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Videos: Melissa McCarthy Hosts Best <em>Saturday Night Live</em> Episode Of 2014
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 2, 2014
Modified Feb 2, 2014
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 2, 2014
Modified Feb 2, 2014
Share
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Longtime head writer Seth Meyers may have been given an emotional farewell on Saturday Night Live last night, but Melissa McCarthy was the host and center of attention for the rest of the episode. McCarthy, making her third appearance on the show, has become one of the most dependable hosts in recent years—which would explain why the show brought her back for the second consecutive season. And whether it's due to an emotional charge from Meyers leaving or McCarthy's energy, it was possibly the best episode of the season yet.
Or at least, it was the most interesting episode of the season. There was definitely an edge to the first two sketches of the night, a feeling that SNL wasn't just going to settle for the usual politician-at-a-podium bullshit: the cold open was an ambitious, extra-long parody of the Super Bowl halftime show, in which the "best and brightest of Broadway" are tasked with entertaining the crowd. It was a sketch that gained power by the length of the bit and the conviction of Taran Killam as Peyton Manning—unlike many dead-in-the-water cold opens of recent seasons, this one was zippy and actually exciting.
And the fact it was followed up by one of the most bizarre monologues in recent memory only added to the energy. Sure, the joke was mostly about seeing McCarthy struggle on the wires, but it was surprising and different! And visually funny, even if it won't be remembered as the best monologue of all time. Just like her last time hosting, McCarthy's physical comedy led to new sketches and weird tangents, such as the vengeance-obsessed women's group member and the "Pass the Mash!" game show character.
The digital shorts were also excellent this week: Jay Pharoah was the featured player in the Black History Month video (music videos have been really popular this season), which hinges on his first utterance of the word "slavery." Even better was Kyle Mooney's end-of-show Super Champions live bit, where he went out and mumble-interviewed real people in Times Square about the Super Bowl. Mooney's shorts has been getting progressively better, and this was likely the best one yet.
Of course, not everything was great: this episode also contained The Living Pictures Exhibition, which might be the worst sketch of the entire season so far. Coming on the heels of Meyer's Weekend Update farewell, it's not surprising the next sketch was a dud, but this was beyond that: the timing was off, the performers seemed distracted, the audience wasn't interested, even the camera work was shoddy.
Two returning sketches, The Girlfriends Talk Show and angry Sheila Kelly, weren't as good as previous incarnations. But they were still better than some other recent recurring sketches, like Adam Grossman last week. This is exactly the kind of episode SNL needed after several perfectly average-to-boring episodes. Click through for all those sketches, plus performances from Imagine Dragons. SNL is on hiatus until March thanks to the Olympics, at which point we'll meet the new Weekend Update co-anchor. Hopefully the surprises of this episode are pointing the way forward for the show.
Tagged
imagine dragons
melissa mccarthy
saturday night live
seth meyers
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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