SNL Scorecard: Natasha Lyonne / Japanese Breakfast
Another season of Saturday Night Live has come and gone, which is hard to believe. It doesn't seem all too long ago that Owen Wilson and Kacey Musgraves were kicking off Season 47, and yet it is now in the books. And as is often the case with season finales, this one brought about a round of goodbyes for some familiar faces in the show, and in this case, some of the most familiar faces.
In the opening sketch of the night, Kate McKinnon's character joked, "Might as well play the hits!" Unbeknownst to the audience at the time, that would set the tone for the whole episode, which played like an homage clip show to the departing McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney. It wasn't all retreads though, as there were several new ideas, perhaps in testament to yet another first-time host (in a season full of them), Natasha Lyonne. The double whammy of Lyonne, a comedy-circle icon, hosting, and Japanese Breakfast appearing as musical guest made this finale also feel like an homage to New York. Lyonne is New York though-and-through, and while Japanese Breakfast technically got their start in Philly, they're the exact vibe that would be right at home in the Brooklyn music scene.
Anyhow, there was plenty of new to go with the familiar in this episode, and this combination of the "done before" and the brand new could have resulted in a wildly disjointed episode. Fortunately, I'm please to say it instead resulted in what was likely the strongest episode of the entire season. I know that declaration might be controversial, because such a designation would usually indicate the presence of multiple 'instant classic' hits, which I'm not sure this episode had. But Season 47 all along has been a solid season that was short on the individually brilliant sketches, but even shorter on the bad ones, and this episode was the most extreme example yet. Everything worked, most of it just to a pretty funny degree, but some of it to a very funny degree, and in a night full of energy and emotion, there were zero duds. That's probably the best one can hope for from a finale, right?
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 21st and final episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Mr. Dooley": 8.5/10
I went back and forth on whether to rate this higher or lower, because it was, truthfully, pretty dumb. But you know what? Sometimes dumb works, and this was far and away the hardest I laughed all night. Everyone’s simultaneous full commitment to the absurd and struggle to refrain from breaking made this so, so enjoyable, and I loved that it just stayed ridiculous from start to finish.
The Good
"'50s Baseball Broadcast": 8/10
This felt like a vintage sketch, and not just because it was set in an old-timey context. I loved the way Mikey Day’s straight man and Natasha’s increasingly unhinged, meth’d-up color commentator played off of each other. The ending was a bit abrupt, but I appreciated that it ended on a funny note and didn’t run on too long.
“Monologue": 7.5/10
This was a bit all over the place, but I’d bet Natasha Lyonne is someone who thrives in chaos, and sure enough she had enough charisma to turn this into a really fun, charming monologue. It even ended with a heartfelt, inspiring lesson to all of us, which was an unexpectedly poignant note to kick the show off with.
“Weekend Update": 7.5/10
This was a MARATHON edition of Weekend Update, chewing up the majority of the second half of the show. Given how good the co-anchors have been this season, I wouldn’t normally mind that, but unfortunately for the second straight week, Che and Jost had a fairly subpar outing. The Elon Musk and Taylor Swift one-liners were great, but everything else from them was pretty forgettable. Complicating the rating, though, is the sheer quality of the various guest appearances; a rare three-peat of appearances, from Alex Moffatt’s always-welcome “Guy Who Just Bought A Boat”, Aidy Bryant and Bowen Yang’s always-welcome “Future Trendcasters”, and Pete Davidson’s sometimes-welcome “himself” stole the show this Update. Maybe it’s just absence causing the heart to grow fonder, but I thought this was one of the strongest Boat Guy editions yet, and I love that Pete and Aidy both got space for a funny, touching send-off.
"PSA": 7.5/10
I wasn’t sure where this was going at first, and was worried it wouldn’t escalate past a mild chuckle. Once it became clear what the point of this fake ad was, I lost it. A nice, funny but somewhat biting critique of our sociopolitical reality right now.
“Summer Gig": 7/10
Well, this was unexpected! There aren’t too many ‘recurring’ 10-to-1 bits, but this was easily my favorite one of them. It was certainly a little jarring to see it so early in the show instead, though, and truthfully I don’t know if it works as well when it’s not the last sketch of the night, airing at delirious hours. That said, I still loved the hilarious chaos and randomness of it, and the addition of Cecily as a band member who does nothing but badly dance was a nice touch.
"After High School": 7/10
I feel like Andrew Dismukes is a sneaky good writer, so it was fun to see an Andrew-fronted pre-taped sketch. This was a funny premise, but only some of the punchlines landed, while others didn’t do much. There was certainly more funny than not funny, though, and the running thread of Rachel Finnster’s dire future was great.
“Final Encounter Cold Open": 7/10
Pretty crazy that twice in the last three episodes, we get not only a non-‘contemporary political’ cold open, but a cold open that features the host! To be fair, though, Natasha Lyonne had very minimal influence in this one, as it was quite clearly all set up to be a Kate McKinnon farewell. To be honest, this was probably among the least funny editions of Ms. Rafferty’s sketches, but it was a delight to see it function as a cold open for once, and simultaneously a touching send-off for McKinnon. Besides, even the weakest ‘Ms. Rafferty’ sketch is funnier than 80% of all other sketches.
“Women's Commercial": 6.5/10
Unfortunately, the weakest sketch of the night was also the last sketch of the night. Fortunately, true to form for a great episode, it was still a very enjoyable, if not laugh-out-loud hilarious, bit. Any closing sketch that can utilize all three of the departing full-time cast members (sorry, Pete) as well as the musical guest gets a W in my book.
Musical Performances
Japanese Breakfast: 7/10
I had heard of Japanese Breakfast for a long time before I had actually heard anything by them, but I knew they were a darling of the indie music circuit. In the wake of their double nomination, including one for Best New Artist, at this year’s Grammys, however, I finally did dive into a bit of their music at which point I discovered they were in fact a very high-quality alt rock band. So I was excited to see their set!
The first song they performed, “Be Sweet,” is such a bop, and the band sounded great, and the lighting/stage design was fascinating as well. Lead vocalist Michelle Zauner did seem a bit nervous, though, which is not surprising given how unforgiving the acoustics of this stage can be, but did affect the quality of the performance somewhat.
When the group rolled with “Paprika” as their 2nd performance, it was a very pleasant surprise; it’s my favorite song by the group (based on an admittedly small sample size that I’ve listened to), but I had errantly thought this was one of their older tracks and thus assumed we wouldn’t hear it on their set. I was delighted to be wrong— this song is also from last year’s album Jubilee, as it turns out— and even more delighted at how well this performance translated to the live stage. Zauner sounded much more self-assured with this performance, and her increasing joy while bashing the gong at the song’s conclusion was so infectious and cathartic.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.35 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.39)
As we enter Summer break, here is how the Season 47 episodes shook out in entirety-- keep in mind the episode's overall score factors in the musical performance, so what I considered the funniest isn't necessarily the top-rated overall, etc.:
Natasha Lyonne/Japanese Breakfast - 7.35
John Mulaney/LCD Soundsystem - 7.17
Oscar Isaac/Charli XCX - 7.06
Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía - 7.05
Benedict Cumberbatch/Arcade Fire - 7.00
Jake Gyllenhaal/Camila Cabello - 7.00 (tiebreaker goes to the Benedict Cumberbatch episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Lizzo - 6.96
Rami Malek/Young Thug - 6.95
Billie Eilish - 6.95 (tiebreaker goes to the Rami Malek episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Willem Dafoe/Katy Perry - 6.88
Simu Liu/Saweetie - 6.83
Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile - 6.83 (tiebreaker goes to the Simu Liu episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Jarrod Carmichael/Gunna - 6.68
Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves - 6.64
Kim Kardashian West/Halsey - 6.63
Will Forte / Måneskin - 6.50
Paul Rudd (COVID Christmas) - 6.50 (tiebreaker goes to the Will Forte episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Selena Gomez/Post Malone - 6.31
Kieran Culkin/Ed Sheeran - 6.25
Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift - 5.88
Ariana DeBose/Bleachers - 5.68
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