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Surprisingly Solid Ending To A Non-Surprising Comeback Of A Year

I’m really not looking forward to tonight’s episode since yesterday’s viewing with Will Ferrell was so good. Not only that but, I’ve never been a fan of The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, or anyone else involved. I often complain about my issues with sex in comedy. When it comes to women, when they are the ones being desired, since in comedy it never works out, it reminds me of my creepy lecherous grandfather who tried to hit on any female, no matter how inappropriate, whenever we’d be out and about.

When it comes to men, I get creeped out because it reminds me of my mother howling like a banshee whenever a guy on TV touches a button on his shirt. In both cases, it’s not really the act or desire when both parties involved are down. It’s just another aspect of life that I wish more people would enjoy but keep to themselves, so I guess, I’m still a bit of a prude, just not as bad as I may have made it seem in the past, as I continue to work through the full details of this issue.

I think I’m also not a fan because I hate how much it validates the old adage, “sex sells” as if it’s some secret that deep down we’re still animals driven by our desires and not that it’s actually a legitimate tool for the creative. In comedy, I feel that sex is a cheap thrill, and in drama, I feel it’s a lazy way to show love, and in both cases, I see it as an incredibly uninspiring MacGuffin to drive a story because it’s such a simple urge that almost by default everyone somehow relates to.

Since The Rolling Stones always seemed to be such a sex-driven band, I’ve never been interested in their sound or any bandmember as an individual. Not only that, but I saw Mick Jagger in the movie Freejack back when I was in high school and still watching any movie that came my way and hated him as an actor as well, and I can’t imagine him being all that great at sketch. I’m also willing to bet that he’s confident enough in general, he’ll be doing terrible while acting like he’s the best host the show’s ever had on.

If all of this wasn’t enough, I’m also not a fan of how many musical performances make up this night even though each performance has a different guest band, which I’m sure fan of this type of music actually loved. We’ll see how things go but don’t be surprised if you find the words zoned out a lot as I share my real-time viewing experience. With that, it’s time to hit play and see how things turn out.

As usual, I loved the opening Lawrence Welk sketch with Kristen Wiig as Dooneese. Even though the sketch itself is incredibly repetitive because they at least hold back on having it as a start to the show so that it doesn’t feel weekly/daily, the way I feel when I see that there’s going to be another visit from Stefon. I know for sure, however, that I would hate this character if the segment ever ends up in too heavy of a rotation.

As I said, I’m not a fan of Mick Jagger as either an actor or a singer, so I didn’t really care about his joke about the answers to questions that he’s been keeping to himself for years. Since I don’t get the significance of his references, other than when he gave all of the bands who he was going to perform with later in the night a quick plug. That said, I was impressed by his delivery because he was another rare non-comedian host who didn’t sound like he was delivering a speech before handing out an award. This makes me understand why they often resort to the three default routines where they either sing a song, take questions from the audience, or wander around backstage.

Speaking of never being a fan, as I always point out, I’m not a fan of the Secret World series because it’s another repetitive series, only I’ve never found this series to be more than just a little entertaining. Again, my main issue is that it’s not a parody of a real game show or real celebrities and I feel it would be more fun if it were.

I have to admit, that I’m liking Mick Jagger more than I expected because I don’t really mind him as much now that he’s settled down and old. He was really great in the karaoke sketch where he had to sit through the cast doing horrible impersonations of him right in front of his face. In this visit, Mick seems more like a tiny British actor who I’m unfamiliar with and not the annoying rock star who I’ve never really liked.

It was great to see Chris Parnell return to the show for this week’s SNL Digital Short which I loved because when I was living in Seattle, I was a part of a Sunday mimosa drinking, brunch eating who would have all gone to see a Sister Act play in a heartbeat as a goof. It was also great to see Kenan bring back his Al Sharpton character because this is one of the few reoccurring political segments that I don’t really mind.

I could see how a fan of either Mick Jagger or Arcade Fire would be blown away by the collaboration between the two but as someone who’s only aware of both but not all that familiar with either’s music, I just found the performance to be pretty good. It also helped that they performed a The Rolling Stones’ song that I know. The news was the news, but as I said at the top of this real-time viewing breakdown, I’m feeling a bit burnt out from Stefon since they seem to have him on every other week, which can be daily due to the nature of this challenge. Not only that but the news segment was sort of long with Stefon taking up an entire half with no other guests at all.

So You Think You Can Dance At An Outdoor Music Festival was a good one because I love real reality shows as long as they are skill/talent based and not just following idiots around. I watch So You Think You Can Dance with my mom since moving home, so it was extra fun to see this parody of the show. I like the Foo Fighters but was annoyed by the fact that they performed two songs in a row with Mick since I know that there is another music performance where Mick teams up with Jeff Beck.

Then we got The Californians which is pretty much just accent-based humor which is a sketch genre that I have grown to hate, especially when there is no humor outside of the way that the character’s speak. Yes, it is how people in L.A. tend to talk, which I’ve witnessed as a San Diegan but it’s boring when it’s done for real and just as drab when it’s a joke. Then we got the Jeff Beck/Mick Jagger performance that I was just complaining about, and The Californians left me zoned out, so I barely paid any attention. I mean, even the special appearance from Steve Martin just barely drew me back in.

I think the She's A Rainbow sketch was the most intriguing to me because I couldn’t make heads or tails as to what to expect based on the previewing legwork. I couldn’t picture what this SNL school would be that Kristen Wiig would be graduating from. It turned out when it the breakdown that I write my rough draft Wicker Breakdown from said “Seven-year student,” I thought they were saying she was a seven-year-old kid. It turns out that they were celebrating her seven years with the show and the fact that this was her farewell episode, which made me a little sad but was a nice sentimental way to end both this episode and this season. I almost complained that it went on a little too long, but then I started to ball like a baby the more and more people got involved in this send off.

By the time that Mick Jagger returned to the stage to say his goodnights, I was extremely pleased that the show was over because this was my second viewing of the night to make up for taking yesterday off to celebrate Christmas. I’m now exhausted from this double duty day, so I can’t wait to get some sleep. With that, it’s now time to dig deeper into the details of each sketch, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with another parody of The Lawrence Welk Show which was the same as usual from this series with Kristen Wiig’s tiny-handed character named Dooneese and her antics as her and her sisters sang and old-school tune with special guest Jon Hamm as their new lead singer for the night. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York...”
Mick Jagger then officially opened the show with a monolog where he shared some of the weirdest questions that he's ever received from fans and then went on to share his answers that he wouldn’t give at the time he was asked.
This was followed by another installment of Secret Word where, as usual, Kristen Wiig and Mick Jagger played old-timey actors to parody of ‘70s Password style game, only both old-timey performers are so full of themselves that they can’t figure out how to play this simple game. (Bonus Clip)
We then went to a Karaoke Bar where Mick Jagger played an uptight insurance salesman who can’t comprehend his co-workers’ inaccurate performances of The Rolling Stones songs and their impersonations of the lead singer.
This was followed by another SNL Digital Short where Chris Parnell returned to team up with Andy Samberg and rap about a Sunday filled with mimosas and brunch and their plans to see the Broadway rendition of Sister Act and their song was called Lazy Sunday 2.
Politics Nation brought back Kenan Thompson as Al Sharpton to host his fake political talk show where this week, he attempted to discusses the effects that Wall Street has on the economy with his panel of guests.
Mick Jagger switched to musical guest mode and took to the stage with Arcade Fire to perform The Last Time.
Once again, Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, the only guest was Stefon for even more of his fun and games. (Clip 2) (Bonus Clip)
So You Think You Can Dance At An Outdoor Music Festival was a parody dance reality show where dirty hippies performed their hippy dances to compete for who’s the best festival show-style dancer.
Mick Jagger switched back to musical guest mode and this time took to the stage with Foo Fighters to performs the songs 19th Nervous Breakdown, and It's Only Rock 'n Roll back to back.
The Californians then return for more talking about Los Angeles driving direction with surfer/valley girl accents.
Once again, Mick Jagger switched back to musical guest mode and this time took to the stage with Jeff Beck to perform Tea Party.
She's A Rainbow had Kristen Wiig as a seven-year-old student who graduated from SNL’s Class Of 2012 and danced with her new castmates. It turns out that I totally misread this while doing my previewing legwork, and she wasn’t playing a kid. Instead, this was sketch was a celebration/farewell to Kristen after her seven years with the show.
Finally, Mick Jagger closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Though I had low expectations for tonight’s episode since I first saw it as the closeout to this year, thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night, the show ended up really good. First, I loved She's A Rainbow because this farewell sketch devoted to Kristen Wiig’s final show was touching enough to get me to full on cry, and not just a little. Next, I really liked the Karaoke Bar because I like when the cast impersonates the host in front of their face, plus, this sketch got me to lighten up on my judgment of Mick Jagger so that I could just sit back and enjoy without expecting to be annoyed. Finally, I was a fan of this week’s SNL Digital Short: Lazy Sunday 2 because it took me back to my days in Seattle when I still had a Sunday goofball brunch crew.