Pairing up Casey Affleck with Chance the Rapper seems like an odd choice. After all, the presumptive Oscar-winning actor has so much more in common with Chris Brown! Seems like a natural fit.
But in contrast to last week’s outing, which saw John Cena’s infinite promise squelched by the show’s bizarre overcorrection to the right — an attempt at appeasement that only showed how little vocabulary the show even shares with its long-suffering and presumably anguished conservative fans — Dec. 18 saw the show actually making at stab at returning to its most classic configuration: Placing the host, like a jewel, in the center of well-crafted sketches that may or may not have even required his presence.
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We know from the brilliant oral history “Live From New York” that hosts have a say in their episode’s sketch lineup, to a certain extent — not an episode goes by that we don’t wonder, “Does January Jones honestly think farts are the funniest thing in the world?” [note: link not provided due to NBC stamping the clip out of existence like she was fartin’ on a picture of the Pope] — so we were wondering if Affleck’s reputed disinterest in other people’s boundaries might come into play. After last week’s episode, though, we don’t feel the need to blame him for anything he hasn’t done for sure. This episode would have happened either way, he just made it a little grosser.
Shoutouts to Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong for doing solid work throughout the episode, and Sasheer Zamata and Aidy Bryant for their much welcome appearances… In the episode’s final saxophone moments, standing barely in camera, while everybody hugged each other.
Most Unexpected Romantic Chemistry: Kate & Cecily, ‘Hillary Actually’
This sketch’s premise is thin — Clinton visits an electoral voter, “Love Actually”-style, before Monday’s (Dec. 19) official determination of Putin’s presidential victory — and the jokes are a bit hard to bear, considering the density of their anti-Trump facts and figures — but what’s unexpected, and highly delightful, was Cecily Strong’s performance as the voter in question.
It isn’t necessary for this sketch to carry the weight of a believable romance, and maybe that even works against it, but man if this wasn’t the first sketch we chose to re-watch when the episode was done. (In related news, we may now be in love actually with Cecily Strong.)
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Most Encouraging Kate McKinnon Blank Check: ‘Christmas Miracle’
McKinnon’s always the star of this perennial sketch, in which she stands out among a focus group describing supernatural experiences — alien abduction, this week’s Santa encounter — in the most hilariously unnatural ways possible. A lot of McKinnon sketches rest (like Fred Armisen’s before her, or Hader’s Stefon) on the intensely personal idiom she’s developed for the character, the verbal and physical tics which make her seem almost real. This was our second- (and secondmost) rewatched sketch of the week. (Bonus shoutout to Casey Affleck, once again playing himself.)
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Least Welcome Returning Sketch: ‘Mrs. Claus’
If you were trying to think of a way in which this returning sketch — horny elves in Santa’s workshop lasciviously begging to be “punished” — could possibly be emptier or more pointlessly disturbing, “Casey Affleck with a ‘Duck Dynasty’ beard, ickily enthusing about butt stuff” might not have made it onto the list. But once you see it, it’s like there’s nothing else it could ever have been. Hard pass — even though it’s another of those rare occasions where Kenan comes alive, which leads to some dark places all on its own. We may have a personal axe to grind with “Dyke & Fats” — but at least it isn’t one long joke about pedophilia.
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Most Authentically Weary/Slightly Hopeful Short: ‘Jingle Barack’
While this music number starts off with all the earmarks of a dud — Casey Affleck insisting on playing a breakdancing Jesus could have been a particularly unmemorable b-plot on “30 Rock” — a fired-up Kenan (the show’s most elusive feature, next to its female cast of color) lends it all an anger and poignancy that a lot of the post-Trump sketches have aimed for and missed. It builds impressively, like the better Broken Lizard offerings, in absurd scope — and even gives us Santa in a #MAGA hat.
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Monologue Most About Casey Affleck: Casey Affleck’s Opening Monologue
Did you ever wonder how many things Casey Affleck can make about himself? The short answer is, “Anything you’ve got!” The long answer is “about ten minutes’ worth, between the unfunny monologue and the nasty Dunkin Donuts sketch that followed!” Bonus points for talking mad unfunny crap about “Manchester,” the movie he’s there to promote, in a single joke that somehow gets repeated five times.
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Anyway here’s Casey Affleck — acting and looking exactly like Casey Affleck always does, but as though he is kidding:
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Most Beautiful Vanessa: Vanessa Bayer, ‘Weekend Update’
While the Trump jokes were more hit than miss this week, especially on “Update,” the “Best Friends from Growing Up” sketch Bayer does with Armisen always feels softer in execution than it might sound if described. It’s very Armisen-observational, and one of Bayer’s more effortless and subtle performances, but the Putin jokes here are just that: Jokes.
On the other end of the spectrum, though, you have this fairly brilliant sequence of jokes about Putin, Trump, the stolen election and the outlook for 2017:
Always good when Colin’s a charmer and not just Che’s uninvited guest. So often, it can go the other way…
Colin Jost Memorial Award for Doubling Down: Gay Microsoft Robots
After the backlash to Colin Jost’s thoughtless jab at transgender and intersex Americans a while back, we honestly thought they’d listen to pleas to dial back the hate.
This “Microsoft” sketch — especially unfortunate given its pride of place so early in the night — is a painful review of every abuse, slur and threat gay men have grown up hearing about themselves. First, by poking fun at the fake news spectre of “identity politics” — which Michael Che himself has noted is just a simple rebranding of the less problematic term, “civil rights” – “SNL” entrenches in its unique form of “South Park Republicanism”: a claim to objective, libertarian even-handedness that only serves the status quo.
Secondly, by creating a sketch around straight people’s discomfort – and presenting homosexuality as a fetish-like deviation from the norm — the show reiterated that it is a conversation among and for straight, cisgendered people: Another confirmation that whatever is said to your face, behind closed doors very little has changed. A more accurate translation when we use the phrase “identity politics” might be to simply say what you mean: “I am a human being, and you are an exception.”
The complaint that gay people won’t shut up about being gay, even as a joke, betrays the central confusion in our country about “identity politics,” which is that they are somehow only present sometimes, rather than the ocean we’re all swimming in. Pointing out that racism exists is not to birth racism from the void. Talking about the wage gap doesn’t suddenly mean that women exist. And gay people talk about being gay way less than straight people talk about being straight, which straight people manage to work into literally every single conversation. You may not know this, but until very recently straight people used to wear incredibly expensive hand jewelry — just so everybody would know! Three months’ salary, just so everybody knows what you like in the sack. Seems crazy, right? It’s like Calm down, straight people. You have other stuff going on too!
Not to be a downer, but look: Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24, and four times more likely for queer youth than their straight counterparts. An attempt is also around five times more likely to require medical treatment, if the kid survives at all: Not exactly attention-seeking. Going from “alive” to “not alive and never coming back” is a big decision. Overlooking the damage this stuff does is saying our kids are old enough to make that choice for themselves.
Can you imagine sitting next to a child that close to death and trying to explain why a sketch about how they walk and who they love — and how they need to shut up about who they are already — is funny? We can’t either. So in lieu of presenting this sketch, we’d like to offer instead a link to the Trevor Project, which helps gay and transgender teens in crisis. We donated this morning on the SNL cast’s behalf, and we’d urge you to do the same.
Most Redemptive Moment: Chance the Rapper, ‘Finish Line’
If you’ve ever wondered whether Chance the Rapper might actually be the personification of Christmas itself, let his dear way of existing coast you out of this so-so episode and into the new year.
In conclusion: Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea” is a remarkable film — Lucas Hedges is a particular standout as the best kid ever to be in a movie — and it’s in theaters now. “Saturday Night Live” returns to Studio 8-H on Jan. 7, at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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