There are many funny women in this world; Tina (who we’ll re-revisit next week), Poehler, Gilda, Jonsey, Haddish, JLD, Jan Hooks, Sarah Silverman, Joan Rivers, Lucille Ball, and ESPECIALLY Carol Burnett just to name a few. So where does the sometimes polarizing and…(*PAINED SIGH*)…Emmy Winner Amy Schumer, fit in among these legends? It’s difficult to say at first glance. I saw “Trainwreck” a few years ago, and I’ve caught up with the reruns of her…(*GRITS TEETH*)…Emmy Winning Comedy Central show, and I guess she’s making her bones as an Envelope pusher. But quite honestly, the jury’s still out at this time, especially with her recent effort “I Feel Pretty” getting a lukewarm result at best. With that said, Let’s see how she did the first time among other SNL-ers NOT named Bill Hader………………….OK, look…in all seriousness, It’s not like SNL Deserved the Emmy for Variety Sketch Series in 2015, let alone a nomination. But I’d be lying if I didn’t think “Key & Peele” got SCREWED Big Time that year—I’m glad they Eventually won one the following year, but I’m guessing that was a make-up call…
Amy Schumer/The Weeknd – Original Airdate: 10/10/2015
FOX & FRIENDS: It’s getting to the point where “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” with these, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t have their moments. Taran’s Doocy remains Derpy, Vanessa makes the first of 3952 appearances tonight thanks in part to co-starring in “Trainwreck”, Bobby seems to have cranked the Kilmeade stupidity levels to 11 on this one, and God bless him for it. Pete is actually taking a formidable shot at being a “Character”, though his natural lisp seems to hinder it a little. Despite the presence of Bobby, Kate steals this one with a Wasserman-Shultz that makes her Hillary look less demonic in comparison. And of course, the “Corrections” at the end always acts as a decent life-saver (Though the only one I was able to remember off the top of my head was “The iPad is Not Just for Women”).
SCORE: 7 out of 10 Million Dollars’ worth of advertising the Koch Brothers invests in Fox News…daily.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Anybody miss Bobby & Vanessa?………Me, too.
MONOLOGUE: Schumer was OK here, but “Just OK”, not quite the caliber of stand-up from the hosts of the previous season; though Quite honestly, I was WAY too distracted by her outfit/curves to actually pay attention the first time I saw it. So after watching it a 2nd time online with a busted video card (In other words, “Listening” instead of “Watching”), the material is actually a lot more solid than we seem to be giving her credit for; Especially her bits on Hillary Clinton drinking, meeting Bradley Cooper, and her various self-deprecating body issues. All in all, it was just “OK”; nothing earth shattering, just safe, network TV humor with a few minor chuckles—could’ve done without the Kardashian & Baby Bath jokes.
SCORE: 6 out of 10 “Vagina Monologues” (which I’m honestly shocked Schumer hasn’t tried her hand at yet).
DELTA AIRLINES: I’m always going to be a big fan of Physical comedy—even if the comedy itself is a little weak and especially if a well-crafted special effect or two is involved…Having said that, a few elements kept this one from being good. The fact that 75% of the sketch was shocked, panicked yelling was the biggest distraction, though not half as distracting as Schumer & Vanessa attempting to sing some dime-store Spice Girls routine…and yet, quite honestly, those were the only two bad things about this sketch. Vanessa probably gives her best performance in the 6 years she’s been on the show—no joke. Yeah, she’s still pretty much being Meg Griffin’d here, but at least she’s using her character’s fear/anger to her advantage. Schumer then takes the ball and runs with it by doing more of the physical stuff; and despite Taran’s “3rd wheel” place setting, his brief moments of panic were still amusing. In the end though, the Special effects were the star of the sketch
SCORE: 6 out of 10 hour layovers at LaGuardia.
HOT FOR TEACHER 8: Let’s add this to a list of things I’m honestly surprised they’ve taken 40+ years to do; Yeah, they’ve riffed on Porn a number of times before, but definitely Not like this. The addition of Aidy’s precocious little girl was certainly a move out of nowhere, and was the centerpiece of the sketch in addition to Schumer & Mooney’s intentionally bad porno acting. Not only that, but Vanessa delivers a finishing move with her straight-laced, but clueless banter between her & Schumer (I especially liked the F.U. Wordplay). Bonus points for giving the sketch a “Gritty VHS” kind of look, always like the little technical extras like that. It wasn’t exactly a solid sketch, but Aidy certainly did the lion’s share of making it work—especially on the punchline & her character’s overall innocence. It sort of straddles the line between Cute and Frisky without being too overbearing.
SCORE: 7 out of 10 remaining people in the world who still Pay Monthly for “Premium” porno sites.
GUNS: I don’t want to say that this is sort of a spiritual sequel to the legendary “Show Us Your Guns” film that coincidentally aired on the first show 40 years ago today (as of when I ORIGINALLY Wrote this review in 2015), but it’s one Hell of a coincidence to have in common here. Once again, the abundance & overall acceptance of just how many guns there are in this country takes the spotlight. And Just like that film from 40 years ago, this “Sequel” is a very pointed social commentary that has just the right amount of humor added to the mix for good measure. Only this time, the humor here is more blatantly obvious vs. 1975 being subtle. Not only that, but they utilize the “Fake out” method in executing the joke very well here. Yeah, guns are still a touchy subject; but as long as the humor is executed properly, I have no complaints—the satire’s as sharp here as the original “Guns” was back in ‘75.
SCORE: 8 out of 10 guns pried “from my Cold, Dead Hands.”
UPDATE: (Part 1 Here, Part 2 There)
Colin’s Best: American Apparel, NY Comicon.
Michael’s Best: Knicks, FDA, Chuck E. Cheese.
Commentaries:
*Jost scores big with the opening “Speaker” Mini-comment, but nearly squanders it with the one about Bieber’s “Bieb”.
*The Gun Control Commentary/back-and-forth between the two was pure Gold…and could very well be an Early season highlight whether you’re an Ammophile or not.
*Nice to see that Jay still has a few tricks up his sleeve, and that it’s NOT a celebrity impression—though I’d be lying if I didn’t think his “Solomon” reminded me of an Adult Urkel/Blues Singer/Boomhauer hybrid.
*The brief “Weeknd” Update was somewhat out of left field, but still briefly clever.
*And as much as I enjoy Kate’s stuff, her characters with Accents are probably her Only major weakness—it doesn’t matter if it’s Spanish, Russian or whatever, it’s ALWAYS a foreign person complaining about something.
*Nevertheless, this Update belonged to Jost & Che, who (by this point in time) Finally seem to be realizing that they might work better as a team instead of as two solo acts.
SCORE: 8 out of 10 WDIV’s (NBC in Detroit…which now gives me just cause to play This clip.)
FORD’S THEATER: In variation #5924 of “Person can’t do a Simple Task for the sake of Comedy while Kenan Reacts”, at least Schumer’s energy is enough to keep things from being too dull—which would probably explain the lack of Jonesy so far this episode, maybe Schumer’s doing all the “Loud” parts. But yeah, this sketch is just Schumer being extra loud in trying to “Spice Things up”—and once the initial joke is told, no matter how many times she winds up doing something different each time, she just gets louder & louder causing things to get worse and worse (Save for the uncomfortable humor involving the Black family later on). To be fair, the little goof with Mooney’s mustache near the end was a salvageable moment. Otherwise, this sketch didn’t really do Schumer & Co. any favors.
SCORE: 5 out of 10 rough drafts of the Gettysburg Address.
HANDS FREE SELFIE STICK: Forgive me for channeling my inner-Norm, but…A butt-plug with a cord that takes pictures for you…and you thought You had it tough. One joke premises like these are tough to judge without pointing out just how one-note the joke is…but at least everybody involved seems to be having a fun time with it. Also, while there was only one joke being the “Stick” getting (shall we say) “All up in there”, Schumer did have a salvageable line in the amazement that the stick takes photos. I could credit the props department for creating something this evasive ‘til the cows come home, but it’s the (surprisingly lacking) comedy that matters here.
SCORE: 5 out of 10 duck faces people tend to do in their own selfies.
CITIZENS FORUM: Since this is an ensemble piece, I’m going to bullet point everybody’s individual moment in an effort to keep from making run-on sentences:
*Glad to see Cecily made it in tonight.
*Aidy did a Perfect impression of people who take such town meetings WAY too Seriously.
*Kyle’s Dutch accent gave me a bad Fred Armisen vibe for some reason.
*Kenan’s Halloween guy was surprisingly NOT the worst thing about this.
*Schumer gives her best performance of the night as a rather disturbing (but still on-point) little girl—BTW, starting to notice a trend with this show (I’m starting to think her Cousin, Senator Chuck might’ve been a guest consultant)?
*Jonesy thankfully toned it down a notch (but still scored) for her one appearance this week—guess she needed a rest from the show that aired previously.
*Pete helped end the sketch on a rather douchy note.
SCORE: 7 out of 10 miles of paperwork I need just to add a Stop sign in my town.
BABY SHOWER: When this aired, some people wanted to compare this to 2007’s epic blight of “Where’s My Purse”, and that is indeed a pretty fair comparison to make. Though I will say, (1) Schumer’s bitchiness here is far less unbearable than Wiig moaning & droning any day of the week, (2) Cecily’s exaggerated Mary Tyler Moore-ish crying was awkwardly amusing, and (3) I’m glad they swept Anderlette under the “5 to 1” rug this week where nobody would watch it…except of course for those who feel the need to criticize…………Hi, there.
SCORE: 2 out of 10 Epidurals
FINAL SCORE: 61 out of 100 (61% WATCHABLE)
FINAL THOUGHTS: OK, so Schumer WAS actually funny here…I just don’t think She’s quite ready to be in the same category as the ladies I mentioned at the beginning…at least, not this soon in her career. Then again, like most Women & fine wines, maybe she’ll be better with age, so perhaps this show might be better appreciated when it re-runs…or once Schumer reaches her “Last F***able Day” (Whichever occurs first). For now though, she did reasonably well. As for the rest of the show, Vanessa dominated/easily made up for lost time from the previous year within a single episode, Aidy batted clean-up, and Jost & Che were ON FIRE. The only other thing that might’ve helped this show is if Hader made a cameo…because Vanessa wasn’t the ONLY co-star of “Trainwreck”, you know. In comparison to her most recent show in 2018, however, this show is a masterpiece.
NEXT WEEK: Pending unexpected cast farewells, The season neither goes out with a bang nor fizzles to a halt with Tina Fey. So with that, we’ve got her 2013 appearance, as well as the debut of some of SNL’s current (or “soon to be former?”) mainstays.
Happy Mother’s Day, Ma…Enjoy Thailand, Sis!
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