So, did anything happen this past week? Fairly quiet news-cycle for SNL to cover, right?......(onto the review)
Election Week Cold Open: A powerful opening, as Kate McKinnon (dressed as Hillary Clinton, but singing as herself), sits at a piano, playing the late Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". It felt sort of similar to when Paul Simon sang "The Boxer" after 9/11 on SNL. Now of course, totally different events, but there is a vast amount of division and uncertainty in this nation right now, so this felt poised and needed. (10)
Monologue: Always seems to be the case, stand up comics have the best monologues. This week was no different, as Dave Chappelle made his return, riffing on the election. It felt very conversational, like he was speaking directly to you. What's getting the most buzz is the final 2 minutes or so when he talks about a BET party he went to the White House, and the history of African-Americans who met Lincoln and FDR there. He closed it offering President-elect Donald Trump a chance, but demanding that he give the historically disenfranchised a chance as well. A very poignant opening. (10)
Election Night: Cecily Strong, Beck Bennet and others host an election night watch party, seeing how the tides slowly turned that night. I imagine this exact scenario was playing out across the country as the results unfolded. Dave Chappelle acts as a realist, trying to comfort the group, and then in a surprise twist, Chris Rock arrives. There were some great lines to unpack here, such as Chris and Dave laughing at the notion that racism had just now caused an impact. (8.7)
Walking Dead Chappelle's Show (short): Many were expecting some sort of Chappelle Show influence, but how he brought it about was pretty genius, infusing it into the Walking Dead season premiere episode. Now, I haven't seen a lot of the Chappelle Show, but even with that the humor was just so good here. Honestly, there just isn't much to say except watch it for yourself, and enjoy. Classic SNL (9.5)
(A Tribe Called Quest): (8.5)
Weekend Update: With the energy up, Jost and Che were nice and loose in their deliveries, which is when they thrive. Che even turned a botched line about a "Mexican-American voter" when he meant Puerto Rican which played off well. And Jost had a great moment with a "Fight Song" montage on the record 4 female diverse senators which were elected.
The only guest was Ruth Bader Ginsburg (McKinnon) roasting Trump and Pence like a stand up comic, as she does. This is a very underrated McKinnon character. (8.6)
Jheri's Place: At first this came off like a really, really bad sketch, but then was played out like an "Inside SNL" breakdown, where the cast members answered questions from reporters on what went wrong. A really meta idea that worked. (7.5)
Kids Talk Trump (short): This started off really well, with Vanessa Bayer talking to children about the election. This could have been really fantastic, but went way too short (a shocker for SNL, I know). But good nonetheless. (8.5)
Last Call: A common recurrent sketch for McKinnon, there was something that made this one pop. As usual, Kate plays this woman at a bar, who always hooks up with the last guy there (Chappelle this time around). Kenan Thompson as the bartender really brings this sketch around. There was just a lot of chemistry with Dave and Kate here. (8.9)
(A Tribe Called Quest): (8.8)
Love and Leslie (short): Another meta piece, as Leslie Jones navigates around a relationship with Kyle Mooney, whose upset about Leslie and Jost's "playacting" on her Update appearances. It seems that Kyle can work with just about anybody on SNL, not just Beck. (8.5)
Football Party: This is one of the most out there 10 to 1 sketches SNL has had in the last few seasons. Chappelle is living with his mother (Leslie), hosting a football party. I'll just leave it there and let you discover the twist for yourself (though the best thing here was how calm Kyle was throughout this whole ordeal, and that's all I'll leave). (8.4)
This was simply one of the best episodes of the last few years...and possibly ever. Coming off of the election results, this was very needed. Dave Chappelle was the perfect host for this type of show. We needed to be able to laugh again. (8.83)
Dave Chappelle: 8.83
Tom Hanks: 8.03
Lin Manuel Miranda: 7.74
Margot Robbie: 7.38
Emily Blunt: 7.07
Benedict Cumberbatch: 6.60
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