What Happened on SNL Last Night? A Few Bombs and One Instant Classic
Last night Kristen Stewart hosted Saturday Night Live and helmed a somewhat uneven episode, including a lackluster Trump-based cold open (maybe Amma Marfo has a point). But Stewart’s monologue was one of the evening’s highlights, and not just because she ended it by dropping the f-bomb on live television. “We’ve got a really great show, and I totally care that I’m here, cause it’s the coolest fucking thing ever,” she said, covering her mouth immediately realizing what she said. “And I’m sorry, and Alessia Cara is also here, and I’ll never come back, so stick around.” Before letting the fucks fly, Stewart’s monologue focused on the weird series of 11 tweets Donald Trump tweeted back in 2012, when Stewart was dating Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson. The tweets, by the way, are 100% real, and 100% bizarre. She wrapped up her monologue with a message to the President. “Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now, because I’m hosting SNL….and I’m like soooo gay dude.”
There were bombs of a different kind plaguing Weekend Update. Many of the jokes didn’t land, and Michael Che couldn’t seem to stay on track this week, with a big (and hilarious) goof about sending a dog “state up farm.” Later, Colin Jost rattled off the Weekend Update sign off before the segment was actually over. “Sorry, I started ending it,” Jost said, later adding “I want to quote our host from the monologue” referring to Stewart’s exclamation that she might never be back after messing up. Che reacted saying Jost may have just saved his job. Che was referring to a segment earlier in Saturday’s Weekend Update when Che was covering the story about Trump’s interview with Putin. Suggesting that our President should sugarcoat some information (like that the U.S. may have blood on its hands), Che had a hilarious flub. “If a kid’s dog dies you don’t tell ’em it got hit by a car. You tell ’em it went to a state up farm,” he said obviously meaning to say “farm upstate”. That segment got cut from the YouTube highlights. Yeah, there were disasters all over the place, but isn’t that why we love watching live television?
There was one highlight, and it’s a highlight that has Twitter jam packed with praise. Social media was crammed with posts calling Melissa McCarthy’s guest appearance as Press Secretary Sean Spicer brilliant, an Instant Classic, comedy perfection, and one of the best sketches ever. “Instant entry into the SNL pantheon for that one,” said one Tweeter. Seth Meyers tweeted that “Melissa McCarthy has a 108 MPH comedy fastball.” 15,000 followers agreed. McCarthy was flawless in her performance of a perfectly written sketch.
Much of the rest of the night was a series of disappointments. “Dry Fridays,” a sketch about college kids in a sort of detention for campus alcohol violations was awkward (watch it here), “Celebrity Family Feud,” normally a favorite sketch, just didn’t work (watch it here) and a short on immigration was a bit too on the nose to be interesting (watch it here). “Golden Ticket”, a remake of a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory answered the question most of us have been wondering since the sixties and was worth a few laughs for those who stayed up till the end of the show (watch it here) and SNL continued its streak of well made digital shorts with two strong additions. The first, a continuation of last year’s popular “Totino’s Pizza Rolls” Super Bowl short took the ad parody to the next level for Vanessa Bayer’s character when she has an encounter with Kristen Stewart in the kitchen. Less funny, but well produced “Meet Cute” stars Pete Davidson as “Steve” a man who finds love while buying a latte. #Manhadden
