Saturday Night Live: Ben Affleck And Kanye West

Saturday Night Live: Ben Affleck And Kanye West

If it were any Saturday Night Live episode other than the season finale, during which we would say goodbye to Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and possibly Jason Sudeikis, the fact that Ben Affleck seemed way-way nervous and way-way bad at reading cue cards, especially for a fifth-timer, would have been much more distracting. But who cares! GOODBYE, STEFON! HELLO, AMY POEHLER! WHY SO SERIOUS, KANYE, JUST KIDDING, PRETEND I DIDN’T ASK, YOU DO YOU! GOODBYE, IAN RUBBISH, I FEEL LIKE WE JUST MET! MUMBLE MUMBLE JASON SUDEIKIS MUMBLE! The evening was packed with ways to distract us from Affleck’s mediocre performance and sprinkled with sketches that would have been enjoyable even if it weren’t such a big night. Hader and Armisen’s sendoffs weren’t quite as plainly emotional as Kristen Wiig’s at the end of last season, but each were better for it — Hader’s seeing Stefon end up with his one true love, and Armisen’s seeing Armisen continue to half-live out his dream of being a musician through sketches. (Hello, J Mascis, Carrie Brownstein, Kim Gordon, Aimee Mann, and Steve Jones!) It was a good episode! Let’s look at some highlights.

Ben Affleck’s cold open, featuring Jennifer “Hi Bay-Bee” Garner, focused on his Oscar speech wife-flub and felt a little irrelevant. THAT HAPPENED 149 INTERNET YEARS AGO! Though it was in the same vein, the “Iranian Film” sketch — including an appearance from Ben as the sound guy — worked, largely — for me, at least — due to Fred Armisen’s Boston accent.

The idea that you can stereotype and generalize something and get away with it because you are stereotyping and generalizing in a way that is positive is something that often makes me a little uncomfortable, but maybe I’m just exhausting? That is 100% a possibility. PLZ TELL ME IF I’M EXHAUSTING JUST KIDDING DON’T, I CAN’T HANDLE IT! The “New Xanax” ad was well done, otherwise!

“Greg’s Funeral” was dumb and silly and I liked it a lot. If I hadn’t been enjoying it I would have been complaining about how it should’ve ended far sooner than it did, but that wasn’t the case, so why bother complaining?! Did you like it?

Amy Poehler was back at the Weekend Update desk for a perfectly timed “Really?!” about the IRS scandal. BUT–

BUT the most notable moment of “Weekend Update” was, of course, the Stefon sendoff. It was perfect! Goodbye, Stefon! WE’LL MISS YOU, GOODBYE!

Our favorite gals were back in an ad for Hermes this week, and they were beautiful and talented as ever. They’ve used these girls a few times recently in what might look, on paper, to be a pace that would wear out their welcome, but I don’t think that has happened yet. Do you? What do you think? Tell meeeeee.

Goodbye, Ian Rubbish! Hello, wonderful musicians! Armisen’s goodbye was sweet and perfect and definitely boring and confusing for those out there who had no idea who all the scruffy weirdos were.

Finally, Kanye West performed two new songs from his upcoming album, Yeezus, and each performance was quite aggressive. And great! Remember how he is going to be in Anchorman 2?

SEE YOU NEXT SEASON!

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