The Best and Worst of Last Night’s ‘SNL’ With Anne Hathaway

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Well, would you look at that. The notoriously goofy Anne Hathaway led a pretty decent episode of Saturday Night Live last night, full of large-mouthed energetic mugging and musical numbers. In fact, most of the sketches landed in the pretty-good category, so this week, we’ve treated you to four of the best, with only two in the figurative doghouse. Still, SNL should be shooting for brilliance, not just okay sketches! We know, we know, that’s a lot to ask. For now, click through to watch the best and worst from last night’s SNL, and let us know whether you agree with us, or whether you totally hated Mokiki (impossible) in the comments.

The Best:

Anne Hathaway’s Monologue

Predictable? Sure. Totally lost on anyone not familiar with Les Mis? Definitely. But the writing on this group musical number was spot-on and actually funny, and the whole thing was carried off exceptionally well. Plus, um, we really love Les Mis, and since (spoiler alert) we’re not going to get another nod to the film in this episode, we’ll definitely take this one.

The Legend of Mokiki and the Sloppy Swish

Yep, this is another musical number on our best list, but come on. Kenan Thompson is basically Lou Bega narrating the misadventures of Taran Killam as a dancing zombie. We’re going to have this song stuck in our heads for the rest of the week. And as for the sloppy swish? It may be a really stupid dance created by a crazy person, but we’re trying it out at our next party.

Homeland

Damn, everyone’s impressions are so good in this sketch, particularly Bill Hader’s Mandy Patinkin as Saul and Taran Killam’s tiny-mouthed Brody. We also really dug Hathaway’s ever-more-insane Carrie with her jazz freakout. No plot needed, and we’re psyched to see an actually funny, topical sketch for once.

American Gothic

In this sketch you could just tell that Hathaway and Sudeikis were having a really good time, and that made you have a good time too. Lightweight but feel-good, even if the frame narrative was totally hokey.

The Worst:

McDonald’s Staff Meeting

We admit, we laughed during this one, but like so many of these mounting insult or potty humor sketches, it was just a little too one-note, and a lot too long. Yes, some the insults are funny, but without any context for each character it’s like hanging out with two annoying teenagers talking smack about people you don’t know. Not that fun.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

We’re just not sure what this one was about — it seemed like they took every idea they had for Kate McKinnon as Ellen and threw it all into a pot with no structure. It was sort of about everyone wanting her to dance, sort of about Katie Holmes, sort of about the one man in the audience. [This is not available on the NBC website, so the clip above is just the Katie Holmes part.]