‘Saturday Night Live’ Recap: Russell Crowe Puts His Surprisingly Strong Comedic Chops On Display

In his monologue this week, Saturday Night Live host Russell Crowe, there to promote his new movie The Nice Guys, joked about how he was glad to be there because of his long history of comedic performance, showing clips from such laugh riots as Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, and Les Miserables to illustrate his point. If he ever wants to do this again, though, he’ll be able to show clips from tonight’s show, and demonstrate that his comedic chops are no joke.

SNL is almost always better when the host is a solid actor. Crowe’s presence felt like it freed something up in the writers this week, launching some off-the-wall sketches that Crowe played to the hilt.

But first, after a week where political focus turned to the upcoming New York primaries and the Democratic race grew more heated, the show led with Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton justifying her losses in 7 of the last 8 primaries or caucuses by noting, “that was the plan.” Like the old adage says, “You win some,” you struggle to get the word “lose” out of your mouth because it’s anathema. But, she says, this makes her “the underdog, this election’s Rudy.”

McKinnon goes to town mocking Hillary’s attempts to “fit in.” She’s delighted, this true New Yorker is, to be back in the “Fat Apple.” She wears a Yankee cap with the “$1.99” price tag still on (and where in NYC would you get a cap for two dollars?), which she then turns around to reveal a Mets cap. She eats authentic New York City street food which somehow can’t find its way into her mouth. And in a far too short and infrequent reminder of McKinnon’s skills as a physical comic, she re-enacts Hillary’s now infamous subway ride from this week, where it took her five tries to swipe her MetroCard, by having her attempt to climb over the turnstile before surrendering to the call of the taxicab. (What, no Uber? Some New Yorker.)

As McKinnon’s Hillary notes, she’s a real New Yorker just like us: “I never sleep, I’m in a hurry to get to work, and when I’m running, I really hate it when a slow old Jew gets in my way.”

In the monologue, Crowe shows us the subtle humor in Gladiator, where he kills someone with two swords – comedic overkill, amiright? – and A Beautiful Mind, where his character’s ability to see answers to mathematical equations somehow spells “boobs.” It’s one of the shorter ones the show has run of late, which was a wise approach they should consider more often. Creativity in the monologue is an issue for SNL – they so often revert to musical numbers or audience Q&As that it can seem like they’ve run out of ideas on that front – and given that it’s rarely a show highlight, there’s nothing wrong with keeping it short and, as with this week, trusting that the host’s ability to shine in sketches will be more than enough.

Next we have a pre-filmed parody ad, and a sign of the episode’s bizarre (in a good way) tenor. It’s a commercial for Preparation H, and as Taran Killam subtly excuses himself from his date and his friends to take care of a problem, friendly stranger Beck Bennett – who would have a solid episode overall – has the answer: new Preparation H Advanced Gel. What he doesn’t have is common sense or discretion, and he approaches Killam throughout the evening to loudly, in front of Killam’s date and friends, inquire about the success of the product, and to see if he needs “any more ass cream.” By the end of the ad, Bennett has turned his favor into an obsessive obligation. Sorry, Taran. Ass cream is your life now.

Kenan Thompson’s Al Sharpton is up next, talking about whether voter ID laws “disen-french fries people” Does Sharpton gets words wrong on his MSNBC show in real life? Either way, it’s a funny bit, to an extent. Maybe not “first sketch after monologue” funny, though. Anyway, Sharpton doesn’t here, as the real Sharpton comes out as the host’s statistical analyst. Speaking of SNL traditions on autopilot, this leads to SNL’s lazy go-to for having real people appear opposite the cast members playing them – not-so-subtle meta-references to the fudging of reality, the real person comically defending that which their doppleganger mocks, and subtle digs to the mocker. Real Sharpton asks fake Sharpton why he’s messing up words, and fake Sharpton makes a reference to his weight loss messing with his brain. This tactic was funny when the pattern began, which was probably in the ’90s. At this point, I wish the show would come up with more creative ways to integrate real people into the sketches, instead of constantly falling back on the same old.

In the next sketch, Crowe plays an interactive hologram of King Henry VIII in a “Henry VIII: The Experience” museum exhibit. After the hologram gives a brief background of the king, including that none of his wives gave him a male heir, visitors ask the hologram questions. Moynihan asks what he ate, and the King tells of meat and ale feasts. When Vanessa Bayer asks about his castle, the hologram moves aggressively forward and demands, “Bear me a son!” Other demands follow, with more detail: “The only sounds I wish to hear from a woman’s mouth are the sounds of labor, as you bear me a son.” Clearly, this hologram king wants a son. But he’s giving off “hologram spit” as he speaks, so Moynihan and Bayer move on to the next exhibit. It’s a one-note bit, but the regal presence of Crowe, the Oscar-winning star of Gladiator, makes it work, as the pattern repeats and escalates. To Cecily Strong, he demands, “Bear me a son but bathe first. You have a stench.” Strong rightfully concludes that “this hologram is a pig,” and heads to the gift shop. The sketch is a perfect example of one tailor-made for the episode’s host, as few others could have pulled this off. For Crowe, it’s perfect casting. Bennett also appears, prompting Crowe to immediately sit back with a turkey leg in hand, thrilled at the presence of a “fool” to amuse him.

(Quick digression here. Sasheer Zamata appears in the sketch as a tour guide leading a “Mom’s Day Out” group through the exhibit. Unlike Bayer and Strong, though, she’s given no laugh lines. She walks the group in, and walks them out. It’s the second sketch she appears in so far, as she made a quick appearance in the Sharpton sketch as well, but I didn’t mention it above because again, she had no laugh lines, appearing merely as a foil for Thompson’s Sharpton.

At this point, I cannot see how Zamata remains on the show next season – or, why she’d even want to. She has been so marginalized this season, it seems clear that for whatever reason, she and SNL are just not a match. For the museum sketch, why did Bayer and Strong have punchlines, but not Zamata? Bayer and Strong have had solid seasons with lots to do – could the show not have thrown Zamata one of their lines? Even new cast member Jon Rudnitsky has been given more to do this season than Zamata. At this point, the odds of her returning seem very slim.)

Next comes a dating game show parody, “Match Finders,” with Strong as the contestant looking for love. Weird aside here: Strong’s character seems like the older sister of the one she played in 2014’s “Match’d,” where Woody Harrelson, as the host, prodded contestants to be as lewd with Strong as possible before revealing he was her father. Strong played the horny ditz there and is more strait-laced here, but both followed the contestant’s answers with a drawn out, “I like that.”

The three men vying for her attention are glass-eyed Bennett, an overly enthusiastic Pete Davidson – who has a ways to go as an actor, but nails “creepy” in one of his busiest episodes to date – and Crowe as a German professor who transcends innuendo for deep perversion. Fun fact: did you know the human vagina has “three distinct holes?” Crowe’s professor does. He also doesn’t get the date. Host Thompson had to download a buzzer app on his phone to interrupt Crowe from a discussion of squirting. Strong asks their greatest fears. Bennett: bees. Davidson: Ghosts. Crowe: getting cancer from cunnilingus like Michael Douglas.

Weekend Update began as it often does this season, with Colin Jost telling a few OK jokes, and Michael Che following with better ones, including a harsh take on Bernie Sanders using “tokens” at his rallies (given his predominantly white following). But then, the two paired for a commentary, as they increasingly do, imploring Ted Cruz to stay the hell out of New York, giving his insulting comments about “New York values” earlier in the campaign. With a special shout out to Jost for explicitly calling Cruz out on the not-so-veiled anti-Semitism of his remarks: ”That’s why we came to New York – to escape weird people with values like you.” It works, with one caveat – it’s strange to hear Jost tell Cruz, “please don’t come here…you don’t like our New York values, and we don’t like you,” knowing that Hillary and Bernie have appeared on the show this season, and Cruz’s main rival, Donald Trump, hosted. Would they have Cruz on? It doesn’t seem a match, but given Sarah Palin’s history with the show, anything’s possible.

For desk characters, McKinnon brought back her “somebody’s mom” character who eats from Tupperware as she talks, and only remembers the characters from her favorite TV shows by their physical characteristics. It’s well played, but pretty much a one note joke. Speaking of one note jokes, Kyle Mooney returned as his old school comedian Bruce Chandling. Did you know that “women do not get sports?” Because that’s Chandling’s big tag line. Also – did you know that some people still find the cliche of the depressed hacky comedian funny? Mooney does, at least.

For the Survivor parody “100 Days in the Jungle,” on Day 94, the three contestants are surprised by visits from their families. Killam gets his wife, Strong gets her mom, and Davidson gets Crowe as his uncle’s friend Terry, who used to live in a tent in his uncle’s backyard – which is especially strange, since he has living parents, seven siblings, and a girlfriend of three years, all of whom apparently had other things they couldn’t reschedule. Crowe, in a sleeveless camping vest, has a blast with this, playing a shady loser who took Davidson to see Basic Instinct when he was five, prodding him just before they got to part where Sharon Stone spreads her legs. For the eating challenge, Terry is way too psyched to eat a duck’s vagina.

Next comes a pre-taped bit courtesy of Mooney and Bennett. I’ve discussed my lack of appreciation for their videos before, often finding them more quirky/strange than funny. This, about two workers who get jobs at a Chucky Cheese-type outlet that they still worship from childhood, easily falls into that category. And yet, there’s something in the characters the pair created here that makes this funnier than most of their work. These devotees of Pogie Pepperoni literally cannot believe their luck at being granted the honor of working there, marveling at every little detail, such as getting free work shirts, and treating every aspect of the opportunity as a game-changing, once-in-a-lifetime thrill. In addition to Leslie Jones’ jaded manager, the sketch also works because Bennet and Mooney, who so often portray duncy bros in their work, created slightly different characters here. Their nerds brimming with excitement, including Mooney using a different voice than normal, give us some of the most pointed acting Mooney has done on the show, displaying a range beyond what we’ve seen from him, and driving home a fault in much of their previous work – a tendency toward using the same broey bros. Their videos are distinct from the rest of the show, but rarely from what we’ve come to know of their own output. Hopefully their boldness, and the branching out of their acting ability here, will be a sign of things to come.

Next we see Leslie Jones as a ninja, taking on Crowe and his gang of kidnappers, and it’s just as great as that sounds. Haven’t we all suspected that Jones was born to be a ninja? The sketch is basically Jones making cool moves, like snapping necks, without being seen, and whispering to Crowe, “I am the wind.” Extra points to Jones for doing actual cartwheels.

The final sketch sees the return of Mike O’Brien, starring as Oprah in the superstar’s biopic. He did similar as Jay-Z, and this, too, is an excuse for weird casting. Jon Rudnitsky re-creates Tom Cruise’s couch jump to meh effect, although I can watch Mooney’s Michael Jackson on a loop. Jason Sudeikis briefly appears as Whoopi Goldberg opposite Oprah in The Color Purple. One other casting note here – Zamata appears in the sketch, but doesn’t speak. She’s a prop. In a sketch about Oprah! Sasheer Zamata total this episode: three sketches, not one laugh line. Bye, Sasheer. It’s been fun.

[You can stream Saturday Night Live on Hulu]

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. His greatest wish is to see Stefon enjoy a cheeseburger at John Belushi’s diner. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.