SNL Recap [VIDEOS]: Host Kevin Hart With Musical Guest Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
After a one-week hiatus, Saturday Night Live returned last night with comedian Kevin Hart as host and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis as the musical guest. There was a lot of hype around this week's show. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have become a huge rap act over the last year so everyone was excited to see their first SNL performance. Also, Kevin Hart's growing celebrity made his first SNL hosting gig highly anticipated. But was it a little premature? With a night full of sketches that dragged with nonsense endings, only a few laughs can be pulled from the episodes.
The only reason why Jay Pharoah is on this show is because of his impressive impressions, specifically his take on Barack Obama. This week's cold open depended solely on his performance with some help from the other cast members and featured players. It ran a little long but the sequester jokes were funny enough. At least it wasn't as long as Kevin Hart's opening monologue. As a fan of his stand up, I was happy to see hart basically run through a routine but it was definitely all over the place and a little confusing. Though the anecdote about how he tried out for Saturday Night Live a few years back was very good.
Keenan Thompson's impression of Steve Harvey is great. It might not sound exactly like him, but boy is it written well. The way he pronounces "phobias" incorrectly is just good comedy. Speaking of good impressions, Jason Sudeikis' take on Wolf Blitzer is always a treat. Plus, Kevin Hart was born to play Quvenzhané Wallis. The "Starbucks Verismo" sketch was very great but is not available online. Mixing misspelled names, bad attitudes and messy coffee condiments into one commercial about a Starbucks home product was very on the nose and very funny. This was a homerun, SNL.
These two characters portrayed by Bobby Moynihan and Cecily Strong need to have more sketches. They are just over-the-top ridiculous and the supporting cast is always good for laughs. Conjoined twins, “The glassy-eyed stare of a man with nothing to lose,” and Kevin Hart breaking character are all easy reasons to laugh.
Did anyone else notice how the horn players did not play a single note until the end of the song? Or how the sample played throughout "Thrift Shop" was actually a saxophone? "Weekend Update"had a slow start and messy sections, but the last portion of one-liners really brought back the laughs. "The Walking Dead" was good because of racism jokes and "Shark Tank" was not that great but featured Bill Hader who has been missing in a lot of the recent episodes of SNL, so I'll allow it.
This was easily the best sketch of the night. We weren't sure where it was going, but once it got there it definitely pays off. Having Kevin Hart speaking with an angry black voice while reading lines about bubble baths and chocolate is just good comedy. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed their second song of the night, "Can't Hold Us," and it was very good and I love this duo now.
I am so glad they brought back the best sketch idea of the night. The last sketch, "360 News," was very great and then kind of just abruptly ended. All in all it was a fine show but definitely a little disappointing. Better luck next week with host and musical guest Justin Timberlake.