The Amy Adams' Hosted Christmas Episode of 'SNL' Featured the Year's Best Cameo

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | December 21, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | December 21, 2014 |

Cold Open — “A Somber Christmas with Sam Smith” is 20 seconds of hilarity that is quickly interrupted by MIKE F#Q$#@ MYERS as Dr. Evil taking issue with North Korea and Sony. How absolutely perfect. “Way to go Guardians of Peace. There’s already a GOP, and they are already evil.” It’s seriously fun to see Mike Myers again. How long has it been? A decade? More? Actually, he was on in 2011 for the Dana Carvey episode for a Wayne’s World sketch, but otherwise, 1997 was his last appearance. (Score: 9/10)

Monologue — Kristen Wiig crashes Amy Adams’ monologue (for the second time) to bring some “Christmas cheer” to the show. And she is funny. And the monologue is amusing. At the very least, it’s added a lot of energy that hopefully the rest of the show can maintain. (Score: 6/10)

Asian American Doll — The Asian American doll has no academic strengths or weaknesses and comes with harmless accessories like an adorable puppy and a chef’s hat because those can’t be offensive to anyone … can they? “We made it from a place of fear!” Brilliant! One of the best SNL commercials of the year. (Score: 9/10)

Tenterfield Christmas — Remember that super adorable, super lame family in their Christmas pajamas with the video Christmas card that went viral last year? Yeah, this year wasn’t as good for that family. The sketch wasn’t that good, either. The best thing about this sketch, in fact, was the real-life Holderness Family’s response to it. (Score: 4/10)

Serial Parody — Cecily Strong as Sarah Koenig? My two biggest crushes in the world in one? IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. The sketch is pretty good, too. Does Kris Kringle exist? Perfect send-up, no details spared, and Cecily Strong has got that Sarah Koenig impression nailed. (Score: 10/10)

Girlfriends — I loathe this recurring sketch. One Direction only makes it worse. (Score: 2/10)

Office Christmas Party — This is probably as close as SNL as come to a Lonely Island Digital Short since Andy Samberg left. It’s not bad, either. Nor is it particularly great. (Score: 5/10)

Weekend Update — Mildly amusing installment, though I’m annoyed that Michael Che said that “Serial” was an NPR podcast. It’s not affiliated with NPR, but in the context of a joke where he’s basically saying all white people are the same, it actually makes it a little funnier. Also, has anyone noticed how far they’ve pushed “Weekend Update” back into the show? Is that because they’re down on “Update” this year, or is it because they know a lot of people don’t go to bed until after “Update,” and they had a lot of good stuff in the front half?

Bobby Moynihan as North Korea’s Leader — Nope. (Score: 2/10)

Che’s Neighbor Willie — Kenan Thompson absolutely made this work. My wife giggled throughout because the entire sketch reminded her of me talking about my childhood, so I’m a little more enamored with it than I should be. (Score: 7/10)

Garth and Kat — I love Kristen Wiig. I like Fred Armisen. I never liked either of them on SNL particularly well, and I never really cared for Garth and Kat until I heard Kristen Wiig talk about it as a great party trick on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Ever since, I’ve kind of loved it. The fact that neither could keep a straight face through any of this sketch made it even more amusing. (Score: 7/10)

Cat Rescue Commercial — Maybe there’s a small contingent of lesbian cat-owners who enjoy terrible cat puns that might appreciate this cat-rescue commercial, but for the rest of us, it’s pretty awful. (Score: 3/10)

A Very Cuban Christmas — Let us never speak of this sketch again. These kinds of sketches are exactly why I never cared for Fred Armisen when he was on SNL. (Score: 2/10)

Singing Sisters — You know there’s a catch to this sketch — about three dames who really want to eat trash — and it’s the catch that keeps you watching. Is it worth it? No, not really, but it didn’t infuriate me, either. (Score: 4/10)