Saturday Night Live: Kristen Wiig / Raye

April 8, 2024 10:57 PM - Season 49, Episode 16

Kristen joins the 5 Timers Club

• Cold Open - March Madness: James Austin Johnson, Devon Walker, Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner
• Monologue: Kristen Wiig, Paul Rudd, Paula Pell, Will Forte, Jon Hamm, Fred Armisen, Martin Short, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling
• Jumanji: Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, James Austin Johnson, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang
• Pilates: Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Molly Kearney, Kristen Wiig, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, Chloe Troast, Kaya Gerber
• Secretaries: Heidi Gardner, Jon Hamm, Bowen Yang, Kristen Wiig, James Austin Johnson
• Retirement Party: Heidi Gardner, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, Punkie Johnson, Chloe Fineman, Paul Rudd, Fred Armisen, Sarah Sherman, Kristen Wiig, Marcello Hernandez, Matt Damon, Will Forte
• Raye - Escapism
• Weekend Update: Michael Che, Colin Jost
• The Earthquake and the Eclipse: Marcello Hernandez, Kenan Thompson
• Movies by Aunt Linda: Kristen Wiig
• The Bad Thing: Andrew Dismukes, Kristen Wiig, James Austin Johnson, Mikey Day, Chloe Troast
• Raye - Worth It
• La Maison du Bang: Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Bowen Yang, Kristen Wiig, Chloe Troast, James Austin Johnson, Molly Kearney, Andrew Dismukes, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day

posted by rhizome (7 comments total)

Jumanji was the funniest SNL sketch I’ve seen in a long time! Not only was Kristen Wiig excellent as always but Andrew Dismukes’s bit about jumanjiing in or jumanjiing out had me dying. The dialogue between all the characters was just crackling with energy.

Or course Kristen elevated the whole episode, even when she was just a minor part of the sketch (“je dance!”). It was a little strange for her to play second fiddle to Heidi Gardner’s Trudy, but she was game and well-suited for it.

I hope this monologue was the nail in the 5-Timers Club jacket’s coffin. In true SNL spirit it was hilarious the first time, and then they drove it into the ground, but this one seemed to acknowledge that they had gone as far as they could with it and it had lost all meaning.
posted by ejs at 5:54 AM on April 9 [2 favorites]

I feel like Marcello’s earthquake and Bowen’s iceberg would be friends! And Keenan’s eclipse was so funny.

Sonic Pioneers was brilliant! Did you get subtitles for the French part on TV?
posted by ellieBOA at 9:06 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]

No subtitles for me, watching on Peacock!
posted by ejs at 11:23 AM on April 9

Oh no! I can speak French so was ok but just vibes for everyone else I guess 😂
posted by ellieBOA at 11:24 AM on April 9

Also so glad Raye was on, hope she gets loads more fans now!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:25 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]

They didn't give Wiig as many showcase bits as I would've expected. She was great in whatever they did give her, but the Jumanji thing and Aunt Linda were really the only sketches where it felt like they giving her license to go full Wiig. In the other sketches it was more like she was just part of the cast. I was quite surprised we didn't see more of her signature bits, especially with Fred Armisen and Will Forte right there in the building. There was probably some talk of bringing back the Lawrence Welk thing, the WU bit where Wiig and Armisen are those awful singers who haven't prepared and have to improv songs or even the goddamn Californians, but I suspect part of the reason we didn't see more of that stuff is because they didn't want to draw too many comparisons between Wiig's era and where the show's at now.

The Jumanji thing was pretty great. As a person with all sorts of silly little phobias, I felt seen. (I've never had nightmares about being Jumanji'ed, but I'm the kind of person who would have nightmares about being Jumanji'ed.) I'm almost certain it had to be written by whoever did the Weezer debate sketch years ago. It had that same energy, of a bunch of friends sitting around a table and getting entirely too worked up arguing about some silly damn thing.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:29 PM on April 9 [3 favorites]

Hmm, Dismukes was a driver of that sketch also!
posted by rhizome at 3:14 PM on April 9