Saturday Night Live: Kevin Hart/Sia

January 18, 2015 6:38 AM - Season 40, Episode 11

The star of "The Wedding Ringer" hosts for a second time.

Martin Luther King Essay
Monologue
Justin Bieber for Calvin Klein
Why'd You Post That?
Bushwick
James Brown at the Apollo, 1971
Nancy
Justin Bieber for Calvin Klein 2
Weekend Update
-Colin Jost's neighbor (Kate McKinnon)
Dragon Musical
Heinz Hall
Rap Crew Secrets


Sia performed "Elastic Heart" (with 2 ballet dancers) and "Chandelier" (with a signing mime)

posted by inturnaround (16 comments total)

Thought this was SO much better than the last time Kevin Hart hosted. He seemed more with it, more people got air time, show was much more even. Hart as James Brown was inspired and the rest of the stuff was at least funny (the singing castle one was my least favorite). Happy to see Pete getting more airtime and I thought that Sia was really good and the stage pieces were interesting. Also ever since I saw the Justin Bieber ads I was hoping they'd get McKinnon in to do some riff on it and was not disappointed.
posted by jessamyn at 8:46 AM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything Kevin Hart did before this, but to me he was just very loud and corny. Although the whole show seemed really loud to me. I'm not sure if I'm just turning into Grandpa Simpson or what. But Hart...I don't know. He seemed to go through the motions of being an "edgy" comic without displaying any actual daring or originality, or even any real personality. He mostly just yells a lot and makes faces. Even the castle sketch...I mean, this wasn't a classic sketch by any means, but the random decision to a Camelot riff in 2015, I guess because someone saw it on TCM one night or whatever, was at least appealing in its sheer oddness, but literally the only punchline they could come up with was for Kevin Hart to yell interruptions at the singers. I wanted the dragon to eat him.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:04 AM on January 18, 2015

(Okay, so someone on the twitters just reminded me about the James Brown sketch, which really was fucking hilarious. I guess if it's a sketch where shouting every line is the point, this does work.)
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:13 AM on January 18, 2015

I like Kevin Hart, but that was a pretty terrible episode of SNL. Really boring, goofy sketches that didn't really go anywhere. The only highlight for me was the Bushwick short, which was hilarious.
posted by mathowie at 9:14 AM on January 18, 2015

I think the dragon sketch was less inspired by Camelot than the current Galavant. It was generally a lowlight for me. But Taran Killam made me laugh in it.

Highlights for me were the Bushwick short, the James Brown sketch with the random responses to Brown's calls, and the 10 to 1 sketch with the rapper giving out everyone's secrets in his crew.

And thumbs up to Hart for staying with it when there was that technical difficulty on the Why's You Post That sketch. It went on way too long, but it was an interesting premise.

The character Kate McKinnon played on Update was seen in another form on Comedy Bang Bang last year.
posted by inturnaround at 9:59 AM on January 18, 2015

I liked the Bushwick sketch, Kate McKinnon's neighbor lady, and the Rap Secrets sketch, and I really enjoyed Sia's arty weirdo performances (mime!!!), but otherwise I didn't like this episode much.
posted by Small Dollar at 3:16 PM on January 18, 2015

I didn't hate anything on this one (even Weekend Update was passable! Yay for acceptability!), but it was very much "If you like the host, then you'll like this show," and I find Kevin Hart to be... amusing, but not hilarious.

I've watched Sia's performances twice now, and I honestly don't know whether I like the songs, but damn, those were some of the best performances I've ever seen on SNL. Apparently, she's doing that with this album -- de-emphasizing herself and putting on these weird things (Lena Dunham did interpretive dance to one of these songs on Seth Meyers' show recently).
posted by Etrigan at 4:38 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Weirdly the only thing I liked last night was Kevin Hart. I'm not even a Kevin Hart fan. I loved how his rapper beatboxing is just "pew pew pew".

The last several SNL's have been really lackluster, I think. I blame Colin Jost.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:50 PM on January 18, 2015

I blame Colin Jost for a lot of it, actually. He's just weirdly not funny. He may be a great writer, I don't know, but his screen personality is just ... dead. They even gave him a weed joke on the news and he sort of ... didn't ruin it I guess but that was CHE'S JOKE, it had to be. Cecily was better at the news than he was.
posted by jessamyn at 9:19 PM on January 18, 2015

Bushwick was fantastic-- I had to rewind it to watch it again.

Artisanal mayonnaise for everyone!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:35 PM on January 19, 2015

Cecily was better at the news than he was

She really was, I forgot how good she used to be on Update. I want to see her back and Jost out.
posted by mathowie at 5:26 PM on January 19, 2015

Cecily was better at the news than he was.

Much, much better. WTF SNL?
posted by homunculus at 5:48 PM on January 19, 2015

homunculus: "WTF SNL?"

It's the thing of when you have a precedent for the head writer being the WU anchor, and the past head writers were amazing at WU, but now the new guy is terrible at it, but they still seem to want to keep that precedent alive?
posted by Rock Steady at 10:26 AM on January 20, 2015

Also, Kevin Hart as James Brown was fucking inspired and I want next season to just be The Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney Show please.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:31 AM on January 20, 2015

I want next season to just be The Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney Show please.

Only if that includes the trailer for the Dyke and Fats movie.
posted by Etrigan at 10:40 AM on January 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

If it's up to me, it includes a segment of Dyke and Fats: The Series every episode.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:09 PM on January 20, 2015