"She put a Schatt on it"
Cold Open: The Presidential Debate
4 Stars
Okie dokie…here’s the thing. I’m watching this season because I want to finish the Alec Baldwin and Tom Hanks episodes. I don’t know how I’m gonna feel watching the Donald Trump show for the next 21 episodes, especially when we get into the stunt casting of all his cronies. Putting politics aside, it’s hard to feel nostalgic about a few years ago and it’s even harder when you have to relive that time we elected a racist as our president. I can say that I liked this first outing of Alec as Trump. He’s got way more energy and life in his performance than I remember but I’m surely remembering the end of his tenure when both he and the audience were sick of it. But did we get sick of Alec as Trump or did we get sick of Trump? Both just got old and repetitive after a while and it eventually got to a point of not being funny anymore. You know, when there was a global pandemic and the president was suggesting to drink bleach? That’s probably when I stopped laughing. Then when a bunch of his supporters stormed the Capitol, a laugh riot. At the time, however, I loved this. I hated Trump and it was fun to see him mocked on a television show he would bitch about on the internet. We all loved this. Because we thought this was gonna last for another month and then be a silly memory. Obviously all the jokes about Hilary being sure to win the election are cringeworthy in retrospect. It’s gonna be weird going back here. I’m going to try and keep my feelings apolitical and just focus on comedy, because it’s not really about politics anyway. It’s a circus. It’s two people I didn’t want to vote for but one just spewed hate from his mouth. Trump calling Michael Che’s Lester Holt “jazz man” and “Coltrane” was hilarious as was the line “the thing about the blacks…”. The only real knock on it (and this will be a recurring knock with these cold opens), they didn’t have to tweak reality that much. A lot of the jokes are lifted directly from the real debate. It’s like a parody of a parody.
First episode for Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor
Margot Robbie Monologue
4 Stars
Margot uses a fact checker for her monologue where we learn she lies all the time, she’s never met Lorne, and Jared Leto is a creep. Based on fact checkers they used in the debates (because they knew ahead of time there would be a lot of lies in a presidential debate). Some of the cast gets in on the action which wasn’t needed but it’s the season premiere so it was nice to see some faces. Kenan, Leslie, Cecily, Pete, and Aidy all get little bits with the host.
Action 9 News At Five
4 Stars
Little Mikey Day getting the lead off sketch in your first episode. Good for you. Matt Schatt, a character who just recently made his 3rd appearance in Season 48(?!?). We should probably set up some term limits at SNL. It’s not that I want people to leave (usually) but I like this show for the history and history isn’t fun if it’s “the way it is now is the way it always was”. We’re still doing Trump cold opens and Kenan has been on the show since you were born and he’ll be there long after you’re dead. Anyway, a news story about a sinkhole turns into everyone questioning how Matt Schatt got such a smoke show of a wife. Especially since he’s a broke puppeteer with no penis who wears crocs with socks. Everyone does good work here including Alex, in his first role too, as a sinkhole expert and Leslie as the weatherwoman with some Schatt theories.
The Librarian
4 Stars
Bobby and his friends lust after the hot librarian until she starts losing her hair and teeth, murders a woman, dances with a snake guy, and shows off her Haley Joel Osment tattoos. Pretty hilarious stuff and terrific use of Yello’s “Oh Yeah”. Kind of a shame that this is two sketches in a row where all Margot has to do is be hot (although she also shows some comedic chops here). I suppose this was before we knew she was one of the best actors in Hollywood.
Family Feud
2 Stars
I’ve already had my political humor, thank you. Even though it’s hard to resist Larry David as Bernie Sanders. His bits were really the only laughs I got from this political edition of Family Feud between team Trump and team Clinton. Melissa gets her first showcase doing a pretty solid Sarah Silverman impression. For me, with these types of sketches, I kinda instantly lose interest as soon as they reveal who is playing who. There’s the initial “oh, Cecily as Lin-Manuel Miranda, that’s cute” which is later followed with “ok, who’s next?”.
The Weeknd
“Starboy”
Weekend Update
Weird to watch Colin and Che back when they had little to no chemistry. They never felt like a good fit to me until well into their run. Cathy Anne shows up to talk politics. She’s an undecided voter. This is one where I love the performance even if I can’t remember what was said a minute after it’s over.
We get a return visit to The Weeknd Update where we cut to The Weeknd in his dressing room. A bit they did in the previous season. We also get the 4th appearance of David Ortiz who endorses weird products and talks about big lunches. I hate to admit that I don’t get this bit. Is David Ortiz known for being in a lot of commercials? Or is this just about Kenan doing a goofy voice and I should just leave it at that? Kenan mentioned in the monologue that this is his 14th season. You think you can read those cue cards without giggling by now?
The Hunch Bunch
2 Stars
A Scooby Doo-like gang doesn’t get along with one of their members new girlfriend. I couldn’t tell if this had too much in it or not enough. Margot’s character isn’t good with clues but none of that is really clear. I do remember thinking the “I hear someone coming” joke being a bit risqué even by 2016 standards but then again we’re getting “grab her by the pussy” next week so what the hell do I know?
Melania Moments
4 Stars
Melania Trump ponders what happens to people once they walk past 5th Avenue. Cute and short and I should just leave it at that to prematurely stop a possible rant.
Women’s Round Table
4 Stars
1st appearance of Debette Goldry, the actress from the golden age of Hollywood when women were force fed drugs, made to strip for Nazis, and married off to gay chimps. I loved this first outing but remember not enjoying return visits. My memory may be off but I recall them really hitting the message over the head in followups. It’s almost like we had an open sexist running the country and jokes like this ceased to be funny. Sorry again, but this is the Trump season, there’s no way around it. I remember some people at the time hassling Margot for giggling in this sketch but it’s not like you’ve been complaining for 20 seasons about Kenan (apparently that’s just me). This sketch also reminded me that Sasheer Zamata was in the cast this season.
The Weeknd returns with “False Alarm”
Mr. Robot
4 Stars
I’ve never seen an episode of Mr. Robot but pop culture osmosis has given me enough context to enjoy it. Gotta admit, Pete’s casting as Rami Malek is inspired, mostly because they both have dead eye stares. I forgot about Leslie Jones getting her phone hacked and merging that real life story into this sketch was a very fun reveal. Also liked her “I ain’t afraid of no ghost” as she goes to mount Christian Slater’s character (who I remember was revealed to be an imaginary friend or something on the show).
FINAL ANALYSIS
"Stop hitting me with that shovel, Clark Gable"
Average
3.5 Stars
MVP
Mikey Day
Action 9 News At Five, The Librarian, Family Feud, The Hunch Bunch, Mr. Robot
Best Sketch
Action 9 News At Five
Worst Sketch
Family Feud
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
This was a really solid season premiere that just had a slight dip in the middle. I could have done without Family Feud. After the long cold open I was politic-ed out and it felt a bit redundant bringing out Larry David again considering Bernie Sanders was no longer in the headlines. Although I can’t quite say no to a Larry David cameo.
Host Analysis
Margot was not well utilized at all. I may be saying that because since 2016 she’s become one of my favorite actresses and has shown she can pretty much do anything. Unfortunately in 2016 they just knew she had a nice pair of legs. Hopefully she can come back one day and actually play some characters.
Final Thoughts
I’m sorry for any political rants made here and I’d like to pre-apologize for the entire season. It’s gonna be a mixed bag of feelings re-watching this. This was a very good episode though and if memory serves this was a good season. I can already tell by watching this episode that I will not be in a rush to watch anything from 43 on. I’ll definitely need to finish the seasons from the 70s and 80s after this. I’m gonna need some space before I start watching COVID themed sketches.
Up Next
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda hosts with musical guest Twenty One Pilots
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