He wouldn’t fall down on this job, unless the sketch called for it, of course.
After last week featured so many big-name cameos it overwhelmed fans, sending them into sheer ecstasy (or sometimes fits of sheer confusion, and sometimes both), Saturday Night Live would revert back this week to letting its cast members play, unperturbed by celebrity interruptions. And yet, more than slightly perturbed by their guest host. Would they get thrown off more by Michael B. Jordan’s acting ability or by his hotness? Place your bets!
A bold voiceover from producer Steve Higgins sets us up for stone-cold tough-as-nails U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, so obviously the joke is how meek Merrick (Mikey Day) actually is. Mikey’s take is giving us a slight hint of influenced by What Would Will Forte Do? Meanwhile, he’s mostly introducing FBI agents to report on how many classified documents they’ve discovered at the homes/offices of other former presidents and vice presidents (Kenan Thompson for Mike Pence; Ego Nwodim for Kamala Harris; Bowen Yang for Obama). Which makes this a very tell, and no-show, sketch. Only Bowen does anything fun with it, thanks to his impersonating Obama impersonating Lin-Manuel Miranda, acting out reading of fan mail begging Obama to see “Hamilton” on Broadway.
There’s also a quick reference by Kenan to seeking “justice” in Memphis (say his name: Tyre Nichols; but they didn’t), which just makes this feel shoehorned in and completely ineffective.
Some SNL cold opens feel so perfunctory when they decide to address the week’s biggest political news, but have nothing funny to say about it. This was definitely one of those.
Our host came out of the gate punning on his name: Michael B. Hosting, Michael B. Joking, Michael B. Nervous, Michael B. A’ight, Michael B. In Therapy. We’ll allow it. We won’t allow The Wire erasure, as Jordan reminisced and shared a clip instead of his gig the year after Baltimore, when he was a teenager in NYC on All My Children. But as soon as he mentioned he was single and on Raya, he got hit on during the monologue by Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and even Punkie Johnson.
As for the sketches?
He started off strong thanks to Sarah Sherman and her latest triumph in keeping a straight face when your face ain’t anything but. In this case, Sarah and Michael are part of the team at “Good Morning Today” (her segment is Cuisine with Francine, while he’s the weatherman), only they just got back to the studio after a terrifying time stuck on a rollercoaster. So terrifying, their faces frozen in a wind-blown state, along with their hair and wardrobe. It’s one sight gag after another, and it’s a sight to behold.
In the first and lesser of two pre-taped mockeries of ad campaigns this evening, several employees of Southwest Airlines promise they’ve made improvements since their Christmas debacle.
