‘Saturday Night Live’ Recap: Ben Affleck

This week, Saturday Night Live returned for its season finale. The show was hosted by Ben Affleck, who celebrated his Oscar win and entrance into the ‘Five-Timers Club.’ Last nights episode stood out more than a regular season finale because it marked the end of Bill Hader and Fred Armisen’s time on the show. The star-studded episode celebrated beloved characters, such as Hader’s Stefon, and Affleck worked well with the material he was given.

The cold open involved a Politics Nation television show where Kenan Thompson’s character discussed the IRS. The show included cameos from Matthew McConaughey and Jimmy Fallon. McConaughey played a senator that was appearing on Jimmy’s late night show.

Ben Affleck’s monologue centered around his Oscar win and entrance into the ‘Five-Timers Club.’ Although Affleck was honored to join the prestigious club, the show couldn’t possibly bring back as many stars that welcomed Justin Timberlake a few months ago. Instead, Bobby Moynihan joined Affleck on stage to sing him a brief song. Also, Affleck’s wife Jennifer Garner made an appearance in his monologue to clear up a statement he made about marriage being a lot of work. The couple looked great together on screen and Garner delivered her lines comically.

The first sketch poked fun at Ben Affleck’s film Argo. It involved an HBO first look at a new Iranian movie mocking Ben Affleck. Armisen played the role of Affleck in the film, who proved his acting chops by perfecting his Boston accent and starting every line with “park the car in Harvard yard.” Affleck himself joins the sketch as a crew member who claims to only become involved in the movie because he wants to appear in a movie worse than Gigli.

After a commercial for Xanax formulated specifically for straight people to take while attending gay summer weddings, Bill Hader and Kate McKinnon appeared in a Depression-era sketch. Hader plays Edward, a man who tries to prove to Affleck’s character that he is worthy of earning a job during hard times. However, he has a problem with arriving to work at 8:00am, requesting a corner office, etc. Towards the end of the sketch, it is revealed that Edward and McKinnon’s Primadonna character are immoral people who hit people with bricks and steal their money.

Next up was a sketch were Affleck played a camp counselor named Marvin. The summer camp is devoted to turning gay kids straight. Affleck’s character shares his success story from attending the camp and proves his happiness is legitimate by awkwardly kissing his wife. Taran Killam sweeps in with a cropped shirt and Vegas-showgirl-style feather fans. After singing “I Love the Nightlife,” Killam and Affleck’s characters shared some believable chemistry before Affleck gave up on the camp all together.

Kanye West joined the show and performed his new songs “Black Skinheads” and “New Slaves.” West always puts on an intense and controversial show, that usually gains the attention he desires. The new songs should appear on his new album Yeezus.

After West took the stage, Seth Myers appeared for an emotional Weekend Update. The Update kicked off with an appearance from Amy Poehler, who returned to do a ‘Really?!’ segment with Myers. Of course, the Update wouldn’t be complete on Hader’s last night without a cameo by Stefon. In his usual fashion, Stefon told Seth about some of the hottest spots in New York City. However, after being mistreated by Seth, Stefon storms out and declares that he is going to marry another man who will treat him well. During the segment, Seth realizes that he has loved Stefon all along and he chases after him to a nearby church. At the scene, Seth moves past many of the crazy things Stefon has described to him in the past years, such as DJ Baby Bok Choy and a Furkel. Seth finally proclaims his love for Stefon and Stefon chooses Seth over his groom-to-be, Anderson Cooper. The couple return to the set of the Update, where they are joined by many of the show’s frequent guests and have a final sendoff.

Towards the second half of the show, some of the sketches flopped, including “Greg’s Funeral” and the “Engagement Picnic.” However, the show picked up once again with the “Hermes” sketch. Vanessa Bayer and Cecily Strong appeared as their pinhead, Sabowski Crystals girls. The sketch mocked “Herman” handbags and the pair unenthusiastically describe why the purse is the best. Affleck continues to swing into the shot at the wrong time, while Bayer and Strong keep telling him to wait. In the end, Affleck’s character mispronounces the bag’s name and calls it herpes.

The final sketch of the night was entitled “Top of the Pops.” Armisen returns in his final sketch by bringing back Ian Rubbish, a character who first appeared in Vince Vaughn’s latest episode. Hader also joined him on stage as part of his band, along with cameos from numerous indie musicians including Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. Ian Rubbish and the gang performed ‘Lovely Day’ and the sketch was a lovely sendoff to the season, as well as Hader and Armisen.

What did you think of Ben Affleck as host of the season finale? Was Hader’s and Armisen’s farewell episode better than Kristin Wiig’s? Comment below!