Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: August 25, 2018

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Ryan Gosling hosts tonight’s Saturday Night Live repeat and yes, he’s got a case of the giggles.

All throughout the summer, Saturday Night Live has been airing reruns, all pulled from SNL – Season 43. Tonight at 11:30pm on NBC, we see how that season kicked off with the Season 43 premiere episode which originally aired September 30, 2018. This show was the second time Ryan Gosling hosted SNL, but there was plenty of first-timers on this episode. Besides bringing on several new members of the writing staff, the start of SNL – Season 43 was also the debut of three new cast members. This show will go down in history as the coming out party for cast members Chris Redd, Heidi Gardner and Luke Null. It worked out great for two of the three, but unfortunately Luke Null won’t be around for the SNL – Season 44 premiere after parting ways after just one season. We still don’t have a premiere date for when Saturday Night Live returns this fall. We definitely know it will be after September 17th because that’s when Weekend Update anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che host the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on NBC.

This season premiere which re-airs tonight features some returning favorites as well including Alec Baldwin as President Trump back to humiliate and taunt the real President for another season. Baldwin was just off an Emmy Award victory for playing Donald J. Trump during SNL‘s previous 2016 – 2017 election year season and he was back for more. In tonight’s SNL Cold Open, you’ll see Baldwin as Trump back from the golf course to deal with hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz played cast member Melissa Villaseñor. Trump is assisted by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a character created by cast member Aidy Bryant towards the end of the previous season and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, played uniquely by cast member Kate McKinnon, who ends up sitting on President Trump’s lap. How far have these two come in real life since last season? Now Trump is attacking Sessions in TV interviews while the USAG is hissing back at Trump, much like the opossum SNL portrays him to be.

Another returning favorite you’ll see tonight which started host Ryan Gosling off on an evening of breaking the fourth wall by laughing, is another edition of the alien abduction sketch called “Another Close Encounter.” This recurring sketch features three people who have been kidnapped by extraterrestrials and are being questioned by the government. The victims are played by Ryan Gosling, Cecily Strong and Kate McKinnon who keeps everyone in the audience, at home and even on stage with her laughing during the sketch as Ms. Rafferty, the woman who experiences an invasive examination by the space creatures while the other two have a spiritual awakening, leading to Ms. Rafferty’s endless galaxy full of nicknames for her “taco and choco.” Tonight, be sure to listen to the huge applause and cheering from the audience as soon as they recognize Ms. Rafferty’s chest high jeans and her camel-toe highlighted sitting position.

Ryan Gosling began his SNL monologue by plugging his then-upcoming movie, “Blade Runner 2049” co-starring Harrison Ford. However, the gist of his opening remarks regarded his film from the previous year, “La La Land,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture for about two minutes until a mistake was corrected and the Oscar went to “Moonlight.” The monologue features Ryan Gosling taking credit for saving jazz music in America with the popularity of the film. A myth dispelled by a drop-in from Kenan Thompson and a cameo by a real Oscar winner from “La La Land.”

Tonight’s Saturday Night Live rerun has a lot of sketches and SNL – Digital Shorts that are worth watching again. These include a sketch featuring Ryan Gosling and Cecily Strong caught up in the horrors of appearing in a secret blind taste test commercial and sketch about yet another house renovation reality show called “The Fliplets” with cast members Mikey Day and Alex Moffat along with Gosling as brothers who flip houses with Gosling being the odd triplet out who reveals some weird, dark family secrets. Two SNL – Digital Shorts in tonight’s repeat are among the best moments of the entire night. In the first, Ryan Gosling is the spokes- model for “Levi’s Wokes“, which are jeans that that defy gender considerations and break down all denim barriers. The other short is called “Papyrus” and it stars Gosling as a man on a film noir mission to figure out the conspiracy behind the font used by James Cameron in the key-art titles used in the film “Avatar.”

Of course, not every sketch in tonight’s SNL repeat were winners or even made sense for that matter. Please time your restroom or walk-the-dog breaks tonight during these sketches. The first is called “Henrietta & The Fugitive“. It’s got Ryan Gosling as a criminal on the lam and befriended by a chicken (Aidy Bryant in a chicken suit) who falls in love with him. How this made it pass the initial writers’ room pitch at SNL is still a mystery. The sketch is very, very reminiscent of the “Chicken Lady” sketch created by Mark McKinney of The Kids in the Hall fame. Another sketch that you won’t mind missing is “Dive Bar” featuring a jazz trio comprised of Ryan Gosling and cast members Kenan Thompson and Kyle Mooney. The band’s bar performance quickly digresses into dark on-stage conversations about Gosling’s character’s pathetic life.

You’ll see in tonight’s repeat that the Weekend Update news team of Colin Jost and Michael Che didn’t lose a bit of their timing during the break heading into SNL – Season 43. This was mostly due to Jost & Che doing WU specials during the hiatus called “Weekend Update: Summer Edition.” The main topic that was covered in the Cold Open tonight was re-emphasized in Weekend Update; Trump’s total ineptness in dealing with the hurricane destruction in Puerto Rico and the lack of aid our fellow Americans were receiving. While Jost said that President Trump has broken George W. Bush’s record for presidential incompetence, Che comes right out with what he thinks of Trump’s pettiness regarding Puerto Rico. Weekend Update also offered commentary on topics including Blindness Awareness Month, a “fatberg,” STDs and Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow women to drive. In the first of the SNL – Season 43 visits to the Weekend Update desk were from Kate McKinnon as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Alex Moffat as resident douchebag “Guy Who Just Bought A Boat” who brings Ryan Gosling with him as another dude-bro.

In the first of the promos for tonight’s SNL encore, it’s a quick montage of everything from Ryan Gosling’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live in 2015. In the next set, Ryan Gosling is joined by musical guest JAY-Z, but oddly enough no cast member to drive the promos. The two talk about their promo energy level and when they first worked together. Actually it was JAY-Z doing the work.

Ryan Gosling hosts tonight’s encore presentation of the Saturday Night Live – Season 43 premiere episode with musical guest JAY-Z at 11:30pm on NBC.

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper