Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara hosted the return episode of Saturday Night Live last night, to somewhat mediocre results. Though Vergara was her charming self, kicking off the festivities by asking the audience to forgive her for her accent (offering to forgive us for staring at her chest all night in return), the show seemed markedly lazy at a writing level, which is pretty surprising considering that they just took three weeks off. Kate McKinnon, SNL‘s first openly gay cast member, had her debut as a featured player last night, though she was barely used, only showing up in the tail end of the show, once as Tabatha Coffey and once as Penelope Cruz. Our verdict? A little too soon to tell — she sure doesn’t look anything like Penelope Cruz, but we think in the right part she’s going to be hilarious. Click through to watch the best and worst sketches from last night, and let us know if you agree with our assessments in the comments.
Best:
Bein’ Quirky With Zooey Deschanel
This sketch was about five times less funny than the original (which aired during the Zooey Deschanel-hosted episode), but in such a mediocre group, it still stood out, especially with such a great crop of impressions. Wiig’s Drew Barrymore is impressive, Taran Killam reprises his Michael Cera perfectly, and Vergara’s Fran Drescher is, well, insanely loud. The sketch is basically about nothing, so we’re interested to see whether it continues.
The 74th Annual Hunger Games
Let’s face it: this sketch was all about Sofia Vergara shouting “BOOM! HUUUUNNNGER GAMES!” But what can we say? It worked.
Almost Pizza
This sketch wasn’t so much funny as it was pretty smart, especially for an SNL commercial. Parodying the “it’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno!” commercials, “Almost Pizza” is a very strange concoction that looks and smells like pizza, but very much isn’t. We’re talking horror movie pizza here, guys. Not a laugh-out-loud sketch, but a great one nonetheless.
Worst:
Channel 5 Action News Team Promo
What? Really? A whole sketch about one newscaster who can’t turn around on cue? It wasn’t even funny the first time.
Mitt Romney Cold Open
Another Mitt Romney sketch? We get it, SNL, he’s not relatable. We’ve heard. If they’re going to keep at this political-sketches-as-cold-opens business, they really need to find a new angle.
Just Friends
This sketch is just a series of lazy gay jokes and a look at Samberg and Sudeikis in hot shorts. And we mean lazy. Seriously, the one about two guys hanging out together and being mistaken for a gay couple is so done that we can’t believe SNL wasted time on it. Okay, we can believe it. But we wish we didn’t have to.