Blake Shelton Sings the Blues on SNL

Saturday Night Live
“Blake Shelton”
Season 40, Episode 12

This is old and late. Let’s do something different. Only the best of the episode. Quick bullet points ahead. GO. Sketches will essentially be boiled down to watch or skip.

Cold Open: This week, we got less politics and more "Inside the NFL". Of course the topic was Deflategate. Kenan Thompson hosted while Beck Bennett portrayed Bill Belichick. Taran Killam played an air head Tom Brady. Reporters include Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, Jay Pharaoh, and Sasheer Zamata. Bobby Moynihan played an assistant ball manager. WATCH.

Monologue: Blake Shelton talks about being a simple boy in a simple time. Killam, Pete Davidson, Pharaoh, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, and Vanessa Bayer dress up to join his song. Moynihan is the old kook. The goal for Shelton is to reenact his favorite comedy show, HeeHaw. All of them join in one by one to sing but they just don’t get it. Jones is the funniest one as she does not get in the spirit, visibly hating her life at the moment. WATCH.

Front Nine: Farm Hunk” turned out to be the bachelor but on a farm. Cecily as a date. Vanessa sneaks in. Kate comes too. Sasheer. Aidy and Leslie have their turn as well. The joke is that they rotate out and it’s pretty watchable to be honest. WATCH

"Wishing Boot" stars Kate, Aidy, and Blake as some sort of (maybe) Lady Antebellum-esque band. They sing about a magical boot that grants wishes. That’s it. The song is catchy though. SKIP.

"Celebrity Family Feud: The Voice vs American Idol" was just not good. This sketch was short due to prolonged introductions therefore, I will list the names and give you no information on what happened. Kenan as Steve Harvey. The Voice Celebs vs American Idol. The Voice includes Blake, Taran as Levine, Jay as Pharell, Cecily as Agulara, Kate as Keith Urban. American Idol has Sasheer as Minaj, Beck as Connick Jr, Kyle as Steven Tyler. SKIP.

Weekend Update: Bobby as Riblet, Michael's friend from high school. Says he can do a better job than Che. Riblet proves to be a formidable adversary. Not really, he’s pretty bad. But he’s a great character. Davidson spoke on cyber security. Sasheer as Nicole, Che's ex-girlfriend. WATCH.

Back Nine: “Prisoner Release” was a Shawshank Redemption parody with Kenan as Freeman. Blake, Cecily, and Bobby as jury. But they won’t let Kenan out because he just committed another crime. SKIP.

Next up, Bobby and Sasheer hosted “Topeka Today.” Taran as 90 year old musical artist who writes songs about him wife. Blake sings the songs. Long sketch short, they were dark songs. SKIP.

Finally, “Magic Act” saw Taran as a magician. Kenan and Aidy as participants and Beck and Kate as a couple.. Blake as non believer who is turend into a believer. This one was a real dud right from the first missed line that Shelton belted out. SKIP.

Should you watch “Blake Shelton?”

Look up the other sketches online if you have to. This was largely a miss for the show but there were some good areas. Double duty is hard for a singer/host. I commend Shelton’s efforts.