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VLadimir Lenin once wrote: “There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades go by. ”This past week has clearly been the last, and it would mean that the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, which returns for its 46th season, couldn’t have come at a better time. You would be wrong.
Rather than start by tackling the big news of President Trump’s Covid-19 infection, the outspoken cold mostly ignores it, settling for a weak parody of last Tuesday’s debate debacle. A belligerent Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) constantly interrupts a frustrated Joe Biden (Jim Carrey, whose embarrassing performance is only slightly redeemed by a punctual vocal impression), who has to avoid letting out his inner “Whitey Bulger.”
Carrey gets a great reaction just by repeating Biden’s response “will you shut up, man?” But immediately lose the thread when listening to a Harry Styles relaxation tape (yes, I don’t know what the joke is supposed to be either). Her running mate, Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph), comes out and restores order. Rudolph’s portrayal of Harris as the badass burrow mother is pure liberal wish-fulfillment, as her line about America’s need for a “WAP woman” as president makes obvious, receiving huge and very self-indulgent applause.
The sketch drags on a bit longer, eventually addressing the ailing elephant in the room asking people at home to “imagine if karma and science came together to send a message” to Trump that would thankfully silence him. It seems like Carrey is about to loosen up and say what many of us are thinking, but he eventually backs off. The same could be said for the show as a whole.
Chris Rock returns to his old grounds for host duties. The comic begins by commenting on Trump’s health crisis, saying “my heart goes out to Covid,” but quickly moves on to a wild takedown of government inefficiency. He complains that the qualifications for holding public office are too lax one second, then he complains of the elitism of our elected officials the next. No one expected Rock to drop some political revelation tonight, but his grip in the middle of the road is completely useless given the gravity and absurdity of our current situation.
For what is sure to be the first of several lazy two-way sketches this year, Eye on Pittsburgh covers a super-entertaining event that takes place at the Pittsburgh Federal Building’s Name Change Department. Witnesses include Edith Puthie, Irma Guerd, Tess Tichol, Mike Roedick, and so on.
Bottom of Your Face is a music video starring Chris Redd, Pete Davidson, and Keenan Thompson. The umpteenth rap sketch aroused by these guys, begins as an anthem encouraging women to take off their masks so they can see how hot (or not) they are, before Ego Nwodim and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion are done. charge and turn the tables. , calling out men for their sexism and hypocrisy.
In Future Ghost, we go back to October 2000 to find teenage gamer Zach (Kyle Mooney) transported to the present and shown the sad future that awaits him. His initial horror at finding himself still living in his mother’s basement and wasting his life playing video games quickly turns to excitement when he becomes aware of advances in gaming technology.
Megan Thee Stallion performs her first song of the night, Savage, which concludes with a lawsuit for racial justice.
In Weekend Update, Colin Jost and Michael Che plunge into the president’s illness, while admitting that the news caught them completely off guard. Che weighs the morality of making fun of someone – even someone as deserving as Trump – infected with a life-threatening disease, but points out, “mathematically, if you were building a joke, these are all the ingredients you need.”
Apparently that’s not the case when it comes to upgrade hosts, who, like SNL in general, do absolutely nothing with the bounty they received. Of all the headline figures they could have used for Update guests (Melania Trump, Chris Christie, Amy Coney Barrett), they instead turn to the regulars Chen Biao (Bowne Yang), the cheeky Chinese Commerce Minister and Carrie Crumb. (Aidy Bryant). ), the bubbly teen travel expert. Anyone hoping for a final appearance by Kate McKinnon’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg will have to settle for a short, wordless cut of her sitting in the audience, before a quick title card that reads: Rest in Power. At least we saved ourselves another embarrassing version of Hallelujah.
Bubble Draft finds Rock hosting a dating show for aspiring pro basketball fans trying to get to the NBA bubble, where “they may not get a ring, but they’ll get the next best thing: 18 years of child support! ” It’s incredibly daunting for SNL to drop such a never-ending, airless sketch like this in the middle of an episode that happens during the biggest news week of this crazy year, but it is what it is.
Speaking of endless, a Covid security PSA from Stunt Performers of America takes on the cliches of the goofy comedy in children’s movies. That premise is idiosyncratic enough to get our hopes up, but the jokes aren’t weird enough or specific enough to land us.
Along with Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion returns and concludes with a performance of Don’t Stop.
Judged on its own merits as an episode, this wouldn’t necessarily rank among the worst of all time (or even recent seasons), but considering everything the show had to work with, it should. It may be that this moment in history is simply too crazy to successfully parody, but it still takes Saturday Night Live to give it a try. They might as well have had Lorne Michaels come out during the open cold and throw in the towel.
