Feels like forever and a day since the last time “Saturday Night Live” has aired a new episode. And it’s not exactly hyperbole that the world has significantly changed since then. “SNL” hasn’t been exactly breaking out it’s “A” game this season in the arena of politics, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the death of Osama bin Laden. That, plus host Tina Fey, makes this a potentially landmark show.
And yes, that’s probably more wishful thinking than anything resembling reality. But it’s positive wishful thinking, so that has to count for something, right? As always, I’ll be grading each sketch as it airs. In addition: Elliot Gould makes his musical debut on the show! [What? Oh, my bad. I misread the press release. It’s Ellie Goulding making her debut tonight.]
Onto the recap!
Weird energy to this airing of Osama’s video will. The crowd isn’t exactly willing to laugh at it, mostly because it doesn’t go nearly dark, angry, or absurd enough to produce an ironic testament. Dakota Fanning jokes just don’t cut as deep as they used to, people. Given the spontaneous crowds that formed around the country on Sunday night, the response a week later in Studio 8H is a bit more subdued. I don’t want to speak for New Yorkers in the audience, but I’m willing to bet that had the sketch had more bite, there would have been more laughter. But jokes about Bin Laden’s numerous offspring and camel poop just didn’t cut it.
Tina Fey looks better six months pregnant than I ever will look never being pregnant. Lordy. After a few jokes about having the #1 Best Seller and the #86th rated TV show, she brings on also-preggers Mya Rudolph for a little mama music jam. It starts off sickly sweet, but soon segues into something inappropriately sexy. (“Sushi, Rosé, and roller coasters never hurt nobody!”) By the time we got to sonograms of their unborn kids singing into umbilical cord microphones, I was slow clapping in my living room.
This was as sharp and focused as the cold open was dull and meandering. Sure, having the six non-official candidates there was just an excuse for a series of individual jokes about each of them. But when the jokes were this good, who cares? Gingrich didn’t really register, but there were solid moments for all of the other candidates, including the return of Fey’s Sarah Palin. Darrell Hammond returned to bring back Donald Trump, and the rust showed a bit, but he ended his segment in a strong fashion. Throw in Michelle Bachman’s “Fatal Attraction” plan, Jimmy McMillan’s billy goat origins, and Mitt Romney as Lifetime Movie villain, and you get the sense that next year’s political sketches are going to be fish in a barrel for this show.
I’ll admit it: I didn’t see that body coming. But when it did, it turned what was a pointless sketch into something quite pointed. Having a Disney cast of characters stand in to represent the various reactions to bin Laden’s death was a great way to air all sides of the country’s reaction without it seeming overly didactic. It aired serious points while also puncturing the frat party atmosphere outside The White House and the conspiracy theorists that maintain 1) bin Laden isn’t dead and/or 2) wasn’t involved in 9/11 at all. It’s sometimes maddening to watch “SNL” refuse to come down definitively on certain issues. But this is a case in which expressing multiple points of view worked in their favor. Honestly, after that first sketch, I worried about the show’s take on this week’s events. Now? I’m just worried that they didn’t seem to know they were airing their weakest sketch at the outset of the episode.
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