Emma Stone Joins The Five Timers Club With The Best Saturday Night Live Of Season 49 (So Far)
This weekend, "Saturday Night Live" gave Emma Stone the honor of joining the Five Timers Club. With her fifth time hosting the late night sketch comedy show, at age 35 she also became the youngest member of the exclusive club. Stone certainly proved that she deserves to join the ranks of the most legendary hosts of "SNL," as she delivered the best episode of season 49 so far.
In her previous hosting stints, Emma Stone showed that if she wasn't already a big time movie star, she could easily be a cast member on "SNL." Never afraid to be goofy, easily able to inhabit a variety of characters, and endlessly talented, Stone is one of the best hosts that "SNL" has ever seen. When it comes to her latest effort, "SNL" brought back a couple of recurring bits, including a favorite from Stone's previous times hosting the show.
But where "SNL" shined the most in this episode was in the original comedic premises. Furthermore, even this episode's political satire for the cold open wasn't an absolute nightmare, and considering the quality of those sketches lately, that's actually an impressive feat. Plus, after a little bit of a slump, Please Don't Destroy seems to be on an upswing too. So let's dig into Emma Stone's latest episode of "Saturday Night Live."
What was the best sketch of the night?
Even though a game show is one of the most recycled settings of "Saturday Night Live," it's the premise of the game show and quality of the jokes that can make it feel fresh. This "Question Quest" sketch certainly lands among the best, with Michael Longfellow as host Joe Vibin, who has an ulterior motive for putting on this little show. When Emma Stone's character Jen answers a question correctly, her immediate prize is a big tortoise that used to belong to the game show host, but now it belongs to her. Of course, Jen isn't too jazzed about winning the tortoise, especially when she learns that they can live to be as much as 190 years old.
Longfellow's dry delivery is perfect for this sketch, and the game show framing is such a unique way to execute this bit. Meanwhile, Stone plays the straight-woman, but she still manages to be funny, which isn't easy. There's even a legitimate fun fact in the sketch. Did you know that Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin took care of a tortoise who was previously cared for by Charles Darwin? That's true! You learn something everyday.
How was the rest of the episode?
Fully Naked in New York – Right out of the gate, "SNL" delivered an oddball pre-recorded sketch that finds Bowen Yang, Emma Stone, Chloe Troast, Marcello Hernandez, and more letting their flesh fly as the one thing that cheers them up during the depressing winter months. This is such a bizarre idea, but the visuals of everyone appearing in the nude (thanks to flesh-toned underwear and blurry graphics) are undeniably funny, especially as the roster of characters increases throughout the sketch. The fact that it's a full-on musical number with singing and dancing and a proper title card at the end only makes it that much better. You just can't go wrong with a song that mentions nipples being hard and white butts blowing in the wind.
Make Your Own Kind of Music – When this sketch began, I had no idea where it was going, short of a potential reference to the second season opening of "Lost." Thankfully, it ended up being so much more than that, with Emma Stone predicting how the song might be used in future movies. Cinephiles should appreciate this sketch quite a bit, which pokes a bit of fun at how songs of the past are being utilized in movies today. But that's just a small part of the gag. The real laughs come from Stone's acting out her imagination of montages and movie trailers using the song in different sequences. Stone's facial expressions are hilarious mesmerizing, and they show just how goofy she's willing to be for comedy. Kudos to Chloe Troast for again showing how talented she is as a singer, just as she did in Timothée Chalamet's recent episode of "SNL."
Posters – When you're lucky enough to host "SNL" multiple times, there's a chance that you get your own recurring sketch that only comes around when you return to host. In this case, It's Emma Stone returning as a ditzy poster model who tries to help a tired teen (Marcello Hernandez) with his homework. Of course, she's not helpful at all, and she serves as more of a distraction with her double entendres and sexual references. Even though this wasn't one of the best sketches of the night, it's certainly a reliable returning bit, and it actually had a really good ending.
Please Don't Destroy – AI – Please Don't Destroy hasn't been landing as firmly as they typically do in recent episodes of "SNL," but this episode feels like they're on the upswing with an artificial intelligence inspired gag. Some of Emma Stone's footage got corrupted on a hard drive, so they used Punkie Johnson and AI to help fill in the gaps, and it's predictably shoddy and quite unsettling, which makes for plenty of laughs. The escalation of absurdity goes in some surprising directions, and it's certainly one of Please Don't Destroy's better bits from this season.
As for the rest of the sketches, the George Santos cold open with Bowen Yang was better than all of the political cold opens this season, though not a legit home run. "The Kiln" sketch was a solid showcase for Chloe Fineman and Heidi Gardner to be a great new duo, and though it was still funny, it could use a little improvement for another iteration. Meanwhile, the Diet Coke from Olay commercial was decent, but one could argue it had too easy of a premise. The sketch that had trouble landing was the return of Kenan Thompson as the leader of a musical trio in "Tree Lighting Gig," which wasn't necessarily bad, but it just wasn't as strong as the rest of the sketches. When you have such a stellar episode, the average sketches feel a little more disappointing, even if it's solid and gets a boost from Emma Stone's physical comedy.
How was Emma Stone as an SNL host this time?
Since she's joining the Five Timers Club, of course Emma Stone knows what she's doing when it comes to hosting "Saturday Night Live." Stone was absolutely stellar in this episode of "SNL." She's never shy about going for the jokes, which can come from her being perfectly silly or being the straight-woman. If there was one complaint from Emma Stone's hosting stint this time, it's that the Five Timers Club bit didn't feel like it was worthy of her greatness on "SNL." Sure, it was great that Tina Fey and Candice Bergen came back to help induct her, but it would have been nice if they actually brought in a bigger roster of guest stars. Even so, the jokes in the monologue were solid, and it wasn't a full-on disappointment.
Don't sleep on Michael Longfellow
When the most recent roster of featured players came to "SNL," they felt like one of the strongest we'd seen in awhile. Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker all stood out early on in their first season of "SNL," and since their introduction, they've each gotten several moments to shine. It's almost like they're taking turns with the spotlight. This episode, Michael Longfellow was the standout.
First, Longfellow hosted the hilarious "Question Quest" sketch right out of the gate, and as noted, that was the best sketch of the night. His delivery and demeanor was perfect for this sketch. But secondly, Longfellow brought his wry comedic sensibilities to the Weekend Update desk as an old-fashioned cigarette. The way he chastises Colin Jost and acts effortlessly cool somehow perfectly encapsulates the personification of a cigarette in a world full of vapes. The more Longfellow sticks around, the more he feels like Norm Macdonald's successor, but with a little more versatility.
That's all for this weekend's "SNL." But we'll be back next week after Adam Driver returns to host the show on December 9. For more on "SNL," be sure to check out The Ten To One Podcast wherever podcasts are available.