SNL Scorecard: Jason Bateman / Morgan Wallen

It was a long break for the Saturday Night Live gang, with almost a month separating Dave Chappelle's post-election episode and last night's return to action. The 4-week hiatus was more than deserved; not only did the cast and writers embark on an unprecedented six consecutive episodes to open the season, there were holiday and pandemic-related reasons to give everyone a bit of time off. However, given the fact that the two episodes preceding the break were the strongest of the season, the natural fear was that such a long layoff would wreck Season 46's momentum just as it was finally starting to hit its stride.

I'm happy to report that the opposite was instead true: undeterred by the 'bye weeks,' the positive momentum continued, with yet another night free of any truly bad sketches. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the break might have helped; most of the cast seemed to have considerably more energy than at any point this season, and the writing was easily some of the most creative and original we've seen this year, too. As is always the case, some stuff worked better than others, but host Jason Bateman helped facilitate the cast's zany humor brilliantly all night, and for the third consecutive time, we have a scorecard with only "Good" skits to discuss.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 7th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

“Stu”: 8/10

This is one of the few times I’ve been able to see how a Pete-centered sketch clearly came directly from his mind (“What if my obsession with getting a PS5 was like Stan’s obsession with Eminem?”). He really shone here, more than he tends to in skits in which he doesn’t play himself, if I’m being honest. The beauty of this one is that it’s still funny if you don’t get the reference, largely because of how good Pete’s rap is, but if you do know the reference, it makes the sketch— and Eminem’s cameo —that much more enjoyable.

The Good

“Bits": 7.5/10

I thought I’d seen it all, but I hadn’t: Kyle Mooney in a musical bit! This was the same brand of humor we’ve come to expect from Kyle, but stylistically very different. I loved it. This is 100% my monologue any time one of my jokes with friends doesn’t get the reaction I wanted; I need to redeem myself the next time a joke opportunity presents itself. This was my favorite 10-to-1 sketch in a while.

“Monologue": 7/10

I’m not surprised that Jason Bateman looked remarkably comfortable in the monologue format. He is just so, so good at straight-faced comedy. This was a professional display of ironic humor. As for his set, I can confidently say I didn’t have ‘Jason Bateman tells 15-year-old monkey story’ on my list of predicted monologue topics this year, but I’m not going to complain about the end result.

"Michigan Hearings Cold Open": 7/10

The one political impression I will miss from these god-forsaken 4 years is Kate McKinnon’s Rudy Giuliani— at least I hope I’ll miss it —I just never get tired of her perfect unhinged portrayal. It makes me laugh so hard that they really didn’t need to add fart jokes to the sketch; that said, my immature self laughed anyway. I also really love that Cecily Strong heard the clarion call from Twitter and finally made her much-awaited return to the show. I don’t know that it happened that way, but I like to think it did; regardless, it was so good to see her on the Studio 8H stage again. The audience, as it has for much of the season, again lacked what I would consider the appropriate energy, but didn’t ruin the experience for me, especially in comparison to all other cold opens this season.

“Santa's Village": 6.5/10

There wasn’t much of a punchline to this, as much as it was just an excuse for physical comedy. But they did that physical comedy so well, it was hard not to enjoy. I do wish they developed the John and Patrice relationship history a little more; it led to a disjointed ending, but on the whole, very enjoyable sketch.

“Sleepover 2": 6.5/10

From the setup, I really thought this was going to be a reintroduction of Aidy Bryant’s horny teenager Melanie, so I was mildly disappointed to see that wasn’t the case. But if we weren’t going to get Melanie, I suppose this was next best thing. I loved the interactions between McKinnon’s weird teenage girl and Bateman’s straight-laced dad. The joke was revealed pretty early, and as a result sort of peetered out, but it didn’t overstay its welcome.

“Weekend Update": 6/10

In a bizarre twist that ran counter to the entire rest of the season, the only cast embers that seemed to come out of the break with less energy were the Weekend Update co-anchors. This was still a solid enough segment, but compared to how good Che and Jost have been this season, it felt like somewhat weak writing this time around. Pete’s cameo was pretty good, but I wish he would have leaned more into his anti-Staten Island bit and less into his self-referential schtick. And I really do appreciate Heidi Garner’s absolute bizarro characters, but I just don’t get her Bailey Gismert character, though I found her a little more enjoyable this time than usual.

“The Christmas Conversation”: 6/10

This was a creative and funny way to address the uncomfortable new normal we face this holiday season. I definitely feel like it could have been a little funnier, but I laughed at the various ways the parents guilted the kids. An as SNL does so well, especially around the holidays, a surprisingly touching ending.

“Outdoor Cabaret”: 5.5/10

This was one of the only times all night that I didn’t really fully understand or even enjoy Jason Bateman’s character. And unlike just about every other sketch, I don’t really know what the point was, other than “Bowen and Cecily play eccentric characters who belt songs.” But hell, I still liked it. I guess “Bowen and Cecily play eccentric characters who belt songs” is a winning combo in my eyes.

“Morgan Wallen Party”: 5/10

I kind of wondered if SNL might attempt to address the snafu with uninviting Wallen as musical guest two months back due to ignoring COVID protocols, but I didn’t think they’d actually do it. I found Wallen’s apology at the time to be genuine, but it’d be easier for me to laugh at this if the singer didn’t then make an ass of himself by whining about post-election crowds (apparently groups of masked people celebrating democracy = sweaty, unmasked country music fans). There were enough laughs here, especially from Bateman and Bowen Yang, that it wasn’t a bust, but I still tend to hate when SNL tries to do this type of “use humor to indirectly address our criticism” material.

Musical Performances

Morgan Wallen: 5.5/10

I’ll admit, I have a predisposition to not like country music. I also have a predisposition to be annoyed by anyone who’s been cavalier about COVID precautions. That said, I tried to put my bias aside and be objective. And objectively, “7 Summers,” Wallen’s first song was not bad! His vocals were a bit shot, and it took some time to get his bearing on the famously unkind studio stage, but the song actually has a really good sound. That said, I was considerably unimpressed by his second song, “Still Goin Down.” Its style was much more traditional radio-country, and his vocals had not improved from the first performance.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.41 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.50)