Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: August 4, 2018

at
Share This Post

In the middle of SNL’s summer of reruns, tonight’s Saturday Night Live repeat is hosted by one of 2017’s biggest breakout stars, Kumail Nanjiani!

Few people had a better 2017 than Kumail Nanjiani. Comedy fans already knew him from his stand up, his Comedy Central show “The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail” and his co-starring role on the HBO series “Silicon Valley.” However, Kumail reached a whole new audience with the independent hit film he co-wrote with his wife Emily V. Gordon and also starred in, called “The Big Sick.” The film was autobiographical and dealt with the first year of Kumail and Emily’s relationship. Not only did “The Big Sick” do great numbers at the box office and on demand for an indie, but it was a critical success as well, winning an Film Independent Spirit Award and garnering an Oscar nomination. These are the sort of credentials that grab SNL EP Lorne Michaels’ attention and gets a performer booked as a first-time host on Saturday Night Live.

While the first paragraph of this article focused completely on host Kumail Nanjiani, the episode of Saturday Night Live that he hosted did not. The spotlight on this weekend’s SNL-repeat, which originally aired early in the season on October 14, 2017, was on a scandal that at the time was still breaking in the news. The Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations had just overflowed from entertainment news and flooded the national conversation. The week before, fresh into the new SNL season, the late night variety show which in the past had no problem skewering front page headlines, was being accused of being too timid and too biased to take on one of show business’ own by ignoring the Weinstein scandal. Tonight at 11:30pm on NBC, you’ll see how Saturday Night Live answered back at the criticism.

This evening’s SNL encore dedicated an entire sketch to the Harvey Weinstein controversy. It featured a sketch set at the New York Film Festival and it consisted of a panel of motion picture legends, all brought together to discuss what would become known as the #MeToo movement in America. This sketch shows how strong the writing is on SNL and the power of cast member Kate McKinnon to make us laugh with less than funny subject matter. The “Film Panel” was made up of Viola Davis played by Leslie Jones, Marion Cotillard played Cecily Strong and it featured the return of one of Kate McKinnon’s great characters, old-time Hollywood actress Debette Goldry. McKinnon masterfully makes us laugh while exposing the disgusting behind-the-scenes sexual harassment that female actors have faced since the beginning of movies.

Weekend Update also took on the elephant in the room after two weeks of silence on the Weinstein subject. Anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che explained how difficult it is to write jokes about sexual assault and handled it by taking on Harvey Weinstein’s appearance. The Academy Award winning producer was referred to as both “chewed bubble gum rolled in cat hair” and “a well-dressed skin tag” during tonight’s Weekend Update. You can watch tonight to see again how Jost and Che surgically dismantle the former head of The Weinstein Company LLC.

The Update boys didn’t forget about their regular favorite target, President Donald J. Trump. Michael Che really takes Trump to task over his insistence of people saying “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.” With Trump recently taking credit for the return of “Merry Christmas” in Americans’ lives at a mid-term campaign rally, it makes tonight’s Weekend Update relevant all over again. The SNL news desk also has plenty of jokes about news items like Mike Ditka, North Korea and the latest Oreo flavor. Plus, Colin Jost and Michael Che get a visit from a woman who claims to be the first First Lady in Donald Trump’s life, his first wife, Ivana Trump played to almost maniacal perfection by cast member Cecily Strong, who probably made SNL history with this episode. Cecily also plays Melania Trump in an SNL – Digital Short in tonight’s repeat. This has to be the first time a cast member has played two of a U.S. President’s wives in one episode. Tune in tonight to watch history being made.

The SNL – Cold Open also teased our hapless Commander-in-Chief by bringing back Alec Baldwin to play our president. Baldwin’s Trump was at a Harrisburg, PA trucker rally addressing his supporters. Tonight’s cold open really comes off as a mash-up of SNL‘s leftover Trump jokes. There was no real purpose or news event to focus on for the writers to place Trump in, so what happens tonight is Alec Baldwin addressing several issues as Trump, including his tax plan, jokes about Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn), and the names (“moron”) then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had reportedly called him. The best part of the cold open is the hilarious drop-ins by cast member Beck Bennett as Veep Mike Pence. The real VP had just unsuccessfully tried to make a staged walk-out at an Indianapolis Colts game look spontaneous. Pence had obviously been ordered to leave the stadium as soon as he saw NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. In tonight’s repeat cold open, Bennett’s Pence finds himself on the run out of several events at the order of Baldwin’s Trump. Totally worth watching again this evening.

And now on to Kumail Nanjiani’s part of the show. It’s only fair, considering he was the host of this SNL episode. Kumail was a first-time host and his skills both as a stand up during the monologue and a comedic actor during the live sketches will probably get him a return trip to NBC’s famed Studio 8-H some day. Kumail’s monologue was a reflection of what’s happening in Trump’s America. He addresses some of the racist reactions he got on social media regarding his film, “The Big Sick.” From there, the first-time SNL host segued into the growing problem Islamophobia in the country fueled by the President’s proposed travel bans. Kumail does a verbal take down of lazy racists who can’t even get their Islamophobia right. If you’re going to check out tonight’s repeat again, the monologue is definitely worth watching one more time.

While the jokes and sketches aimed at Harvey Weinstein grabbed the media’s attention after this episode of Saturday Night Live, it was one of the SNL – Digital Shorts that went viral with the rest of the country. The short titled “Kellywise” featured Kate McKinnon doing one of her most popular impressions, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, in a re-imagining of the the horror hit of 2017, “It“. In the SNL version, Kellyanne plays the evil clown who tries to lure CNN’s Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat) into her sewer lair. The other short ended up being the final sketch of the night and it gave Cecily Strong the opportunity to play another one of Donald Trump’s many wives. This time around, Cecily plays First Lady Melania Trump who starts a long-distance friendship with the only person she feels she can confide in, a customer-service worker in a Pakistani call center played by host Kumail Nanjiani.

The sketch the IBang called “undoubtedly the funniest” of the night in our initial review of this episode from last October, was a game show sketch called “Bank Breakers.” Kumail plays a contestant who’s a bit more superficial with his plans for the prize money that he hopes to win as opposed to his opponent played by Cecily Strong whose character needs the money for an operation to give her daughter the gift of hearing. In the sketch, “Hotel Check-In“, Kumail Nanjiani plays an super annoying hotel clerk in a sketch that went very silly. He’s also plays a nursing home doctor in a sketch where Kate McKinnon can crack you up without uttering a word and he’s the one in the Groot costume in the “Office Halloween Party” sketch that got universally panned across social media on Sunday morning.

In the promos for tonight’s re-airing of the Saturday Night Live hosted by Kumail Nanjiani, musical guest P!nk, cast member Aidy Bryant (who just landed a new Hulu series) and their host discuss who they each find inspirational, plus, it’s finally revealed- what is P!nk’s favorite color??

There are still no confirmed details on the upcoming Saturday Night Live – Season 44 yet. So far, no premiere date, no casting changes and no word on if Pete Davidson has landed a musical guest slot for his fiance. Stay tuned to the Interrobang for when SNL news does break.

Tonight, it’s worth a second watch when Kumail Nanjiani hosts a repeat episode of Saturday Night Live at 11:30pm on NBC.

Also, Saturday Night Live has tweeted out to all “#SNL fans!” that its annual ticket lottery is now officially open! That means Saturday Night Live is now taking requests for ticket reservations for upcoming SNL-Season 44 episodes in New York City. The lottery will remain open throughout August. Click the link in the @nbcsnl tweet for all the information.

Read more comedy news.

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper