Paul Rudd! Who doesn’t love Paul Rudd? Nobody, that’s who. And I guess that’s what makes Paul Rudd episodes of Saturday Night Live disappointing, generally. It feels like they could so easily be great, and we all have such a strong hope for them to be and willingness to let them be great, and yet somehow they are not great. And aside from just having a longstanding love for Paul Rudd that I’m unwilling to admit anyone may not have, the promos for this one were so good! Very weird and risk-take-y. There is no reason this shouldn’t have been a stand out episode. And yet, here we are. Is it a case of unreasonably high expectations due to my love of the host, or was this an objectively middling episode? In any case, it wasn’t all bad; there were definitely some funny things (Stefon!). So, here are those things:
Kenan was so funny in this! And although Paul Rudd was relegated to the straight-man in this and most of his sketches, it was still my favorite of the night. I would say, “It was still one of the best of the night,†but that isn’t a very strong statement. But it was my favorite. Was it yours? I don’t know, we haven’t even met.
Oh my god, Stefon! Stefon is the best thing that exists on Earth right now. I know just before this I implied that I didn’t want to speak for you because we haven’t met and maybe have different views on things like SNL sketches, but I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Stefon is the best thing not only on SNL, but on Earth. Right? Yes.
Also, the digital short was good:
But for some reason it is not on Hulu? That’s weird. I wonder why. But anyway, the use of Paul McCartney was good here. It was the kind of wacky, goofy fun that I was hoping for more of throughout the episode.
They used Paul McCarney a lot, actually. He was also good here:
He is very old.
So, that was the Paul Rudd episode. Not a whole lot of Paul Rudd, really. It could’ve been any old charming, handsome man without making a whole lot of difference. But I guess, in conclusion, some Paul Rudd is definitely better than no Paul Rudd. And also, yay, Stefon! But also, ugh, the Vogelchecks.
See you next week, with Jeff Bridges and Eminem. Yes, that Eminem!