Saturday Night Live kicked off its 40th year the right way by opening with host Chris Pratt. A comic actor previously best known for his inspired lunacy on Parks and Recreation until his star-making lead performance in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Pratt knows his way around silliness with impeccable comic timing and a willingness to go for broke on the dumbest of jokes.
That, folks, is what it takes to excel at SNL these days.
The hands-down funniest sketch of the night was the gentle skewering of Marvel’s recent amazing luck with the Guardians property, a little-known comic book that has to date grossed over $300 million domestically. In the parody, Marvel introduces a new property, Fancy Ghosts, among many other seemingly fruitless ideas that Disney/Marvel could no doubt market into billions.
In a similar vein, Pratt and Emmy-nominee Taran Killam embodied He-Man and Lion-O dolls come to life in something of a Toy Story spoof. The spin here is that the dolls discover the pleasure of genital manipulation.
I do tend to like the more off-kilter SNL bits frequently found in the back half of the show, and Video Game thrilled on that front. The sketch involved beta testing/first impressions of a video game, Puzzle World 6, that featured extremely emotive on-screen characters (Pratt and Vanessa Bayer who really sell this strange material). Favorite line: “Umm, this relationship drama is blocking the puzzle! I can’t play!” I realize I’m probably alone on this one.
There were multiple sketches dedicated to the recent dramas plaguing the NFL, the best of which was the late-show bit introducing NFL players and their various criminal records. The cold open also revolved around the NFL but, as many of their cold opens do, it fell flat. At least it wasn’t a political sketch.
The Weekend Update segment welcomed Daily Show alum Michael Che in supporting head writer Colin Jost behind the desk. Yes, he botched a few jokes early on but improved toward the end when the segment focused more on politics. The best Weekend Update joke revolved around the recent celebrity photo scandal and Apple’s iCloud involvement.
As Jost said, “But if you really don’t want anyone to see your naked photos, you could just hide them in that free U2 album.”
Other sketches ranged from amusing (Aidy Bryant’s triumphant Booty Rap) to weird (Chris Pratt’s Bad Boys, funny because it rightfully equates Pratt’s mental state to that of a 10 year old) to downright awful (the inexplicably recurring Animal Hospital sketch). The dichotomy, though, is something we’re accustomed to from SNL’s “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” approach.
On notable side notes, Ariana Grande performed as musical guest, which I have nothing to say about, and former cast member Darrell Hammond premiered as voice-over host, replacing Don Pardo who passed away in August. Unfortunately, Hammond felt muted and washed out, proving that Pardo’s contributions to SNL were near irreplaceable.
