Saturday Night Live: Tina Fey & Amy Poehler / Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

December 20, 2015 8:11 AM - Season 41, Episode 9

Heavyweights return to show the whippersnappers how it's done, as Fey and Poehler hit the high notes (Clinton and Palin; a brief Weekend Update takeover; Maya Rudolph) and Springsteen et al make their third appearance to bust out some songs that are older than most of the current cast and end the show and the year with "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (feat. Sir Paul McCartney).
posted by Etrigan (18 comments total)

That Meet Your Second Wife was the funniest thing I've seen on SNL since "Suck it Trebek" I enjoyed this show. Was there a really long series of commercials (like double long) at about 12:40? We weren't sure what was going on. Great episode, very little dead time, love seeing Poehler and Fey enjoying themselves like this and interacting with the newer cast members.
posted by jessamyn at 8:35 AM on December 20, 2015 [8 favorites]

Best episode of the year, probably the decade. DOPE SQUAD made me squeal! How much you want to bet that really was their gynecologist? And "Meet Your Second Wife" was flat out brilliant. Whoever wrote that deserves all the awards. I'm with Amy, --STAR WARS? Star bores. Who cares. Give me Amy “Shortfuse” Poheler and Tina “Powderkeg” Fey.
posted by pjsky at 9:06 AM on December 20, 2015

I was disappointed that they didn't even mention Wu-Tang when talking about Martin Shkreli. I know that Jost's bit is he's the whitest dude imaginable, but still.
posted by ckape at 9:11 AM on December 20, 2015

Who the fuck is Jost?!
posted by joost de vries at 10:25 AM on December 20, 2015

The host monologue with the half-pop-half-WTF Christmas song was really the only bit that didn't work, IMO. The Time-Life video sketch with the clips wasn't great, but Maya Rudolph single-handedly saved it. "Meet Your Second Wife" was effing brilliant.

Who the fuck is Jost?!

Colin Jost was, until recently, the head writer of the show.
posted by briank at 10:56 AM on December 20, 2015

And now he's half of the Weekend Update team. He's sort of funny on his own but much better playing the weird whitest-white-dude foil to Che the black co-host of Weekend Update.
posted by jessamyn at 11:05 AM on December 20, 2015

Meet Your Second Wife was brilliant. I didn't think SNL had it in them anymore.
posted by homunculus at 11:21 AM on December 20, 2015

I thought the weakest skit was the On the Movie Set with Jeffersons Acting Coach. But I never thought that character or premise was particularly funny. Now... if they had set it up as Amy and Tina playing Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in CAROL ... that would have been funny. Except that only 23 people in the US have seen CAROL, so maybe not.
posted by pjsky at 11:24 AM on December 20, 2015

And "Meet Your Second Wife" was flat out brilliant. Whoever wrote that deserves all the awards

What's great about imagining the creation of that sketch is that I can't tell if it just seems like something Poehler and Fey would write or if it seems like something that other people on SNL would think to write for them when they are the hosts because it's the kind of thing they helped make space for in mainstream comedy.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:01 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

For me the funniest part of this episode was Sir Paul awkwardly milling about the stage with no one paying attention to him.
posted by bleep at 8:12 PM on December 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

SLEEPY BEN CARSON 2016!! Also, I think they should stick with Darrell Hammond as Trump; he is scads better than Taran at it.

I kinda loved the hoverboard commercial. Pete's WHEEEEE! T-shirt was NOICE!

But yes, the Meet Your Second Wife sketch was easily the best game show they've aired since at least the What's That Name? sketches from 2011.
posted by not_on_display at 11:50 PM on December 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Maya Rudolph doing the Christmas song while throwing gifts at kids was my favorite sketch. I effing love her.
posted by the webmistress at 8:48 AM on December 21, 2015 [7 favorites]

The time-traveling-Hillary bit was fun, but my favorite part was Kate McKinnon shoveling food into her mouth (that, judging from Jost and Che's reactions, really did stink horribly) while doing that impeccable "I can't be arsed to pay attention to details like people's names" routine.
posted by psoas at 10:39 AM on December 21, 2015

Kate McKinnon is a fucking diamond. She just shines so much brighter than almost everyone else in the current cast. Though I am a big fan of Cecily Strong. She wasn't used nearly enough in this episode.
posted by Sophie1 at 11:46 AM on December 21, 2015 [5 favorites]

Maya Rudolph :33 - 1:56. The little dance was the best.
posted by NorthernLite at 7:13 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Cut For Time: Christmas at Nana’s - SNL
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:16 AM on December 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

God, Second Wife was just so disturbing and awesome.

Please let it not be a white woman...and not only is it, it's a FETUS.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:47 PM on December 22, 2015

As someone who grew up in a school district that played against Tina's alma mater White Marsh I appreciated her Philly accent, especially the bit about "wooder", which my cousins from New England teased me about as a youth.
posted by scalefree at 8:32 AM on December 29, 2015