Saturday Night Live: J.K. Simmons & D'Angelo
February 1, 2015 5:49 AM - Season 40, Episode 13 - Subscribe

J.K. Simmons turns in an able performance (and many, many wigs), and D'Angelo owns the stage in a fair-to-middling midseason episode.
posted by Etrigan (9 comments total)
 
I liked D'Angelo's performances. McKinnon was so good in the Casablanca skit, and the school teacher rap was terrible. Also, the outro was so long it seemed like it was the series finale.
posted by cashman at 7:33 AM on February 1, 2015


Kate McKinnon is just unreal. Like that Casablanca sketch should have been nothing, but she made it everything.

D'Angelo was extraordinary.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:57 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Solid episode. No real standout sketches, but no bombs either. Simmons looked mostly comfortable up there. No surprise that they did a Whiplash thing for the monologue.

I think McKinnon is more and more turning into the new breakout SNL star. Another Wiig or Hader. Glad she's finally getting more time in the show this season.

Loved the Mike O'Brian Jay Z story. With Sudekis as Kanye!. He's great at rap.
posted by bondcliff at 8:45 AM on February 1, 2015


the school teacher rap was terrible

You are incorrect. Jay-Z would be proud to have rapped that rap, and he is very good at rapping.
posted by Etrigan at 9:39 AM on February 1, 2015


Can we not give all of the performers little Bluetooth headsets or something, so that they can hear their lines in their heads instead of reading them off of cue cards and therefore never being able to look other performers in the eye?

I thought Kate McKinnon's accent and performance in that Casablanca sketch were wonderful! (Though I did wish she could look at Simmons every now and then, but not her fault.)

I enjoyed the Jay Z sketch mocking white culture, too. Enjoyed Fred Armisten's drumming and seeing Jason Sudekis as a cheerful and upbeat Kanye.

That second D'Angelo performance was fantastic.
posted by onlyconnect at 9:53 AM on February 1, 2015


Kate McKinnon is just unreal. Like that Casablanca sketch should have been nothing, but she made it everything.

She is great, but I think Bobby Moynihan wins the award for rescuing a bad premise with Pushie.

Glad to see Jebidiah Atkinson back, especially with a crowd that is so easily offended.
posted by Gary at 11:34 AM on February 1, 2015


I hope Jebidiah was just getting warmed up for the Oscars because that's usually where he really brings the nasty. I wonder if SNL backed off on saying anything about the nominations in this show because Key & Peele basically covered several of the salient points in their Super Bowl special?

That second D'Angelo performance was fantastic.

Yes, it certainly was. I hoping he'd do Another Life but since it's not actually a new song I can understand if maybe that's why it wasn't chosen.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:54 PM on February 1, 2015


I wonder if SNL backed off on saying anything about the nominations in this show because Key & Peele basically covered several of the salient points in their Super Bowl special?

I doubt it, given that K&P covered those points in the skit that was exactly the same as the cold open.
posted by Etrigan at 1:24 PM on February 1, 2015


Yeah, and the whole premise of Jebidiah is that he's the man who disliked the Gettysburg Address. So a put down of Meghan Trainor is fine to get started, but his real job is to hate on the Beatles and Elvis.
posted by Gary at 3:05 PM on February 1, 2015


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