard to topBest in Show, but I love seeing Willem Dafoe host something like this.
Shaky Dog Group is the first category, and it’s a realistic breakdown of how dogs behave.
The Netflix startup sound and spoken Spanish are among the anxieties of Melissa Villasenor’s dog, Luna.
Next up: Pigeon from the Mean Group.
He once tripped an old lady on purpose.
He wakes up owner Andrew Dismukes every morning by biting his ankles.
Blueberry from the Non-Walking Group once slid on a tile floor and it permanently made him insane.
Gizmo from the Medical Group has many problems!
“Tell us about his weird little penis!”
Nugenix
Mikey Day meets Frank Thomas (Kenan Thompson) at a driving range.
This is a spoof ofNugenix, the ever-present testosterone-boosting male hormone commercials that are always on TV.
Thomas asks him if he can still get hard.
Doug Flutie (Kyle Mooney) then joins them and wonders the same thing.
“Sir” Willem Dafoe is also there.
They all know each other from “boner stuff” meetings.
Katy Perry performs ‘When I’m Gone’
Eat me!
Giant mushrooms straight out ofSuper Mario Bros!
“I’d be shocked if they’ve ever heard aKaty Perrysong!”
Some brutal, mean digs.
Two trend forecasters (Aidy Bryant and Bowen Yang) drop by to discuss the most popular consumer habits.
Baby trends include small socks, being twins, and getting burped by a friend.
But babies dumping in their pants and saying nothing is out.
The duo wraps up their segment with one final out: Michael Che.
This was inspired, if sometimes hard to follow.
Wow aFull Housejoke, and a Lori Loughlin diss, just mere weeks afterBob Saget’s death?
Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning shows up!
Manning, of course, hostedSNLback in 2007.
He’s got great comedic timing.
He will always stay true to himself.
Thanks to Emily, he speaks love.
“Go to bed!”
Beauty and the Beast
Remember when Pete Davidson smooched Kim Kardashian as Aladdin?
Um, now he’s Beast.
She gets her wish thanks to a magic mirror.
Willem Dafoe then appears he’s alone, he’s crazy.
He’s never had the place to himself before.
He lights a bunch of candles, turns the pictures over.
Finally, Dafoe gets an opportunity to “cut loose,” which I suppose is good.
“Sick stuff.”
Now Kyle Mooney is playing Chip… a child.
For a third time tonight, he is playing way under his age range.
This is a compulsion.
(Dismukes, stop him.)
SNLloves its Disney parodies.
Great costumes and production design.
Kudos to the crew.
yo Don’t Destroy Martin’s Friend
Connor is Martin’s 10-year-old friend.
He wants to pitch Colin Jost some Update jokes.
I like this, but it seems to be in-studio flopping?
“Don’t be such a Jacob.”
Because Martin was tired of only hanging out with his toxic work friends!
When dinner arrives, John steals Connor’s rare porterhouse steak and begins choking.
Connor steps in as Nickelback’s “Hero” plays and saves him.
Maybe John was wrong about Connor.
It’s an ode to a dying relationship.
Dr. Bloom (Dafoe) has a feel-good book he’s promoting,Knowing Yourself.
But due to a teleprompter miscue, Yang announces it’sBlowing Yourself.
Do you get it?
Okay, buckle up.
There’s a ton of sexual innuendo and puns.
This is the third sketch tonight putting Dafoe in a very cheeky, sexual situation huh!
Is this what he was given, or is this a little cheeky insight into his sense of humor?
Remember, folks: “It’s okay to suck.
It’s how we learn.”
Office Song
A law firm is working an overnighter.
Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson begin playing music with their office supplies.
Heidi Gardner starts to scat and Kyle Mooney busts out “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
It’s organic and wonderful.
Then Dafoe ruins it when he throws a chair out of the window.
He thought it was going to sound cool and wanted to contribute to the impromptu performance.
Kent Sublette and Ailson Gates wrote this.
My favorite sketch of the night.
Final Thoughts
Thank you to Matthew Laurance for his excellent commentary tonight!
What did you all think?
Seemed to start off very slow, no?
Did it squander Dafoe?Vote hereor comment below!
She is currently in Paris finishing the edit on her latest movie,Shelter in Solitude.
