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Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl
SNL Season 50 Finale Brings "Joke Swap," Miss Eggy & Bittersweet Vibes
Ego Nwodim's Miss Eggy, "Weekend Update" anchors Colin Jost & Michael Che's "Joke Swap," and Please Don't Destroy helped wrap up SNL 50.
Here's the thing about NBC's Saturday Night Live and season finales. They suck. We're not talking about the shows themselves, but the vibe that comes with them. It's the goodbye we don't want, even though we know it's important to the show overall. It's that time when the press starts speculating over who will and won't be returning, with Season 51 expected to see some cast changes. Scarlett Johansson was tasked with the responsibility of hosting this season's final run, and it was one that never took its eye off the prize, even with the SNL family clearly recognizing (and acknowledging) that they had come to the end of a very special season.
That season finale vibe and all of the "feels" that come with it were on display near the end of the "Trump Middle East Trip" Cold Open and continued into Johansson's opening monologue. It's not that James Austin Johnson didn't score serious points with some razor-sharp digs at Trump's less-than-stellar week overseas. But when he broke the fourth wall to join the audience, it started to feel a lot more like a "goodbye" show. That continued in a big way during the monologue, with the cast joining Johansson for a little musical self-deprecating to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man."
But there was no denying the emotions that were already on display as they kicked off what would be the season's final run – and most likely the last time this SNL cast will work together. Bonus points for tackling the topic of who may not be coming back for Season 51, with Sarah Sherman's reactions to the ten-ton hints that she's not coming back next season, like the comedic pro that she is.
As for where the show went from there, we found a whole lot to like (and one or two head-scratchers/"beautiful disasters"). Give musical guest & sketch actor Bad Bunny and SNL's production team their flowers because their combined efforts resulted in what might be the most visually arresting pair of musical performances this season (with RaiNao now on our musical radar). "Local News Stories" was a fun knife-twister on the different ways that news is packaged and sold to viewers, while Bad Bunny, Johansson, Marcello Hernandez, and Ego Nwodim offered a hysterical look at toxic dating and bad Spanish with "Couples at the Bar." Bowen Yang got the spotlight in "Bowen's Still Straight," a follow-up to the original sketch with Sydney Sweeney, with Yang nicely calling out straight guys' bad dating traits (and women's bad dating habits).
Having been involved on the press side of press junkets, Yang and Johansson nailed it during "TV Press Junket" in more ways than you could ever realize as two reporters who clearly play favorites. As for "Victorian Ladies at Lunch," Andrew Dismukes' maître d' offers a bizarre and twisted menu selection to four Victorian ladies (Johansson, Sherman, Heidi Gardner, and Chloe Fineman). The result? Escalating, over-the-top grossness that grabbed hold of us and wouldn't let go until we couldn't stop laughing at the ink-stained teeth, seeing who was close to breaking, and more. Of course, body horror and grossout comedy is a place that Sherman calls home, and it was on display once again.
What didn't work for us were "Mike Myers Elevator Ride" and "Intimacy Coordinators." While it was nice having Mike Myers back and Kenan Thompson could do no wrong, the former sketch seemed to choose going after Kanye West (and understandably so) over being funny when we could've had both. As for the latter sketch, the premise was solid, but what hit our screens came across more like a dress rehearsal/read-through version than something that was season finale-ready.
But there were three sketches/moments that made the top of our highlights (included above), beginning with the very welcome return of Nwodim's Miss Eggy to "Weekend Update." I know this is painfully selfish to say, but I want Nwodim to return next season so that we can get maybe 2-3 more segments because the way she works the audience (with Colin Jost and Michael Che as her "backup reactions") is something special. Johansson, Bad Bunny, and Please Don't Destroy (Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy) teamed up for the epic "First Class," combining smooth rap skills, the thrill of flying first class, and realities of just how shitty things have gotten at Newark airport. Of course, we couldn't mention Jost and Che in the middle of a review of an SNL season finale and not highlight their traditional "Joke Swap." Once again, Jost was on the losing end of the exchange in so many wrong-yet-right ways (though it was fascinating to see just how uncomfortable Che looked having to sit next to Johansson while he offered his Jost-written self-deprecating apology to her for December 2024's jokes).
Saturday Night Live Season 50: Scarlett Johansson & Bad Bunny
8.5/10
Here's the thing about NBC's Saturday Night Live and season finales. They suck. We're not talking about the shows themselves, but the vibe that comes with them. It's the goodbye we don't want, even though we know it's important to the show overall. It's that time when the press starts speculating over who will and won't be returning, with Season 51 expected to see some cast changes. Scarlett Johansson was tasked with the responsibility of hosting this season's final run, and it was one that never took its eye off the prize, even with the SNL family clearly recognizing (and acknowledging) that they had come to the end of a very special season.
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