SNL 9/28/24 (50th season premiere)

Oops I thought it was Sabrina Carpenter, she must have been last season. I like to watch the opening and then some of the Che/Jost stuff.

Jelly Roll makes Meat Loaf look like Fred Astaire.

What's up with the morbidly obese naming themselves after food? Yes, I know Meatloaf was called that by his coach but still, he thought this was a winning name for a musician. I suppose it's time to re-christen Chrissy Metz.

I just looked at her Wikipedia page and this was listed as her first job: "Metz has said that her first job was at a McDonald's restaurant in Gainesville.' Eary intervention is everything. Now look at her.

very Brooklyn daughter

Jesus god I fucking loathe Andy Fucking Samburg with the heat of ten billion galaxies.

Martin Short did a better job playing Doug Emhoff.

Ugh they put fucking Bowen Yang to play JD Vance.

This guy dies Trump TOO perfectly—you don’t feel the satire—but then I guess “SNL” has the last laugh if the real thing is a hilarious walking mess 24/7.

^does

The guy who does Trump is really good

I hope Kristen Wiig is never tapped to play Gwen Walz.

True R7 but it WAS funny when they wheeled the bulletproof glass away.

Dana Carvey!

Maya Rudolf.

Jim Gaffigan playing Walz.

Andy Samberg playing Doug Emhoff.

Fuck this. Bowen Yang as JD Vance.

Dan Carvey as Joe Biden. He's good, I hope he doesn't morph into Bush halfway through.

Bowen is probably hoping playing JD Vance will get him another Emmy nod.

The Biden. LOL

I love these opening credits .

R15, too bad he's playing Bowen Yang playing J D Vance.

I love Jean, but that suit is hideous.

Credits are good, but seem to have become almost as long as the shows. 😵‍💫

Poor Joe Biden, Dana played him too well but I feel sorry for good old Joe

I think it's funny that they have a gay, Asian guy play JD.

Ugh, Keenan is still there.

Finally, someone who is smart enough to understand that moving to NY doesn’t make you FROM NY. You aren’t from here if you had to move here.

I love it when stage actors host this show. They're just a cut above and they command the stage. Like night and day from the untrained tv and film actors.

I actually like this musical monologue.

Jean, Jean, WHAT have you on!?

Jim Gaffigan absolutely nailed Tim Walz.

Was it worth it, Tom Hardy?

SMH

ugh game show sketch

lol the chimp lady

Keenan doing the same impression for Mark Robinson as he does for every other person he imitates.

Devon Walker sucks.

Marcelo: Yazzz!

Game Show host cast member: Zzzzzzz… in anything.

Kenan should be shit canned after this season.

That’s what Bowen always does, R18. For me, he is the new Leslie Jones. People online seem to go crazy for him and he consistently gets Emmy noms, but I don’t think he’s ever made me laugh once.

R24 stage actress? She worked in theatre YEARS AGO. Shes been doing mostly tv since the 80s

This Spirit Halloween commercial sketch is spot on.

So true with the Spirit Halloween October empty-store infestations. 👏

Bowen is a slightly better sketch performer than Leslie Jones. He doesn't scream his lines and he doesn't flub as much as Leslie Jones did during her SNL run.

Bowen is overrated just like Kate McKinnon was.

The new guy is kinda hot, I guess.

Agreed, R38. But I just mean in terms of hype. I just checked Twitter and people are going crazy for his casting as Vance. I feel like I’m missing something. To me, the casting makes no sense and his delivery added nothing.

R35, she is a trained actress who did nothing but theater for the first 10 years of her career. Compare her to Sydney Sweeney who hosted last year. I mean come on.

I haven't watched this show in decades and I'm only watching it because Smart's on. Anyone else like that?

Taran Killam would have been ideal to play JD Vance. He can play creeps well. But, I suspect Taran doesn't have a great relationship with Lorne Michaels.

36 minutes in, and I’m worried.

They had all summer to write and a brilliant comedic actress hosting, and it still sucks.

I'm with r42. I should have stayed away.

I don't think the writers work over the summer.

Textbook sketch stunk

I don't think the writers work during the season.

Why is the ginger there?

Christ, the redheaded dyke leech is there.

Look at Jellyroll bringing Ralphie May realness to the SNL stage.

I hope Kenan doesn't play Eric Adams during the Weekend Update part of the show.

R40, the casting makes sense when you realize it will drive JD nuts to be portrayed by a gay, Asian guy.

Who listens to this dreadful music?

I can’t look at Jellyroll and his hideous face tatoos. And I don’t appreciate his music.

Ooooooh, a musical Ozempic promotional musical guest. 🎼

I have to admit like Jelly Roll's song Save Me.

Is this white trash America's answer to Adele?

Ex-con with prison tattoos. He rests his hand on his stomach like pregnant women do. He almost moved a few inches during the performance. His trainer will be so happy with his progress.

Jellyroll is a fat hog, and I’ll bet he smells.

Jellyroll backed by 38 people and it's still boring. Did he just get off a performance of Les Mis?

I love how this show’s various musical acts’ background singers always act so professionally enthusiastic in contrast to the crap they have to usually end up backing.

R58 lol yes

R53, that's all well and good except the audience is the priority and we've been screwed.

Jost looks insectoid.

Watching off my dvr… so far Inlike Bowen being troll-cast as JD Vance. It’s like when Melissa McCarthy portrayed Sean Spicer. It’s a direct play to Trump’s (not-so-inner) Racist, he’ll inevitable start seeing his real running partner as some weirdo Asian fag.

Shit. This guy sucks. He's nothing like Eric Adams. He must have attended The Kenan Thompson School of Impressions.

Yawn.

Oh, God, the second they mentioned the baby hippo I knew, knew, KNEW it would be Bowen Fucking Yang.

This untalented asshole has turned a baby hippo into a flaming little queen.

Lorne sorely needs to hand off at this 50th season’s end because, with him lording total control over it constantly, this show never tries anything new. The entire format itself, let alone the recurring skits and writing, are obsessive-compulsively neverchanging.

This baby hippo outfit looks like a decaying lobster with ears.

The episode in-studio audiences these days must just be on-payroll paid laughers and clappers.

R41 why would I compare Jean Smart (age 73) to Sydney Sweeney (age 27)??? Of course Smart is overall better. She was 46 when Sweeney was born and had been acting for 25+ years by that point. They aren’t peers. I don’t think you understand why your comparisons get criticized. You love comparing apples to steaks.

She did stage work the first 10 years of her career? Ok? She’s been doing television for over 40 years. Calling her a stage actress is ridiculous

[quote]Finally, someone who is smart enough to understand that moving to NY doesn’t make you FROM NY. You aren’t from here if you had to move here.

You're still going to die on that fucking hill? Sad.

R75 it’s a fact.

the "Are you gay?" cracked me up

Jean Smart is definitely getting an Emmy nomination for this episode.

r76 you're from the place where you live.

R74, age doesn't matter, the point I was trying to make is you can tell Smart is a trained stage actor. Sweeney entered acting by playing an extra in some film which was shooting near her home then immediately started going on auditions. No formal stage training. No formal acting training and it shows.

R79 no you aren’t. You live there, yes, but you aren’t from there, no. From is where you started. Not where you moved to.

the brat sketch is certainly not brat

W T F?

r79 Except if you're not white, then you have to clarify where you "came from".

R80 Sweeney isn’t a stage actress. Again, comparing apples to steaks.

Kinda loving Ego as Jasmine Crockett.

[quote]no you aren’t. You live there, yes, but you aren’t from there, no. From is where you started. Not where you moved to.

OMG you're that fat chulo from Brooklyn! God, you're insane. Just fuck off.

r81 That's why we have qualifiers, e.g. "I'm from New York (originally Minnesota)."

R84 if you’re from Iowa and moved to NY at 23, you’re not from NY. You’re from Iowa. It’s actually a FACT as the word FROM means where it all started. If you had to move to a place, that means you aren’t from hat place.

R88 that’s modern bullshit. In the past if someone asked where you’re from people understood what they meant. Today people are so fucking stupid they don’t know what FROM means.

As if being a grossly overweight redneck wasn’t enough, Jello Mold (or WTF) decided to tattoo his entire FUCKING FACE as if a dare for us to call him out for being such a hideous person.

Now… WHY is this fat fuck on SNL’s 50th premiere?

r90 It doesn't matter what was in the past, present-day US experiences the highest rate of internal migrations of any country in the world, so the language has adapted to that fact.

R85, this is my original comment: "I love it when stage actors host this show. They're just a cut above and they command the stage. Like night and day from the untrained tv and film actors."

STAGE ACTOR: Jean Smart. TV AND FILM ACTOR: Sydney Sweeney. GET IT?

Jean Smart: Hosting tonight. Sydney Sweeney: Hosted last season. NIGHT AND FUCKING DAY.

It's Seacow on this thread, the one who has a pathological hatred of "transplants." He's an odd one. His rants about "transplants" are clearly pure jealosy.

R92 and despite the world “adapting”, you still aren’t from the place you moved to. That’s just a fact. Why are you even arguing a fact? You can’t be FROM where you moved to.

R94 A. You’re incorrect. B. Jealous? Why would someone be jealous that you moved to where I already am?

With , it all comes down to pathological hatred and jealosy of affluent whites who live in Manhattan. That's really what him ranting about "transplants" is all about. He's been plaguing DL for years. He also stalks people in social media and has gotten busted for it.

Queen

Well, this thread deteriorated before the show even ended.

[quote]Why would someone be jealous that you moved to where I already am?

You live in some ghetto shithole in the outer boroughs and you reek of jealosy. People move to NYC. They say they're from NYC after they move there. Deal with it, papi.

Bowen cant play straight

R100 Suuuurrrrrreeee. A. You have the wrong person. And, Coming from someone with no college education who isn’t FROM NY and was born in 2005 but sits on a site filled with eldergays all day? Yeah. You’re sure someone to be jealous of.

Why did they show Tom McCarthy at the end of SNL?

R101, I wrote the same comment in a thread about gay actors who can't play straight.

[quote]Finally, someone who is smart enough to understand that moving to NY doesn’t make you FROM NY. You aren’t from here if you had to move here.

Well I have met at least 6 people from NYC that moved to CA and run around telling everyone since they have lived there now for over 10 years, they are basically "Cali Natives", one co-worker even calls herself a Cali Girl. For the love of GOD, none of us actual California Natives use the word Cali in our self descriptors. It's like moving to NYC and telling everyone after a few years I am basically a native New Yorker from the Big Apple.

Maya’s voice though! So good.

STOP, R81! If you meet someone at a party, say, and they ask you where you're from, they are NOT ASKING WHERE YOU WERE BORN.

It was a meh season debut but maybe my expectations were too high. Enjoyed the casting for the opening except I was puzzled by the Yang casting as Vance without at least putting eyeliner on him and having him wear weird “Children of the Damned” blue contact lenses to emphasize Vance’s unnerving looks.

Unlike some of you, I don’t hate Bowen Yang, thought he looked handsome in the CNN wraparounds for the Jean-Smart-As-Lucy sketch (he’s been dieting and working out, I guess) and as someone who cherishes his appearance as the iceberg that was hit by the Titanic, I enjoyed his Moo Deng.

I love Jean Smart, but don’t think she was a good fit for this kind of sketch show. She wasn’t subtle about reading off cue cards and for that reason she was better in the Scholastic sketch because she could read her lines right out of her book, and her withering Lucy one-liners were short enough for her to memorize (and she was very funny doing those.) But this wasn’t her wheelhouse.

I give the show a B-. Maybe a C+.

[quote]She wasn’t subtle about reading off cue cards

R106 that's probably a result of last minute changes to scripts or adding a sketch right before airtime. SNL is known for that.

She had to read through 39 possible sketches this week and these are the ones they picked? How fucking sad.

The ONLY part of the show was the Hitler clip on the news with Turd's "they are eating the dogs" dubbed in.

That was it. So much political material. Wasted.

The show got off to a fiery start, then fizzled during the 'Weekend Update' and never bounced back. As someone said, this was not in Jean Smart's wheelhouse...but she will get an Emmy nod.

Sandberg, Gaffigan, Rudolph, and Carvey perfectly cast. James Austin Johnson always nails Trump. Yang as Vance ? Not so much.

r102 you should see my apartment and my investments and bank accounts. I pity you, chulo.

I'm surprised they didn't book Cooper Koch or Nicholas Alexander Chavez in the coming weeks to host. Especially with 'Monsters' currently the #1 show on NETFLIX, and for Chavez - 'Grotesquerie' is currently running on FX.

Chinese cat got to go.

Moo Deng realness

[quote]I love Jean Smart, but don’t think she was a good fit for this kind of sketch show.

Agreed. I didn't think she was a very good host. She's not naturally funny in an improv setting.

The cold opening was the best one in years.

R104 I agree with your overall point, but I am born and raised in LA and say I'm from "Cali" all the time.

I also call myself an "Angelino".

As to the episode, it was simply boring.

Maybe it turned out Jean Smart is a tad too old for live improv comedy and that's why she had so few lines?

My only laugh out loud moment was the AI-interpretation of Hitler.

Love watching you cranky cunts cry and fling 💩 while Bowen carries on winning. 😘

It was so good to see Dana Carvey as Biden. He had me laughing out loud. Dana is someone who was brilliant on the show and I felt his career never got to the level of someone like Adam Sandler who I consider a lesser talent.

Oh, and this explains why Tom McCarthy was honoured at the end of the show.

I was hoping for a Designing Women sketch.

R121, thanks for the Tom McCarthy article. I was confusing him with the director.

Anyone miss - or even notice they were missing - the fired cast members Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney, and Chloe Troast ?

[quote]r116 = She's not naturally funny in an improv setting.

SNL isn't improv.

Here's a list of the scheduled guest hosts and musical guests coming this fall to SNL. November 2 looks the best:

The opening was too long.

Jim Gaffigan is not even the lease bit funny when he is being himself. And the Biden bit was a bit cruel and much too exaggerated

Jean Smart is so much better than the material they gave her.

Is R120 Bowen or Matt or Joel Kim?

A very modern riposte to everyone’s perfectly fair criticism of a sketch comedy performer who keeps being foisted as some sort of comedic genius despite a range limited to playing himself in a wig or playing himself in a silly costume.

Bowen just had nothing distinctive to his Vance impression. Where was the blatant misogyny? The dismissal of anyone who's childless? The social awkwardness? I get that he might not have wanted to hit the drag aspect so soon after his George Santos impression, but at least put on Endora-style eyeshadow and name drop Yale at every opportunity when trying to portray himself as the candidate for the common folk!

I wanted a Designing Women sketch too...

Smart hasn't really gone there since she left DW, and I personally wouldn't want to risk upsetting the rest of the cast or tarnishing Dixie Carter's legacy by letting the shitty SNL cast have a go at those characters.

They basically did a Designing Women parody when RuPaul hosted.

Maybe I’m just too old - I’ve been watching SNL since its inception - but the appeal of Bowen Yang, who seems to be presented as the show’s preeminent star, is completely lost on me. His appearance in a sketch or on WU is reason alone for me to fast forward.

Bowan is funny. As JD he was ok, got the drawl down but his lines were lackluster. But as the chic english host he/she was spot on and hilarious.

Saturday night's 50th Anniversary premier was a hot mess. Jean Smart is comedy gold and was given almost nothing worthy of her talent. It was like some college comedy group wrote the sketches. Or should that be high school?

I watched Smart throughout and she often looked embarrassed. The "I Love Lucy" sketch had such promise. But aside from the spot-on recreation of Lucy and Ricky's living room set, it was a waste of time. Making Lucy a drunken shrew was the wrong way to play the satire. It went nowhere almost from the start.

And the actors playing Fred and Ethel looked nothing like the original actors.

Even "Weekend Update" was a let-down. Many of Jost/Che's jokes didn't land. And the less said about Yang's hippo character the better.

I scrolled through Jelly Roll's two sets.

What a huge disappointment!

I shouldn’t have to look at someone with tattoos on their face on my television.

I'm sure the powers that be will take swift action, snowflake.

She wasn't playing Lucy, she was playing an actress who was cast before Lucille Ball and got kicked off.

Truly their best opening credits sequence ever. Kudos to their team. Absolutely top notch and worthy of their 50th season. That took some effort.

The glaring blunder with "JD" was NO EYELINER! Plus, though Dana got Joe's phrases, there was no Kamala "mmkay?" and no JD "Okay, good."

And no scared dogs or cats!

I'm not a member of the Jean Smart Fan Club. For example, I couldn't stand her brash character on "Frazier." I get it: juxtaposition of good-looking woman with crassness. Not funny to me. Same with her "Lucy" on SNL.

I thought Dana's Joe was hilarious. The whole decrepit cryptkeeper amble in...

The Spirit Halloween store sketch was about the only highlight.

I liked Carvey, but his take on Biden was too mentally diminished. He ran through his litany of stuttering pauses, all together, without regard for his condition.

It was simply unfair. Just like the asshole Seth Meyers, who banged the same tripping on stairs beat that started with Gerald Ford.

Lorne needs to leave if after 50 fucking years he only has tripping crap and verbal screwup crap.

Can someone explain "BRAT" and "NAT" to me?

I'm old.

The only time I laughed was in the Update sketch when Jost interpreted the Hitler footage "They're eating the dogs....."

I thought Dana had some of it down, but he was too loud. Biden is a soft-spoken man who doesn't rush his words. At times I could see Carvey morphing into his angry old man character he did during his SNL run and a bit of his famous GHWB impression.

He's supposed to come back to play Joe through election season so I hope he can finesse it a bit to make Joe a bit less bombastic.

Agree R147, he was Dana Carvey with shuffling around mannerisms. It was funny, but not a true caricature of Biden.

Weekend Update didn’t work for me because there was a real smug “aren’t we so clever” vibe coming off the 2 guys. Even the little bit of business swinging their pencils and fake scribbling on paper made my eyes roll. The material isn’t funny enough to justify their “tude.

R149, are you just now tuning into SNL after over 10 years? That's been the 'tude since 2014.

[quote] Making Lucy a drunken shrew was the wrong way to play the satire. It went nowhere almost from the start.

Agree, the one funny part was announcing that she had turned over a list of communists in 1992, when that "wasn't even a thing anymore."

Dana Carvey was not funny. He was a buffoon.

The fabulous Jean Smart deserved so much more. They were incredibly lucky to have her.

‘SNL’ Hits Four-Year Premiere High With Season 50 Opener:

One thing this show deserves yearly Emmy awards for, IMO, is their costume designs and makeup. Gotta admit, they really go all-out when dressing up their cast members in character.

As R141 wrote, there should have been some comedic retort to the pets as delicacies lies.

The writers could have hit it out of the ballpark with a skit featuring a beloved classic character - "To Serve Toonces the Driving Cat" or some sort.

Oy.

[quote] Dana Carvey was not funny. He was a buffoon.

He was a flamboyant clown!

It’s not old, R134. He’s simply not good on the show. As someone said upthread, there was no attempt at a Vance impersonation because their never is. He plays every character as a bitchy queen because that is his world view. From what I can tell about his character in the Wicked movie, it’s more of the same. He is an extremely limited performer who we’re all being gaslit into accepting as a genius. Its similar to Leslie Jones, but Leslie occasionally made me laugh (her limitations were more as a technical performer, and Bowen is actually good in that regard; he never drops his cues or overly stares at the cards).

They should do a sketch with Trump and JD doing one of those vapid makeup tutorials on Tik Tok.

r159, and turn it into a pre-tape commercial for Trump Cosmetics.

Trump Botox.

Trump Prep-H eye bag remover.

Trump spray application orange Spackle machine.

The entire night could be filled with fake trump ads!