After only two solid episodes and a set of adorable promos that had us feeling optimistic about seeing Daniel Craig host this week, Saturday Night Live has had the first real flop of the season. It’s probably not Craig’s fault — we’ll chalk it up to a preponderance of political sketches that the producers clearly felt had to be offset by some of the most shameless (and grossest) potty humor they could think of. Saturday Night Live is best when the actors push well-written, clever sketches to their logical extremes, and we had a little bit of extremity tonight, but not much cleverness. Click through to check out the best and worst of the evening, and let us know if you agree with your picks or think we’re totally off the mark in the comments.
The Best:
The Other Bond Girls
Short and sweet, and pretty hilarious as the cast members trotted out spot-on impressions of Diane Keaton, Jodie Foster, Lea Michele, Molly Ringwald, Ellen Degeneres, and Penny Marshall (though somewhat surprisingly, Armisen’s Penny Marshall was the weakest of the bunch).
Long Island Medium
This sketch is decent, though not extraordinary. More interesting is how much this episode has really been Kate McKinnon’s show — the other women are barely making a peep. But that’s okay, because she’s hilarious.
Undecided Voters
It’s a testament to how weak this episode was that we were actually grateful to see a commercial that aired two weeks ago. Then, it fell into the middle of the pack. Here, it’s one of the better ones.
The Worst:
Presidential Debate
The cold open tried to mock Obama’s performance at the debates, which makes total sense as a cold open, but the sketch was completely and utterly toothless. We understand why the show would veer away from hitting the president too hard, but either find an angle ludicrous enough to be funny or just leave it alone.
Mars Mission
Contrary to popular belief, saying the same inane thing over and over again in a silly voice does not always produce comedy. The only redeeming thing about this sketch was the actual kitten we got to see.
Loving Couple
We didn’t really get this sketch, and we really hated the gross-out cross-dressing. If it had made sense within the context of the sketch — extremely snotty girlfriend visits — it might have been one thing, but this sketch played like two completely disparate ideas thrown together for no reason, and no one needs to see Fred Armisen’s crotch without at least some kind of reason.