‘SNL’ Review: Host Rami Malek And Musical Guest Young Thug Get By With A Little Help From Their Friends

So here we are, three weeks into the season. Kate McKinnon remains off-campus, as it were, getting her Carole Baskin on. Cecily Strong just announced she’s ending the year Off Broadway, starring in a stage revival of Lily Tomlin’s “The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life In The Universe,” and Aidy Bryant just signed a deal with Universal Television. None of them have left Saturday Night Live just yet, however, and that makes the cast counts a record 21 actors and actresses (a whopping 24 once you factor in the Please Don’t Destroy trio, who debuted their first digital short last week) all vying for screen time. How will Lorne Michaels and company make it all work?

What’s The Deal For The SNL Cold Open For 10/16/2021?

Judging by the cold open, they’ll write more sketches that throw a little bit of everything at the wall to see which characters stick.

I mean, opening the show with a press conference about the NFL’s latest off-field scandal is a choice considering how many comedy nerds or even casual comedy fans might not know what the fuss is and was all about this past week. Then again, the open of the cold open featured Cecily Strong as a character who wishes to remain anonymous, so read into that what you will. And a rare acting role for Colin Jost?!? Jost played NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and a lesser critic than myself might cackle at Jost as Goodell saying: “When you see me on TV, it’s never good.” If you do follow football, it all makes sense as Jon Gruden, the Las Vegas Raiders coach, sent a ton of emails while working for ESPN that included all sorts of slurs he probably never hoped anyone else would read, except he sent them to the president and g.m. of the Washington Football Team, which turned up as part of a league investigation into that team’s malfeasances. So here we are. With a sketch poking fun at everybody involved. SNL rookie James Austin Johnson is front-and-center again, this time as Gruden. Alex Moffat played Raiders owner Mark Davis, whom if you Google Image, you know why that’s funny. Pete Davidson and Andrew Dismukes come into play as subsequent coaches, but naturally immediately resign due to their own histories of bad choices. There’s Heidi Gardner as a Washington cheerleader, reminding us not only of that team’s formerly racist nickname but also that women don’t always support other women that well. Kyle Mooney makes his lone appearance of the show as Washington’s new mascot, Giuseppe the Stinky Italian. This would not be the lone appearance of a stinky character, however.

But wait! There’s even more! Chris Redd as Colin Kaepernick reminds us Kap tried to warn us of the league’s and the nation’s racial problems. Kenan Thompson as LeVar Burton shows up, too, because Jeopardy! was in the news?

Another cast member may have appeared onstage as a kitchen sink, for all we know. It’s just one of those sketches, and going to be one of those shows.

How Did The SNL Guest Host Rami Malek Do?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJvrlrZfL3s

Rami Malek, winner of an Emmy Award for Mr. Robot and an Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody, and currently starring as the Bond villain in No Time To Die, knows nobody thinks of him as funny. “People tell me I have what’s called a resting villain face.” The first half of his monologue leans into Malek’s preference for the bad guys, but turns in the second half into a sincere appreciation for his family and his career.

Some think Malek and Pete Davidson resemble each other. They made a strong enough impression together in two different pieces. First came a country music video that morphed into a synopsis somehow of the Netflix hit series, Squid Game. I shall not judge the merits of the parody for spoiler reasons, although the production value seemed on point, and the more intriguing thing that caught my eye was the presence of a third singer who’s most definitely not in the cast. That man was Big Wet, and he was there most likely because the melody might remind you of his 2017 viral hit with Branchez, “Turn Up On The Weekend.”

The second Rami-Pete scene came within another sketch that threw a ton of cast members together for celebrity impersonations with varying levels of success, with the whole thing riding mostly on Rami and Pete impersonating each other.

This celebrity game show sketch also featured John Oliver (Mikey Day), Jennifer Coolidge (Chloe Fineman), Adam Driver (James Austin Johnson), Kristen Wiig (Melissa Villasenor), George Takei (Bowen Yang), Lil Wayne (Chris Redd), with Kenan Thompson as the game show’s host, Bert Simpson, and Punkie Johnson and Andrew Dismukes as the contestants.

If not for a stunt cameo later in the show, this Bug Assembly sketch would dominate social media and message boards, and might still.

Seeing Andrew Dismukes, Sarah Sherman, Rami Malek and Bowen Yang dressed up as bugs for a school presentation already has you rooting for it, but Yang takes over as Daddy Long Legs, treating the affair as if he were a runway model. “What does Daddy Long Legs eat? Boys. Boys. Boys.” The audience ate this up, and you probably did, too.

How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Young Thug?

Young Thug just dropped his new album, “Punk,” on Friday. And just a week after the Kardashians came crashing through 30 Rock, Kourtney’s boyfriend performed on drums. Travis Barker got his close-up, but no screen time for Kourt. Sorry, Kourt.

The first song was, “Tick Tock,” which Young Thug released earlier this year as the first single, didn’t actually make it onto the album. But still good enough to play on SNL!

The second song, “Love You More,” featured guest vocals from Nate Ruess, whose voice you might remember as the frontman for the band fun.

Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing: “Prince Auditions”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsMuKSpQfIY

Taking a page out of the classic Chippendales Audition sketch, removing the fat jokes, and having Kenan Thompson and Rami Malek play themselves as if they were auditioning for the role of Prince in a biopic has all the makings of virality. It’s Prince! So make that virility! Add in a surprise entrance from Daniel Craig, as himself, mistaking the audition for a regular old-fashioned prince, and well, you’ve got people wanting to share this video.

Even if Bowen Yang’s sketches had more legs to them.

Who Stopped By Weekend Update?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7676ivbWaMo

Speaking of our man Bowen, he also showed up to the Update desk as an Oompa Loompa to talk about the “Twink” Wonka photo of Timothee Chalamet, only Yang’s Oompa Loompa didn’t know Colin Jost was going to introduce him as “Proud Gay Oompa Loompa,” so the piece becomes as much about his reaction to that as about his reaction to Twonka. While not reaching quite the heights of his instant classic Iceberg character, his Oompa Loompa surely will be added to his next Emmy nomination reel.

Chris Redd as himself doesn’t gain much traction at first, but that’s because his jokes aren’t why he’s on Update at all. Michael Che wanted us all to know what happened when Redd appeared on Update in February 2020, ending his desk piece that night with the loud declaration: “Black people can’t get the coronavirus!” How’d that work out, again?! Redd’s reply: “OK, in my defense, I was just saying something crazy!” 

Lastly, we have hypnotist Linus Minus (Mikey Day), whose work on volunteer security guard (Kenan Thompson) goes horribly awry. But they’re clearly having fun as they almost crack early on, so this must’ve killed even harder at the table read or dress rehearsal to make it to air, especially with all of the Cut For Time sketches on YouTube already.

Also, Che and Jost’s jokes about the NFL scandal only reminded me that any of the characters from the night’s cold open probably could’ve worked better by themselves on Update rather than getting thrown in with so much else in the open. Oh well.

What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lE7ZHDzeeU

At 12:51 a.m. Eastern, congratulations go to rookie Aristotle Athari for landing his first featured sketch, as the character of Angelo, an international singing sensation who works off one-word suggestions from the audience. What’s that, Daniel Craig, er, Lance? “Say for me?” Angelo seems to improvise the same song over and over, and then there’s his dance partner, Todd (Rami Malek), who’s more of a swayer. But they win over everyone in the end with a song that reminds you that they know they are not from here, but rather Foreigner(s).

Who Was The Episode’s MVP?

Sure, you could make a case for Daniel Craig as the MVP by showing up to compensate for Malek’s lack of comedic prowess. Chris Redd also hustled quite a bit tonight. But no doubt about it: This was Bowen Yang‘s night. His characters demanded your attention, from his Daddy Long Legs to his Oompa Loompa to his George Takei, all three proved time and again that Yang brings an “Oh, my!” influence to every episode since he joined the cast. Yang also played the straight man, so to speak, as the salesman in this “Mattress Store” sketch in which h Rami and Aidy Bryant (in her lone appearance of the show) test out mattresses while role playing as an angry and slightly disturbed couple.

Next week, it’s our fourth consecutive new episode, this time with guest host Jason Sudeikis and musical guest Brandi Carlile! Should be a good one!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Season 47, Episode 3 of Saturday Night Live on Peacock