What Did You Miss on Saturday Night Live Last Night?
Last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live was being heralded by critics and social media as an historic episode. Adam Sandler was returning to host for the first time since he left the show over 20 years ago. Did it meet everyone’s hyped expectations? If you ask Sandler and SNL superfans, the answer is resounding yes.
The real answer it is was a good episode that satisfied the itch Sandler fans have to see some old characters make appearances. There were a couple great sketches, and the rest were forgettable. Not an unusual week at all.
A good percentage of Sandlers time on the show were in musical moments– his monologue was performed in song, he sang as his Weekend Update Character, Opera Man, and he closed the show reprising the “Thinking About Chris Farley” song that closed out his Netflix Special and tour shows. It makes sense that Sandler would want to perform the song and video montage on the stage where he worked with his friend, but the rendition paled in comparison to the appearance in his “100% Fresh” highly lauded hour special. The clip from his special already has amassed 4.5 million views since it was released earlier this year. Watch that here.
Special guest appearances came from Sandlers former co-castmates Jimmy Fallon and Chris Rock, and a guest pop in from Kristin Wiig, and all were crowd pleasers. No visit from Alec Baldwin for a canteen boy reunion but a sketch about a Sandler family reunion served as a clever vehicle to squeeze in some Sandler character voices. Instead of forcing Sandler to revisit characters created when he was in his twenties, the sketch was set up when a waiter asked Adam how he comes up with his characters. Sandler’s answer- ‘they kind of just come to me’ – proves to be a lie as we see he based all his weirdo characters (in the sketch) on odd family members played by Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon, Shawn Mendes, Kyle Mooney, Mikey Day, Pete Davidson, Melissa Villaseñor, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat, Beck Bennett, and Leslie Jones.
Sandler brought back Opera-man who commented on current events through song, covering James Harden, Game of Thrones, Seth Rogen’s new movie, William Barr and KFC, candidates for President, Trump, and a reference to the Kentucky Derby that probably should have been rewritten last minute to cover the DQ.
But the best sketch of the night was not nostalgic at all- it was brand new. Titled “War Zone Reporter” the sketch starred Mikey Day as a journalist in a war torn region trying to report from the ground despite being unable to access satellites or use camera crews . He attempts to use his phone to call in his report, but can’t turn off Snap Chat filters. Sandler plays a lieutenant in the People’s Militia who joins Day’s broadcast. The show returns live next week, Saturday, May 11th with Emma Thompson hosting and musical guests, Jonas Brothers.
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