Watch Saturday Night Live Highlights: Black Jeopardy Stole the Show Plus Debate 3 and Halloween Highlights
Last night, a Tom Hanks helmed Saturday Night Live was solid, but probably not one for the history books. The episode opened strong with another great Trump-Hillary Debate, and an even stronger edition of Black Jeopardy featuring Hanks. In addition to focusing on the election, Saturday’s episode was also the Halloween episode- the show is off next week. The Halloween themed bits were solid, including a digital short about Girls Night Out on Halloween, and after a poor attempt at dumb-funny with last week’s “drive-thru” sketch, SNL came back strong with this week’s stupid but funny David Pumpkins sketch. Other moments of note- Tom Hanks’ Dad Monologue giving America a heart to heart, and Leslie Jones is not done talking about being hacked yet. In a Weekend Update sketch, she had some more to get off her chest.
Black Jeopardy
The undisputed episode highlight last night among Team Interrobang was a hilarious edition of Black Jeopardy that had the best writing of the night. The episode featured Kenan Thompson as the Black Jeopardy host, and Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones and a redneck white trash Tom Hanks as contestants. Categories included “Big Girls,” “MM…I Don’t Know,” “You Better,” “I’m Gonna Pray on This,” “They Out There Saying,” and “White People.”
Trump vs Clinton Debate 3
McKinnon and Baldwin were back to parody Debate 3. Tom Hanks portraying Chris Wallace opened the show with a perfect line. “Tonight is a lot like the third Lord of the Rings movie. You don’t want to watch, but hey you’ve come this far.” Baldwin’s Trump addressed his counterpart’s noticeably sedated demeanor last Wednesday, calling himself a sweet baby Trump, that is until the topic of abortion came up. Of course, Baldwin mentioned “ripping babies”, “puppets” and “bad hombres,” something we (and everyone else in America) predicted. One of the funniest lines of the debate was when addressing immigration, “Trump” thought the Mexican first family’s names were Senor Guacamole, his wife Taquito, and their kids, Chips and Salsa. Other highlights included Hillary showcasing “the pivot”, and a planetary reaction to Trump’s famous “nobody has more respect for women than I do.” And finally, the real reason Trump thinks the election is rigged.
Haunted Elevator (David Pumpkins)
Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon are a couple out for Halloween frights who board the thrill ride, 100 Floors of Frights. Kenan Thompson is along for the ride as the elevator operator taking the couple through the scares and frights, including a very unscary character David Pumpkins. Pumpkins, played by Hanks, makes no sense (“it’s his own thaaaaang”)- neither do his two dancing skeletons (“they’re paaaart of it”). Yes, it’s stupid, but stupid can be funny, and Haunted Elevator is a hit.
A Girls Halloween
Girls, you understand this one. You’ve been there. For everyone else, this digital short contrasts the promising way Halloween starts out for girls– the dreams, the plans, the expectations– with the horrific reality of Halloween night.
Leslie Jones Has Some More to Say About Being Hacked
Leslie Jones isn’t done talking about being hacked this summer. She wants to make it clear that you can not embarrass her because she isn’t shy, calling herself an open book. If you want to see Leslie Jones naked, “just ask.” She goes through some of her ‘most embarrassing’ moments like, she said, “in the third grade when I told this boy Johnnie that I liked him and he hit me in the back of the head with a rock,” and “when I had a fake wedding with El DeBarge in my bedroom” and “when Prince was walking toward me all happy to see me until he realized that I was not Chris Rock.” She also explained the difference between a real troll and an internet troll.
Tom Hanks Message to America
Instead of opting for funny, Tom Hanks went a bit more cinematic for his opening monologue. A magazine called him America’s Dad, recently, and he dove right in, with a chat to his “son”, America. Not a lot of big laughs, but well written and clever.
Saturday Night Live is taking off next week- maybe they’ve got a Halloween party to attend- but the show returns on November 5 with host Benedict Cumberbatch and musical guest Solange.
