Saturday Night Live just finished its 40th season on television. It is the longest running variety show in American history, and the touchstone by which almost every American sketch comedy show is now measured.
After a less than stellar 39th season, a lot of pressure was placed upon Lorne Michaels, the cast, and the writers to not have a repeat during its anniversary season. Thankfully, the 40th season was a step forward, and things seem to be moving in the right direction after the loss of so many great cast members — i.e. Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, Brooks Wheelan — in the past five years.
BEST “CUT FOR TIME” SKETCH – MORNING SHOW
This sketch was so good that SNL basically used it again a few months later during the unrest in Baltimore. After YouTube exploded almost 10 years ago, it took SNL a few years to realize the importance of posting their material, both aired and unaired, online. This season saw several very good “cut for time” sketches make their way online including two Bruce Chandling sketches, and “Tweet.”
CAST MEMBER MOST LIKELY NOT TO RETURN – VANESSA BAYER
It’s been 15 years since SNL had everyone return from the previous season’s cast, and I’m not saying that Bayer won’t be back after her fifth season, it just feels like it might be time for her to move on. She has been surpassed by Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant for screen time, and had the one character that could possibly keep her at SNL — Hillary Clinton — taken from her in favor of McKinnon.
BEST SKETCH I MISSED THE FIRST TIME – INTERROGATION
The Dwayne Johnson-hosted episode was by all accounts the best episode of the season. From beginning to end it had the best sketches of any episode. In my recap, I selected Kyle Mooney’s “Circus” sketch and the “Improv” sketch featuring Robert Durst (McKinnon) as my two favorite sketches, but I should have picked this sketch for at least one of those spots.
TOPIC I CAN’T LET GO – BARACK OBAMA
I’ve been beating this dead horse all season, but I don’t think SNL wants to, or can’t figure out how to, make fun of President Obama. If you want some evidence Obama (Jay Pharoah) appeared five times during the whole season and Reese De’What, Kenan Thompson’s classic TV and movie show host, appeared four times. I’d rather see more of De’What as well, but the whole Obama thing is weird to me.
BIGGEST LETDOWN – EDDIE MURPHY AT THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
In my recap of SNL40 I wrote, “Just having Eddie Murphy back at Studio 8H is big.” I was trying to tamper down the disappointment many fans were feeling after Murphy’s awkward couple of minutes on stage. After looking back on that moment, I think we can all be disappointed. Especially after Norm Macdonald told his story on Twitter of Murphy not wanting to be Bill Cosby in the “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketch, and as Murphy continues to distance himself from his former greatness by releasing reggae songs.
BEST MUSICAL GUEST – D’ANGELO
Prince was obviously the most talked about musical guest this season, but D’Angelo’s performances of “Really Love” and “The Charade” were impressive and timely. A late season appearance from Florence + The Machine came close to knocking D’Angelo out of the top spot, but in the end no one could beat D’Angelo.
MY FAVORITE TWEET ABOUT SNL FROM MYSELF – AFTER THE JOHN SINGLETON’S GAME OF THRONES SKETCH
If you were wondering if I watch Game of Thrones I recognized Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from The Other Woman. #SNL
— Jeremy Klumpp (@Klumpp13) April 12, 2015
WORSTS
About five weeks into the season, I realized I didn’t like writing about the things I didn’t like about SNL, so I stopped doing it unless necessary. With that said, here are three things I didn’t like this season: the “Waterslide” sketch from the Reese Witherspoon episode, the whole Chris Rock episode except for Prince, and Louis C.K.’s “edgy” monologue.
BEST HOST – JIM CARREY
I know I said that the Dwayne Johnson episode was the best episode of the season, and it was, but watching Jim Carrey do sketch comedy is something special. This episode might not have had the top-to-bottom hilarity of the Dwayne Johnson episode, but Carrey did great work in every sketch. Also, as a long-time fan of his work, I would have no problem with Carrey becoming a regular fixture — like John Goodman or Alec Baldwin — as an SNL host.
MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE – WEEKEND UPDATE
A lot was written after the decision to replace Cecily Strong after one season behind the “Weekend Update” desk with Michael Che, but after one season working with Colin Jost, it appears that this was the correct decision. As the season progressed, Che and Jost continued to gel and by season’s end,“Weekend Update” was once again the one sure thing on SNL each week.
I wrote in the recap for the Michael Keaton episode that Che and Jost could be “the next great ‘Weekend Update’ duo” and I really believe this. Their chemistry is apparent, and the ability to tackle social issues made for a very potent combination this season. Let’s hope they can continue to build on their success next season, and that Lorne Michaels doesn’t believe the complete opposite of me.
BEST SKETCH – THE JAY-Z STORY
This was a tough decision, but Mike O’Brien — after his lone season as a cast member — had the best sketch of the season. The utter ridiculousness of this sketch, along with appearances from Jason Sudeikis as Kanye West and host J.K. Simmons as Nas, made for some very good comedy.
Here are five other great sketches to check out from this season: “Wishin’ Boot,” “Reality House,” “Waterbed Warehouse,” “Jeremy’s Brain,” and “Neurotology.”
Thanks for reading along this season, and I hope you all enjoyed reading these recaps as much as I enjoyed writing them. Saturday Night Live will return for its 41st season this fall.
