Jim Carrey returned to Saturday Night Live for the third time in his career to plug Dumb and Dumber To, the long-delayed sequel to 1994’s Dumb and Dumber. As an added bonus, he’s hosting the Halloween show, which has historically produced one of SNL’s better shows of the season.
However, last night’s outing was something of a mixed bag: the first half-hour generally a laugh-free zone, but the post-Weekend Update activity skyrocketing in terms of inspired comic mania.
Carrey’s opening monologue featured him dressed in costume as Helvis, Elvis in Hell. He broke out into an Elvis-tinged song that felt as out of place and, frankly, as out of time as a sequel to a 20-year-old movie that no one wanted.
But I digress…
Let me not bury the lead any further: the most accomplished sketch of the night came later in the show in that more active post-Weekend Update zone. In Halloween Party, Jim Carrey and Kate McKinnon both came to an office Halloween costume party dressed as the child dancer from Sia’s Chandelier video (look it up online before watching their take as it will enhance your appreciation). I was transfixed as the skit provided the loony perfection I’d hoped would fill this episode. Carrey and McKinnon leaped and twirled through the studio into the audience and across sets. This inspired madness, I suspect, will trend on Twitter and will be prominently featured in all recaps. It was the highlight of the night, hands down.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/halloween-party/2822131?onid=148621#vc148621=2
While that was the best of the night, it was hardly representative of the entire show. The cold open was, of course, a political sketch and, of course, DOA. This time, Jay Pharoah’s Obama designated an Ebola czar who had zero credentials other than serving under Vice President Joe Biden where he daily dealt with “foot in mouth disease.” I struggle with their political work as it hits as broadly and obviously as possible. This was no different.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/ebola-czar-cold-open/2822118?onid=148621#vc148621=1
The other great segment of the evening was a running joke. Jim Carrey took on Matthew McConaughey and his pointless and meandering Lincoln ads (that personally drive me insane). The segments were a spot-on capturing of the real ad’s pretentious dialogue and self-importance. The fake commercial recurred throughout the night, eventually with children in the backseat.
“You’re going five miles an hour,” a little girl says. “Not bad for a Lincoln,” McConaughey/Carrey replies.
Also funny was an Allstate variation where McConaughey/Carrey struck the Allstate insurance salesman while pontificating with a tie tied around his head.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/lincoln-ad/2822120?onid=148621#vc148621=1
In Carrey Family Reunion, Jim Carrey played himself attending a family reunion. Various cast members portrayed Carrey family members and captured Carrey’s biggest quirks and moments in film and television. Naturally, Taran Killam nailed it, as one would expect, but the whole skit seemed vaguely pointless – as if it only existed to remind everyone how funny we all thought Jim Carrey was long ago. One highlight: Jeff Daniels showed up in Dumb and Dumber garb, and I always welcome Bridges when he’s not appearing in The Newsroom.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/carrey-family-reunion/2822121?onid=148621#vc148621=1
Graveyard Song was a musical graveyard review interrupted by Paul and Phil, two dead guys completely void of all musical talent, played by Carrey and Killam. This skit was relatively brief, and its complete stupidity almost won me laugh. It’s the rare SNL skit where dragging the joke out might have elicited a few more laughs than the abbreviated version that aired.
The least said about the Weekend Update segment the best. The one bright spot was Vanessa Bayer, cutting through the pea-soup fog of empty-headed banality generated by co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che. She was at the desk to recap this season’s crop of television romantic comedies but ultimately fully represented all romantic comedy tropes as she professed her love for Michael Che. She was closely followed by Bobby Moynihan’s “Drunk Uncle” character, which a lot of people love.
Cecily Strong headlined Secret Billionaire, a reality dating show parody where her goal was strictly to marry a wealthy man. Jim Carrey played Abbot, an elderly head of the Illuminati with a robot hand strong enough for crushing and soft enough for manual pleasure. This skit won me over thanks to Carrey’s bizarre monologues. This oddity was more of what I expected from Carrey given his penchant for “end of the show” humor.
I did find Ghost Chasers, a quick bit where Taran Killam plays head ghost researcher in an exploration of a potentially haunted house, to be somewhat daringly funny. The clever skit featured the newest permanent cast member Leslie Jones as skeptic Ronda Banks, an African-American woman afraid of everything. The writers and actors were brave enough to use African-American stereotypes as the source of humor. This one definitely needed to be longer.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/ghost-chasers/2822129?onid=148621#vc148621=1
There was also a Walking Dead-ish skit about a group of survivors ten days after the zombie apocalypse, but it didn’t amount to much given the ocean of possibilities for it. Carrey held his zombie-d son (Pete Davidson) on a leash and tried to continue nurturing him as he would a live child.
We closed with Geoff’s Halloween Emporium, a Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer-led commercial for the title store – the owner of which was taken over by a demon. A typical gag involved Carrey, as the owner, projectile vomiting over the women as they advertise their line of sexy Hunger Games costumes.
I enjoyed seeing more of the talented women of SNL in this last skit, but I have to ask one final question: what did Aidy Bryant do to the writers or, more importantly, Lorne Michaels? Yet again, she was barely present in the show, and it’s weaker for it.
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