Saturday Night Live Season 42 review: Was Scarlett Johansson funny?

Scarlett Johansson hosted SNL for the fifth time in her career, but did things go well or will we be waiting for a sixth to erase the taste?

For the fifth time in her career, Scarlett Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live, and things went pretty well. While it wasn’t the best show of the season — a bar set perhaps too high to clear by Dave Chappelle — it was a doozy to enjoy.

This week’s show didn’t try to be more than it was, as it was the sum of its part at its heart but is hardly a bad thing. One thing that stood out was how long first half of the show was, something we haven’t seen too much of this season. The cold open was followed by the monologue which then set up three skits before we finally got to the musical performance.

Not everything landed, but SNL has established itself with enough anti-comedy to get away with some of the duds.

Here are all the things from tonight’s SNL episode you need to know about for the water cooler this week:

SNL Rundown…

1. Things got off to a bang with Alec Baldwin making good on his tease to return as Donald Trump. The cold open revolved around how Trump would act in an alien invasion, but wasn’t nearly as tight as some of the other cold opens we’ve seen this season.

2. The best of the early show skits was one about a trio of scientists who create a device to translate their dog’s thoughts to words — only to find he’s an avid Trump supporter. This was another occasion where SNL crossed the liberal picket line and gave some perspective from a Trump supporter’s point of view.

3. An Olive Garden skit wrapped up this marathon of skits — emphasis on marathon. It went on way too long and was too much of an endurance test to be enjoyed this early on in the show. It wasn’t terrible though, highlighting the comedy of Leslie Jones and Mikey Day, which is never a bad thing.

4. SNL has strayed away from really laying into Ivanka Trump, but that trend ended tonight. Just like how the show has tried to hold people like Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Sean Spicer responsible for their role in the Trump debacle, SNL setting their sights on Ivanka is sure to ruffle the right feathers in the Oval Office Mar-a-lago.

5. Michael Che coming off the top rope in the Weekend Update will forever be one the favorite parts of my weekend. This week he had scorchers about orphans, Trumpcare and boners.

6. The boners bit stemmed from a segment with Pete Davidson, who returned to the Update desk with his ‘First Impressions’. He absolutely body bagged Republicans, proving that we need more of him on the Update desk.

7. Kate McKinnon also brought back her Jeff Sessions impressions during the Update. It goes without saying that she’s the crown jewel of SNL right now, but props goes to Alex Moffat for nailing a low key Al Franken impression.

8. One of the best McKinnon moments of the night was the return of her mermaid character. Joined by a slack jawed Johansson, McKinnon burned through a skit with a character we didn’t know we wanted to see again so bad.

9. Leslie Jones has been killing with her bizarro comedy skits late in the show. Tonight she was featured in a trippy skit about a ninja that you need to revisit when you’re not of the right mind; it was anti-comedy gold and yet another reason to love Jones and all she does.

10. One of the most brilliant skits of this season was one of the last skit of the night — which is so awesome. It was a Kyle Mooney/Beck Bennett joint that was all about women’s rights and how the message of it is lost in trying to explain why women deserve basic rights.

Verdict

Here’s where this episode stacks up against the others that we’ve seen this season:

1. Dave Chappelle/A Tribe Called Quest — A+
2. Alec Baldwin/Ed Sheeran — A
3. Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga — A-
4. Benedict Cumberbatch/Solange — B-
5. Kristen Wiig/The xx — B-
6. Aziz Ansari/Big Sean — C+
7. Scarlett Johansson/Lorde — C+
8. Felicity Jones/Stergil Simpson — C+
9. Margot Robbie/The Weeknd — C+
10. Casey Affleck/Chance the Rapper — C
11. Emma Stone/Shawn Mendes — C
12. Kristen Stewart/Aleesia Cara — C
13. Lin-Manuel Miranda/TwentyOne Pilots — C-
14. Emily Blunt/Bruno Mars — D+
15. John Cena/Maren Morris — D-

must read: 30 Best Late Night Jokes about Donald Trump

 Next Week on SNL…

The show will be taking a little break to end March, but will be back the second week of April with a massive show. Grammy nominated performers The Chainsmokers will serve as musical guest of a show hosted by comedian Louis C.K. Anytime the comedian drops by SNL it’s a special occasion and this should rank up there with the best shows we’ve see so far.

Date: Apr. 8th
Host: Louis C.K.
Musical Guest: The Chainsmokers
TV Channel: NBC
Live Stream: Stream 1 | Stream 2

Be sure to check out Last Night On for all your SNL highlights.