Jonah Hill Hosts the Last 'SNL' Before the Midterms

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 4, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 4, 2018 |

Cold Open — Kate McKinnon’s Laura Ingraham and Cecily Strong’s Jeanine Pirro tackle the Caravan, and it is surprisingly effective. While it’s almost impossible to satirize the Trump era, SNL exaggerates the situation effectively enough to highlight how awful Trump and the GOP’s fear-mongering, racism, and voter suppression efforts have been and do so in a way that forecloses clap backs from conservative (what are they going to say, “Hey! That’s not fair. We’re not that racist!”) (Score: 7 out of 10)

Jonah Hill Monologue — Yes, you’re so old that Jonah Hill — the kid from Superbad — is already a five-timer on SNL. He gets the star cameo treatment, too. Tina Fey escorts him to the Five-Timers lounge, where he hangs with and is humiliated by Drew Barrymore and Candace Bergen. Also, men are no longer allowed for obvious reasons (“Justin Timberlake ripped a lady’s top off at the Super Bowl, does anyone remember that?”) Decent. (Score: 5 out of 10)

Adam Grossman — Jonah Hill’s six-year-old recurring character returns with a bunch of inappropriate jokes that he justifies with “What? I’m six!” Leslie Jones can’t keep it together, per usual, but at least there’s a reason she can’t stop cracking in this skit. It’s funny. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Midterm Ad — A bunch of Democrats try to exude confidence about Tuesday’s midterms while shaking, sweating, and generally freaking the hell out because no one actually has any faith in the Democrats to pull this out. This commercial is all of us right now. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Albany Newscast — During the live weather report, the boyfriend (Jonah Hill) of the meteorologists (Cecily Strong) tries to propose but she isn’t having it. It’s super dumb, and gets worse the longer it goes on. (Watch here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Divided We Stand — A new Broadway play best described as “definitely written by the actors.” It’s a spoof of Capitol Steps, and it’s a damn good one. (Score: 6.5 out 10)

I got a Slack message from Lainey, our copyeditor, at 1 a.m. last night.

(Note that Lainey does not work on Sunday mornings, so any mistakes in this post are entirely of my own making.)

Teacher Fell Down — Let me just say that this is a really bad sketch but the kind of bad sketch that would become absurdly hilarious at around the 9-minute mark. Fortunately/unfortunately, it’s only four minutes long, so it’s just bad. And not bad in the way that you like, Mat. (Watch here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Colin Jost and Michael Che turn in a painfully mediocre and really annoying “Weekend Update,” although Pete Davidson shows up to make fun of the way a lot of politicians look, which is wrong (but also very funny). He also talks briefly about his break up with Ariana Grande. You can watch Pete Davidson here (and shame him for making fun of the way people look while secretly laughing), but the rest of “Update” isn’t worth embedding, so watch here, here, here and here. (Score: 4 out of 10)

America’s Got Talent, Wait They’re Good? — The sketch pokes fun of a common trope on the competition show where people who appear to suck manage to turn in crowd-stopping performances. It’s a great premise, kind of dumb in execution, but Keenan saves the hell out of it. (Watch Here) (Score: 6 out of 10)

HuckaPM The only sleep medication strong enough for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to sleep at night. Fantastic premise. I may have snort-laughed at Aidy Bryant’s pratfalls, which means it’s either really funny or it’s really late and I’m delirious from all the bad local political ads. (Score: 8 out of 10)

Pug Wigs — If you love to see pugs in wigs, this sketch is for you. It is not for me, except for the Tina Turner wig. (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

Bonus: I’d never heard of the musical guest Maggie Rogers before, but I really like her. She sounds like what would happen if one of the members of HAIM went solo, so if that’s your bag, check her out here and here.

Bonus, Bonus: There’s no video of it, but in the sign off, Jonah Hill is wearing a shirt that says, “Farley, Sandler, Spade and Meadows,” and you can see Tina Fey looking at it and turning to the camera, holding her thumb up, and saying, “Tim Meadows! Tim Meadows!” (She doesn’t give a shit about the other three guys, is what I’m saying.)