Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: August 26, 2017

Who is Hosting SNL Tonight?

If you’re watching tonight’s repeat episode of Saturday Night Live, you’ll be watching some history because it was Aziz Ansari’s first time hosting SNL. There’s also more history involved with this rerun. The episode airing tonight at 11:30pm on NBC was originally taped on Saturday, January 21, 2017. The day after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America. At this point in time, everything felt surreal, no matter what side of the aisle you sat on.

There were high expectations for this episode, especially with an Emmy award winning comedian who had also been honored by his peers and named Comedy Person of the Year the previous summer at Just For Laughs in Montreal, as the host of the show. Those expectations were especially focused on Aziz Ansari’s monologue which unfortunately was underwhelming. The IBang had reported that Aziz was working out his SNL monologue in clubs all around NYC. However, the pressure of being the first monologue of the Trump administration and knowing that the new President was most likely watching, may have been too much for Aziz and his comedy aesthetic. His first ever Saturday Night Live monologue was described as being too preachy and too serious. He talked about Americans treating each other with respect no matter how they voted and he included a message for racists. The swearing in of Donald Trump that weekend, brought back all the shock and horror of Election Night for those that supported Hillary Clinton and Aziz Ansari’s monologue missed the mark when it came to giving the audience some comedic relief.

The rest of this repeat episode had its fair share of hits and misses. One thing notably absent in the cold open was Alec Baldwin as brand new President Trump. Lorne Michaels went in a different direction and gave the cold open to Beck Bennett’s shirtless Vladimir Putin character. Beck and Kate McKinnon give a hysterical Russian perspective to the inauguration of the new President that Russia paid good money for.

Also on the plus-side of the night, were sketches featuring Aziz Ansari as a client in a legal parody spot who got stuck with the weak link of the law firm representing him with Bobby Moynihan killing it as the pathetic barrister. Another hit to watch for in tonight’s repeat, is Aziz Ansari and newcomer to the cast, Melissa Villaseñor in a sketch about a couple trying out some dirty talk in bed to try to spice up their love life.

Sketches that ended up missing the comedy target or were otherwise forgettable included a man facing interrogation for not liking the Oscar winning film, La La Land, a game show parody called “Beat the Bookworm” and a purely silly offering about cops raiding a Chuck E. Cheese’s type restaurant with Aziz and the cast playing members of an animatronic band. Even though the sketch was pointless, it’s worth a look tonight to watch Bobby Moynihan as the band’s drummer.

The digital shorts in this week’s SNL rerun included a fantastic parody of the Broadway show, “Chicago” featuring Kate McKinnon as White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and a short with Bobby Moynihan and Aziz Ansari as an Uber driver and passenger respectively who are both battling for a 5 star rating.

The promos for this week’s episode with Aziz Ansari had the first time host “making the moves” through Studio 8-H and Aziz with musical guest Big Sean and cast member Medium Kate McKinnon who promises she’ll be ready for SNL despite her foot doctor appointment.

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