‘SNL’ Season 40 Discussion: Sarah Silverman And Maroon 5

NBC

Previously: “Whites” and “Car Breakup”

Cold Open

The only thing this tame cold open, about how terrorist organizations are as good at social media as the Secret Service is bad at stopping people from stabbing President Obama (I’m sure putting those three words together won’t come back to haunt me), accomplished was making me excited for the next season of Archer. I cannot wait to see how they handle ISIS. But I digress…

Monologue

One of the longest monologues in recent memory, but at least there wasn’t any singing? Actually, I quite enjoyed how SNL, like they did with Louis C.K. last season, let Sarah Silverman do her thing for about eight minutes, especially when she was conversing with her younger self from the 1990s. (Weirdly and disappointingly, the monologue was the only time that Silverman’s style, of being a “dirty” comedian who can get away with saying anything because she ends every joke with a smile, was used. Otherwise, she played mostly anonymous characters, not modified versions of herself.) What do you feed the dinosaurs? I love Chris Pratt, but standup comedians often make the best hosts, because they’re already so used to working alone on a stage, as opposed to just working alone, like bloggers.

The Fault In Our Stars 2

“Because you can’t quarantine your heart.” I can’t believe that’s not already the tagline for some horrible romantic comedy that your aunt probably loves. The Fault In Our Stars 2: The Ebola In Our Everything was a topical spin on something that came out months ago, but I think it would have worked better if the Internet hadn’t already been clogged with Fault parodies. I guess it could’ve been worse, though: at least it wasn’t The Fault In Our Stars 2: The Ice In Our Bucket Challenges.

Joan Rivers In Heaven

Sarah Silverman’s Joan Rivers impression was solid, and the concept of the departed comedian being welcomed to Heaven was solid, but the execution? Yeesh. Silverman tripped over her lines, and the assembled celebrity impressions are all over the place. Richard Pryor made sense, but a mute Steve Jobs? At least Benjamin Franklin got to make some bisexual jokes, not that he knows what that is.