TTH 5/6/26
SNL Recap
Last Friday I wrote a few words about Aziz Ansari’s old Netflix series Master Of None, and what do I see a day later but a cameo appearance from Ansari on SNL. Did I somehow will that into happening? That cameo brought some much needed life into the cold open, which I will get to shortly. Olivia Rodrigo performed double duty as host and musical guest; although she came in with acting experience from her younger years she was perfectly content to leave the heavy lifting to the professionals. The show also brought in a couple of heavy hitters to intro her musical performances: Debbie Harry and Connor Storrie.
I’m trying to do a better job of spreading the wealth, so rather than awarding Best Sketch Of the Week to yet another segment centered around Ashley, I will instead honor one which starred my second favorite performer in the current cast, Andrew. He portrayed an Uber driver with a couple of party girls - Rodrigo and Veronika - as his passengers. Suddenly he begins to freestyle over the dancehall tune that’s playing on the car’s sound system. He had no idea where this skill came from, which horrified him. He can’t be the white Rasta guy! Sometimes it’s just as simple as the performance; he nailed it.
Not that this wasn’t another great week for Ashley. A sketch took place in a restaurant where a birthday party for Marcello was being held. It was awkward because both Rodrigo and her ex (Ben) were there, so to ease the tension she asked her table mate (Tommy) to pretend they were there as dates. Little did she know that Ben was also attending as a single, so he too asked his table mate (Ashley) to play along. The wig she was wearing served as a hint that she was an oddball, without the skill to plausibly perform that ruse.
Now, about that cold open. It was yet another paint by numbers Pete Hegseth press briefing. By this point all of the jokes have been made. Jost’s Hegseth throws high school level taunts at the press corps. It was another yawner until Ansari came aboard as Kash Patel, described here as a man who broke a specific glass ceiling by becoming the first Indian man to be bad at his job. There were some great lines, and Ansari was terrific.
Going back to the early days of Albert Brooks, followed by Gary Weis and Tom Schiller, SNL has generally had one in-house filmmaker at a time. This year there have been 3, which if nothing else mixes things up. After a long absence Dan Bulla’s Midnight Matinee returned with one of his music videos; in this one Rodrigo was singing a song about the joys she finds in her bedroom. The punchline was that she wasn’t in her childhood room, she was a zoo exhibit on a planet of giant bug people. It was a nice combo of whimsy and understated horror, particularly when JAJ’s character, who was introduced as a potential mate, was sent to his doom.
This week also saw the return of the Shop TV sketch, in which the product being sold would turn out to be borderline pornographic. In this case Rodrigo was hawking her line of chocolate lava cakes. The steam hole looked just like an anus. This is a recurring sketch in which Mikey’s standard default mode of being the guy who reacts to the situation is much more effective than usual. The sound bites from callers also reliably bring the humor; cakes that look like that are naturally going to attract a certain level of creepiness.
Not much to talk about concerning Update this week. One of the desk pieces was about a feud between Internet personalities Alex Cooper and Alix Earle (Chloe and Veronika.) I’ve heard of Cooper, but I honestly had to Google Earle to make sure that she is a real person. I have no idea what their supposed feud is all about, nor do I care. I’m assuming that the impressions are accurate, but this is one of those sketches that was way over my head. Kam turned up to comment about the recent breakup of Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson; Kam was offering his services to be Megan’s rebound. As an aside, I have no idea what could compel someone to cheat on Megan Thee Stallion, but you do you, Klay.
This week’s show was much like many episodes that have run over the last 2 or 3 years. Not bad, but nothing that’s likely to show up in a highlight reel for the next big anniversary gala. Next week Matt Damon will host; it’s a bit of a surprise that this will only be his 3rd time. You gotta put some more effort into things if you want that jacket Mr. Bourne. Noah Kahan will be the musical guest.
8 Teams Left
The first round of the NBA Playoffs came with a little more drama than the norm. The Thunder had an easy time of it as expected, but there were 2 upsets and in 2 series the eventual winning team needed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to take the series. The one shocking result came in the Boston-Philadelphia series, which was one of those 3-1 comebacks. While it’s true that Jayson Tatum missed the decisive Game 7 due to an injury it should have never come down to that. The most impressive round 1 performance came from the Knicks. They gave the Hawks such a thorough beat down in the series clinching Game 6 that I’m pretty sure Atlanta has already been eliminated from next year’s playoffs.
The Knicks kept the foot on the pedal for Game 1 of the Eastern semifinals, defeating Philly by 39 points. Dare I say that New York appears to have a clear path to the NBA Finals? If everyone is healthy Philadelphia is as dangerous as any team in the league, but the phrase “if everyone is healthy” looms large with this team. In round 1 Detroit showed why many people are concerned about their lack of playoff experience. And Cleveland doesn’t look like they’re good enough to win 2 more series. Anything can happen, but the Eastern Conference could very well be New York’s to lose.
A similar lack of playoff experience might also be San Antonio’s kryptonite. Minnesota won Game 1 of their series despite a triple double from Victor Wembanyama; a triple double in which he blocked an astonishing 12 shots. Despite that result San Antonio should be able to take the series; Minnesota is playing well short of full strength. Anthony Edwards has returned from a knee injury, but it’s hard to say if he can physically hold up for a full series and Donte DiVincenzo just tore an Achilles, so he is out of commission. In the other Western semi the Lakers are essentially playing with house money. Few gave them a chance against the Rockets, but advance they did. Now they face the red hot Thunder. Once again the potential for an injury to a key player can reset everything, but all indications are that we are looking at a likely Thunder/Knicks final.
You Can’t Predict Baseball, Suzyn
There are few relationships between strangers which are as intimate as the one between a baseball fan and the team’s broadcast team. We listen to these people day after day for more than 6 months; they are such a part of their lives that in some cases they are practically a member of the family. Picture someone who held that job for more than 3 decades and that gives a sense of how big of a role John Sterling has played in recent Yankee history. Sterling, who truly was one of one, passed away this week.
I’ll start off with the obvious. I am a certified Yankee hater, and therefore Sterling narrated some of my most miserable moments as a baseball fan. He was also an unabashed homer; I much prefer a broadcaster who at the very least pays lip service to objectivity. But there is no denying his love for the game, his love for the job, and his ability to connect with generations of fans.
His longevity and endurance were unmatched. At one point he sat behind the mic for more than 5,000 consecutive games, both home and away. That means he called every single hit in Derek Jeter’s career along with every single Mariano Rivera save, as well as the final out in 5 Yankees World Series wins. His signature “thuuuuuuuuuh Yankees win!” was nails on the chalkboard for Yankee haters, but the sweetest music on Earth for the fans.
That dichotomy also showed up in his signature trait; his customized home run calls for each Yankee player. Several of them were intentionally cringeworthy, but in time it became a tradition whenever the Yankees acquired a new player. How would Sterling turn the player’s surname into a pun? Once again, if you weren’t part of Bomber Nation, you would roll your eyes. If you were, you loved it.
Well before he joined the Yankees he already had a distinguished broadcasting career; calling games for the New York Islanders, New York Nets, and Atlanta Braves among others, in addition to being one of the earlier sports talk radio hosts. To describe him as one of a kind is an understatement. Sterling retired in 2024 as one of the last remaining play-by-play voices of his generation. John Sterling was 87.
New Oscar Rules
This week the Motion Picture Academy announced some rule changes which will be in effect as of next year’s ceremony. In addition to cracking down on the use of AI - scripts which are largely the product of AI are ineligible for awards consideration - a big change is being made for the Best International Feature Oscar. If you pay attention you may have noticed that as the winner walks towards the stage the announcer will say “this is the ___ win for (fill in name of country).” Going forward the winners will be identified by the director of the film as opposed to the country of origin. In addition there will be a major procedural change. Each year the film commission for each individual country selects one specific film to submit for consideration. As you can imagine, there is a LOT of politics involved in the choice. That won’t change, but now the Academy will also add to the mix any film which has won a major prize at one of the top film festivals. This means that theoretically there can be more than one nominee for a country.
A similar change is even more intriguing. For decades actors have not been eligible to receive more than one nomination per year in the same category. It’s not uncommon for a performer to be nominated for both lead and supporting roles in the same year, but the rules would prevent any performer to be nominated for 2 different lead performances. Now, if an actor or actress has had such a spectacular year that they produced 2 award worthy performances in the same year the nominations can reflect that. The potential drawback is that if voters see the same person’s name twice on the ballot there is a non-zero chance that their support could be split between the two performances. But at least this increases the chances that the true best 5 performances in a year can be fully acknowledged. I say this fully aware that the real best 5 are never nominated; every year there are always great performances in smaller films which fall through the cracks. But this is a welcome change to the process.
The Sports Movie Pantheon - Big Fan
Big Fan isn’t a true sports movie as much as it is a sports adjacent one, but passionate fandom is a crucial component in the sports industrial complex. This movie adeptly examines that role, and how such passion can be detrimental to those involved when taken too far.
Patton Oswalt stars as a man who is going nowhere in life. He still lives with his mother and he works as the night attendant at a parking garage. The one thing he has going for him is the New York Giants. He spends his time at work composing what he will say when he calls into the show on the sports talk radio station that he listens to when he winds down for the day. There, he is one of the regular callers as “Paul From Staten Island.” As he recites his carefully prepared script, for those brief moments he is somebody; he even has a nemesis in the form of an overly obnoxious caller who is an equally passionate fan of the Eagles and he has the distinctive voice of Michael Rapaport. The scene which is most representative of his character takes place when he and his best friend are tailgating before a Giants game. As kickoff time approaches, they don’t head towards the stadium. They can’t afford tickets. Instead, they hook up a small TV to their car battery and watch the game in the parking lot.
One evening Paul and his buddy happen to see the Giants’ star linebacker in their neighborhood and decide to follow him and his entourage around, which includes a stopover in a very shady section of Staten Island where it’s obvious that he is up to something nefarious. Their final stop is a strip club, where the pair coughs up the hefty cover charge so that they can continue to swim in the wake of their hero. They eventually wind up invited to hang with the player for a bit and are having a great time until they make a terrible mistake. They inadvertently let slip that they had been following him. This enrages the player. He accuses them of stalking and proceeds to beat Paul unconscious.
When Paul wakes up in the hospital he faces a conundrum. The linebacker had been suspended a game following the incident, but if Paul presses charges he would then likely be facing a lengthy suspension, thus damaging the Giants’ chances of winning. What to do? Paul finally declines to pursue the matter any further, claiming that it was all a misunderstanding.
It wasn’t over yet. Paul’s brother, an attorney, files a civil suit against the player, much to Paul’s chagrin. Worse, the Rapaport character (Philadelphia Phil) calls into the radio show and outs the victim of the beating as none other than Paul From Staten Island. This leads Paul to travel to Philadelphia so that he can take revenge upon Phil.
This is such a well-done movie with an outstanding performance from Oswalt. He is one of the handful of people who can legitimately stake claim to being the funniest standup comic working today, but here he shows himself to be a skilled dramatic actor as well. I like the way that the film contrasts two extremes of fandom. Phil is the classic toxic fan, bordering on sociopathy. Paul is more of a fan who would literally have nothing were it not for the Giants. Both fully connect their lots in life with the success or failure of their favorite team, they just manifest it in different ways. Because he is the protagonist our sympathies lie with Paul, but it’s not as if his mentality is all that healthy either, which is made clear in both the climax and coda of the movie. I give Big Fan one of my highest recommendations, it is a hidden gem.
Closing Laughs
Once again, the Pulitzer Prize committee chose to ignore me. It’s all politics I’m telling you. I’ll be OK, though. Their loss. At least you all appreciate me. Thanks for your support, and be sure to enjoy your day. See you again on Friday.
