'Saturday Night Live' Review/Recap: Jim Carrey and Iggy Azalea

Devika Syal ‘18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

After taking a week-long hiatus, Saturday Night Live was back last week with host Jim Carrey and musical guest Iggy Azalea.
Fans noticed right away that Leslie Jones was added to the lineup as a featured cast member, making her the second African American female currently on the cast, alongside Sasheer Zamata. Jones was featured in a few sketches earlier this season, but has only now been added to the cast.
Carrey was definitely the star of the episode. In previous episodes, the hosts were prominent in their sketches (as they should be) but there were many instances when the regular cast members were the lead roles. In this week’s episode, Carrey was in every sketch and always had something brilliant to say. It seemed as though the episode was written for him.
Some of his sketches stood out spectacularly, such as “Halloween Party,” in which both he and cast member Kate McKinnon dressed up like the girl from musician Sia’s music video for the song “Chandelier” for a costume contest. In order to determine the winner, they had a danceoff, mimicking the music video through the entire studio and audience. It even featured Iggy Azalea in the same outfit dancing for a bit, as well as the creator of the show, Lorne Michaels, giving his signature look of amusement mixed with disapproval as the cast danced. While this sketch had very few spoken lines, it was the ridiculousness of it all that made it funny.
Another silly-yet-funny sketch was “High School,” featuring Carrey as the father of a high school student-turned-zombie. Throughout the sketch, Carrey tried to convince his son’s peers to let him into their “safe zone.” Half the comedy came from the strange-yet-endearing relationship the father and zombie son had, while the other half came from the typical teenage behavior the other characters used with each other. It’s interesting to see how the show is incorporating the featured cast into sketches as more prominent characters.

While Carrey’s performance as a whole was excellent, some sketches either fell flat or went over the audience’s head. For example, the sketch titled “Carrey Family Reunion” was exactly what the title suggests. Different cast members approached Carrey as distant relatives, and all of their personalities were different roles Carrey had played in his career. While it showcased each cast member’s talent in impersonations, for those who didn’t understand the references made, the sketch was basically five minutes of them pretending to laugh and know what was happening. While Carrey has had many iconic roles that people recognize, there is a younger audience watching the show who might not know all of his work, so this sketch was not as appealing to them.
Another mediocre sketch featured Carrey mimicking the very talked-about Lincoln car commercials starring Matthew McConaughey. Getting everything exact down to the last detail, the sketch showed Carrey sitting in a car, making the same hand gesture McConaughey made in his ad, and rambling on in a quiet Texas accent. While some moments were amusing, this sketch was not one of the finer ones. The idea was good, but the writing, timing, and delivery limited the comedic effect. In addition, Ellen DeGeneres had already parodied the commercial a few weeks ago on her talk show, and it was much better done than the one on Saturday Night Live. Instead of doing an impersonation, DeGeneres inserted herself into the backseat of the car and made quirky comments in response to whatever McConaughey said in the commercial. DeGeneres’ generally quirky and fun personality made her parody much funnier.
Any problems aside, fans can see Weekend Update getting stronger and funnier every week. Colin Jost managed to make viewers both laugh and swoon as he delivered the punchlines in more of a conversation with the audience rather than simply reciting lines. The writers have taken advantage of having a black man, Michael Che, as their second news anchor, giving them the ability to make race-related jokes that may previously have received backlash, had they been recited by a white person. The improvements to the segment have been more to the anchors’ delivery of the lines, but the jokes are always on point.

Iggy Azalea’s musical performances were theatrical, featuring music, choreography, and a smoky set. She performed a medley of her hit songs, “Fancy” and “Black Widow,” then later returned to debut her new song, “Beg For It.” While the vocals were excellent, the choreography and performance aspect in general seemed slightly unusual and inappropriate for the small Saturday Night Live stage. It all may have looked better on a larger stage at an awards show.
The episode, in general, was a good one. It featured good laughs and both a talented host and a musical guest. Although difficult to follow in the footsteps of Bill Hader’s hosting debut in the previous episode, Jim Carrey brought his own talent and comedy into the mix once again and left the audience laughing.
Overall Episode Grade: B