After last week's disastrous Jonah Hill-helmed episode, we confess we were not very excited about the prospect of Ariana Grande pulling double duty as host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live last night. Why couldn't SNL book, ya know, an actual comedian like Aziz Ansari or Stephen Colbert, or at least a massive star like Beyonce or Meryl Streep? Did we learn nothing from that god awful Justin Bieber episode a few years ago? We know the show still lusts after ratings (hence why they gave Trump 12 minutes or so of fawning air time in the fall), but does it really need to sacrifice its comedy chops to appease the tween crowd?
Thankfully, we were totally wrong about Grande: instead of a Bieber-sized turd, we got a Josh Hutchinson-esque low-key gem of an episode, with strong political sketches, some mighty impressive impressions, and another classic Larry David-as-Bernie Sanders cameo. It didn't reach the hilarious heights of the Tracy Morgan or Larry David episodes, but it was a lot better than last week's episode!
The best sketch of the night was the blissfully silly Mermaids, and all credit goes to an almost unrecognizable Kate McKinnon for inhabiting the "35% woman, 65% blobfish" creature. We would wager good money that character will be back before the season is through.
The other two big highlights were political sketches: the Cold Open (covered more here), which included David's cameo as a pajama-wearing, superdelegate-questioning Sanders; a Trump racism joke so good we had to look up whether he's actually said it yet (“Guys, what did I say? Not this one! This is one of the good ones!”); and possibly one of the last appearances of Jay Pharaoh's masterfully creepy Ben Carson. The second strong political sketch was the Hillary Campaign Ad, in which Hillary transforms into Bernie as she tries to appeal to Millennials.
Anyone who watched this year's Grammy's probably got a kick out of the Kids’ Choice Awards sketch, which was not quite 65% blobfish-funny, but still a fun way for Grande to show she can take a joke. In general, Grande was excellent whenever she was singing (Monologue, Sound of Music) or showing off her range of impressions (Tidal, Family Feud). Of course, just being able to sing really well (which she does!) and pull off a perfect impersonation of Britney Spears and Jennifer Lawrence isn't inherently funny, and none of those four sketches produced many laughs (Family Feud in particular was pretty bad, considering there have been much-more successful variations of that sketch), but it was still more entertaining than much of what aired last week.
Also not hilarious, but definitely clever (and perhaps a little bit confusing): Not a Feminist Song, which gave all the ladies of SNL a chance to do another subversive song (see: the classic Do It On My Twin Bed) while throwing in lines about not judging women's hands.
Click through for all those sketches, plus JORBMYGOD the first Riblet appearance on Weekend Update of the year (Bobby Moynihan is the show's best scene stealer not named Kate McKinnon—hell, he stole the second half of Sisters away from Amy and Tina—but Michael Che constantly shaking his head in disgust really put everything over the top), Cecily Strong's newest character "The Drunkest Contestant On The Bachelor," and two songs from Grande.
SNL returns on April 2nd with first-time host Peter Dinklage, and music guest Gwen Stefani. We just hope this means we'll also get the return of Peter Drunklage!
