Celebrity Impression . When it came to new impressions on SNL this season, Jay Pharoah s taking over

It snuck up on us, didn t it? The end of SNL Season 38 brought along with it key staff changes, among them the upcoming departure coupon codes rental car of head writer Seth Meyers and the immediate departures of cast members coupon codes rental car Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and (unofficially) Jason Sudeikis. Few people have shaped SNL over the past 8 years more than these men Meyers with his leadership in the writers room and charm as Weekend coupon codes rental car Update host, and Hader, Armisen and Sudeikis as the cast s workhorses and loadbearing performers. Indeed, many pegged Season 38 as a transitional year in the wake of Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg coupon codes rental car leaving the show a year ago, and one of the most fascinating things to watch this season has been SNL s attempt to reconfigure itself during this phase: new cast members to nurture into reliable regulars, new types of video sketches to fill the digital short void, and a redistribution of roles as supporting cast members step out from the fringe and into the limelight.
We ll look more at each cast member and his or her contributions in greater detail in tomorrow s piece, but for right now let s reflect upon some of our favorite moments from this past season, including our top political sketches (a limited selection for an election year) and top hosts (also a limited selection for a year full of A-listers, Oscar nominees and SNL regulars), as well as a few random categories like end-of-night sketches and sketches cut after dress rehearsal. We even threw our favorite musical coupon codes rental car guest in there, just to prove we comedy nerds didn t fast forward through every musical act just most of them.
Cold Open . Perhaps we can blame a lackluster coupon codes rental car election season for the mostly uninspired political cold opens that kicked off the episodes of the first half of the season, which often took the form of overlong debate parodies or low energy press conferences. The second half of the season opened the door for some more inventive concepts, like President Obama being visited coupon codes rental car by MLK s ghost or Elton John (Justin Timberlake) singing at Hugo Chavez s funeral . But the writers truly found their groove coupon codes rental car with this open to the Kevin Hart episode, which balanced Jay Pharoah s much improved take on Obama with a full cast exploration of the effects of the budget sequester.
Monologue . This season ran the monologue musical number trope into the ground. Louis CK s stand-up anecdote about escorting an old woman through an airport was a breath of fresh air, but Justin Timberlake s cameo-packed induction into the Five Timer s Club takes the cake as a season highlight.
Commercial . SNL has been as much a powerhouse for classic fake commercials as it has always been, churning out an awesome new fake ad nearly every episode of Season 38 Rosetta Stone , Your Hometown Vacation , New Balance Shoes without relying on the annoying habit of re-airing old ones. My vote goes to Z-Shirt, which was an on-the-nose parody of 90s ads targeted at children and gave us a hilarious callback at the end of the episode.
Political Sketch coupon codes rental car . As with cold opens, we didn t see too many clever political sketches this season, and outside of Seth Meyers coupon codes rental car jokes in Weekend Update, coupon codes rental car SNL didn t make any good points about the election that we didn t hear from Jon Stewart of Stephen Colbert. There was one exception, however: a mock political ad targeted not at a candidate or Washington, coupon codes rental car but at ourselves the idiot uninformed voters whom the media tolerates coupon codes rental car far more than they should.
Film Short . Andy Samberg s departure from SNL at the end of last season freed up an extensive film crew to utilize week to week, which gave us some beautifully composed film shorts coupon codes rental car to provide episodes with some variety and texture. While few of these went viral the way many of Samberg s did, Sad Mouse and Cool Drones were two of the most creative things we ve seen on the show in recent seasons. However, there was no comparison to Louis CK s brilliant parody of his FX show, with the comedian playing a jaded, frustrated 16th president.
Host-Specific Sketch . Some of the best SNL moments occur when the writers challenge themselves to write material specifically for whoever is hosting that week it allows the host to poke some fun at himself coupon codes rental car and gives the show a fresh, written-this-week taste. Last weekend s Bengo F Yourself allowed Ben Affleck to poke fun at his film and Oscar acceptance speech, and the Bieber Body Doubles sketch gave that episode some of its only laughs. But the Pandora Intern sketch from the Bruno Mars episode allowed the singer to show off his vocal chameleon coupon codes rental car skills and resulted in one of my favorite moments from the season.
Celebrity Impression . When it came to new impressions on SNL this season, Jay Pharoah s taking over the role of Barack Obama from Fred Armisen has had more words written about it than any other. While I remain doubtful that Pharoah will ever truly fit in with the cast, his Obama is actually quite good not just an improvement from Armisen s, but an improvement on his own, growing increasingly precise and humorous each time we see it. Unfortunately, Pharoah has as of yet been unable to truly encapsulate the president s character and form his own comedic hook on the man, which probably says more about Obama s ambiguous poker face than about Pharoah s talent, but remains a problem nonetheless. Meanwhile, Kate McKinnon, who was added to the cast late last season and has divided some viewers with her broad delivery, has been three-for-three with her Ellen Degeneres, even getting the opportunity to do that dumb real Ellen vs. fake Ellen schtick on Degeneres show.
New Character . With Kristen Wiig gone from the cast and Bill Hader taking coupon codes rental car on more of a supportive role this season, as well as what seems to be a general shift away from character sketches to more concept based sketches, we ve seen fewer new characters this season. Of course, any of the 20 great characters Melissa McCarthy played during her episode made up for it, but as for the cast, it has been a season that has for the most part gotten extra mileage coupon codes rental car out of Stefon and Drunk Uncle. That said, newcomer Cecily coupon codes rental car Strong has truly hit the ground running, pumping out hit character after hit character, with her Girl You Wish You Hadn t Started coupon codes rental car A Conversation With being the most popular new character to emerge this season.
10-to-1 . The 10-to-1 slot, or the sketch that airs at the end of the night, is normally the part of the show that Lorne places a sketch that runs the biggest risk of bombing. In previous seasons, this slot was home to some of Fred Armisen s weird musical parodies, but in this season, the writers have gotten some different uses out of the final sketch of the night, such as with two excellent Last Call sketches (with Louis CK and Vince Vaughn ) and a near perfectly executed Coroner sketch with Jeremy Renner. But if you ve been following my recaps you ll remember how smitten I was with Zach Galifianakis Darrell coupon codes rental car s House stunt, which spent an awkward few minutes of setup earlier on in the night to give the episode a spectacular finale.
Musical Guest . I don t consider myself qualified to review the musicians who appear on SNL , unless they make the mistake coupon codes rental car of appearing in sketches. I ll say this much: Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake were fun as hell, and Kanye West scared the crap out of me but the Alabama Shakes absolutely killed it.
Cut from Dress . Since a large number of you watch SNL sketches coupon codes rental car on Hulu anyways, it s probably worth mentioning the dress rehearsal sketches that for whatever reason didn t make it into the live broadcast. Bill Hader and Fred Armisen cracking each other up as doormen coupon codes rental car Renaldo and Alexei was a lot of fun, and Martin Short got plenty of laughs in Malibu High , but Zach Galifianakis Kanish, a 70s detective coupon codes rental car show with a closing-credits gag, was the cut that seemed the most unfair.
Host . We ve seen greater polarity in terms of host quality this season either they ve been very good, like Seth MacFarlane, Anne Hathaway, Martin Short, Christoph Waltz, Melissa McCarthy, Zach Galifianakis, and Ben Affleck, or very bad, like Daniel Craig, Jeremy Renner, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lawrence, Adam Levine, and Justin Bieber. There were a few surprises in there, with Louis CK, Bruno Mars, and Kevin Hart proving to be better than expected, and highly anticipated hosts like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Justin Timberlake, Kristen Wiig performing admirably but presiding over less-than-stellar episodes. Christoph Waltz, in particular, impressed me with his showmanship, while Melissa McCarthy delivered yet another powerhouse performance. But no host played the  SNL  instrument so deftly as Seth MacFarlane, who silenced the haters with Baldwin-esque range and killer timing, resulting in one of the finest season premieres  SNL  has ever seen.
Rookie of the Year . After the show picked coupon codes rental car up no new cast members between seasons 36 and 37, Season 38 premiered with three newbies from Chicago s improv and sketch scene Aidy Bryant, coupon codes rental car Tim Robinson, and Cecily Strong as well as one holdover from the end of the previous season, Kate McKinnon, who came to SNL by way of UCB-NY and Logo s Big Gay Sketch Show . Of those four, McKinnon and Strong have received the most attention for their character work, while Bryant and Robinson have struggled to make an impression (which is often the case for first-year cast members). And while Kate McKinnon has won over audiences with her wide-eyed, all-in style, Cecily Strong has stood out as a true utility player in the cast, capable of teaming up with other cast members (Girlfriends Talk Show, Pornstar Commercial), playing supportive roles (deaf translator Lydia Callis, Rachel Maddow), and carrying bits on her own (Girl You Wish You Hadn t Started a Conversation With, Mimi Morales). And in Strong s variety of roles, she has rarely missed, giving her one of the strongest first seasons we ve seen on SNL in years.
MVP . Of course, it s easy to make a case here for Bill Hader, who received the most amount of screen time