SNL Scorecard: Paul Rudd/DJ Khaled
Another season of Saturday Night Live, the 44th one, to be exact, is in the books. Yesterday's finalé episode capped off an up-and-down year of the seminal comedy show; not up-and-down in the ways of previous seasons, though, where there were some absolute clunkers to go with some simply brilliant episodes. (Season 42 comes to mind, when brutal outings in the Larry David and Felicity Jones-hosted episodes were nicely counteracted by the Tom Hanks, Dave Chappelle, and Aziz Ansari shows.) Rather, each individual episode seemed to be up and down. It's been mentioned several times in this weekly piece, but Season 44 fortunately saw no consistently bad episodes, but at the same time, only a couple episodes really were free of some real snoozer sketches.
The good news is that, while season finalé might have stayed true to that trend, on the whole it only increased the season average in terms of quality.
Most seasons of Saturday Night Live sign off with a huge name as host and/or musical guest, and feature loads of celebratory cameos, often from SNL alums. That was not the case this time. Paul Rudd and DJ Khaled are certainly well-known figures, and the latter was not the only musical guest (more on that later on), but aren't necessarily household names. More notably, the only cameos came early on, and were two political figure portrayals that we've seen many times before. None of that mattered, though, for this final episode was solid through-and-through. Like so many episodes before, it lost steam somewhat down the stretch, but unlike most, there was enough quality in the first half of the show to still render it one of the best episodes of the season.
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 21st, and final, episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
“A Journey Through Time”: 8/10
I typically don’t like skits that were already so incredible in their original format becoming recurring installments. But, along with “Black Jeopardy,” these Ms. Rafferty sketches are perpetually welcome, no matter how often they are done. I think I mentioned this in the Liev Schreiber show recap, but how they consistently think of euphemisms that Kate McKinnon can employ for the butt and vagina, is remarkable. Aidy Bryant seems to be on the edge of breaking every time they do this skit and it’s not hard to see why. This character is McKinnon’s “Target Lady.”
The Good
“Weekend Update": 8.5/10
Poor Colin Jost got abused last night. This was the best Weekend Update in some time, though, and one of the strongest outings of the year by the co-anchors. I absolutely love the “Read Each Other’s Jokes” bit, as it allows them to publish the edgier stuff that might not typically make it to show. Also a great outing from Leslie Jones, and what more to say of Cecily Strong’s Judge Jeanine? A tour de force.
“What's Wrong With This Picture": 7.5/10
The “game show with dumb players” has been done a lot by SNL, but never this particular show. The guests were delightfully ‘off’ in this sketch, and Kenan made a terrific flustered host. With a better ending, this is probably the skit of the night.
"GoT Tribute": 7/10
This was extremely enjoyable, even as someone who doesn’t watch either show referenced. I mostly loved that Pete Davidson had both host and musical guest in his corner; I’d like that support too as I navigate being the only citizen of the World that didn’t watch Game of Thrones.
“Monologue": 6.5/10
Paul Rudd is correct: this has been a year full of great monologues, and the best of them were equal parts funny and heartfelt. With a host as effortlessly likable as Rudd, why would we expect anything different this time around? The idea to stage the monologue as a wedding toast was a clever one, and reinforced that I desperately want Rudd to be a guest at my wedding.
“Leslie & Kyle": 6/10
This was one of the most pure and charming skits of the night, then (true to form) took a wonderfully raunchy turn. This was probably the only skit of the night where Paul Rudd felt a little out of place, but it wasn’t as if his presence killed the bit. Not the best Kyle Mooney pre-taped sketch, but a fun one all the same.
“Music Box": 6/10
SNL does this “obscure song that everyone secretly knows” joke so much, but I swear the different contexts they bring it out of crack me up. This one’s bizarre twist at the end was hilarious, and I’ll admit, I laugh at fart humor more than an adult should.
“Ouija": 5.5/10
I actually think this premise was hilarious, and perhaps if it were not stuffed into the 10-to-1 timeframe, it might have had more time to realize its potential. I don't know if it was the lack of context for Melissa Villaseñor's character, or the disappointment that this wasn't another "Melanie" sketch, but for whatever reason, the audience didn't seem to be very into this. Perhaps a disappointing skit to end the season on, but I still thought it was more funny than not.
The...Less-Good
“Monologue”: 5/10
I understand it’s the finalé, so we have to go back to the Alec Baldwin-as-Trump Cold Open format. But seriously, thank goodness, it’s the finalé, so we don’t need to watch any more Baldwin Trump Cold Opens. The injection of a Queen parody at least brought a different kind of humor and a fair amount of energy to this open. But really, SNL’s political writing continues to be often disappointing, and unfortunately, that was every bit as true this season.
“The View: Pete Buttigieg”: 4.5/10
This one started well enough, with Bryant’s inch-perfect outraged Meghan McCain. Paul Rudd as Pete Buttigieg made total sense, as well, and I lost it at Strong’s “Japanese spaghetti” line. But then the writing didn’t seem to know what to do with itself the rest of the way, and lost their mojo when they brought out Beck Bennett as Buttigieg’s husband, and started talking Joe Biden.
Musical Performances
DJ Khaled (feat. L’il Wayne, Big Sean, Jeremih, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, J Balvin, SZA, and John Legend): 7/10
In the Monologue, Paul Rudd joked that "DJ Khaled is here, and he brought, like, 200 friends!" At least, I thought it was a joke, but as it turns out, Rudd was being completely serious. Alright, the exact number was 8, but still, I've never seen a lineup quite like that all at once on the Studio 30 stage. The guest appearances that comprised the two performances made the set feel a bit like a mini-Lollapalooza.
It's tough to know how to rate the two performances. According to the billing, DJ Khaled was the music guest, and if this rating were based strictly on the named musical guest, it would be much lower. Khaled is little more than a glorified hype man, and that's essentially all he did here: profess his love for his son and his son's mother, shout his excitement over and over about being on Saturday Night Live, and then steadily introduce each exciting new guest. But each and every guest of his brought it, with Li'l Wayne, Big Sean, Lil Baby, Meek Mill and J Balvin each hitting their verses with increased intensity. The 2nd performance of the night really shone; with Khaled making multiple professions that this was a tribute to beloved and recently-slain rapper Nipsey Hussle, SZA's and John Legend's beautiful vocals felt especially poignant.
OVERALL SCORE: 6.50 (Comedy Only score: 6.45)
With all 21 episodes done and dusted, here were the standings for Season 44, separated into rankings including and excluding the musical performances:
BEST OVERALL SHOWS
1. Don Cheadle/Gary Clark, Jr. - 6.68
2. Matt Damon/Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus - 6.58
3. Liev Schreiber/Li'l Wayne - 6.54
4. Paul Rudd/DJ Khaled - 6.50
5. Claire Foy/Anderson.Paak - 6.46
6. John Mulaney/Thomas Rhett - 6.46
7. Kit Harington/Sara Bareilles - 6.25
8. Adam Sandler/Shawn Mendes - 6.25
9. Emma Thompson/Jonas Brothers - 6.15
10. Seth Meyers/Paul Simon - 6.08
11. Sandra Oh/Tame Impala - 6.04
12. Halsey - 6.00
13. Awkwafina/Travis Scott - 5.92
14. Emma Stone/BTS - 5.92
15. Jason Momoa/Mumford And Sons - 5.91
16. Idris Elba/Khalid - 5.88
17. Jonah Hill/Maggie Rogers - 5.86
18. Steve Carell/Ella Mai - 5.81
19. James McAvoy/Meek Mill - 5.73
20. Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet - 5.73
21. Adam Driver/Kanye West - 5.55
FUNNIEST SHOWS (Comedy-only scores)
1. Liev Schreiber. - 6.64
2. Matt Damon - 6.45
3. John Mulaney - 6.45
4. Don Cheadle - 6.45
5. Paul Rudd - 6.45
6. Claire Foy - 6.23
7. Kit Harington- 6.18
8. Adam Sandler - 6.17
9. Emma Thompson- 6
10. Seth Meyers - 6
11. James McAvoy - 5.88
12. Idris Elba - 5.86
13. Halsey- 5.82
14. Jason Momoa - 5.81
15. Jonah Hill - 5.8
16. Rachel Brosnahan - 5.8
17. Sandra Oh - 5.79
18. Adam Driver - 5.78
19. Emma Stone - 5.77
20. Awkwafina - 5.64
21. Steve Carrell - 5.51