Season 50 Episode 9 Chris Rock

Chris Rock has an enlightened position as one Saturday Night Live alumnus, with the show largely helping to put him and his comedic style on the map, but by most accounts he wasn’t all that successful or satisfied during his abbreviated three seasons as a cast member (and actually already had a pretty decent film career , before he left). Rock was part of an era where the show catered to brash stand-up comics who appeared on camera but didn’t always seem to know how to write themselves sketches (or even, according to some interviews, that they were supposed to write himself sketches); he’s easily the most skilled stand-up in that group, and perhaps the least comfortable doing crazy make-em-ups and goofy characters. Rock simply seemed to have a limited appetite for pretending to be someone else; isn’t Nat X really just the kind of elevated stand-ups that often use for laughs, not an act inhabiting a fully outlined persona?

But Rock also came back to host shell faster than his other “bad boys” and/or Adults cast members David Spade, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler or the still-waiting-for-his-invite Rob Schneider, reflecting how quickly he hit his stride after leaving the show. And he’s hosted more often than any of those guys, for many different reasons, but that puts him more in line with alumni like Tina Fey or Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who repeatedly returns after conquering another media field) more than e.g. , Spade or even semi-frequent host and guest star Dana Carvey, who was absent from this week’s Rock host episode for the first time all season. (Interestingly, Carvey joined Rock’s first hosting gig back in 1996.)

Another, bigger name cameo appeared in the back half of the episode, sort of encapsulating Rock’s whole deal as host. In a hospital sketch that at first appeared to be an odd combination of Gen-Z sensibility satire and bids for a more standard Sarah Sherman recurring bit, Sherman played Leslie, a nurse who made repeated, massive mistakes during surgery and then demanded to know if everyone is mad at her. The first twist was that Rock’s doctor character repeatedly defended Leslie, at least in part because of her beauty; then the patient wakes up, turns out to be played by Adam Sandler, and the skit becomes an under-rehearsed carnage, with the Sandman making a game of spraying fake blood on each actor in turn (despite some initial problems with Sherman), and at One point kudos to Emil Wakim for scoring some screen time despite not really having a role in “shit” (ugh, Sandman). All in all, you have Rock stumbling over his lines and not very convincing even as a comedy doctor; Sherman makes a character that the sketch seems to give up halfway through; Sandler shows up and takes over the sketch to make it more meta; and multiple throwback vibes at once (fake blood spray; intentionally annoying character). It’s a mess of a sketch. (Actually, Sandler might be right. It really might be a sketch.) And yet it still landed as oddly funny and charming, a rambling admission that sometimes the show just dresses up silly and splashes blood on your comedian friends.

Other skits in Rock’s episode worked in more traditional, cohesive ways. But the one that felt, for about a minute, like it might become an easy-lay-up classic (and might end up on this year’s Christmas compilation anyway) was similarly sloppy: Rock plays a department store elf who gleefully welcomes white families. a white Santa (James Austin Johnson) and a black Santa (Devon Walker) whose moniker isn’t “Blanta,” no matter how hard Chloe Fineman’s mom character tries. Great premise, but the execution turned out to be just Rock awkwardly standing around and essentially repeating the joke with less variation. Perhaps it needed a better introduction; as it is, it felt like the sketch was waiting for a big moment of catharsis, which it rushed toward without ever achieving, despite plenty of minor laughs.

For that matter, the energetic search for something greater was also there in Rock’s stand-up monologue. At first he feigned a scolding over the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO, he sharply and succinctly switched from expressing sympathy to a big punchline: “Sometimes drug dealers get shot.” Then he rambled a bit about Trump and worked in a few Menendez Brothers jokes… which probably got laughs, because Rock is still a skilled comedian who clearly thinks in stand-up more than sketches or scripts, but you could still catch a glimpse of the guy who was publicly slammed for making one GI Jane joke 25 years late. Also look at him back SNLthat still doesn’t exactly revel in live sketch comedy while still giving it a shot, was a reminder that sometimes the show’s odds-and-ends moments can generate more compelling comedic tension than the smoothest professionalism.

What was on

In terms of pure well-written, old-school sketch comedy that made unexpectedly good use of Rock’s admirable enthusiasm for and questionable skill at playing Weird Guys Who Keep Saying Weird Stuff, the Secret Santa bit was great. Funny lines and moments on the sidelines, Rock’s character not only loves his secret Santa gift, but lets it activate his imagination and potentially questionable understanding of The Simpsonsand the gaiety of the whole company made this a winner. The blind-date sketch with Rock that closed out the night didn’t exactly fall flat, but it was striking to see another Weird Guy Saying Weird Stuff sketch, with a more traditional hook to it, not work quite as well.

I also thought Jane Wickline’s second Update song was a lot of fun, a clever off-center take on pop music fandom, singing “like” Sabrina Carpenter protesting the complete lack of suspicion about her sexuality. So far, Wickline, despite her TikTok background being closer to sketch than stand-up, is more in the early ’90s tradition SNL players like Rock, where her specific personality, more than a broad versatility, seems to be the reason for her employment. But while I’ve been impatient with the show’s seeming interest in recreating a Pete Davidson dynamic in recent years, the 2024 show has a better handle on balancing traditional ensemble performers like Ashley Padilla with the more idiosyncratic personalities like Wickline. The 1993 version of Jane Wickline would be urged to come up with a one-note recurring sketch ASAP.

What was off

Kenan really does sell a bit on the security man whose harassment elicits far more affection from a strictly disapproving group of office workers than a more traditionally sleazy manager or higher up. But there was really no reason to bring this out, what was it, a third time? It just can’t hold a candle to everyone’s favorite recurring sketch: Michael Che protesting “it’s the ’90s” after a Weekend Update joke.

Most Valuable Player (who may not be ready for prime time)

Even considering how surprisingly well Sarah Sherman has integrated her sensibility into the show, it was a big week for her, especially given that her hair and costumes never went beyond “something outlandish” — and that was mostly in service for her play certified actual person Nancy Grace. The Nancy Grace opener was a real revelation in the sense that I had no idea Nancy Grace was still around (although, yes, of course she is). As an actual funny skit, yes, Sherman brought some weird touches to it, and the disturbing YouTube ads (with Marcello Hernandez well-cast as “crazy tall guy”) added a fun structural wrinkle. “Best” isn’t always “most,” but Sherman really tied the episode together this week.

Next time

Martin Short gets the five-hour bag in his latest hosting gig in December, and apparently Hozier still exists too!

Stray Observations

• • I’d love to get more into music discussions in these recaps, and I may at some point, but nothing I have to say about Gracie Abrams is going to seem wildly original. She sounds like Taylor Swift. Like, a lot like Taylor Swift. She looks a bit like Dua Lipa meets Phoebe Bridgers. I saw someone on the internet say that she’s like “if Phoebe Bridgers was talented” and it made me a little depressed for a few minutes until I realized that some people are just very young.
• • Dismukes playing a super defensive bald man on Update made me laugh, even though it was confusing ground to cover so soon after the bald guy song they did on the Bill Burr episode just a month ago.
• • The two filmed pieces, “Grandpa’s Magic Car” and “Your Office Christmas Party,” both felt like they could have been pulled from Rock’s second time hosting, in 2014, or (barring COVID), his third, in 2020; both were funny enough, but I’d give the edge to “Your Office Christmas Party” because, frankly, I’m a sucker for sketches that make ironic use of the monster-truck-rally-like announcer voice. In that arena, this was no “Kick-Spit Underground Rock Festival” or aggro Black Friday ad (“Find him! Touch him! Win!”), instead playing more like an amped-up version of the Thanksgiving classic for “Your hometown.”