Saturday Night Live Season 42 Episode 9 John Cena Recap

John Cena hosted Saturday Night Live this week with musical guest Maren Morris, and it was everything we needed after this week!

John Cena took over Saturday Night Live this week, and he did a pretty good job. We knew he had some comedy chops. He showed them! He was a great host, and Maren Morris did an incredible job as the musical guest.

Cold Open

Walter White has been appointed Head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Basically, they just got Bryan Cranston to come on as Walter White, and nothing else about the sketch mattered. And it was glorious.

Walter was Trump’s newest appointment and talked about bringing back the blue to America. It was clever and just nice to see Bryan Cranston in the role we all know and love.

Opening Monologue

Most of the guests have been pigeon-holed into songs. Every opener seems to be filled with them ,and it almost seemed like John Cena’s was going that way. But instead, they let him have fun. It was a pretty great monologue!

They had different cast members come out wanting to wrestle Cena. It ended with him finally breaking and saying fine, he’d really wrestle Kenan. It was a nice set up for how the rest of the show would feel.

Hook A Hunk

The best way to describe this sketch was just fine. It was funny and had its great moments, but it wasn’t anything real special. They basically made Beck and Kyle make out to make the joke. It was based on a game show where she’s supposed to meet a man.

But Cecily’s character ends up falling in love with the host of the show and then they keep flashing back to the contestants and their reactions to being ignored.

Karate

Honestly, it went over my head. It was supposed to be about a karate star, but it also seemed like there was a bit of The Matrix mixed in. Maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I definitely didn’t understand it at all.

It looked cool and maybe it makes sense to some. It just didn’t really grasp my attention or make me laugh.

Applied Science 101

Cena plays a football player who wants to get an A+ in Applied Science before playing in the big game. Two of the other students create amazing projects and get terrible grades, but the teachers want Cena’s character to play in the game.

So they give him a 100% on his science project about bananas. The funniest part of the entire sketch was the fact that he had a bunch of bananas nailed to a board with an orange on the bottom. He called the orange a “round banana”.

Other than that, it was just alright, but it seemed like they didn’t hit what would have made it a great sketch.

Dyke & Fats Save Christmas

If the entire episode was just this sketch, it would be perfect. Mainly because Aidy and Kate are amazing as Dyke and Fats. The two rescue Santa and the sketch is mainly the two going into their chief’s office.

John Cena has a little mug and he says something about being women, and it ends with Aidy and Kate screaming about him. Like every Dyke and Fats sketch, it is genius. Kate and Aidy can do no wrong.

Maren Morris

Maren Morris is a great performer, and her songs were both great. She isn’t one of the most famous musical guests the show has ever gotten, but her music is pretty amazing. The great thing about SNL is that the musical guests might not necessarily be the biggest names but they are usually quality performances.

Maren’s performances were very good and showed her talented and how her music is. If you haven’t listened to her before, give her a chance!

Weekend Update

This week, Colin Jost called Hillary Clinton “Nerd Girl” and Michael Che decided that the Russian hack was a great time to crack a joke about people who were fixated on the popular vote. It wasn’t great. The entire thing just felt like they were trying to make fun of something they didn’t feel into.

The guests were better than Che and Jost but the entire thing was not what it needed to be.

Where’d Your Money Go?

This seemed to fall a little short even with sports fans. The sketch was just playing on sports fans spending all their money on drugs and stupid things. It was a funny premise, but the sketch just didn’t really work.

It wasn’t anything or anyone specific, it just didn’t click. Maybe if they had made the reasons they lost money different or didn’t make all of them idiotic it would have hit harder. But, alas, it ended up failing.

Office Christmas Party

Aidy Bryant falls out a window trying to put the angel on the Christmas tree and everyone in the office watches her hang out the window until she falls to her death. It made zero sense but it was actually pretty funny.

They just wanted the tree to come back for their Christmas party and did not care what happened to their coworker. Even Santa didn’t care. He just took the tree away as she falls to her death.

Through Donald’s Eyes

Every wonder what it is like to see life through the eyes of Donald Trump? Well, now is your chance. Honestly, this sketch made up for the whole night. Basically, you see what Donald Trump sees. Just everyone praising him and thinking he’s the best until they all turn on him and his hands shrink.

It was a great sketch and just genuinely funny. Now, we just have to wait to see when Donald Trump is going to tweet and complain about it since he said he loved himself most of all in the sketch.

Bookstore

This one had no real purpose but was pretty funny. It is a bookstore where a woman hired a man who looked like the male romantic lead in those terrible grocery romance novels to come and help her get books.

The two go back and behind the books and talk as if they are part of a novel and try and get their customers the books. It is just stupid funny and really doesn’t have any context to it other than having a funny game to it.

United States of Talent

Majesty the owl flew into a brick wall, and now the two brothers are trying to have the owl do an amazing trick. Instead, it keeps throwing up and pooping everywhere. Again, a stupid premise but a pretty funny sketch overall.

The owl basically cannot control its bodily functions and is just projectile vomiting and pooping everywhere and trying to win United States of Talent.

It was an okay episode but it ended in the best way possible. That way? John Cena being just generally so happy to have hosted the show.

New episodes of Saturday Night Live air every Saturday at 11:30pm Eastern Standard Time. Check back here on Culturess for the recap of each episode after they air!

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