When Saturday Night Live announces Lady Gaga as host and musical guest, one would expect a bunch of especially super weird sketches, to reflect the pop star's eccentricities. The result, however, was a show that featured Gaga but not as prominently as expected. While she made a pretty solid host, most of last night's funniest moments and sketches relegated her to a supporting role.
Hands down the funniest sketch of the night was "Waking Up With KimYe," in which Gaga played a pretty standard, nebbish Apple employee and second fiddle to Jay Pharoah, who's having the best SNL month ever. Jay's Jigga impression may have gotten blank stares and eye-rolls at this year's Espy's, but his Kanye is out of this world. So good in fact, a Twitter tirade from Yeezus himself may be in Pharoah's future.
Second best goes to this surreal ode to the very understandable emotional void created by the death of Blockbuster.
When the Lady was fully present though, she did what the best SNL hosts do: poke fun at herself. Gaga, good sport that she is, made several hilariously glaring nods to all of her controversies and criticisms. Like how her music is just a carbon copy of Madonna's catalog.
All that's missing is a wink.
The self-aware nods built to borderline self-deprecation with the night's final sketch, set forty years in a future where no one remembers Lady Gaga or her hits—"Born This Way" is a toilet cleaner jingle.
(The BeyHive swoons.)
Of course, the night was not completely without Gaga on her strange behavior.
And have fun getting this image un-seared from your brain. The line starts behind us.
All in all, another solid installment of Saturday Night Live. There may not be any black women, but Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan continue to be reliable MVPs, Cecily Strong looks like she's going to be solid on Weekend Update after Seth Meyers leaves, and Kenan's still around. It's still not perfect—word to the depressingly unfunny apartment co-op board sketch—but it's indisputable: SNL has been on a roll these past several weeks. Can they keep it up?
An aside: Mr. Killam, Jebediah Atkinson was amazing, but let's please not ruin it with multiple future appearances that run the gag into the ground and diminish the character. Please.
