Turns out Bruno Mars was just as confused as we were about why he was asked to host last night’s SNL — in his monologue, he immediately burst into song (a good move) to croon about how nervous he was about the gig and how much he hoped he could be like Justin Timberlake. But he quickly stiffened his resolve with a good old “I can do this” breakdown. And hey — turns out he was right. Though the show as a whole was up and down, we thought Mars held up his end of the bargain pretty darn well. Click through to watch the best and worst sketches of the night, and let us know if you agree in the comments!
The Best:
Pandora
Man, does that Bruno Mars have a set of pipes! The premise of this sketch, that a power outage causes the vocals to go out of tracks on the Pandora radio station, is highly ludicrous, but no matter. Mars gets up there and fills in with surprising skill — sure, it’s basically just a set of musical impersonations, but it’s very entertaining and comes complete with a healthy dose of the warm-and-fuzzies. And seriously, who does skip “Billie Jean”? Watch it here.
Sad Mouse
What did we just watch? This sketch is dark, strange, and legitimately sad, and it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen on SNL before. But we’re pretty sure we’ll be thinking about it for the rest of the day.
Merryville Halloween
We would have been a little bit disappointed if this episode didn’t include our favorite creepy murderous robots — it is the last show before Halloween, after all. Though we thought he was wasted in the cold open, Tom Hanks makes a perfect cameo here — we only wish they had saved him for it.
The Worst:
Haters
This looked like it could have been a funny sketch, but then it sort of stopped mid-stream. The only joke after all of that ramp up is that the psychologist also shakes his booty at the audience? Seems rather thin to us.
Brad Pitt for Chanel (et al)
Capitalizing on Taran Killam’s stellar Brad Pitt impersonation is usually a good idea, but sprinkling these increasingly random 30-second spots throughout the episode left us completely cold. The first one was a bit fun, but it just went downhill from there. It might have done better in the “Son of the Most Interesting Man in the World” format from Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s episode, but alas, we’ll never know.
Donkey Punch the Ballot
We’re never big fans of these “Under-Underground Records” sketches, and last night was no different, though this iteration was topical enough to be funnier than most. Still, it seems like a good time to retire this sketch, SNL, don’t you think? Go out on a (relatively) high note?
Honorable Mention:
Weekend Update
Because Stefon is back.