What Did You Miss When John Cena Hosted Saturday Night Live?
Unfortunately not much. This episode of SNL, hosted by wrestling superstar John Cena, was not what you’d call top ten material. After months of somewhat exciting cold opens, this week’s cold open going over Trump’s cabinet choices without Alec Baldwin covering the role of Trump fell flat. As much as we love Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway, it would have been nice to see SNL cover a non-Trump subject as long as Alec was unavailable or uninterested in coming in. Even a surprise cameo from Bryan Cranston reprising his role as Breaking Bad’s Walter White couldn’t save the opening sketch. Walter White appeared as the new head of the DEA, funny joke, but his appearance was so underwritten, it basically amounted to him coming out and saying “Hello, you know me as Walter White from TV’s Breaking Bad, and I like drugs.” A few of White’s lines- “I know the DEA better than anyone inside and out,” he said. “I like that wall he wants to build, nothing comes in from Mexico meaning a lot less competition for the rest of us,” and “it’s time to make America cook again.” Both Cranston, and Walter deserved better.
But what lacked in the cold open was made up for in Cena’s monologue peppered with some of our favorite SNL stars getting to create their own wrestling characters. Cena kicked off the monologue acknowledging that most wrestling fans were also Trump voters, and so Hillary fans might not know who he is, before being interrupted by the three costumed cast members. Bobby Moynihan revealed himself to be the Waddler dressed in a Rowdy Roddy Piper-esque kilt with a tagline of “I just move real weird.” Kenan Thompson creeped up on Cena with a folding chair wearing a full length leather duster before regretting that decision, and Leslie Jones made an appearance as Leslie Jones ready to put her “whole tongue” in Cena’s chin dimple. Was it objectively funny? Maybe not, but if you have love for SNL’s cast, and we do, seeing them dressed up and skulking around trying to sneak up on Cena was – well, the word is adorable.
Weekend Update continued to be funny, but not necessarily break out funny, and welcomed two characters this week with a hit and a miss. Kate McKinnon appeared as German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Weekend Update character sketch worth watching. Merkel cleared up a lot of things from the German perspective. She said that finding out Trump won Time’s Person of the Year this year was like “winning the Nobel Prize for physics and then the next year they give it to Hoobastank.” She also explained that the Alt-Right is what Germans call “why grandpapa lives in Argentina now”, and shared some other insights on 2016. Cecily Strong’s Cathy Anne character didn’t work as well, discussing pizza-gate in what felt a bit like a re-tread of one of Kate McKinnon’s lesser characters. You can watch both below.
Next week, the show will be live, and it will be the last live episode of the season before the show goes on it’s mid-season three week holiday break. Casey Affleck will host.
