By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | January 24, 2016 |
By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | January 24, 2016 |
Ronda Rousey, in spite of her appearance in Entourage, fits squarely into the athlete category of SNL, and she performed in line with other athlete hosts (save for Peyton Manning, the greatest SNL athlete hosts of all time. NO ONE DENIES THIS.). She was fine, I guess, but the writers didn’t really know what to do with her. In fact, the writers didn’t really know what to do with most of the show last night, which mostly fell flat on its face. Maybe it was the snowstorm that struck NYC yesterday, but the studio audience was also weirdly quiet for much of the night, which lended itself to a fairly low-energy show.
Palin Endorsement Cold Open — At least we got another appearance from Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, although Darrell Hammond’s Donald Trump was weirdly flat with his asides, which made for an odd juxtaposition. (Score: 6/5/10)
Ronda Rousey Monologue — My favorite part of the monologue was how quickly Rousey rushed out and hit the edge of end of the stage with about 20 seconds left of the opening song. She did not look comfortable in high heels and a dress, either. (Score: 4/10)
Screen Guild Awards — All of the Best Actor nominees are white guys with bit parts in movies starring black actors! The premise of the joke is smart, but the one joke drifts until it’s almost inconsequential. (Score: 5/10)
Love Struck — Hmmm. We’ve got Ronda Rousey, what can we do with her? Oh, I know! Have her beat up a high-school mean girl! Eh. (Score: 5/10)
Bland Man — A few weeks ago, there was a big todo on the Internet about how bland the men are on The Bachelor. This was an attempt to make hay of that. I didn’t say it was a good attempt, but it was definitely an attempt. (Score: 3/10)
Teacher Trial with Ronda Rousey — Where the front half of the show was adequate but unimpressive, the back half promptly shat the bed and rolled around in the blankets. In fact, I swear we’ve already seen a sketch where Pete Davidson plays a teenager bragging about having sex with his teachers. (Score: 3/10)
At the Club — Three men (Jay Pharoah, Taran Killam, Beck Bennett) attempt to pick up three women (Ronda Rousey, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant) with a revealing rap. It’s funny because Beck Bennett sings about his small penis! (Score: 3/10)
City Council with Ronda Rousey — This is the second or third time SNL has done with sketch, which is basically a time killer and probably written 5 minutes before show time. (Score: 3/10)