A relieved and breezy post-election SNL coasts after Dave Chappelle drops some wisdom
TV Reviews Recap
“Pretty incredible day.”
“I’m not an actor, I’m a [town-saving stand-up and unremunerated streaming] star!!”
Booking Dave Chappelle for the first Saturday Night Live after a presidential election involving Donald Trump will never be a thing again, but still that was some serious optimism, Lorne. We remember last time. Chappelle’s first time hosting wound up as go-to television not just for the fact that Dave Chappelle—comedy legend, sketch comedy legend, and arguably most influential stand-up since Richard Pryor—was actually doing Saturday Night Live. A lot of people (an even higher percentage among SNL’s traditional audience) were in pieces that night. The plummeting fear and shock that America would choose that man for the presidency left viewers who’d expected a fête for one of the most original comic minds of his generation instead looking to Dave Chappelle for some sort of clarity.
Defiantly smoking onstage (indoors, in New York City, of all places), then and now, Chappelle held court. That’s what he does at this point in his career. Then, people focused on his closing message that he was willing to give Donald Trump—then merely the laughingstock reality show host, lifelong racist, and self-described pussy-grabber—a chance. Tonight, after Donald Trump was finally declared a one-termer (informed on the golf course, because of course he was), Chappelle made another statement seemingly destined to be wrenched from context: “I would implore everybody who’s celebrating today to remember it’s good to be a humble winner.”
That might sound facile, but it’s not. I’m not able to find it in myself to be a humble winner today, despite all my deeply held, interminably repeated sentiments that we are better than they are. That Joe Biden and Kamala Harris beat America’s worst president and his conversion-therapy, AIDS-abetting fundamentalist sidekick makes me feel like gloating over all those sneering, meme-sharing, braying assholes who’ve greeted every new Trump administration outrage with the whooping, inhumane bloodlust of an Elizabethan bear-baiting. Just check my Twitter—I am filled with righteous mockery and gleeful schadenfreude (and chuckle to myself about Trump supporters not knowing that word), and taking solace in the idea that at least—though my behavior is the same—my ideas are better.
So when Chappelle, after drawing the SNL audience through a typically neck-twisting roller-coaster of insight and button-pushing, settled into a somber tone for what was clearly his closer, and talked about his empathy for that half of the country who—this time—feel terrible, it was breathtaking. In that, I found myself holding my breath in anticipation of where he was going. A Dave Chappelle set will do that to you. When Chappelle reached out to the police with the same rueful understanding, I waited for the snap, the kicker. But when it came, it was this, Chappelle’s smoker’s voice gravelly and measured with the cadence of the best storytellers:
I know how that feels. Everyone knows how that feels. But here’s the difference between me and you. You guys hate each other for that. And I—don’t hate anybody. I just hate that feeling. That’s what I fight through. That’s what I suggest you fight through. You gotta find a way to live your life. You gotta find a way—to forgive each other. You gotta find a way to find joy in your existence in spite of that feeling. And if you can’t do that [pause, as a smile creeps over Dave’s face], come get these nigger lessons!
So there’s the snap. There’s the kicker. A callback to his own term for his comic wisdom (and I’m pretty sure the N-word got more airtime than on any SNL ever tonight). The sentiment is not facile, even if the cynical and election-battered, Trump- and GOP-abused among us automatically try to spin it into something greeting-card simple and rosy. Chappelle is astoundingly deft at this point at drawing you in, in making you listen for what is going to come next. Sure, he did an early joke about Trump enabler/hostage, epidemiologist Deborah Birx that ended with the sort of deliberately mean-spirited sexist swerve that no doubt got the stunned reaction Chappelle was going for. (“I’m sorry, Lorne, I thought we were havin’ a comedy show,” Chappelle faux-apologized after half-ironically appropriating the title of Donald Trump Jr.’s book.) But while it’s easy for a comic to simply lower his voice, speak softly and seemingly from the heart, and expect audience acceptance (see Aziz Ansari’s first post-scandal special), this wasn’t that. This was an original thinker and master storyteller speaking his way through to the heart of the public discourse—and diagnosing our shared disease. The cure’s there, motherfuckers. Our move.
The first sketch of the night began, rather shockingly, with Chappelle still onstage. He addressed the audience to explain the mood and premise of the next sketch in old Chappelle Show style (Dave mentioned his seminal sketch show’s recent Netflix acquisition twice tonight, despite his assertion in the monologue that he “didn’t get paid for any of it”). He spoke with seeming gravitas about the hardships many Black workers have felt through this pandemic, and threw to the sketch as if he were introducing a Clifford Odets play, Chappelle intoning somberly about “two Black people who lost their jobs.” And it turned out to be Maya Rudolph as Aunt Jemima and Kenan Thompson as Uncle Ben (with Dave as insurance baritone Dennis Haysbert and Pete Davidson made up as Count Chocula, for good measure). That was the biggest laugh of the night for me—an exquisite puncturing of mood and expectation only enhanced by the expert and committed silliness of Maya’s and Kenan’s performances as the sensitivity-shit-canned corporate mascots.
Here is where I speed-complain that, hey, why are Alec Baldwin and Maya Rudolph taking major spots in silly roles anyone could have done. Now that that’s over, man, are both of them perfect in their parts. Maya is a marvel, her ability to imbue her impression of a fictional pancake shill with a loopy, understandable humanity beyond criticism as her Aunt protests about losing her job just because, as Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy-esque executive patiently explains that it’s not her, “It’s how you make us feel about what we did.” Kenan, too, finds the right absurdly human tone for his fellow subservient purveyor of food products, his outraged, “I’m Uncle Ben!” vying with his pronunciation of “basmati” for funniest moment.
There’s a nimble sensibility behind the sketch’s take on the human cost (well, cost to fictional humans) of corporate adoption of growing cultural sensitivity—all Aunt Jemima ever did was nourish your kids with her own breast milk-enriched pancakes, dammit—that, mixed with Kenan’s and Maya’s characterizations, lifts the sketch like a balloon. And then there’s Dave, who—seemingly (?) with the aid of some mic sweetening—makes the real-life Haysbert’s sonorously white people-soothing Allstate pitchman’s anger at being lumped in with these racist caricatures potently funny. Davidson, kitted out hard for his only appearance of the night as an elaborately cartoonish Count, bore the brunt of Chappelle/Haysbert’s booming anger, Dave’s line (in response to the job-insecure Count’s assertion that he’s not Black but chocolate), “The streets are gonna eat you alive, you chocolatey nigga!” being the most cathartically bizarro line on SNL in years. Yeah, there’s some point being made here—about fake corporate wokeness and representation—but, dear god, that was just hilarious. And welcome.
Best/Worst Sketch Of The Night
The Best: Dave only showed up a few more times in sketches, perhaps in deference to the fact that his 16-minute monologue set was one of the longest in the show’s history. (SNL Stats, you on that?) And there was nothing even close to matching the Chris Rock-Chappelle post-monologue sketch from Dave’s first hosting gig. Which is a shame, really, as Chappelle’s Show’s sketch legacy (albeit a mostly on-film one) is still potently alive. (Even if, again, Dave’s not getting paid.) For its combination of much-needed belly laughs and glancing satire, I’ll stick with the Aunt Jemima sketch for the top spot. Chappelle breaking character to address Pete directly (“America, look at Pete Davidson’s lips!”) was the sort of live TV moment that SNL retrospectives are made of, the energy bubbling up all around the performers enough to light 8H for the night.
But for a sentimental favorite—also involving tonight’s all-star, Kenan—here’s to the hailstorm sketch, where a local news report turns into an improbably touching, late-life love story between two co-workers who took fortuitous refuge under a porch in a storm. SNL went twice to the news show well tonight, which is not encouraging. Another speed-complain: As a creative exercise, how about a blanket rule of “no game shows/no news shows/no talk shows” in the writers room for a season. See what crops up. (My yearly pitch to the networks for a “no cop/lawyer/doctor shows” for an entire TV season has also never found purchase.) Anyway, while Ego Nwodim and Alex Moffat did what they could with the thankless anchor roles, Kate McKinnon and Kenan made the romantic awakening of their longtime workmates so specific and endearing that I felt myself anxious that the sketch was going to yank the rug out. It did, sort of—Kenan’s previously unmentioned wife is among the missing after the small town’s disaster—but Kate and Kenan found such a sweet and goofy chemistry that you can’t help but root for those two crazy kids, anyway.
The Worst: There’s an actual worst sketch, and you know where to find it. Other than that, not so much bad as obvious and unrealized, the Trump-O.J. news report sketch benefitted from Dave being on-set (alongside the stalwart Ego, in her second newscaster of the evening), lending a little old-school energy to what was otherwise a one-joke bit. That Trump—facing no immunity once he leaves office amid mounting tax fraud, defamation (related to a rape accusation), and other investigations—would attempt to flee to some presumably no-extradition landing spot (I hear Moscow’s nice) isn’t, you know, the craziest comic idea, simply popping him into a white Bronco and having Don Jr. recite Al Cowlings’ police radio catchphrases isn’t doing much with the joke. The sketch feels short, too—the telltale band vamping in the last commercial break suggests timing issues—although I’m not sure “What if O.J., but Trump?” was going to bring forth much more anyway. Still, Chappelle’s aside that trailing police are treading gently since, as he says, Trump’s superpower is, “Like Aquaman, but instead of fish, he can summon the entire parking lot of a Cracker Barrel” made me laugh.
“Take Me Back” was a funny showcase for Beck Bennett, as Keith, the repentant boyfriend from hell whose late-night appeal for ex Ego Nwodim to take him back stumbles over the gradually revealed details. The filmed sketch never quite takes off (poor Ego stuck playing straight-woman for the third time) but Bennett kept juking nicely, each heartfelt plea for forgiveness inadvertently coughing up an additional incriminating transgression. He’s given up drinking, but she didn’t know about the pills, or coke (or “nose-baloney” as Keith breezes past it). He was secretly addicted to porn, yes, but he’s totally past that now. Besides, he tells the relived Nwodim, he was only shooting a few scenes a day—and never with women. It’s a funny turn for Beck—he has a long-established gift for clueless sincerity—centered on a co-dependence kicker at the end that could have been built up for Ego a bit more. But the comic twists just kept on working. (“I always used protection when we were together.” “You never wore a condom!” “But I always had a gun.”)
The only other sketch was a suspiciously brand-happy video game retrospective, but since Kenan kept swatting jokes out of the park, I’ll let the product placement slide. Plus, if [certain massive electronics concern] did pony up, it’s uncertain how thrilled they are that what starts out looking like a nerd-happy roster of retro gamer clichés turns into a running joke about inadvertent and violent castration. Yup, it’s Kyle Mooney’s turn to do what he does best, as he and best pal, Mikey Day, reminisce about how they were so excited to get the first [iconic game from unnamed electronics concern] that Mooney landed on the crossbar of his bike so horrifically that his testicles audibly “popped.” The accident keeps getting embroidered (after complications around the time of the release of a sequel to that iconic game, Mooney now pees while “planking” over his toilet through a hole just below his navel), which leaves unsuspecting fellow talking head Kenan gawking in horror. “Please change the order!” his game journalist pleads after the first anecdote, before a return sees him exploding, “It was a simple request,” before fleeing. If Bennett’s good at guys who lack self-awareness, pal Mooney’s wheelhouse is guys desperate to gloss over their faults (or, in this case, Barbie-esque “down there”). Day does a good job at maintaining plausible deniability that he knows his enthusiastic retellings are painful for Mooney, making what could have been just mean instead a nicely modulated comic turn for Kyle to do his thing.
Weekend Update Update
With just a day to process Trump’s finally called defeat, Jost and Che were loose, which is always a nice look for them. Che took off his tie at one point, taunting his co-host with one hand (“Hey, Colin, did you know my tie is a clip on?”) while bringing his under-desk glass of something brown up for all to see. Che’s gift for finding the right allusion summed up the nation’s (well, slightly less than half the nation’s) mood as being like the prisoners in The Shawshank Redemption when Andy got the guards to let them drink those few precious beers on the roof. “They were still in prison, but for one day everything just felt okay,” is about as close to nailing my mood the day after a truly reprehensible man got the most thoroughly-deserved public ass-kicking of his heartless and privileged life. You know, considering the court battles, the armies of armed and wound-up white people, the looming fear that Democrats will assume that, with Trump out of the way, they can just settle back into a comfy, moderate groove and think everything’s fine. Ugh—I’m with Che. Tie off, have a beer. Take some breaths. Fight tomorrow.
Jost actually got most of the best lines, with Che offering up a deserved finger point in recognition of Jost unpacking the not-logic of Trump’s repeated, baseless claim about illegal ballots costing him the popular vote. Jost noted that if, as Trump has whined with no evidence because there is none, that Hillary Clinton was only 3 million votes ahead of him because, somehow, 3 million undocumented immigrants all managed to vote illegally, Joe Biden’s 5-million-vote margin this time means Mr. Build-The-Wall allowed 2 million more undocumented voters in—and they all voted for Joe Biden. That’s some solid jokesmanship. Jost also expressed genuine amazement at all the caught-on-camera ebullient celebrations after the Biden announcement, first joking that those crowds are only New York being New York, before showing people around the world celebrating like a fascist government had just been overthrown. (Imagine such a thing.) Showing churches clanging their bells in the middle of the night in France, Jost goggled, “Do you know how bad you have to be for Paris to ring church bells?” Again—it’s a good night and we’re going to enjoy it. Tomorrow is worry and work and a long and painful struggle to cobble America back together, but at least, as Che hilariously told Jost, he and his friends won’t have to carry through on their plans to kidnap Jost for leverage during the coming race war.
Kate’s Rudy Giuliani slunk his way onto a brief Update for the only correspondent piece tonight, her twist-armed presidential lawyer and former New York mayor assuring Jost that everything is going great. I love pretty much everything Kate McKinnon does, and her Giuliani, while sounding nothing like the blustering Trump fixer in anything but volume, continues to be another way for her to channel some of the outgoing administration’s most grotesque characters. Here, the main problem is that real life just made comedy so irrelevant, as the Trump campaign not only scheduled a supposed bombshell election fraud press conference (note: not a bombshell) in the parking lot of particularly unpromising-looking landscaping company, but Rudy was told, mid-speech, that every network had just that second called the race for Biden.
Did the Trump campaign mean to schedule their presser at Philly’s luxurious Four Seasons hotel and, due to Veep-like incompetence, quickly paste Trump banners onto the brick facing of one Four Seasons Total Landscaping, also in Philadelphia, as the camera trucks pulled up? Only time, exposés, and the inevitable award-winning HBO film will tell. But that the Trump era ended in an inexplicable place right between a dildo shop and a crematorium while the actual Rudy Giuliani stammered his way through the realization that they were well and truly fucked is a comic conceit too broad and on-the-nose for McKinnon to do much more with than be funny and goofy and effortlessly charming. Which she was, as her Rudy took the real Rudy’s jest about fraudulent ballots maybe coming “from Mars” to the inevitable extreme of noting that, should they find any ballots marked “Meep-thorp Xandar,” then they know they’ve got one. Even funnier is McKinnon/Giuliani’s gleefully desperate, piecemeal, state-by-state strategy to invalidate every result not good for his master, citing the legal precedents of recounts, de-counts, backsies, safeties, and opposite day, in blue-flipping Georgia. Again, Kate is joy, but I’m with Jost’s prayerful thought that, once Trump is out of office in January (perhaps literally dragged by his heels), we never, ever have to hear from or about any of these eminently mockable people again.
“What do you call that act?” “The Californians!”—Recurring Sketch Report
Just Rudy. And, you know…
“It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report
…this thing. Is it possible that Jim Carrey got the coveted Joe Biden cold open recurring spot because of the envisioned moment where his indifferently impersonated Biden would get to call Donald Trump a loser. Sorry, “Looooser.” (For you kids out there, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was a 1994 film in which Jim Carrey’s character exaggerates words to humorous effect.) But I kid the comedy superstar who’s clearly thrilled at the prospect of popping by 8H every couple of weeks to get made up as president-elect Joe Biden, taking over for the clearly even more thrilled-to-be-leaving Alec Baldwin. Again, quick comedy turnaround time to be sure of having a Biden victory press conference sketch ready to go. I get that, I truly do. But even if this grinding shitshow of vote-tabulating process had been called promptly on Election Eve, what, exactly would have been different? Carrey’s Biden and Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris rightly only got big reactions when simply stating crowd-pleasing facts. (Fun fact: While the Black and Indian American Harris is the first woman of color to serve as vice president, one Charles Curtis—who was partly Native American, of the Kaw Nation—served as veep under Herbert Hoover. Now you know.) But these cold opens are already—and I don’t know how to say this—worse than Baldwin’s Trump ones.
Joe Biden is old. (“I’ve never felt so alive,” Carrey’s victorious Biden enthuses before conceding, “Which is ironic because I’m not that alive.”) Kamala Harris is competent and confident, even if she’s going to peacock a little bit, as when she and Biden dance to her phone playing “You About To Lose Your Job.” (She forthrightly explains to the “little Black and brown girls” watching that mom is laugh-crying and intermittently dancing because she’s drunk.) I get that finding a hook on two comparatively smooth people is tougher than just latching onto the first jagged snag offered by the lumberingly buffoonish thing that is Donald Trump, but if this bloodless dynamic is all we’re going to get, then these cold opens are in even bigger trouble than before.
And then there’s Baldwin’s final (?) turn as Donald John Trump, the high-profile gig that never ended. Baldwin’s Trump sucks, equally for Baldwin’s one-note conception of Trump as merely a self-obsessed, malaprop-happy idiot (which, fair enough, as far as it goes), but for the writers’ consistent inability or unwillingness to deepen the portrayal.
With a serious personal “go fuck yourselves” to all those who’ve mocked people for being “hysterical” or “alarmist” about Trump’s myriad nods toward authoritarianism (as well as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, environmental profiteering, foreign entanglements, and general evil), the country just came within a few dozen electoral votes of a full-on, GOP-led fascist takeover of this, as it turns out, ridiculously fragile experiment in representative democracy. Putting a vapid knucklehead (talking Trump here, not Baldwin) at the center of your years-long political satire centerpiece sketch isn’t as bad as putting a legitimately soulless monster in the highest seat of power in your land, but it certainly turns every episode in which he appears into an exercise in damage control.
These sketches—and I know they are popular—damaged Saturday Night Live. Not just because they sucked, though they almost unfailingly did. But because it showed SNL’s whole ass when it comes to how willing it is to settle for popular and newsworthy instead of having anything to say. During the goodnights, a disheveled Baldwin appeared holding up a cue card that read, “You’re welcome.” Epic trolling to his many critics aside (message received, Mr. Baldwin), the gesture is emblematic of SNL’s whole attitude toward these sketches. There, we gave you what you want. You’re welcome.
I Am Hip To The Musics Of Today
Speaking of things that were huge in 1994. Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters were a suitably big name match for Chappelle’s host. On a night that was largely about release (Carrey’s Biden made the inevitable “edging/sex with Sting” joke about the interminable tabulation process), would a more overtly aggressive, politically and musically raw band have been better? Maybe. Although there’s a weathered rock god gravitas to Grohl by now that suited the collective mindset rather fittingly, and their second number, “Times Like These,” mirrored our delayed gratification with surprising power. Most of the song was a mostly (but for a synth drone) a cappella Grohl belting plaintive lines like, “At times like these you learn to live again,” before the band finally kicked in to roar through some excellent musical catharsis. Good things, worth waiting for. You get it.
Most/Least Valuable Not Ready For Prime Time Player
No Cecily nor Aidy once again (they’re off filming other projects is the word). That leaves the field as open as it gets for a 20-member cast, but it was traditional workhorses Kate and Kenan vying for MVP, with the edge going to Kenan. Kate and Kenan teamed up to such charming effect in their sketch together that is seems wrong to separate them, but sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference. For me, it was the way that Kenan emphasized the second word on “golf balls.” That’s it. He’s just so comfortable in sketches that it’s like he’s a Globetrotter sometimes—sure, he could just dunk the ball, but he’s gonna play around with it for a while first.
I’d love to give some love to Ego Nwodim, who’s clearly marking her spot as go-to journeyman cast member these days, but, although she had three meaty roles tonight, she was asked to do very little in them but react.
Of the three new kids, there was no sign.
“What the hell is that that thing?”—Ten-To-Oneland Report
I guess this would be the Trump chase sketch, although, as mentioned, it looked like the timing cut something off that should have been here. I’m sure it was delightful.
Stray observations
- Thanks to unpaid college athletes being forced into double overtime and then being swarmed by unmasked fellow students by the thousands—and my local affiliate’s decision to tell me about the weather for next week rather than airing SNL—I watched this episode on tape delay. Thanks, everyone. Not like this is my fourth all-nighter of the week.
- The one ballsy touch about the cold open was self-referential rather than political, as during Trump’s concession speech (which the real Trump will likely never give), Baldwin’s Trump strolls off-set to a waiting grand piano, cringeworthy memories of “Hallelujah” exploding in our heads. Instead, he plays a soulful “Macho Man,” the gay anthem bewilderingly appropriated by the Trump campaign in its waning days. Well-trolled once more.
- Chappelle’s monologue is all quotable lines, but here’s to him getting sought-after gasps when, talking about the mass shooting-a-day pre-lockdown pace, he utters a sincere, “Thank god for COVID,” before noting, “Something had to lock these murderous whites up and keep ’em in the house.”
- Also, noting his Ohio neighbor’s town meeting complaints about his income-generating cornfield comedy shows, Chappelle relates how one white mom complained that she’d never heard the N-word so much in her life. “Was I sayin’ it, or were you?,” asked Chappelle.
- Okay, one more. Sometimes a joke is too much of a thinker for the room, as Chappelle relished in bombing with the jokes about Trump at least being an optimist, “I look at it like, there’s bad people on both sides.” “All right, I’m just tryin’ ’em out,” Chappelle muttered after a long, long lull.
- Dave Grohl in full rock-belter mode sounds exactly like Jack Black in the same mood, and I never noticed it before, and now it’s all I’ll hear.
- Asked by Jost just what he and the Trump campaign will be suing the Biden-choosing states over, McKinnon’s Giulinai suggests, “Child support? Manslaughter?”
- And that’s six straight Saturday Night Lives to open the season. Let’s never do that again.
314 Comments
Did not expect the Chapelle monologue be such a powerful ride, but man you felt those final words. Will also be honest, it is weird to associate him to the cultural turning points of the Trump presidency, but that is the weird world we live in.The opening segment, in turn, had this relieved energy to it. It didn’t feel like they even went to a comedic beat there, most likely affected by the scrambled writing of it, but rather they were just so glad to see Trump off that they didn’t even give him that bluster at the end. Just that song which highlighted how pathetic he was.
It’s so weird that this iconic comedy institution, that drives the conversation, somehow delivered, in the most momentous occasion of the last 4 years, a long standup set not written by the show, and a few sketches, about half of which weren’t performed by cast members. Say what you like about the Hallelujah thing but at least it came from the show, and they were actually trying something. Also weird, two separate references to something that happened in 1994. (The Ace Ventura and the OJ thing). How old is the SNL audience? I sort of feel like we as a culture have moved past 90s nostalgia to early 2000s nostalgia and I wonder if anyone even got the references.
SNL is inherently for a broad audience, I am sure it’s watched by middle aged Gen Xers and now-aging Millennials as much as the young folks. I hope they don’t start worrying about whether they should only make jokes that 19 year olds will get.Besides, this stuff is in our cultural memory and even if a 19 year old doesn’t know what the Bronco chase is about I’m sure they’ve seen it referenced before and will again. Think about the best seasons of the Simpsons and the references they were making… A lot of them were decades out of date. Unless they were total theater or music geeks teenagers in 1993 didn’t know deep cuts about Hitchcock movies, The Music Man, the careers of the Beatles etc but the jokes were still funny and I know in my case that’s how I learned these things were relevant when I encountered them later.
I’m not saying anything SNL did was on that level (at all) but I am saying don’t wring your hands over whether some teenager now is going to get 90s references. For one, it’s a joke, if it doesn’t land there’s another one coming and second, maybe this is how they’ll pick up a bit of cultural history.
I think it reflects Lorne’s nostalgia about variety shows and how he’s said in recent years SNL is the only one left. In past years, for instance, there were long periods when he seemed reluctant to even have standups appear (Dane Cook said as much when he talked about his 2005 hosting stint, I believe), yet now they’ve had 4 standups on this season alone, with lengthy monologues (this last one was the longest monologue in SNL history). He’s moved more toward “event” TV, maybe because he thinks people don’t want to see in-house stars built up now. Maybe he’s right, I don’t know…but I think this cast could deliver if given the chance.
Well, Lorne Michaels could always see if Carol Burnett’s interested in coming back….
Lorne used to dislike material if he felt it was too much like her show, so time really is a circle. I wish he’d had her on at some point. Her one appearance was when Dick Ebersol produced – the wonderful Harry Anderson was hosting, and during the goodnights, asked a visibly delighted Burnett [who was in the audience that night] to come up on stage with him and the rest of the cast/musical guests.
Lorne used to dislike material if he felt it was too much like her show, so time really is a circle.
Jeez, SNL wouldn’t have been possible without THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW! Talk about farting in the general direction of your predecessors….
And the reference to Sting and tantric sex? I’m old enough to remember, but I’m not the target audience.
Another episode where I felt the overall quality of the sketches was pretty solid, although a couple of them suffered from not having that strong final punchline.My favorite part of the corporate firing sketch was that they were going to fire Dennis Haysbert not because he was a racist caricature, but that just wanted to play it safe. Second was when Chappelle started calling out how big Pete’s lips were, which was such a golden moment. As for the hale storm sketch, Kenan’s ‘She’s probably dead’ made me laugh so hard.
Was it calling out, though? I get how it seemed transgressive because Chappelle broke the rules like addressing the audience and calling one of the performers by their real name, and race is such a big loaded taboo subject in general, but if you look at it, it was just a joke with nothing behind it. Like, Pete Davidson ISN’T black trying to pass as white. He’s just not and in 2020 who even tries that any more?The corporate mascot was normal-funny. It had great character work but people are acting like it was daring because race was involved and it really wasn’t.
Pete has been asked a few times over the years about whether he’s black. I wonder if that was an inside joke.
That Kenan line was the best of the night.
Kenan’s delivery of that line was pitch perfect. Those two were so great in that sketch.
Uh uh. The best line of the night was Dave Chappelle saying, “Now, wait a cotton-pickin’ minute, Uncle Ben,” in Dennis Haysbert’s voice. That might be the best line of any show all year.
As for the hale storm sketch, Kenan’s ‘She’s probably dead’ made me laugh so hard. I know, right? I laughed all the way through that sketch, but that line really got me. It definitely was my favorite sketch of the night.
I fell the fuck apart with “look at his lips! Seriously, look at Pete Davidson’s lips!”It just.. happened so fast and unexpectedly.
i’ve never thought pete’s lips were overly large, especially in that sketch where you couldn’t even see them b/c of the fangs.
Chappelle’s monologue was… seriously mixed for me.On one hand, it hit some huge fucking highs, there were some killer lines (I just loved the slow-roll to talking about all the places where The Chappelle Show is streaming now… and how he’s not seeing a dollar from it!) and while it went on too long, who the hell was going to tell him to stop?On the other… look. I get it, stand-up isn’t easy, not every premise is going to work, not every joke is going to land. It happens.But… when you make a punching-down style joke (his bit about the Doctor who was, in actually, deer-in-the-headlights dumbfounded by Trump’s notion of injecting light to cure COVID, and how it was evidence that women deserved less than men), and it flops? The thing you should never, ever do is blame the audience for not liking the joke.Especially if your attempt at doing so is a “…aw, did I trigger you?” line. It’s like trying to dig up by lighting up some dynamite at the bottom of the hole you’re standing in.It’s not even a “aw too sensitive” type reaction. It’s just cheap and shitty comedy, first punching down and then blaming the crowd for not being on board with the punching down humor…
Yeah that joke bombed and he kinda dug himself a little deeper rather than just moving on. The smaller audience also didn’t help. They seemed very confused about when to laugh at things.
Just because you didn’t like it doesn’t mean it bombed. I just watched and it sounded to me like it landed exactly how he wanted it to- with mostly laughter and some “ooooo, edgy” noises from the audience.
The idea that “punching down” is automatically unfunny doesn’t really hold up.
Increasingly, you do hear a lot of comedians say that audiences are reacting that way more and more. The addition of a “wait, am I allowed to laugh at that?” reaction.More than that line, the whole monologue felt like he was, as he said, just trying this stuff out. Which, I guess, he was, given that they didn’t even call the race until a few hours before they went live. Longer, looser (as in, not as tight as it could have been) than his one 4 years ago. I once saw a re-run of the first-ever SNL, and this one kind of felt like that, where the host does a monologue and then mostly disappears.
“Yeah that joke bombed and he kinda dug himself a little deeper rather than just moving on.”
Yes, that’s exactly correct.
Have you heard of Dave Chappelle?
Because they can’t laugh at themselves…
I am definitely not a fan, But when comedians are willing to dig deep and make it personal I’ll often get sucked in. I wonder what he’s charging for those “lessons.” I’d sign up, lol
Comedians seem too concerned about offending these days, so I’ll take one who takes chances and sometimes misses any day. But the point’s fair that if it’s a punching down joke, it better land hard and make you laugh despite knowing better.
Chappelle does not handle bombing a joke well. When he’s on he’s on, but when he’s off he increasingly handles it like every other canonized insulated comic and digs his heels in a bit more.
e.g. Bill Maher.
The problem with that joke to me was it seemed old and out dated. I mean that happened six years…wait i mean months…ago.
Yeah but like he pointed out, he hasn’t been able to perform beyond a cornfield. He’s probably been sitting on some Trump jokes for a while and just wanted to get them out of his system.
the joke was weird mostly because it came out of nowhere. People will laugh at a joke if its a little sexist AND funny, but this just seemed like he had to stretch to even make the joke work, while it brought the actual Trump joke to a halt
Problem for me was that it wasn’t even accurate; Birx had a “WTF?!” look. The photo of her went viral; how is that a joke? The pretense he based his joke on never even happened.
Sobering that even a generational comic like Chappelle thinks you can do lazy shit jokes like “women be stupid” with no flair or punchline and then think that if the audience isn’t laughing, they’re oversensitive babies who are too politically correct. Sometimes you bomb, whatever. But I can’t imagine thinking that every time you do it’s cause the audience can’t take your shocking, edgy, truth.
It’s funny that you’re taking it so personal when Dave Chappelle literally does not give a fuck.
I genuinely worry that his attitude is going to discourage younger comedians from getting better & make comedy worse. Chapelle’s generation had to learn by bombing repeatedly, getting better with practice, and eventually learning how to walk a careful tightrope with audience sensibilities to get laughs while pushing them out of their comfort zones.Young comedians who haven’t gone through that process yet are going to get on stage and bomb doing ‘edgy’ material (edgy as defined by early-20s white guy standards). Some will come to understand how to get the desired effect from modern audiences, but others will see comedy heroes like Chapelle/Burr/Jeffries complain about political correctness and learn the wrong lesson. “I’m doing great, it’s THEIR fault for being too ‘triggered’ to laugh at my perfect jokes” or whatever.
I’m actually sensitive to the opposite POV. Chris Rock (who I think has a nuanced take on this stuff) once said that if camera phones existed when he was starting, he’d have no career now because the stuff he said then was awful. I’m actually sensitive to that. Every artist, every person, will fail a lot before they get it right and their failures are going to be public and on the internet forever. Give people a chance. And of course id a comic assumed every criticism meant he was wrong, he won’t make it as a comic. Sometimes the boo-ers and the people saying the joke is bigoted, are wrong. I guess just be able to know when a joke is shit.
Yeah, I could see that being a problem as well. Maybe this is anecdotal, but I feel like the big instances of comedians getting canceled or whatever involve people who’ve already struck it big in some way (Louis post-hiatus, Shane Torres after landing SNL, Michael Richards, etc). If you’re a no-name comedian with a year or two under your belt, nobody is likely to care enough to try to stop your career.I think probably the most dangerous scenario is taking a comic who has made it, then looking back at their old output and judging by modern standards. And yeah, we definitely could learn to be more forgiving of folks in that situation. Or at least more willing to apply context. It’ll be interesting to see how the next James Gunn situation plays out.
Complain about punching down more. That’s original and you’re such a brave good person
“Shitty comedy” is comedy that doesn’t cause laughter. I heard as much laughter in response to those jokes as there was to the rest of his routine. You may, ideologically, want those jokes to bomb, but they didn’t because comedy isn’t politics, and it shouldn’t be.
I think the “did I trigger you?” addition was a little cheesy, but overall the bit was as successful as the rest of his routine.
It’s kinda what comics do which is why so many of them come off like homophobic or transphobic trash lately. The second you say something’s off limit, a sacred cow, they, by instinct, have to go after it. They know that’s the comic gold, in some respects. Yes, punching down isn’t what many want, but when you’re on that edge, any protected figure or group seems to be intolerable. It doesn’t mean they hate that group, it just means everyone is on the table and the more you don’t want them to be there, they more they want to do it. I doubt it’s going to change much. I mean does anyone really think he believes women should make half of what men make, or is it poking fun at how fucked up that is while doing a bit? It’s the same with Burr and the rest of that group, they’re the products of Pryor and Carlin and Red Foxx and people who’s whole thing was attacking power structures, shock, breaking taboos… it’s just a lot harder to shock us than it was for a generation of people who the word Fuck was enough.
I still cannot see what’s the relation between attacking power structures and taboos and attacking minorities.
I’ll try to explain. Of course you’re free to disagree as well. Two generations ago power structures were, at least post American Victorian Era (the 50s) unassailable. By the Nam era however, the door was open, so you said what no one said before (so you didn’t get dragged before the House Un-American Activities Committee (McCarthy), called a communist and blackballed. Once the door opened it was attacks on norms, but targeting that which you could not joke about in years past (I mean, before WWII, people did it all the time, but things changed). So the goal wasn’t just attacking, say, America, but just the forbidden. We lost everything but attack the forbidden. So once any minority group, marginalized group got ‘protected status’ they’re suddenly forbidden and these guys just go for it. They’re edge lords. Usually they’re smart, but they have something in them that makes them want to do this and it’s a compulsion. Horrible human being but funny mofo, Louis C.K. went on SNL and did a bit in his monologue how great child molestation must be if people are willing to do it knowing the price. It’s not advocating it. Making fun of the wage gap isn’t saying it’s not wrong. For them it’s about anything off limits. Same as Pryor and Carlin and Bruce, through Kinneson and Dice Clay, Eddie Murphy… It’s the ‘I can’t believe he said that’ that they’re chasing, the topic isn’t important.
If you want to watch the Cosby’s of the world (Not a cheap shot at another horrible human being, but he was, for decades, hilarious and clean) You got your Gaffigans and Foxworthies… Chris Rock’s gonna step on his tongue from time to time. They just reject the notion they can’t do something because you say they can’t. You don’t have to agree with that, but it’s the trend with all of them. It’s about shock. The only thing that shocks you is the forbidden. I mean that was the point of Chappelle’s show. It was always multi racial. The Racial Draft is just a masterpiece of it. Everyone gets hit. No one gets a free pass. It may not be for you, but that’s the point. When the ‘don’t punch down’ gets to it’s logical conclusion, you have to ignore anyone not above you or equal to you in the power structure. That’s not to say people can’t be racist, sexist, phobic or just an asshole and they should be called out for it.
That’s a great summary, bravo. My sense of humour was pretty much formed in function of the more transgressive types of humour, going back to the ‘70s, so I don’t mind most of it. I also get that sensibilities change and don’t begrudge anyone who abhors punching down in all its forms.The pay gap joke didn’t do it for me. It felt like a hacky way to get shock laughs at best, and a typical ‘women, am I right?’ warm-up joke from the ‘80s at worst. It just didn’t land. The idea of Trump’s cavalier approach to sanitary measures being akin to someone not practicing safe sex did work for me, though.
I’ll bet you thought Andrew “Dice” Clay was a hero, Gilgurth.
Not at all, some of his stuff was funny, but it was a character… that he seemed to have morphed into in real life which got very sad.
Thank you, Risingson Carlos.
Yes… but he’s also a minority. He’s not a white male, so the menu, as it were, changes. It doesn’t mean you should be shitty and mock Trans people, for example, but just like women comics are able to say things male comics should not, it’s not universal and once you have blurred lines, it’s going to be messy. I mean, his whole insistence of smoking on TV because we agreed it was bad for kids to see it normalized just screams what he’s about. He does it every time he shows up live as a fuck you. You don’t have to be a fan or love him, but he’s telling you who he is.
Yes, but there’s something to be said for knowing why that line is there and how to approach it, and for accepting when you bomb. Carlin gets pointed to a lot for this kind of comedy, but he was generally pretty good about identifying targets and admitting when he fucked up.It’s also fairly hard to take “it’s just a joke bro” seriously when Chappelle indicates in the same monologue that he at least somewhat resents having to soften his own discussion of these very serious topics with punchlines. It’s a bridge every speaking-truth-to-power comic has to cross eventually: do your jokes have weight or don’t they, and who gets to make that call?
But you can make an argument for why it should be okay to say “fuck” without coming across like an asshole. You cannot make an argument that women aren’t as good at being doctors as men without coming across like an asshole.If you don’t have a persona and point of view beyond “Tee hee I do what society says I shouldn’t,” then you’re a shitty comic.
It didn’t land with me because I do think Chappelle actually believes Women should actually earn less than men. He’s said it before and it was right as he also said that he can’t say what he really thinks unless it has a punchline on the end of it. It’s like the Bill Burr bit from weeks ago where he was also funny, but also has a slight knock towards women and says black people where the only ones enslaved. People just know better. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get a woman to even out the score. Too bad women aren’t funny.[On another note get Nikki Glaser to host, she’s very Jewish and Jews are funny.]
Dave thinks he is entitle to laughs at every joke. Old comedians are like that. Seinfeld is the same way. “Im funny, you audience are just not good enough to get my genius humor!1!”
Damn, it actually broke my heart when Chapelle went in his monologue the way of shitty Podcast comedy edgelords, and felt like he had to defend his bombed joke by using “triggered” as punchline (in 2020!), followed by a variation of “Lighten up, it was just a joke, bro!” Then the Trump/Mercury joke walked the fine line between “I go to hell for laughing about that”and “Aw man, not funny”, which is actually something that I’m okay with, until it basically turned into a mockery of AIDS victims for a bit.I predict that before the next election, he will spent his time ranting about how the “PC Police” and “cancel culture” tries to keep him from telling the truth, while posting a bunch of increasingly absurd conspiracy theories.
For a guy who ran from his own show mid-production all the way to another continent, and has thrown tantrums at stand-up gigs, Dave Chapelle sure seems to feel good about calling other people weak or oversensitive.
Chappelle is excellent on race but he sucks on just about everything else. Sometimes he’s Richard Pryor and the rest of the time he’s Andrew Dice Clay.
He’s funny when he mocks the shit you like to mock but other than that he sucks, is that right?
I’mnot familiar with Chappelle’s comedy and I’m way too young to know how Chappelle’s Show worked, so I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that monologue got so damn awkward at points. I also doubt the “triggered” joke was a deliberate reference to Don Jr.’s year-old book that most of us probably forgot about, and it’s far too generous to assume he’s not just referencing what every single stand-up comedian seems to do when their edgy set flops.The other worst joke for me was the Freddie Mercury one. Not just because it was “too far,” it just felt unfinished, and I feel like the delivery didn’t sell the comparison point (that it’s not surprising they caught their respective illnesses) well enough.
Chappelle’s somewhat more tolerable for me than most other Edgy Wannabe-Carlins because he seems to take COMEDY less seriously than them.Sure, the “I’m gonna make this shitty, cruel joke, because you can’t tell me what to do, mom!” vibe is still there. But a lot of these guys try to simultaneously go “My words must be heard because comedy is what speaks truth!!” and, whenever they voice a shitty opinion, “What, don’t you know it’s just a joke?”I don’t get the sense Chappelle tries to have it both ways like that.
a lot of these guys try to simultaneously go “My words must be heard
because comedy is what speaks truth!!” and, whenever they voice a shitty
opinion, “What, don’t you know it’s just a joke?”I don’t get the sense Chappelle tries to have it both ways like that.
Chappelle says that he uses punchlines to soften the blow of hard truths and complains that he “thought this was supposed to be a comedy show” after the audience is “triggered” in this very monologue.
I think it almost ways comes down to punching up or punching down. A multimillionaire comedian who can say and do whatever he wants, more or less, telling women they don’t deserve to make as much money as men, is punching down.
I think that joke could have been sharpened up a bit so that it was actually funny. Knowing and saying Deborah Birx’s name would have made it more potent (she… does objectively suck for not pushing back on COVID). And she’s the one that got stuck standing there, not Redfield or Fauci, and I totally think that might be for gendered reasons itself. So I think the joke, even the nasty part of it, could have worked (as someone upthread mentioned, it’s also months old); there’s a way it could have punched sideways (she’s pretty powerful too; hard to say if more than the 1st or 2nd most famous active stand-up…).
Yeah, if you’re telling a joke to a national audience on a broadcast network, and people don’t laugh, it’s fair to say that they just didn’t think you were funny, not that the edginess of your jokes is too much to handle. Especially if the premise is something your grandfather might have laughed at.
It’s frustrating, too, because if you cut like 90 seconds of this 16 minute monologue, it’s funnier than his last two specials.
“What, don’t you know it’s just a joke?”
Yet, he did exactly that. Did you not watch the monologue?
I agree. He knows Comedy is his paycheque because he knows he’s good at it. But at the same time, you can tell he’s become cynical of the comedy business as a whole. Which I feel gives him an edge you don’t see in many comedians of that caliber.
That’s been my whole experience with Chappelle for me lately. He can still be fucking hilarious and tremendously insightful…when he’s not whining about how he couldn’t use the word “f***ot” in a Chappelle’s show sketch a decade plus after the fact. He seems to think that he’s some edgy and vital defender of free speech, and not a dude who’s being an asshole to groups of people who have historically been disadvantaged
8:46 was fan-fucking-tastic, but mostly because he didn’t try to treat it like a stand-up special, but more of a PSA. Watching Dave get tearful after a moment of truth moved me a Helluva lot more than making tired wypipo jokes.I like seeing the angry, dark side of Chapelle than the shitty, tired jokes he occasionally trots out. I hope he grows out of it and tosses half his jokes; Serious Chapelle is pretty compelling; give me more of that!
#1 love your name, #2 yeah his shtick is pretty well established by now. Even so, I can forgive a comedian coasting on recycled material, especially when they had a peak as high as Dave’s. I can’t forgive them doubling down on making shitty trans and gay jokes
He’s been punching down for a while. One could easily argue he’s clearly part of the problem now too. And I will! Fuuuuuuuck Dave Chapelle. I’m almost glad if he isn’t seeing money from The Chapelle Show streaming, because at this point it was pretty much by and starred a completely different person than who he is now.That being said, I’m weirded out how much this header looks like an obit, especially given that it’s top of main page right now. Over an ACTUAL obit.Also, SNL sucks.
Dude’s TV show has been off the air for 16 years.* We’re as distant from Chappelle’s Show as Chappelle’s Show was from Magnum PI or Battle of the Network Stars. I’m not surprised that the guy’s schtick is dated, nearly 20 years after his moment in the sun. I’m also not surprised that members of my generation are desperately clinging to the relevance of decades-old comedy. However, I’m still a little surprised just how often I hear about a dated 2000s-era comedian when the field is packed with newer talent (most of whom will also be dated in 16 years because that’s how it works). *If you want to count the 3 episodes that aired in 2006, then we’re as distant from Chappelle’s Show as Chappelle’s Show was from Fish Police.
rewatching chapelle’s show this past weekend just reminded me that he is actually the exact same comedian he was back then. His mindset hasnt changed with the world around him. He’s still a thoughtful and extremely funny comedian sometimes, but his views on most things havent changed since he got famous
Yeah, he had some shitty, mean-spirited jokes (the wage gap riff was just baffling to me: the leap of logic didn’t make sense even as a joke), but I think the most tone-deaf part was just how self-absorbed it was. Going on about not making enough money off The Chappelle Show, griping about the small-town locals in Ohio lodging noise complaints against his outdoor shows after bragging about how those shows “probably saved the town” (gimme a break!).
It felt embarrassingly petty, particularly in light of the historic moment.Even if he hasn’t quite nailed the setup, my favorite was “there are bad people on both sides.”
The bits about The Chappelle Show and his country neighbors were both about how White People are still fucking with his life.
That’s what he does now. Sour, resentful, self-aggrandizing “comedy.” Did I laugh a few times during that monologue? Yes, but it’s such a weird mix of great material, terrible material, and meandering attitude. Sometimes he’s an edgelord, sometimes he’s a holier-than-thou sage. It doesn’t hang together in a way that seems worthy of the veneration he clearly feels entitled to receive.
Part of the problem was he used 50%. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to the pay-wage gap or something else until he clarified that it might be 70%.
he’s definitely in the DGAF mode of his career, which can be great or bad, but the jokes about women deserving to be underpaid or Covid keeping crazy whites indoors to stop school shootings seemed like passive-aggressive payback to Lorne and what I presume is a predominantly white audience for being talked into doing another SNL appearance connected with Trump (which he agreed to, but don’t forget the complaining about getting no royalties for his show now on Netflix).
I thought it was funny. I have consistently been astounded by the women who flock around that shitstain as well as all those fucking white women who vote for him. I groaned. Then I laughed. Because they do suck. So it was funny.
He did spend the first 20-30 minutes of the first of his netflix specials whining about people being too easily offended, which for some reason we just keep hearing from old comedians who want to keep doing the same material they did decades ago and when no one laughs because their jokes are repetitive and tired, they lash out at the audience (Bill Maher strongly comes to mind).
I like Dave Chappelle but I thought okay boomer (even though he’s gen x).
I’m honestly not trying to be “that guy,” but this has been a fun bit of trivia for me and it was just kind of weird to see the show get it wrong: Kamala actually isn’t the first biracial Vice President, as Herbert Hoover’s VP Charles Curtis was part Native American.
I’d like to hope that Harris would appreciate that correction.
SNL didn’t change, your perception of it just changed. The cold open has, forever, been about broad and referential comedy, where the jokes usually grab at the lowest hanging fruit and rely for their humor on the broad shared premise, rather than any key insight or scathing critique. Likewise, they’ve never been particularly edgy about their political humor. They gave George W. Bush a guy who delivered us into two forever wars, justified torture, used divisive social wedge issues to win elections, implemented a massive surveillance program, etc., into a lovable relatable goof who couldn’t pronounce words good.
dont bother posting links that can be seen outside your country or anything
God, that Nintendo sketch had me rolling. Went on a little too long (the picture of Mooney planking on the toilet kind of broke the spell by puncturing the “believability”), but god it was great.
I thought he and Mikey Day had really good chemistry in that sketch, if that’s the right word for it? Skit partner dynamics? Just played the discomfort and “passive-aggressive needling that only your best friend from childhood can get away with” perfectly.
At first I got annoyed because the setup felt so incidental to the joke (you could substitute any big event, didn’t have to be [iconic plumbing-based video game] at all).Then I remembered the raunchy tangents Let’s Players always go on when playing their games (think Game Grumps) and suddenly it clicked and became hilarious to me. No idea if it was intentional but it works best that way.
Only problem is nobody rode to Target on their bike to buy “Super Mario Bros. 1″ since it came with the NES. Literally unwatchable.
There’s “breezy” and there’s “clearly still drunk (or, in Chappelle’s case, high) from various victory celebrations.” This show was sloppy as hell, but…hey, we’re all feeling it. Oh, and the gay anthem the Trump campaign inexplicably appropriated was actually “YMCA,” not “Macho Man,” but, eh, same band, whatever.
The Trump campaign apparently used both, hopefully with Pence’s clueless approval. (fingers crossed)
Theory: Trump’s team merely hired a DJ and did not provide a list of songs. Just a “popular stuff from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s” request.
They have played both songs.
I haven’t watched SNL in a long time and “my” SNL cast was back when Phil Hartman was still around, so I’m old and not the target audience anymore, so take this with a grain of salt.
I decided to record this for the first time in forever because I thought it would at least be cathartic after the election results but, boy, this wasn’t funny or entertaining to me at all. I guess the “highlight” would be Weekend Update because there were at least a couple funny things there, but the sketches were not my bag at all and while I recognize that Dave Chappelle is modern comedy royalty, I personally don’t find him all that funny and I found myself wondering when his monologue would finally end. The whole walking out with a lit cigarette thing immediately seemed “faux-edgy” which I thought went out of style after Andrew Dice Clay. And dropping an “are you triggered?” was pretty tired. After 4 years of our president trying to trigger me, I’m not gonna be triggered by anything on this corny old show. So I will return to not watching SNL. Which is fine, I can recognize when things aren’t for me and that many people enjoy things I don’t.
I think Chappell is hilarious but the smoking thing is affected as hell. Like, it’s 2020. I get how smoking indoors when it’s not allowed makes you a rebel but it really doesn’t telegraph cool badass.
He just does it to show he can do it. Ban smoking, fuck you I smoke where I want! and everyone tolerates it.
I just assumed he was doing a Lenny Bruce impression.
Chapelle has always said he modeled his entire comedian persona after Dennis Leary.
That’s exactly how Dillinger got started.
That’s exactly how Dillinger got started.
So Bill Hicks then…
The best way to watch SNL is the YouTube clips. Skip the monologue circle jerk, the ponderous political cold open, and the music acts. You can burn through an entire episode in about 15 minutes.
Yeah, watching full episodes of my favorite era shows how much of those episodes were crap, too.
I signed up for Peacock just to be able to watch old seasons of SNL, only to realize that a great deal of it has not aged well…at all. Depressing, but now I don’t have to pay for Peacock.
“The sentiment is not facile, even if the cynical and election-battered, Trump- and GOP-abused among us automatically try to spin it into something greeting-card simple and rosy.” Here’s the thing: when he goes into lengthy-serious-monologue mode, Dave Chappelle actually is that greeting-card simple and rosy. He just punctuates it with some old-school four-letter-word “shock” tactics, which Perkins essentially has to admit in the same paragraph. That “dressing up” of painfully dated both-sides-suck, we-should-all-come-together messaging has always been his central comedic weakness, more so than his increasingly dated Gen-Xer edgelordiness (though the two go hand in hand, like holding a Newport “defiantly”).
Two sentences later: “Sure, he did an early joke about Trump enabler/hostage, epidemiologist Deborah Birx that ended with the sort of deliberately mean-spirited sexist swerve that no doubt got the stunned reaction Chappelle was going for.” If he were really that Pryor-level great, they wouldn’t have to make those kinds of disclaimers. We gotta stop tripping all over ourselves to praise the merely OK– but then, you know, here we are talking about SNL in 2020.
“My” SNL was also Phil’s era. The main way I see SNL is that after Lorne and company shit the bed around 1993-1995, NBC took over more of the show, and while that wasn’t a bad thing necessarily (as things were seriously out of control), it did mean that much of the individuality and creativity was severely curtailed – you no longer get the moments of pure genius alongside the complete and total shitpiles. You are more likely to get pabulum, sometimes tightly executed, sometimes not. That isn’t always the case (Adam McKay for instance got some pretty strong and tough pieces on), but more often is. It’s one of the reasons I quit watching for years. I started back a few years ago when John Mulaney hosted, but mostly because deep down I still missed it – the routine and the ups and downs of going through the 90 minutes. There are still a lot of things about modern SNL I enjoy, especially the cast (poorly used as they often seem to be), but I get what you mean. (ironically this episode was probably closer to the years you watched than most, as it had a very sloppy and fun feel and a number of sketches that didn’t fit the normal bill)
I enjoyed the Bill Burr episode quite a bit – that one for me felt cathartic and relevant, especially for the highly relatable sketch with the post-quarantine couple losing their shit, Kate McKinnon’s Weekend Update “breakdown,” and those fantastic Jack White performances. I thought it might be the start of a good run, but it seems to have been a fluke. Even the John Mulaney episode was mostly meh.
Please let this be the last of Baldwin’s impression. It stopped being funny a long time ago, and now has no reason to exist.
I think they could milk it a bit more what with ~2 months left in Trump’s presidency and rumors he is seriously considering just trying not to leave the White House. True or not, they can probably get some mileage out of that and Trump’s refusal to bow out gracefully.
I’m so ready to move on from Trump I don’t even want to see caricature impersonations anymore. ByeDon 2020.
My brother summed it up the other night with “I’m just ready for Mr. Garrison to move back to South Park.”
Yeah, I remember how Trump alternated from being a joke to somebody being taken seriously to the guy who couldn’t be bothered to apologize for actions endorsing sexual assault to the lovable caricature who Jimmy Fallon ruffled his hair to bullying and stepping on anybody remotely in his way to somehow winning the election, all followed by four years that (and I’m putting it mildly) left a lot to be desired.
Mostly, I just want to put all of this behind me, maybe check in from time to time to see if there are any ramifications from the things Trump’s done that prosecutors haven’t been able to do anything about while he was in office, but mostly begin the healing process of our country and our environment and everything else that’s been messed up these past four years.
Plus pretty much every other show had hosts or skits that used the exact same damn impression. That weird accent and speech pattern were EVERYWHERE. I basically stopped watching Colbert because for some reason he felt the need to read some of Trump’s tweets every night using his terrible version of it, often with no more than a throwaway one-liner after reading for 30 seconds.I look forward to people having to be creative again to fill content time.
I’m sure they’re all ready for that too. Colbert said years ago, when asked if he’s glad about all the material Trump give him, that he’d rather have a good president. And Oliver’s line last week about how everyone thinks Trump has been great for comedians but that it’s actually “been a fucking nightmare” confirms it for me.
I wonder if Colbert will have a drop off in quality and viewers and I wonder if he will find his way back. Watching Colbert these past few years felt like participating in the resistance, however lame that sounds, but I dont think I’m down for daily Trump updates on Colbert for the next 1 to 10 years until death comes no matter what form the Trumpist insurrection takes.
The absolute best thing they could all do now is just ignore him.
They need to recast Trump as an actual child.
Luke Null?
If anything, it’s mostly mugging now. Tired.
Yeah, but if Trump does some petty, childish shit before he leaves office…and you know he will.
Until Trump dies (and possibly even after), Baldwin’s impression will sporadically return to threaten running for a second term.
I imagine it depends on what Trump does next. There’s no need for any more Baldwin-as-Trump, but, well, if Trump throws a hell of a softball right over the plate, I’m not going to blame SNL for not taking a swing…
I’m actually legitimately sad that they didn’t ever bring in Rosie O’Donnell to play Trump, because that would have set him off like nothing else possibly could.
O’Donnell would have been perfect as Steve Bannon.
I thought the whole show was a blast, and laughed a ton. That monologue was fantastic, Weekend Update was great as always, and “Take Me Back” had me crying.
Yet you write, “ The filmed sketch never quite takes off (poor Ego stuck playing straight-woman for the third time,)“ which has… Nothing to do with anything. At all. Perhaps your having to write reviews of this and watching every week, jotting notes down all the time, shades your view?
I don’t know, I’ve never been a professional critic. I’m sure it’s hard. Me, rather than read about, in great depth, what one other random person thinks about every second of the show, I’ll just sit back and laugh my ass off.
I think the complaint was about Ego just reacting to other cast members, rather than getting even a few moments to lead the sketches she was in. It’s tough to break out in a large cast when you’re just playing an extra in other peoples’ sketches.
Weekend Update provided the line of the night for me, the little addendum to Che telling Jost about what he’d intended to do in the coming race war. “It was a solid plan!”
Yeah, take me back was the only good sketch of the night. The aunt jemima/uncle ben sketch had promise but couldnt hold together
I feel like we need a steel mill style “It has been 0 days since last accident” banner we can put up on the site to show that I think this is the first time in (at least) 4 years that an SNL review has gone up without at least half a paragraph about how the show should’ve gone harder on political humor.
The cold open was rough but man I don’t know how you could call it worse than the hailstorm bit that just dragged on and on past the point where it should’ve ended. At least the cold open featured the grand piano bit which is good for me because 4 years later I still find that 2016 open to be one of the most cringeworthy moments committed to TV with dead earnesty.
It is NOT too late to get a new Biden. Perfect opportunity in fact. I just think Carey is an all-round bad choice because he’s still doing himself. Problem is, Joe Biden has like 00.1 % percent charisma. Carey is not isolating Biden’s peculiarities and playing on them. But does Biden even HAVE any peculiarities? Maybe he’s just doomed to be a straight man.Anyone have any suggestions for another Biden? I got nothing.
If it’s a white man, it’s played by Beck Bennet or Kate McKinnon. The boring white guys are usually Bennett, so, Bennett I guess? Alex Moffat probably looks the most like him fwiw.
I am really going to miss Alex Moffat’s Eric Trump.
Frankly, I’m OK with a few months of not thinking about the president daily. Maybe SNL should focus on celebrity scandals for a while and circle back to politics in 2022.
I actually thought sudekis’ biden was hilarious but carrey’s is fine, he at least resembles him with the makeup
I don’t think anyone from the current cast could pull it off. I have a bad feeling that they might have McKinnon try it if Carey can’t continue this season.
“Have McKinnon try it” seems to be the default for modern-day SNL impressions so that’s probably the way it’ll go.
There isn’t much to pull off. Just put someone in old man makeup and have them speak slowly in platitudes, with an occasional “folks” and then the usual one-liner checklist fests of these interchangeable cold opens. Kate and Beck are likely both leaving this season so hopefully if they use a cast member it would be Alex, although I’d hate for Alex’s chance at the spotlight to be something so drab. Still, at least it would be something.
Yes. Time for a new hire, Lorne. We’re talking a role that might last four years. There’s plenty of talent out there.
Kenan Thompson. And they never make any reference or acknowledgement about his race.
Kenan does really well with old-guy characters. I’d like to see him have a crack at it.
See, *that* would be brave. I really wish they’d done that with Trump (aside from Them Trumps, of course)
As long as they are bringing back old cast members, I think they should bring back Jason Sudeikis as Biden!
Thanks to your reply I watched Jason doing Biden and then I watched Biden doing Biden in the 2012 debate. I’m owning it; I was completely tuned out of Biden during his White House years. Biden WAS a great deal more lively AND aggressive back then (‘back then’ – fuuuu… only 8 years ago).Now I see how much Biden has changed. I hope it isn’t senility. Hopefully it’s a maturation. So if Sudeikis can play the Biden we have now, I think that would be great. But they have got to give Sudeikis a better wig, lol.
Are you a Trump supporter? Cuz this reads like a Trump phrase book.
I thought Jason Sudeikis and Woody Harrelson did Biden fine without leaning too far into their own personalities. I can’t imagine Beck Bennett would be much different if they want to look at the current cast.
I just now YouTubed Harrelson’s performance for the debate on SNL.Not bad. But these younger guys just have TOO MUCH energy. Biden is one of the most low energy politicians I have ever seen. It’s like he has just come out of a meditation session before he speaks. Which reminds me – again – that Carey is just not right for it. Carey is playing Biden as some kind of secretly hopped up evil mastermind. Ugh.
Maybe they should just wheel out a mannequin that looks like Biden, and have Maya Rudolph, or whoever regularly plays Kamala Harris, move his arms every once in a while to pretend he’s there?
that’s one extra wonderful thing from the election – more maya!
I always enjoyed The Onion’s caricature of Biden from his time as VP. It would probably be better suited to Carey’s style of comedy as well. https://interactives.theonion.com/biden/
Lol. That is wonderful. Here’s to The Onion of 12 years ago.
I don’t see Biden being so present in the news over the next four years that SNL would feel obliged to keep Carey on speed-dial.
But I feel dumb now for not realizing that the Ace Ventura ‘loser’ was the payoff the whole time. Seeing it now, it’s so obvious and as a one-time thing, it works.
Yeah, Carrey’s all about extreme exaggeration, but how do you exaggerate an 80-year old mannequin? Carrey’s done that weird finger-gun thing like every time, but I’m not sure that’s actually referencing something Biden did or just out of nowhere.
I don’t think Biden ever did that. Biden will never be a Bond hero, lol. The Biden we are getting from Carey seems to be the Biden HE imagines – a guy with an alter-ego whose real personality reflects some kind of evil genius who is trying to ‘play nice’.Surely there must be something funny about an 80 year old mannequin? It’s a hell of a challenge, isn’t it? Finding the right guy might even make a newcomer’s career. Or… revive an old-timer’s career.
Well to me the funniest thing would be to just use a scarecrow, or even just a broomstick with a pie plate taped to the top with a smiley face and upside-down U’s for eyes painted on.Any actor or comedian is going to want to put his or her unique spin on it, and I don’t think you can put a spin on being as neutral as Biden is. I don’t mean it as an insult or anything, it’s just that there are specific types of things that comedians exaggerate – physical features, mannerisms, etc. – and Biden seems to be rather devoid of anything obvious to exaggerate. Now that the spotlight is on him something may become apparent, but so far I haven’t really seen much that screams “parody this”. Biden seems pretty boring. And after Trump, a boring president sounds great.
I remember as a kid watching Monty Python and finding it hilarious whenever they wheeled out Her Royal Highness the Dummy Princess Margaret. I had no idea what the joke was but the sight gag was great. Actually, I still am not really sure what the joke was.
i was in the premier production of “jackie – an american life” (comedy about jackie kennedy that eventually went to broadway) & we had hugh d. auchincloss (jackie’s stepfather) portrayed by a soft life-sized dummy & joe kennedy was portrayed by a huge puppet.
That is a really funny idea. Maybe a writer from SNL will see this, lol.
Carrey works best for me when working under Michel Gondry.
Jason Sudeikis. I had assumed he was going to return as Biden before Jim Carrey was announced.
How about Dana Carvey? Biden reminds me a little of a blend of Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Jimmy Stewart reading his poetry on “Sprockets” (“I wrote that one on a piece of toilet paper, after waking up in a puddle of my own SICK!”)
I haven’t been a consistent watcher of SNL over the years but I was searching my brain for someone familiar when I asked this question and, yes, it was Dana Carvey. Unfortunately, he’s only 5’8′. Joe is 6′ tall :/
Didn’t Jason Sudeikis play Biden a few times? I thought he was good.
I think Jason Sudeikis did a much better Biden than Carey is doing.
Here he is as Joe debating Paul “Eddie Munster” Ryan.
I thought Sudeikis and Harrelson did perfectly fine Bidens. I also think Baldwin’s Trump is funny so I may not hold a lot of water here
Biden stumbles over words, uses 1950s terminology, and says random off the wall shit sometimes. He’s got plenty of peculiarities. I’m not good at naming actors for parts, but theres plenty of stuff to make fun of here.
Excellent points. I wasn’t being very imaginative when I wrote that. Maybe SNL should put out a casting call for a Jimmy Stewart impersonator.
Hahaha that would be amazing
I didn’t feel the need of an edgy raw new musical act. I mean, they brought Chappelle’s old ass back. Maybe right now America needs something it has always known and appreciates. The pandemic +++ has us all feeling pretty broken right now. Personally I didn’t need a group of tweaked ‘raw’ guys going after my last nerve.
They’ve mixed up new and established acts for as long as I can remember. Maybe back in the 70s they only used hot young artists like Boz Scaggs and ABBA.
Nah, they had Rick Nelson on in the 70’s. It’s always been a mix.
Time to nitpick! Weekend Update showed fireworks over London as part of the worldwide celebration, but it wasn’t for the election result – we British have fireworks every year on 5 Nov for Guy Fawkes night, celebrating a failed plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. That said, we also burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, and I’ll bet there were many bonfires across the land whose Guy had blond candyfloss hair and a long red tie.
You mean SNL neglected to remember, remember the 5th of November?!
You rang…?
That was the best Dalton Bond movie
Incidentally, in the film Cromwell Dalton played Prince Rupert, nephew to Charles I, who succeeded his father King James VI and I, who Guy Fawkes tried to assassinate. It’s all connected.
I think that was tongue and cheek, but you are correct. The church bells in Paris was the killer line in that, so they set it up.
I’m not going to talk shit and say “I told you so, last week!” Oh, I just did. Nevermind, I will bullet point it:1. Dave C. speaks the truth whether you like it or not. You may not like what he said about raising a gay kid (get a grip, there “may” be kernels of his own feelings in there, but the same can be said about every comedians’ airport jokes), his perspective is his own and he has the “fuck you” money to say the things people are too wet to say out loud. The dude is a smart guy and he just gets life. Amazing perspective on things. I wish I had that kind of vision while sober, dude can do it 2 joints deeps.2. Speaking of “fuck you” money, Dave G. lives an amazing life and deserves it all. Yes, he’s had great suffering and all that, but he’s a genuine artist. To even put him in the same sentence with Jack Black is…telling on your taste, Dennis. It is really nice to see a guy have something to say without having to be in your face about it, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, along as you bopped along. Dave G. will be just fine. (If you haven’t, btw, google his drum challenge with the 10-ish yr. old drumming prodigy. It’s how we should all live, and ironically, exactly what Dave C.’s whole point was.) Also, Pat Smear sighting! Good to see dude’s still working.3. Dennis, you do thorough reviews. Commendable stuff. It baffles me so much as to why you feel that a sketch show has to have a concise point that aligns with your values. You are a comedy show critic. SNL was never designed to be, nor should it, a voice of the people. It’s a show written by drug addicts and mentally unstable people who’s only goal is to make people laugh. It just happens that most folks wont tune in if it doesn’t have some sort of mainstream references, or at least a bit of “I understand that!” feeling to it, because most people don’t even read. If the material is misaligned with your values, I suggest a career change. It’s all corporate approved jokes. Good Morning, Vietnam.
The term “triggered” long pre-dated Don Jr.’s book. I doubt that was even a fleeting thought in Dave Chappelle’s mind.
It’s a comedy world chiche that every hack comic who isn’t good enough for crossover success and needs to be in the safe alt-right bubble, WILL call his (always his) comedy show “Triggered” or “No Safe Space.”
Not gonna lie. Jim Carrey unexpectedly (for me) going back to the Ace Ventura well to drop possibly the greatest “loooo-oooo-seeeer…” in the history of America (so far)… well, I’m not gonna complain, and I’m gonna whoopand clap in my apartment while breaking out the good liquor… That might sound facile, but it’s not. I’m not able to find it in myself to be a humble winner today, despite all my deeply held, interminably repeated sentiments that we are better than they are. That Joe Biden and Kamala Harris beat America’s worst president and his conversion-therapy, AIDS-abetting fundamentalist sidekick makes me feel like gloating over all those sneering, meme-sharing, braying assholes who’ve greeted every new Trump administration outrage with the whooping, inhumane bloodlust of an Elizabethan bear-baiting.Yup…
I know people around here are tired of Alec Baldwin, but I also got a kick out of his soulful rendition of ‘Macho Man.’
Taking the piss out of themselves with the return of Kate McKinnon’s sad piano was a pretty great touch, all told.
When they did the Beck/Ego sketch where he shows up outside the house, the set looked so familiar to the Hillary Actually sketch that I kept expecting it to turn that way.
The Take Me Back sketch reminded me a lot of Mr. Show’s One-week Break-up sketch.And the Count Chocula beat seemed directly lifted from the recent Reno 911 Quibi season.Good to know some habits will never change.
Me? I just think the Right should eat a bag of dicks.Is that homophobic? Gods, I hope not….
I’m going to have to consult my texts, but I dont think gay people eat penis’
Just making sure….
The “bad people on both sides” joke was funny, but it bombed because the delivery was all wrong. His inflection went up at the end, making it sound more like a setup than a punchline. He also probably should have hit the word bad a little harder.
A lot of his delivery was really bad, often sounding mumbled or slurred. I assumed he was drunk and/or high.
yeah, he didn’t wait for the laughs to die down, either. i missed a lot of what he said.
The Dave Grohl and Jack Black mashup is in your mind Dennis. And that is O.K.Black can’t play guitar for shit but he knows how to make metal rock stars look both over-the-top absurd and amazing. Grohl was just being amazing like he can.
And then there’s Baldwin’s final (?) turn as Donald John Trump…This isn’t directed at Dennis specifically, but can we please keep in mind that we’ll have Trump as president until January 20th. I’m happy that the election is the political equivalent of a 2-1 match in the 89th minute, but the final whistle still hasn’t blown. Thanks to the Georgia runoffs, we have lots of extra time to play.Maybe it’s because I was nine years old in 1985, but I don’t remember release day hype over video games back then. Plus, most people got the game with the console, so riding your bike to buy it wasn’t practical. Those little details took me out of the sketch.
My gosh are we going to miss Keenan someday when he’s gone. What an SNL champ that guy is. That clipped cadence he brings to a lot of his roles is always on point. And he’s got versatility for days and days. To me he’s both a superstar and under-appreciated all at the same time.
He really took a long time to find his groove, but now I think Keenan’s an SNL all-timer. I do think he’s underappreciated perhaps because a lot of people still remember his less stellar early years.
I give him a lifetime pass for Good Burger alone.
I have a real Mugatu moment whenever people say this kind of thing about Thompson.
‘This was an original thinker and master storyteller speaking his way through to the heart of the public discourse—and diagnosing our shared disease.’Dennis, I love ya, I’m glad someone at AVC writes an SNL update, and I like the little SNL community in the comments. So trust me that I’ve pondered and deliberated this a great deal for I committed it to text: with all due respect, you have never, ever been more wrong about anything. It feels like you just demanded that Chappelle’s monologue would be a GREAT SNL MOMENT and a bookend to the 2015 Trump episode that you had a hard time letting go of.I saw a low-energy comic try to be transgressive, but ultimately lean on banal observations and reddit-esque edgelord humor (ARE YOU TRIGGERED? I’M SMOKING ON STAGE). He couldn’t keep track of the stories or jokes he was telling, much less have any kind of theme or arc (much less any sort of ‘diagnosis’) to his very long set. At best he would land on kinda-punchlines occasionally. His was late Lenny Bruce, promising to tell us stuff that WE’RE NOT READY TO HEAR, MAN but then not doing that, instead semi-mumbling for his amusement more than ours. Chappelle’s been coasting on his Chappelle’s Shop rep for i guess a decade now, and if this monologue said anything it’s that he doesn’t give a shit anymore.
Low energy describes it perfectly. I don’t know if he was high, or it’s just the natural effects of age. A quick glance at old Youtube clips shows he’s not quite the comic he once was.
With you. I thought his monologue was rather lazy. Like he just thought up most of it on the spot and didn’t really care if his thoughts or jokes were going anywhere. Maybe its because I (like so many) are fans and expect great moments from him all the time, but this wasn’t it. To borrow a baseball analogy, its like you’re thinking your ace pitcher that throws 100mph is gonna go out there and rack up strikes and get the win but instead he’s throwing in the low 90s, gives up a couple of runs, gets yanked early and it goes down in the W/L book as a no decision
I think he clearly thought it up on the spot. I understand he does that a lot in his live sets, and it might work there, but it doesn’t work on TV.
i think, unfortunately, most stand up is going to be sloppy for a while. dave’s probably the most in-practice comic going thanks to him just putting on his own shows all summer, but it’s still not enough to keep the mechanism fresh.you could say the same thing for rock, mulaney and burr. they all fumbled more than they would have normally.
That monologue was lazy and insulting- Chappelle is TERRIBLE at anything non race-related (really anything non Chappelle’s Show related), and he reeks of the Parker/ Stone both sidesism that is the provenance or rich (usually white) men. It’s fucking old at this point, and beyond tone deaf that on the night a woman becomes the VP, he goes on stage bloviating WIMMEN DUM AMIRITE in order to get a reaction.Dennis really has his favorites and this is another example of him trying way too hard to make something mediocre at best into a grand treatise of genius.
Chappelle lost me with that joke about Dr. Birx. Who saw that viral clip and thought she was nodding approvingly? She looks like she’s desperately trying to go away in her mind. Just a really weird example to try to wrestle into a punchline that wasn’t even worth the effort. That and the similarly awkward and labored Freddie Mercury/AIDS joke, the rambling story about the cornfield and complaining neighbors, and his defensive reaction to his jokes bombing…he came across like he just scribbled a few notes during that private jet ride and figured his persona would make it work. Which I guess it did for most given some of the rapturous responses I’ve read, but to me he seemed tired and not really feeling it.
Theory: Those other 16 “Not Ready for SNL Players” don’t actually exist.
“Remember when I was here four years ago, remember how bad that felt? Remember that half the country right now still feels that way.”Um, is he referring to the people that spent four years saying “fuck your feelings”?
Booking Dave Chappelle for the first Saturday Night Live after a presidential election involving Donald Trump will never be a thing again, but still that was some serious optimism, Lorne. He lost, so there’s always 2024.
Yep. And then we get to see his kids try and fail
I’m far more worried the Republicans will figure out to put someone who isn’t a complete clown in power. Imagine the damage someone as reckless as Trump but who was actually competent could do.
I’ve been saying this exact same thing for years now. Especially since the 2020 election was a repudiation of Trump the man, but not really the platform he stood upon.
It’s mixed – there will be much more intelligent and dangerous Republicans, but they won’t have the populist appeal Trump does. I don’t have a good feeling about 2024 but any time the likes of Cotton or Hawley open their mouths I am reminded of just what a unique gift Trump was to that party.
It’s a little out there but I would not be surprised if in the next decade one or the other party will just put a well-liked actor in front of the party. One thing Trump has shown is being a name is more important than anything resembling political know how or experience. At least the Democrats would have a larger talent pool to draw from.
I don’t know if Democrats would, because of their fears of being labeled as out of touch Hollywood and so on, but Republicans, yeah. I wouldn’t be shocked at someone like Chris Pratt, if he is willing to go completely psycho, anyway.
Chris Pratt is exactly who I was thinking of. Something about marrying Schwarzenegger’s daughter made me think he might have dreams of being Reagan some day. Honestly I wouldn’t think Democrats would do that now but if Trump had a second term and Trump 2 was up next I wouldn’t have ruled anything out.
Or Dwayne Johnson, who would run as a Republican Moderate but wouldn’t be able to fight Politics-As-Usual enough to stop the likes of Mitch McConnell from packing the Courts with even MORE Religious Right Ideologues…….With Chuck Schumer’s help, as always. As “Democratic Leadership” goes, that man makes Nancy Pelosi look like Bernie Sanders.
This current GOP probably couldn’t get Dwayne Johnson , he doesn’t seem stupid or I’m guessing he’s not racist. They could probably get Rogan.
Maybe Dwayne Johnson can form The ROCK Party?Why not? The guy’s even more charismatic than Obama — though maybe he’d rather not waste his time when there are always more Hobbs and Shaw movies to do….
Don’t you put that evil on me (and Chris Pratt)It probably doesn’t help that I cannot imagine a Republican platform that isn’t evil, so it’s hard to imagine him being some magical, relatively okay Republican president.
You mean Mike Pence?THAT has been my four-year nightmare, that somehow Trump would have been unable to…play President, and we’d have that Christianist Fascist Scumbag Pence running things, just smoothly enough that the “reasonable Democrats” would go along as he used THE HANDMAID’S TALE as a how-to guide….
I wonder if Trump losing was a good thing. Expect more Ruby Ridges and Oklahoma city type events.
unless he’s in prison…or saudi arabia…or russia…
“Times like these” had me crying like a baby while I made breakfast this morning. It’s been an emotional week and that song came out right before I graduated college, moved into my own apartment, started my career and met my wife and I associate it a lot with one of the biggest changing years of my life. I’m not even sure what I’m blabbing about now. God bless Biden and Harris, fuck Trump, Mitch the bitch, Rudy and all the GOP assholes who are going to fight the will of the people and fucking lose.I know it’s a lot to ask but can my late Christmas gift be Trump leaving the White House in handcuffs on January 20th?
Does anyone know if the original musical guest cancelled, or if they had trouble finding one or something? The episode description for my DVR just said Chapelle’s name instead of both host and musical guest like usual, and I didn’t know Foo Fighters were on until they were introduced in the show open.
How about a big “fuck you” to everyone involved in yesterday’s Big Fucking Game? Thanks a lot. Why aren’t college games just relegated to a sports channel anyway? The presence of college (and sometimes fucking high school) games in major broadcast coverage has always mystified me, but then I’m Canadian. (Seriously, I recently read something by an American talking about the culture shock of moving up here, and he actually seemed surprised by the way that nobody gave the slightest shit about college football, even devoted Canuck fans of American football.)
I would say there is a significant portion of Americans that define themselves as “sports fans” and they need to fill their hobby with as much sports as possible. I’d say I don’t understand it because I don’t really like sports but I fill my time playing video games, playing table top games and watching movies and TV I enjoy so who am I to judge. I think college sports are just more sports to fill the time.
I think college sports should be fucking shut down until the pandemic is over. It’s not even like pro sports where the players are professionals paid well to (ostensibly) stay in their bubbles.. College athletes are unpaid students (probably on scholarship, maybe not and even paying tuition) going out there and recklessly spreading the virus.
My response was a general thing about college sports. I totally agree that right now they shouldn’t be happening.
I am loving the sensibility of your comment. But college players enjoy SO many goodies (money under the table, cars, deluxe apartments, WOMEN, the best drugs[when Massa say’s OK] and more [lots of promises to keep them hooked]). Most everyone knows this. When a Black kid grows up with nothing, it’s freakin’ hard to say “No Thanks.”
I wouldn’t put any blame at all on the players. The schools should have sat this season out, though.
NBC has a big contract to air certain Notre Dame games, so they’re going to air Notre Dame. Broadcast networks generally hate to shift games to their cable channels — they probably lose a piece of their audience and everyone’s still a little gun-shy after the “Heidi” game where NBC cut away from a Jets-Raiders game to air the film “Heidi” and football fans didn’t see the Raiders come back to win.That said, NBC reportedly planned to shift the Notre Dame game to USA Network to air President-elect Biden’s speech and then bringing the game back when the speech was over. Likewise, ABC planned to shift its college football game to ESPNews and back to accommodate the Biden speech.
The “Heidi Game” was in 1968 when there were only three networks total, so I hope they’ve gotten over their gun-shyness by now.
I’m routinely on Twitter. I always see that what’s trending are sports games, athletes, scores, many at the same time per online visit. Which makes me think that if Americans loved the interest and hobby of following the news and politics as much as they love and follow sports, we’d become so well-informed and fix our many big problems.
College sports, in a lot of regions (especially ones without pro teams), is an insanely lucrative field that, like pro sports, is something major networks can cling to as scripted programming is being abandoned by viewers on TV in lieu of anytime-on-demand streaming services. While, yes, we have dedicated sports channels, they’re also part of often-expensive cable bundles that not all households have, so sports over the basic “Big Four” broadcast channels available to everyone is more important to networks for major events, as well as filling out the doldrums of weekend programming that often lack scripted, first-run shows.
In the deep south like Alabama and especially Texas, college football is larger than life and is even bigger than professional football. Schools like University of Alabama, Mississippi, Clemson, etc, et, would be nothing without it, and make and spend more money on it than they do on academics. University of Alabama spent more money on their sports, $600 million, than some pro teams. Their stadium is the tenth largest on Earth. That’s why it gets so much coverage, the ratings with those southern hillbilies are through the roof. It could be the President warning of a nuclear missile attack, but they won’t cut it off for a college football game. They’re pretty much one of the few places in the world that allows for attended games because watching their beloved college football is worth catching and dying of covid. Its crazy.
Yikes.
Yep. The fifth through tenth largest Stadiums on the planet are all for US college football teams. That’s how obsessed about it down here. At least you guys up there are so into hockey that you’re diverting funds away from college education to build massive ice rinks.
Look up the Heidi Game in 1968, which was a huge fiasco for NBC. That’s why they probably kept the game on and didn’t switch channels. They honestly should have started the game an hour earlier.
Dude, I already know about the Heidi incident; everybody does. The only reason I didn’t dismiss for that is on the off chance you’re the same yee-yee who used to comment in the classic years.
In terms of viewership, initial ratings indicate “Saturday’s Clemson-Notre Dame college football game averaged a 5.4 rating and 9.44 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals, marking the highest rated and most-watched Notre Dame game on NBC since USC-Notre Dame in 2005 (6.7, 10.1M).”
When the final ratings come in, this game will likely be the highest-rated college football game of the season.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2020/11/clemson-notre-dame-ratings-nbc-15-year-high-despite-biden-speech/#:~:text=Saturday’s%20Clemson%2DNotre%20Dame%20college,(6.7%2C%2010.1M).
I think it’s certainly reasonable to question the safety of having unpaid college students play a game during a pandemic. However, I think the ratings indicate why networks keep such events on broadcast instead on a sports channel.
I haven’t seen ratings for this week’s SNL, but the Hollywood Reporter wrote “The 46th season premiere of SNL, hosted by Chris Rock, drew 8.24 million viewers and a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49…”
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-saturday-sunday-oct-3-4-2020So, on a good night, SNL ratings can be close or surpass football, but I would think NBC would be happy to have _both_ and have strong numbers for six hours throughout the night.
You’d think after 50 years they’d have a better solution!
But until then….
Is it interrupted during the last 20 minutes for some sports though?
Beats me — I don’t watch sports.
“Our Top Story Tonight — Heidi Married the Goatherd.”It didn’t help that Walter Cronkite led off his broadcast the next day with that punchline. I first heard the Heidi story when I was in Beginning Television class, as an example of what to absolutely not do if a live event ran late. And…I’ve heard it dozens of times since….
I really have never understood the large fanbases to Universities. Especially by people who would never get into those schools or never went to the school. I’m still a sports fan, but I find College Football in general to be less exciting than the CFL. I will still watch certain bowl games. The reason I followed my schools team and still like the players in the NFL from there is mainly because I partied with them a lot. I do enjoy March Madness even though I’m not the biggest basketball fan. Also as to NBC running the game it was Notre Dame, and for some reason everyone needs any opinion about Notre Dame pro/con.
II don’t get it, either; I know a few alumni from UNC, so if I see a game on, I go for Tarheels. Same with Vikings. There was an interesting show on History Channel that covered the Michigan State / OSU rivalry over a border dispute regarding a river, but Duke vs. UNC? Most of the UNC fans I know are clean-kempt, but they wouldn’t know a Tarheel if it kicked them in the ass.
?I think my parents occasionally catch college games, but outside of hardcore fans, I don’t know anyone that watches college football; the fact that American college football is so prominent in Canada is a bit bewildering. Other than my parents who watch App State, or a buddy who’s obsessed with the Volunteers (for some reason), and my cousin who runs the cafeteria over at Clemson, nobody watches it here.
Outside of that, it’s a couple Alma Maters. College football in the US is kinda crap. College basketball? We fawn over that shit.
I know it would have been really last minute to throw together, but I was really hoping/expecting the cold open to be set at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
yeah, i can’t believe they didn’t use that!
“are you triggered?”More confused how such a gifted comedian became insufferable. Not Ricky Gervais level insufferable but getting there.
Smoking a cigarette, calling the audience too woke, dropping his supposed truth bombs… it just feels so forced.
Some good jokes in there, and some thoughtful commentary finally at the end, but man it’s kind of exhausting.
his bitch ass never got over being called out for shitting on trans people and he cries about it in front of every camera thirsty enough to point itself at him
Never felt he was “shitting on trans people”. He made jokes. And as a Rainbow-Member-Card carrying human myself, I’m not mad at him for making his gay jokes. In fact, I’m likely to see him more as an ally as all those straight but rainbow emoji in description line woke kids who kinda treat us alphabet people like we’re weak untouchable saints who need to be constantly supported – as long as we stay nice and neutered. Believe, I came across too many of them. I’m a big boy, I can take it as long as it’s funny.
Are you trans, or just under the umbrella? Cuz if you’re not trans, its not on you to speak for trans people.
It was written from my perspective, if you’re able to read. Browsed through your comments… eh… not worth the time. sry. Too old for that shit.
Kay, so like, the point is a lot of trans people feel like Chappelle is shitting on them. Being LBGIA but not T doesn’t really make you an authority on how trans people should feel about it.And yes, I am trans. Fuck Chappelle.
I mean that’s objectively untrue. You seem mentally unwell.
He was the last person I expected to take the Roseanne route but I guess you never know who will snap.
He joked about people being dumb for not wearing masks in between puffs of a cigarette? You do you, Dave, but you are undermining your whole point.
Strangely, the hailstorm sketch kind of killed the momentum of the episode for me a bit. They had two fake news broadcasts going back-to-back as sketches, surely they could have mixed things up a bit more? Other than that minor complaint, it was a pretty solid episode.
I really liked the hailstorm sketch but I would have preferred it away from the news format. Years ago they would have done a documentary interview type format.
I really liked the hailstorm sketch but I would have preferred it away from the news format. Years ago they would have done a documentary interview type format.
Does anyone remember when Trump tweeted about every episode? They used to piss him off so much that it might have affected personnel decisions. That feels so long ago.I thought that I would want that to happen again with his defeat magnifying his unhappiness. But now, I don’t care about him and I want him to die fairly soon in a publicity vacuum.
“These sketches—and I know they are popular—damaged Saturday Night Live. Not just because they sucked, though they almost unfailingly did. But because it showed SNL’s whole ass when it comes to how willing it is to settle for popular and newsworthy instead of having anything to say.”Sorry, can’t agree here. That’s like saying a nudist of 20 years shocked everyone by continuing to be a nudist. This is nothing new for SNL. They had a much more consequential role in the 2000 election, given their mostly fun, positive portrayal of W for many months alongside their portrayal of Gore as a try-hard nerd, and given the closeness of that election (much closer than 2016 or 2020 were); instead of facing any reality about the result (not to mention the resulting 9/11 or the Iraq invasion), they continued to paint him as a loveable, flustered bumbler, with Weekend Update mostly limited to cutesiness in-between Tina’s somewhat tin-eared moments of posturing. Lorne and NBC got what they wanted out of that situation, as they did with Palin in 2008 and Trump in 2015. Of the three occasions, this is probably the one where those at the show seemed the most genuinely regretful, and it has hung over SNL like a cloud ever since, from that “Hallelujah” cold open in Dave’s first episode all the way to Che a few weeks back trolling the show and NBC for having him host to Jost basically breaking some unwritten Update anchor rule by endorsing Biden. That doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, especially in the ways of repentance, but it’s the most you are going to get from SNL, the milquiest of milquetoast, corporate political enterprises.
As for the Biden cold opens being worse than Trump’s, can’t agree there either. They are usually too long (although the last two were shorter so that’s one positive step), and the Kamala memefest portions make me cringe, but they’re mostly just kind of flat. Nowhere near as hideous as most of the Trumpwin pieces, lowlights including that “storm’s a comin’” with Stormy Daniels, that bewildering cold open with Jimmy Fallon where Trumpwin called him a twink, the musical numbers, and so on and so forth.
I think it’s fair to say SNL’s portrayal of George HW Bush left a bigger mark on the public’s perception and memories of him than he himself ever did. It was also a great example of how you do political humor – establish your own version of the person and ride with it.
I would agree. The political writing of that era was a certain sweet spot, although that was also a much less polarized period. And they never really had to worry about whether they were going to influence an election. In a lot of ways Dana Carvey’s impressions remind me of the tone Kate McKinnon tends to take, mainly in not wanting to be too mean and being friendly with the main people she has done famous impressions of.
let’s not forget chevy’s ford. his impression was shit – didn’t try to look like ford or talk like him – it was just the deadpan delivery & the falling down – but it nailed ford for many people.
People honestly believed Ford was some sort of klutz thanks to Chase’s impression (which as you note wasn’t even really am impression). The guy played football at Michigan, for crying out loud!
Chappelle’s homophobia is tired.
That was largely not a good episode. I’d probably give this on a C but I’ll give them a Passing grade instead because like much us of this week, I doubt they got much work done. Instead, they just kept refreshing their browsers checking voting totals.Also, one of the many side benefits of Trump losing the election, we should finally be rid of Alec Baldwin’s awful Trump impression and maybe, just maybe, less Alec Baldwin all together. Best career move that guy ever made was being friends with Lorne Michaels.
I know everyone’s down on Carrey’s Biden, but I’m too big a Carrey fan. Apart from the occasional Weekend Update joke, SNL is more about the crowd-pleasing cheap-seat moments in their political sketches, knowing they’re not going to compete on the “having something say” front with Colbert, Oliver, Bee, Meyers, Noah, etc. In that vein, I’m more than content for Carrey to pull out a cathartic Ace Ventura catchphrase while Maya Rudolph struggles to keep a straight face and Alec Baldwin plays sad piano Macho Man. It was the release I needed after this week.
Beck’s character has been sober for a month, got hooked on pills and coke, has/had herpes (which Ego’s character likely has), shooting porn, lied about his age (probably making her a statutory rapist), carries a gun, wears an ankle monitor because he exposed himself to children at the playground, and is running from the police. (Did I miss anything?) Yet the girlfriend who dumped him is the ultimate loser (“he loves me”). Ruined a good premise.
I enjoyed the last two sketches more than a lot of people seemed to – they felt like an attempt at something different, which I always appreciate with cookie cutter SNL. The hail sketch didn’t quite come off (I don’t think the news framing was a good idea), but I liked the idea of the slow build to this weird, sweet love story, and Kate and Kenan were very good. I also liked the end with Alex and Ego giving in to their feelings (the show should do more with them – maybe Update). The DC Morning sketch was short and mostly worked for me…the Bronco ride with Don Jr and Trump gave me a cheap laugh (and was the first time SNL painted Don Jr. more as the piece of shit he generally is).The show was pretty sloppy and messy, but not as much in the self-indulgent way that irritates me; they were clearly feeling the moment and I can’t blame them for that. Even the cheering and clapping for Carrey and Maya at the start was clearly such a moment of release for the audience (an audience made up of a lot of people Trump has spent the last 4 years dumping on). I could even enjoy Kate’s Rudy take this time, thanks to her interplay with Colin. And because this is probably the last time we will ever have to see it. When I think about how much some at SNL used to kiss Rudy’s ass, it’s a real turnabout to see this stuff the last few years. Couldn’t happen to a nicer d-bag.I don’t have the strong opinions of Dave Chappelle many have, but his charisma was fascinating to watch in that rambling monologue. In some ways I preferred it to his 2016 monologue as it had much more of an old school, disconnected flow, like you were in the club with him, your eyes burning from the smoke.
So how much time did he devote to talking about how trans people are ruining it for the rest of the “alphabet people”, or complaining about how censored he is while hosting one of the most recognized and longest running television programs of all time?
Is it possible that Jim Carrey got the coveted Joe Biden cold open recurring spot because of the envisioned moment where his indifferently impersonated Biden would get to call Donald Trump a loser.First thing that came to my mind as well.
“and the inevitable award-winning HBO film will tell.”
Narrated by Werner Herzog or GTFO…
The “bad on both sides” joke bombed because Chappelle’s delivery of the punchline was off.I think the reason that he could smoke indoors was because some states allow smoking indoors if it’s part of a performance (to paraphrase Doug Stanhope: “So they don’t mess up some old Tennessee Williams play”). Kate McKinnon relatively often plays characters who are holding a lit cigarette, although you rarely see her actually take a drag. I wonder if she’s a smoker in real life.Does anyone else here know if the “performative smoking” rule is in effect in New York?Finally, seeing Dave Grohl and Pat Smear on SNL just reminds me of how excited I was when Nirvana was on SNL in 1993. The Foo Fighters performance didn’t really do anything for me.
What was the deal with the green wristband McKinnen wore as Giuliani? I kept wondering if it was some hyper-specific actual detail, like maybe something from a strip club he visited.
Earlier this week, he was wearing a hospital bracelet during one of his press conferences.
Ah, yes. Thanks.
trump voters can all die for all i care. fuck them for making the world worse
I’m pretty sure the N-word got more airtime than on any SNL ever tonight.Maybe but nothing will ever beat this.
Honest question — why is it not racist for Chappelle to say what he did about white people? Isn’t judging people because of the colour of their skin the literal definition of racism? I get the consequences were/are worse for having black skin versus white skin, I get that that reality is fucked up and needs to be fixed immediately. But why is calling white people, writ large, bad okay? Imagine a South-Eastern Asian person saying exactly what Chappelle said about White people, but directed at Black people, let alone a White person saying such things, with the races flipped. And don’t come at me with that “Black people can’t be racist” bullshit, because it’s bullshit. Judging someone by their race/color of their skin is racist, period.
If only he could apply his own wisdom to gender issues
Chappelle is a hell of a storyteller. His monologue didn’t always hit, but when it hit. It hit. It was interesting that he’s doing the suit/smoking style. It’s a throwback, but it worked for me.
i prefered john mulaney’s bit about the girl who wants to leave the sleep-over.
I get that it was more a response to the election than anything else, but this episode was just bad. There wasn’t really anything noteworthy in its response to the election, and as a comedy show, its ostensible reason for being, it was pretty brutal. Part of its glaring low quality was very likely due to it being a record number of consecutive weekly episodes, but I think it was also hurt a lot by Chappelle. In other contexts I like Chappelle, but the thing I got most strongly from him was an incredible apathy, and almost disrespect, for the entire proceedings. His rambling monologue was typical of his unfocused stand-up work – a couple of small bits loosely connected by random conversation – but it really doesn’t work here, particularly as it ended without SNL’s typical recognition of the band and a call to come right back, replaced with a mic drop and Chappelle just sort of standing there. It kind of seemed like he just forgot he was supposed to do that, and in the moment decided to just stand there resolute, but it was weird, and was made weirder by the return from commercial break to him still standing there. That turned out to be him introducing the next sketch, which is also weird but ended up sort of working, but it was a series of odd, atypical transitions that really disrupted the flow. Then his first action in that sketch was to break, and even when he could keep it together, it was notably low-effort. And despite his claims of not getting paid for his show being on Netflix, he did mention it twice, first in the monologue, then again apropos of nothing in the farewells, which just seemed super tacky. If he doesn’t care about SNL, he shouldn’t go on it; going on and being so apathetic is insulting to the audience. This was just a stumbling, going-through-the-motions exercise to meet expectations of a response. It felt like a mediocre assignment handed in by a student at 4 am, too tired to care about anything but getting it in.
we’ll allow it.
Dave pretty much dominated and then that weird Mario sketch for white people came on. No thanks.
I’M NOT AN ACTOR
That’s all, were you waiting for something else?
I’m glad the cast and crew are getting a break, and you can definitely see and feel the weight of six episodes in a row. Oddly, I never felt as much of a level of burnout as I did in the early episodes of season 45, which followed a more normal schedule – those episodes were full of certain cast members (frequently Aidy, Kate and Cecily) breaking over and over. I wonder if it’s because they are long-timers and had less to lose, whereas this season’s episodes had newer cast members who can’t afford to be as sloppy. Or maybe there’s just too much tension with all the COVID precautions to be in the same type of mood. Overall I have enjoyed the season more than a number of others seem to so far. The usual problems are still there (poorly structured writing, iffy cast use, those cold opens, cameos), and the lack of polish means you don’t really get any knockout moments, but the freewheeling and experimental tones to the season, the different writers getting on, the shift in tone of the pre-tapes, plus the fleshing out of cast airtime (even if that has never gone as far as it could have) have finally made me feel like something is shifting in the show – the transition that has been stalling for years finally moving forward. Of course it can’t really proceed until Jost, Che, and various longtime cast go, but at least it finally seems to be going somewhere. I guess we’ll see what happens when Aidy and Cecily are back and if they try to just return to status quo.
As far as how dour the outlook for the opening sketches looks with Carrey as Biden, I’m hoping they just retire the notion of starting the episode with a political sketch altogether now that President Pussy Grabber is on his way out of office. I feel like they only did it because they felt somewhat responsible for his being elected president after having him host the show, so they felt the need to put their mockery of him front and center. And besides, President Biden just isn’t going to be ripe for comedy the way President Trump was. You could count on something ridiculous coming out of this administration multiple times a week so it made the emphasis easier to justify (even if what came of it didn’t always work). I don’t see them mining the Biden presidency for comedy nearly as much.Hopefully they just retire the concept of the opening sketch being political every week for good. It served it’s purpose and that purpose is now obsolete.
* The cold opens were never that good, but without reservation this was the best performance for Carrey and one of the best for Baldwin (Rudolph is uniformly great — what’s that about women being overpaid,Dave?). Macho Man and Loooseer? It’s a classic.* You are underrating how strong Ego was playing straight woman to Beck Bennet in the Keith sketch. Her reactions were perfect. “that’s not how Herpes works, Keith!”* Weekend Update and the Nintendo sketch were the weakest part of the show, though I would call neither bad, just average.* Dave Chappelle doing Denis Haysbert’s Allstate voice was far funnier then I could ever have imagined. I want an app that gives me the Allstate voice.* i thought it was perfectly clear from delivery that Chapelle knew that saying women should be payed half what men make was ridiculous ie funny.* I guess Dave is past his middle age crisis weightlifting period.
Did you see Chappelle barely hold it together after using his modulated voice?
I think he started to crack even before he spoke, he must have known how ridiculous it sounded from rehearsal.
in the Weekend Update at 3:58 when he says “Erie” what’s the first thing you thought? Yes she’s exactly who I thought of too, the same as anyone else who has watched movies, Christina Ricci. You don’t even need the additional cue from “Pennsylvania” the address of the White House because he’s already talking about a President of the United States of America. Why the fuck would you do this, what can you possibly think you could gain from saying Christina Ricci will one day be the President of the United States of America. She isn’t on any of the traditional career paths of previous actors turned politicians she’s forty years old how rapidly would things have to go wrong and how badly for this to happen. How much worse will you have made it for her for everyone by saying it this way.
Again, and again, and again “this video is not available in your country”.AV Club: In case you forgot, this is the internet and you’re an international publication. Stop with the videos that only play in the united states. I’m sure you have excuses for why this is, I don’t care. Your site is accessible worldwide, the fact that your videos aren’t reflects poorly on you. Fix it.
Why blame AV Club and not the SNL YouTube channel?
Oh I blame them too.
Chapelle’s monologue had its moments. But he still says dumb shit and jack-rabbits to the back of the stage (like he’s trying to avoid rotten cabbages).Smoking on stage was a shit thing to do. Even people who won’t wear masks know what a death-sentence that is: so don’t encourage it. In fact, smoking like that looked like “I know I’m fucked and being a Black man has nothing to do with it).
I was expecting the guy on the box of Cream of Wheat to appear with Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben in their performance review. And the Foo Fighters to bring more energy to their acts.I don’t know about you, but I always found the opening sketches with Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump hilarious, because comedy makes his idiocy and cruelty IRL easier to endure, and it takes away his power over us. It’s the same reasoning they had for doing impressions of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein after 9/11; those guys were all about spreading fear to project power, and showing them as idiots and morons took away their power.
Kate and Kenan together are great, and can do no wrong. Good to see Ego get more screen time. As for the opens, they just are not funny. Of course, most cold opens in the history of the show have been flops, but I agree, let’s just stick with in-house talent. Cecily could do a passable Kamala. I am convinced at this point that Mikey Day can do anyone – looking at him work with both Alex and Kyle, I think he works really well with just about anyone, and may be the underestimated regular on the show.Dave Chappelle – really mixed for me as well. He seems to be stuck in the 90s, and does not realize that cracking on women (“hehe, women are dumb”) and gay people are just about two decades out of date. He can do better, which made it all the worse. He even showed it at other points in the monologue.
I’m skeptical that Nintendo had much of a role in associating their brand with a long sketch about a guy’s dick and balls getting sanded off, honestly
Sure, let’s be humble winners. Let’s acknowledge that this victory is no vindication of centrism, that we owe this outcome to a lot of people who voted for Biden because they hate Trump, not because they wanted Biden, that Biden now has 4 years to actually earn their support, or we’ll have another Trump situation on our hands. Let’s acknowledge that there’s still a pandemic, out of control, death tolls rising, racism and white supremacy as popular as ever, gulf between rich and poor ever widening, ice caps melting, etc, etc.. – that this outcome is not a solution to any of this yet, maybe a first step at best, just a promise and one that will be exceedling hard to fulfill. Let’s acknowledge that Trump is just the pus accumulating in the rotten tooth – removing it will grant short time relief, but solve nothing as long as the cyst of white supremacy from the botched root canal of reconstruction is still there, just waiting for the next inflammation.
Let’s acknowledge that and it should keep us plenty humble for the years to come. So much work is yet to be done.
But now we can do it without constantly being bombarded by new brands of bullshit from the Trumpist-shitshow, and that _is_something to celebrate.
And if that celebration involves a bit of gloating towards Trumpists, so be it, you need to gather your roses while ye may. Humility is a virtue, but it isn’t everything, and there are plenty of better occasions to practice it.
But now we can do it without constantly being bombarded by new brands of bullshit from the Trumpist-shitshow, and that _is_something to celebrate.Maybe not from the White House but certainly from his Mar a Lago exile. He isnt going away and Trumpism will graft more closely to the militia movement.
Sure, but I still think there are some bright sides:
1) To the opportunists it’s going to be less attractive now that he’s got the stink of the loser.
2) At least some of the shit will now also be directed at establishment Republicans he will feel deserted by (assuming that they do actuallyy desert him eventually – right now, most of them seem to be keeping their options open, and we’re not enitrely out of the woods yet – there may still be that coup he’s so clearly planning. That said, I don’t think Four Seasons Total Landscaping was a terribly auspicious start and I would assume establishment Republicans have some better lawyers than Guiliani, so even those who are still making noises of support for Trump don’t seem too serious about it).
Im more concerned about the last three words of my post.
No argument here, that is a troubling thought. But that connection is just as dangerous with Trump officially in power, so on that front, it’s a wash. But absolutely, getting him out, doesn’t immediately solve all problems.
“Defiantly smoking onstage”Nicotine is a hell of a drug.
Oddly, the moment that hit me hardest in this episode was that clip of OJ in the white Bronco. I remember turning on the TV in 1994 and seeing that and having no idea what was going on. In a way it’s the event that’s closest in my memories to the surreal horror of the Trump years – feeling like we’ve somehow gotten trapped in a really bizarre and awful TV show for 26 seasons.
Chappelle’s energy is very much that of a rural conservative these days. There’s a lot of libertarian, live and let live philosophy with a lot of punching down on people he never has to interact with because he lives in a sparsely populated mostly conservative town. He’s still funny and very smart, but the genuine humanity, the connection to other people seems missing in favor of an optimistic nihilism.
So will Donald Trump be SNL’s last guest this year or first guest next year?
I’m exhausted by NBC’s faux resistance hunt for ratings. I don’t think any network/family of networks has profited more from him or put him in the spotlight more. Hell, I bet The Apprentice will come back, too.
You have an alarming conception of fascism, if it can be defeated this easily.
I kept thinking of the producers, having to figure out which sketch, or sketches to trim or delete to accommodate the extra long monologue. And then having to re-configure the plan for the sets and makeup to go along with the changes. That probably contributed to the shortened sketch.
I knew I’d seen this on Twitter last week!
I really, really don’t mind Maya Rudolph showing up every week, but just… add her to the opening credits already. Put her in the “Featuring” section, maybe. Or, right after the featured players but before the musical guest, “AND… Maya Rudoph!” Every actor loves an AND.
Did anybody else get a “Lenny Bruce” vibe off of Chappelle? Or am I hallucinating again?
Unlike Trump, I don’t think Biden will feature as much, since he simply won’t be as prolific in generating scandal and ridiculousness. Same goes for Harris. Hopefully, this will allow SNL to leave the politics for Weekend Update, mostly.
The murderous whites line was funny
“I would implore everybody who’s celebrating today to remember it’s good to be a humble winner.”
No.
and talked about his empathy for that half of the country who—this time—feel terrible, it was breathtaking NO.
This was an original thinker and master storyteller speaking his way
through to the heart of the public discourse—and diagnosing our shared
disease.
FUCKING NO.There is no empathy for fascists who want to cage and murder minorities and anyone who opposes their leader’s oppression. Fighting against people who are planning a pro-fascist anti-minority second Civil War is not a “shared disease.” People on the right need to disavow and apologize, or they need to never speak or do anything in public ever again.The “original thinker and master storyteller” has, over the last 15 years, turned into a rich, out-of-touch, Louis CK-enabling, transphobic, self-defensive, punching-down comedian. And it’s horseshit for him to preach “And I—don’t hate anybody” when he shits on trans people and accuses people who don’t laugh of being “triggered”.