Damn, all I do any more is talk about Saturday Night Live, huh?
Anyway, back before Thanksgiving, Chance the Rapper hosted an episode. I guess Eminem was the musical artist, but I didn’t bother listening to that as I’m not a fan. An interesting tidbit that I saw online, but that I did not fact check (because I am lazy by nature, not that I hate ya), is that with the Tiffany Haddish episode I just talked about, this was the first time back-to-back episodes of the show were hosted by black people. Strange if true.
Anyway, the opening was another political thing that really didn’t have much to say beyond “Eric Trump is a buffoon”. It did so in a funny way, but still, that’s not really pushing the comedy envelope. Mark Evanier recently linked to an article, which I’m also linking you to here, about how SNL’s political comedy really doesn’t have any teeth, and the author, Todd VanDerWerff, puts things better than I would have in explaining how the political sketches are empty in content and lacking bite.
This sketch is amusing, though. I didn’t realize that Julian Assange is Australian, but apparently he is. I’ve never heard him speak from the closet he’s hiding in to avoid rape charges, so (shrug). Alex Moffatt and Mikey Day are amusing as usual as Eric and Junior respectively, and I love the fact that even though Junior tries to correct Eric’s mispronunciation of “Live”, Eric still says it wrong.
Chance-giving song is an attempt at a Thanksgiving song, and it’s lame. The uncooperative turkeys landed with a big thud, but I must say that getting the ladies in dresses fulfills all my prurient desires.
Harvey Family Feud has some amusing stuff, with Chance as Kenan as Steve Harvey a delight. The slow dawning realization of Kenan’s Steve Harvey is some good stuff.
Career Day was pretty good, with overly excited kids trying to show their class their dads aren’t lame and in the process entirely overdo it. Aidy Bryant sassing Cecily Strong as a teacher is funny as fuck, though Kenan almost breaking up is also fun. Mikey Day’s spit take is great. And for the ladies, Chance ends up shirtless.
Rap History was a fun one about not knowing the history of your medium but also that that history isn’t necessarily to be as lauded as some suggest. With a little bit of crack in it.
Come back Barack — well, the title makes the surprise of this skit not happen for those of us YouTube watchers, but it must have been good on TV. “Lit 200 candles for you” and “getting rained on for nothing” were fun lines, and the song itself was a great take on ’90s R&B songs too.
Wayne Thanksgiving was an amusing look at how minority communities might actually view Batman. “My jaw broke, like, immediately!” Good stuff, and Melissa Villasenor’s bit at the end was fun. Chance is pretty good as a kid who brings up Batman’s excessive force.
It also reminded me of this song:
Weekend Update was a highlight as usual, with sexual harassment stuff, “Jeff Sessions” (which is still too cartoonish for my tastes, no matter how amusing and charming Kate McKinnon is), and the Bruce Chandling lame comedian character is still really fucking annoying, even though he’s supposed to be, but the Pete Davidson bit on Staten Island is actually good stuff. The best things I’ve seen from him on SNL have been these bits on WU.
Porn pizza delivery was an amusing take on a regular porn theme. Heidi is funny as the horny babysitter (and disturbingly erotic, given that weird annoying voice) (again, my prurient desires!), Chance came so fast, Aidy is amusing as an annoying kid (but is she supposed to be real kid, or what? Seems like bad planning to film a real babysitter at work…)
Sports announcer was really funny stuff with Chance as a Knicks reporter having to cover the NY Rangers hockey team instead. He is very cold.
Overall, the sketches were quite strong on the SNL episode hosted by Chance the Rapper, and fulfilled my prurient, perverse desires to see the ladies of the show.
