Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy show that has been airing for 44 years and holds an importance place in television history, known for hiring comedians and writers that later become famous (ex. John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, etc.). In this episode, the musician Halsey is both the musical guest and the host. The cast includes 14 regular actors, with 8 males and 6 females. The cast members include: Beck Bennet, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Kate Mckinnon, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Pete Davidson, Leslie Jones, Kyle Mooney, Sasheer Zamata, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villasenor. Each cast member had to go through an extensive audition process, and many are known for their other creative endeavors (actresses Kate Mckinnon and Leslie Jones were in the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, Aidy Bryant is airing her own show on Hulu, etc.). Most have been on the show for 1-5 seasons, except for Kenan Thompson, who is performing in his 14th season on the show. Their sketches and “news” element (The Weekend Update) often make jokes about recent events, whether that be politics, technology, scandals, internet phenomenons, or anything else that could be ironic, satirical, or hilarious to a national audience. In fact, their political sketches reached recent infamy as President Trump tweeted his displeasure of actor Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him in several sketches. Saturday Night Live airs at 11:30pm every Saturday on NBC.
11:30- Tonight’s cold open is called Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. It has Kyle Mooney, Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, and Kate Mckinnon. They are parodying a political sketch in a professional setting, but the first journalist question is “what do you think Jeff Baisos’s penis looks like?” and only one journalist (Leslie Jones) acts like this questioning is unusual. They relate his genitals to the state of the country and privacy-while also making jokes about newspaper headlines about penis puns. Mckinnon plays an old man, as she often does, from another area and says she likes to “be one of the boys” while drinking a “cold glass of blood” and discuss the art of switching penises.
11:35– Aidy Bryant joins later in the cold open sketch, also playing an old male politician in another room. She jokes that every time a photo of herself is posted, it’s flagged as “a d*** pick”, but the sketch is played as a very serious conversation. The sketch is ended by Mooney saying the well-known catchphrase “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
11:37- The opening credits play after the sketch, introducing all of the cast members and the host/musical guest, Halsey. Then Halsey enters the stage to perform her monologue.
11:39-It’s customary for the host to perform a monologue at the beginning of the show. This is Halsey’s first time hosting, and she first mentions how she’s from New Jersey. She discusses how she loves SNL and as a child looked up to the women on the show as role models.
11:40- The first commercial after the monologue is always a fake commercial, This one is a pre-filmed sketch about a spoof on the show “empire” starring Kenan Thompson as “Darius Trump”. The show is called “Them Trumps” and makes a joke about being pulled over as a person of color.
11:44- During the mid-commercials, there is a shot of the actors preparing for the next sketch.
11:45- The second sketch of the night is set at the Virginia capitol, and stars Kenan Thompson. It is making a joke about the blackface scandal involving Governor Northam and several other government employees. Thompson asks if anyone else wore blackface in college, and one (Pete Davidson) admits to dressing up as Mr. T. Another asks if it counts as blackface if it was a costume, or if it was in 80s (which both the scandals were in). The questions about blackface progressively get odder and odder, with one asking what if his contest won a contest as “blackest face” and wearing blackface as a “black woman”. Halsey asks what if she’s half black, and Kenan assumes she is biracial. However she said she dressed up as Michael Jackson as a child and adult. When he asks who’s done blackface, everyone in the room raises their hand.
11:56-The next sketch has an actor (Mikey Day) presenting an office floor plan to two of his co-workers until his parents call. They say they have nothing important to say and act like they’re just checking in, until he says he has to go and the father (Beck Bennet) mentions he broke all the bones in his leg and then hangs up. When Day calls back, the mother (Halsey) asks him how his new grill is, offhandedly mentions that she was shot, and then hangs up. They act like it’s a big deal when he continues to call back to ask about it, and then offhandedly mentions she ruined her hands in the “fall in the hole in the middle of the house”. His co-workers take an interest in their conversation as well.
12:01-In the same scene, Bennet then falls down the stairs and Day says he’s going to fly out the next day to help them out. Then Halsey offhandedly mentions that he has an identical twin brother that she gave up for adoption that’s living with them, and then hangs up again.
12:06-Aidy Bryant introduces Halsey for her mid-show performance. Halsey sings her popular song “Without Me” with a piano in the background.
12:12-Next is Weekend Update, with hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che. They joke about Governor Northam’s blackface scandal, 21 savage’s deportation, and suggests that Virginia would be better without a governor, just like the oscars. They also discuss a racist Gucci sweater and President Trump. Che breaks a few times during the Weekend Update, laughing a little bit between stories.
12:17-They also welcome cast member Melissa Villasenor to the Weekend Update for a segment, and she’s dressed like Lady Gaga. She performs a bit of the song “shallow” while doing an impression of Gaga. Villasenor first became famous from her various impressions. Colin Jost pretends to be confused during her segment.
12:22-Che welcomes two other actors in a segment playing a couple who promotes their relationship on Instagram. The girlfriend pretends to be annoyed with him and refers to Che and Jost as “the news boys”. They argue constantly when they are supposed to be a happy couple.
12:36-Continuing on Weekend Update, Alex Moffat plays a guest referred to as “The guy who just bought a boat”. He discusses how he recently just started respecting women while making jokes about women.
12:33-In the next sketch, Aidy Bryant plays the owner of a karaoke bar. Kate Mckinnon plays a nervous woman coming up to sing, before being interrupted before three girl sorority pledges that say they have to finish a scavenger hunt to get into the sorority, including Cecily Strong cutting a man’s hair and Melissa Vallinsenor giving Pete Davidson a bird and pushing someone’s dinner onto the floor. The sketch ends with their recruitment head not seeing any of it, so they say they have to do everything again.
12:39- Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson begin to discuss the importance of representation on the show throughout history, and then Kyle Mooney interrupts to say how important he thinks it is and then tried to “educate” the others about black history.
12:44-Halsey’s next performance of the show is announced, and she sang her song “Eastside” while painting a face on a canvas on the ground. Usually this song is a duet, but Halsey sang both parts.
12:49-The next sketch is a group of people at dinner, and Kenan Thompson says that he’s been fired from being a mailman but he’s resourceful, and then offhandedly mentions that he’s been doing cam modeling online to the horror of his wife (Leslie Jones) until she sees how much money he’s been making. Then she says that the children should support the fathers “small business”. During the sketch, other men came by the table to mention how much they liked the husbands work.
12:55-The next sketch is a spoof of the popular show “Riverdale”. Pete Davidson plays a corpse in a morgue that won’t stop making noises. The director (Kenan Thompson) stops the recording to tell him to stop speaking. So instead, Davidson flops around on the table to try and be an “accurate” corpse. Thompson stops the recording again to tell him to stop, and Davidson reveals he lived in a morgue for three months. Thompson finally agrees to let corpse Davidson do whatever he wants, including scream “avenge me!”.
1:00-Halsey and the rest of the cast wishes the audience a good night and the credits roll.
Conclusion: I noticed that Kenan Thompson was in almost every sketch tonight, which makes sense as he has been on SNL the longest. Many of the sketches had to do with politics. Halsey had two separate performances, but as she was also the host and in almost all of the sketches, most likely had to do a lot of fast work in hair and makeup. There were a lot of commercial breaks, as the cast had to do several costume and makeup changes. There were no mistakes or real laughter breaks tonight (except a few from Michael Che) and all the lines were either memorized or read off of cue cards, as they are for every episode.
Jordan and Comm 232 