When future scribes write the full history of Saturday Night Live, this season will stand out as much as the first, albeit for wildly different reasons. The lead-up to, and reaction of, the 2016 presidential election dominated nearly every episode. Even when the show wasn’t dealing directly with it, its absence cast a long shadow.
The program often struggled with how to be itself when the world around it shifted in such a seismic fashion. While the results could be occasionally maddening, they were always fascinating.Change is nothing new for the show. While its fundamental DNA is solid and informs nearly everything it does, the people that keep its spirit alive are constantly changing. SNL announced that the season finale would be the final episode for both Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer. Cast turnover is natural, and indeed vital, to the show’s longevity. Moynihan had more of an overtly important tenure, with a personality that constantly leapt off the screen. But Bayer delivered one of the most underrated runs in the show’s history, doing subtle and often subversive work that rarely called attention to itself but always managed to deliver. Both will be missed, but both will be linked to the show’s incredible history.
For his part, newly minted member of The Five-Timers Club Dwayne Johnson had charisma to spare throughout the finale. Not every sketch worked, but none of the episode’s shortcomings lay on his shoulders. He was game for everything, including what I imagine will prove to be an incredibly divisive sketch about a mad scientist contest. While some may be loath to talk about that one, here’s what people will be discussing for the near future.
WWE Promo Shoot 2
This is the second, and superior, iteration of a wrestling promo sketch in which Johnson’s Koko Watchout brutally beats down Bobby Moynihan’s opponent Trashyard Mutt with a litany of personal attacks. It’s what I call a Mad Libs Sketch: The the structure is essentially always the same, and the only variations…
The post Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson on ‘SNL’: 3 Sketches You Have to See appeared first on FeedBox.