“SNL” Season 46 Premiere Review by Josh Davis
October 19, 2020 1:13 pm |
When we last saw Saturday Night Live, the long-standing sketch show, now well into its fifth decade, was doing “at home” episodes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They weren’t very funny, but it was at least an attempt at normalcy and something to make us laugh during what hasn’t been a very funny year.
With the season 46 premier on Oct. 3, the gang was back in the studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with an audience that included many first responders, as well as a former cast member, in Chris Rock, returning to host for his third time.
The opening segment was a hit-and-miss parody of the Sept. 29 presidential debate, with Alec Baldwin returning to skewer President Donald Trump and Jim Carey making his debut as former Vice President Joe Biden.
The actual debate was notoriously chaotic, with Trump frequently interrupting Biden and frustrating the moderator, and much of the viewing audience. As a sketch, it was just serviceable. Baldwin’s impression of the president continues to be among the best satirical portrayals, but Jim Carey’s Biden was less effective … and at times just bizarre. The writing also was not as sharp as it could have been.
Chris Rock’s opening monologue fared better. One of the best stand-up comedians of his generation, Rock opened with the “elephant in the room,” that the president had just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
“President Trump’s in the hospital from COVID. And I just want to say, my heart goes out to COVID,” he deadpanned.
Rock said it was an interesting week, with all the new safety protocols in place. He said the cast was tested regularly, and that he hasn’t “had so much stuff up my nose since I shared a dressing room with Chris Farley.”
He skewered the office of the president, saying no other job was guaranteed for four years, and compared it to hiring a cook that makes people vomit every day, but they can’t fire him because, “he’s got a four-year deal.”
“If anybody can be the president, then anybody can be the president,” Rock later said, also calling for Joe Biden to be the last president in U.S. history.
The episode continued to be politically charged, including musical guest Megan Thee Stallion’s performance of the song “Savage,” which included bold text in the background reading “PROTECT BLACK WOMEN” and a pointed message toward the Kentucky Attorney General investigating the death of Breonna Taylor.
Strangely enough, another topic also frequently caught the attention of SNL writers: the NBA bubble. Late into the episode, several women auditioned to go into the bubble, game show style, with Stallion making a guest appearance and eventually getting “drafted” by one of the players.
“Weekend Update” continues to be one of the strongest SNL segments, and hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che continue to deliver sharp political satire. Che, at one point, quipped that he did not wish the president to die from COVID, but rather hopes he will have “a very long recovery.”
In terms of pure comedy, perhaps the funniest sketch of the night was also the most juvenile, as people with names like Edith Puthie and Irma Gerd are interviewed by a local news station as they wait outside a government office building to legally change their names.
The cast has fun with the suggestive wordplay, not unlike another famous Alec Baldwin bit, “Schweddy balls.”
After an on-the-spot reporter (cast member Mikey Day) interviews a man hoping to change his name to “Mike Litt,” Heidi Gardner’s newscaster asks, “Any chance of getting back to Mike Litt?” to which Day replies, “You know, he was right under my nose, but I lost him.” “You stay down there [and] keep poking around,” Gardner says.
Other sketches were less memorable, with the quality seeming to diminish sharply as the episode went on, making it something of a chore to watch.
The last season, prior to the COVID interruption, was also an up and down one, although a few times a host was able to spark some truly great moments, especially during the return of Eddie Murphy.
Here’s to hoping that future hosts of SNL’s 46th season can find similar ways to spark the franchise that continues to be, at times extremely funny and relevant, but more often that not frustratingly uneven.
PCL RATING: Low Taste It
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: ROTTEN
Categorised in: Reviews
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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