Saturday Night Live: Michael Keaton/Carly Rae Jepsen

April 6, 2015 2:51 PM - Season 40, Episode 17

Michael Keaton hosts for the first time since 1982 (which is before musical guest Carly Rae Jepsen was born). A few good Easter jokes, Weekend Update finally hitting its stride, and a goofy cameo by Norman Reedus. Fewer sketches that went on for longer and the show ran ... short?
posted by jessamyn (4 comments total)

He hosted in 1992 also, but they didn't mention that one in this week's show for whatever reason...that's still a hell of a long time.

I thought this was the second mostly solid episode in a row. Even that sort of premise-less ad pitch sketch still had some decent laughs just from Keaton's performance.

The most unexpected big laugh to hit me was the reveal that Michael Keaton was playing himself in the Easter basket sketch.
posted by doctornecessiter at 3:34 PM on April 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Strong outing, but one could hardly expect otherwise from Keaton. I said during the monologue that there must had been a fistfight among the (male, at least) cast members for the honor of fanboying over a guy who's got one of the ultimate comic actor career paths -- Mr. Mom to Batman to Oscar nominations, with few enough downsides (*cough*JackFrost*cough*) that they can essentially be ignored, and now he's this grand old man of comedy while he's still young enough to enjoy it.
posted by Etrigan at 3:58 PM on April 6, 2015

I think the cold open would have benefited from skipping the talking heads part. Acting like they actually care about the student part of student-athlete is a bit undercut by Keenan talking about majoring in volcanoes.

The Not-Scientology video was funny, although they did just about everything short of saying "Please do not sue us, Scientology".

Jebadiah Atkinson is always fun, and they finally got the dig at SNL in that I was wishing they did on the 40th anniversary special.

The audience seemed rather easily offended this week.

The Easter Candy bit was pretty much beat for beat a copy of the Halloween Candy bit from Ed Norton's show last season. Still, it was a highlight of the show both times and after I finish this comment I'm going to look up the Steve Buscemi Christmas one that the Splitsider recap mentions.
posted by ckape at 7:40 PM on April 6, 2015

I watched with my sister, and a few minutes before the show a promo with Michael Keaton;s picture came on and I said, "Batman can;t have gray hair!" Then I said, "Oh, well, I'm probably the only old fogey who still thinks of Michael Keaton as Batman, anyway." So I was extra delighted with the opening number.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:32 AM on April 8, 2015