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The McConaissance Continues as Matthew McConaughey Hosts a Terrific 'SNL'

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | November 22, 2015 |

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | November 22, 2015 |


Cold Open — The recurring “Fox and Friends” take up the Syrian refugee crisis, bringing back Kate McKinnon’s Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jay Pharoah’s Ben Carson in an effort to lampoon the GOP position on the issue. For the most part, it’s modestly successful political parody, but it’s not a particularly funny one (and they didn’t even run a fact-check scroll, which is the ENTIRE point of “Fox and Friends.”). (Score: 4/10)

Monologue — Matthew McConaughey eschews jokes or musical numbers and makes the odd but interesting choice of using the monologue to explain the entire origins story of the “Alright alright alright” line on Dazed or Confused. It’s a good story. (Score: 7/10)

Thanksgiving Dinner — Family members may disagree on politics and religion but they can ALL agree on one thing: They love Adele’s “Hello.” Absolutely fantastic. I don’t even like the song, and it’s one of the best pre-taped segments of the year. (Score: 9.5/10)

Charlie’s Blues Shack — A McConaughey character joins a blues band, but his version of the “blues” can be best described as#firstworldproblems. Great premise, good execution. (Score: 7/10)

Bioprint — The first company to ever print a 3D man. He looks right, but … well, you have to watch McConaughey sell it as a 3D printed man. It’s basically a vehicle for McConaughey to be weird. It’s OK. (Score: 5/10)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Screen Tests — Another one of those sketches that basically gives the cast opportunities to do celebrity impressions, here by playing celebrities screen tests for Star Wars, with a cool added bonus of having the actual J.J. Abrams introduce and Daisy Ridley and John Boyega appear alongside some of the impersonators. And there are also a couple of fun, unexpected cameos from Emma Stone, Michael Buble, and Jon Hamm, playing themselves: Hamm’s like “What’s up, Hamm solo!” (Score: 9/10)

Weekend Update — In another issues discussion, Che and Jost cover a popular topic on tonight’s show, the Syrian Refugees. Both also successfully also get away with a few off-color, hilariously groan-worthy jokes. These two are seriously rolling these days. (Score: 8/10)

Laura Parsons — Vanessa Bayer trots out a new “Update” character, a cute 12-year-old girl auditioning for a future “Update” anchor. She’s very enthusiastic and joyful about delivering terrible news stories. It’s much better than you might imagine for a Bayer character, though you need to stick with it all the way through to get the best laughs. This character will almost certainly be back. (Score: 8/10)

David Ortiz — Kenan Thompson comes out as Big Papi to share his plans for retired life, including serving as spokesman for a new gym and online dating service. It only works because Thompson is so earnestly committed his terrible Ortiz impression. (Score: 6/10)

Should You Chime in on This — A game show where three idiots answer the question “Should You Chime In on This?” The answer always should be no, but that doesn’t stop the morons from chiming in. (Score: 4/10)

Right Side of the Bed — The recurring morning talk show where the husband in the husband-and-wife hosting duo tries too hard to compensate for the fact that he’s obviously gay. It’s alright, thanks mostly to McConaughey’s seed-tick redneck. (Score: 5.5/10)

City Council Meeting — I don’t really know what’s going on here; McConaughey seems to be doing a very bad and very unintentional DeNiro impression. They can’t all be winners. (Score: 3/10)