While I am a rabid Amy Adams fan, I was a bit unsure how she would fare on this week’s Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live. Since I didn’t see the first time that she hosted, I was anxious to see how the always game Adams fared with these seasons comedians. Adams’ sweetness always radiated through the screen, and if the sketches didn’t live up to her eagerness, no one would blame her.
Did anyone ask for a flashback from 1997? Well, whoever it was deserves a slow clap, because Mike Myers popping up as Dr. Evil in the ice breaking sketch was pretty damn hilarious. It starts as A Very Somber Christmas starring Sam Smith, but then Dr. Evil shows up to tell Kim Jung-un to lighten up over this week’s controversy over The Interview. Myers even throws some shade to himself about his movie choices (“if you want to put a bomb in a theater, do what I did with The Love Guru”). Too little, too late?
It’s always great to watch Kristen Wiig on SNL, but does she have to keep coming back? It almost feels as if no one thought Adams was strong enough to pull off a large musical theater song about Christmas without inviting Wiig to be a part of it. It might be a running gag any time Adams hosts, because Wiig interrupted Adams the first time she hosted. Wiig is an audience favorite (and arguably the last most dependable cast member), but it feels like she just waits at the SNL stage door in hopes something will come her way.
The fight to keep everything PC and inoffensive is handled hilariously in the small digital short about a group of small girls enjoying their new doll, Asian American Doll. The doll doesn’t even have a name, and she only comes with two accessories: a chef’s hat and an adorable doll. The last line delivered by the young actress made me laugh out loud, and the tagline for the doll (“made from a place of fear!”) makes me wish toy commercials were a bit more direct.
Full disclosure: I haven’t listened to Serial yet (I know, I know!!!), so I feel a bit inept writing about it. I’m just going to put it here, and everyone can talk about the brilliance of it. I’ve heard that this sketch was the best of the night.
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Taran Killiam and Amy Adams take on the Holderness Family’s now famous Christmas Jammies video in one of the best sketches of the night. Instead of bragging about their family’s accomplishments, the Tenderfield’s reveal all the embarrassing incidents that have happened to their clan. Killam admits that he threw up on Matt Lauer, and Adams’ wife started an affair with an underused Kenan Thompson. The highlight would have to be Kate McKinnon’s sociopathic daughter.
Weekend Update was particularly disappointing this week. Even though Bobby Moynihan tried to save it as Kim Jung-un, Kenan Thompson’s character was kind of sad, and Wiig and Fred Armisen popped up as Garth and Kat. It goes on too long, and Wiig’s continuous giggling over Armisen isn’t as charming as the actors might think it is. Actors breaking on SNL is one of my favorite things every, but this was kind of annoying.
Jay Pharoah and Pete Davidson played rappers who grant Moynihan’s Christmas wish to liven up an Office Christmas Party. It gives us our only peek at Leslie Jones, and Amy Adams is almost unrecognizable as a mousey payroll accountant who goes crazy. At this point in the episode, one probably realizes that Adams is criminally underused this week.
The worst sketch of the night is easily A Very Cuban Christmas. It came off as if they were just trying to cram as many Cuban celebrities and references into 5 minutes, and it came off disconnected and half-assed. Cecily Strong’s Gloria Estefan resembled a Miss America contestant more than the Latin singing superstar, but Killam actually does a pretty spot-on impression of Pitbull. You know that the sketch is bad when the best thing about it is a successful Pitbull impersonation. This is the epitome of how bad the writing of an SNL sketch can be.
The weirdest skit of the evening involved a singing sister trio in 1957. Adams, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong play singing sisters who approach Moynihan and Kyle Mooney for a drink before they perform on stage. If they incorrectly guess what the drinks are, the girls volunteer to chew on garbage much to the men’s horror. It starts off very oddly, and the dialogue feels like it doesn’t make sense. By the end you learn that the girls are actually a trio of singing raccoons, and their Christmas wish was to become famous singers (and kiss some men). Yes, that’s seriously what happened. When I first saw it, I sort of just stared at the television and wrote it off as a stupid sketch. When I re-watched it, the payoff made me laugh out loud. Perhaps it was the cute raccoon puppets or maybe it was because it was so weird.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that my favorite cast member is Kate McKinnon (she has an almost Jim Carrey-ian way of contorting her face). My favorite sketch was the continuation of McKinnon’s crazy cat lady that operates the cat store, Whiskers R We. Adams plays Ashley, McKinnon’s girlfriend, and the two of them introduce adorable felines while revealing details about them (“Toby is a textbook narcissist” or “I’m not a cat—I’m a MAN!”). It’s uncomplicated, and it allows McKinnon to be kooky while talking to the audience. I could watch this every week.
How did Adams do? She’s perky and sweet (as always), but this was a classic example of the writers not stepping up to the plate to allow the host to be all that he or she can be. It’s not Adams’ fault whatsoever, but it did appear that she was having a great time. Tis the spirit of the season perhaps. All the Christmas cheer might have blinded everyone as to how weird this week actually was.
