Happy Mother’s Day! Amy Schumer and ‘Saturday Night Live’ got you this perfectly safe episode!

Saturday Night Live
Amy Poehler Schumer & Kacey Musgraves
May 12, 2018

It’s Amy Schumer’s second time to host Saturday Night Live, and for the most part, she was fine! She was fine. But last night’s episode also felt a little safe and careful, lacking the boldness and danger that Inside Amy Schumer — the show that made Schumer a star — specialized in. With the exception of one sketch (“The Day You Were Born”), and a wonderful “Weekend Update” cameo, the entire episode felt safe, almost as if the writers and cast didn’t want to do anything that would embarrass their mother’s too much on Mother’s Day eve.

Speaking of that …

Look, I’m sure they thought the idea was sweet and cute in the writers’ room, and in theory it was sweet and cute to have the cast’s mother join them in the cold open to offer some gentle critiques and to tell them to lay off the Trump jokes. In practice — AND I KNOW THIS MAKES ME SOUND LIKE A HEARTLESS BITCH (By the way, have we met? My name is “Heartless Bitch”) — it was choppy and repetitive and felt endless. That’s because the cast members’ mothers, unlike their children, are not professional entertainers and don’t get paid to deliver jokes live on television every week. Next time, just invite the moms to come on stage at the end of the show — I’m sure they’d prefer that, frankly.

Grade: C

Amy Schumer’s monologue about aging and biological clocks and feminism was maybe not her strongest stand-up material — her stand-up material is much too filthy for the likes of network TV, even late at night — but points for doing several minutes on tampons, if only to make the men in the audience SO UNCOMFORTABLE.

Grade: B+

In the game show bit of the night, “Mother Knows Best,” Kate McKinnon and Mikey Day play a mother and son who know each other far, far, far too well. 

Grade: A-

I don’t know how I feel about this “Handmaid’s in the City” sketch which imagines something of a mashup between Sex and the City and The Handmaid’s Tale … It’s not that I think The Handmaid’s Tale is too sacred to spoof, but this just sort of feels like it misses the mark. It’s just neither funny nor insightful enough.

Grade: B-

As a mother twice over I am here to tell you yes, this, 100% accurate.

Grade: A+

I’m not entirely sure what the point of this “Gospel Brunch” sketch was — it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t focused either. Add to that some prop issues (although props to Amy Schumer for playing off the mishap — I AM VERY PROUD OF THAT PUN, THANK YOU), and going on WAY TOO LONG, and the end result is a big pile of “what did I just watch there?”

Grade: C+

Here is your “Weekend Update.” It’s fine.

Grade: B

Teen YouTube critic Bailey Gismert returns to the “Weekend Update” desk, and she’s just as spoiled and emotional and irritating as ever.

Grade: B+

I want Melissa McCarthy to be my stepmother.

Grade: A+

“Lil’ Rent” is a very funny idea in theory, but I found Schumer playing a small child 1. irritating, 2. distracting, 3. not funny. And I don’t watch Rise, but I hear that this was similar to a storyline on that show this week. Anyone care to confirm?

Grade: B

Oh look, it’s “Last Call” but instead of with a gross man, it’s with a gross woman played by Schumer. Personally, I think the bit is played out, but then I’m not a huge fan of most recurring bits.

Grade: B-

I am a sucker for these fake ads, what can I say. And yes, I understand that this is essentially a recurring bit because the joke format has been used before and that makes me a hypocrite, but I don’t care, I get to be a hypocrite because it’s Mother’s Day and I’m a mom. Lay off.

Grade: A

Final grade: B+

Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC.