Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
HALLELUJAH
untriumphant Hillary Clinton (KAM) plays piano & sings “Hallelujah”
— (*sigh*) Welp, here we go.
— When this originally aired, I remember being surprised SNL felt that Trump’s election win, as unfortunate as it was, warranted such a somber, joke-less cold opening, but I also found it to be really classy and I appreciated that classiness, and I also found Kate’s performance to be absolutely beautiful and captivating. In fact, the tender side that Kate showed of herself here only added to the “We are watching a legend in the making” viewpoint that I generally had about Kate back in these 2014-2017 years, and I also remember feeling that this cold opening added perfectly to the overall very important, special feel of this episode in general. However, my positive feelings towards this cold opening would go on to gradually change to a more negative one over the course of the next few years, possibly because of me being influenced by what I’ve heard a large number of other SNL fans negatively say about it. That being said, I’m going into my current viewing of this with somewhat of a clean slate, just to see how I’ll react to it.
— I’m aware that this might be an unpopular opinion, but in my current viewing of this cold opening so far, I’m not exactly hating it, and I’m still finding Kate’s performance to be beautiful and moving.
— I remember once reading a suggestion from some SNL fans that, if Kate had done this same cold opening while dressed as herself instead of as Hillary Clinton, people who are bothered by this opening would give this more of a pass. Interesting to think about, but I’m not sure how I feel about that suggestion. Plus, it’s kinda hard for me to picture Kate saying the famous ending message of this cold opening (“I’m not giving up…and neither should you”) as herself instead of as Hillary.
STARS: N/A (not a ratable segment)
MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about angry whites, shootings, the presidency
— A nice long, very extended ovation that the audience gives Dave Chappelle at the beginning.
— Given the mood of the nation at the time, it’s very refreshing to have Dave to add his trademark brand of humor to the situation.
— I love how Dave’s even getting hilarious-but-tasteful humor out of really sensitive subjects like the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the story Dave tells about grabbing a handful of a housekeeper’s pussy while staying at the Trump Hotel this week (I also love Dave’s “Sorry about that, Lorne” addendum to the latter story).
— The zoo bit is particularly hilarious.
— I really like how the long pauses Dave always makes before jumping to another topic, as well as how he’s slowly pacing back and forth around the stage throughout this monologue, are giving this the feel of a legitimate stand-up special you’d see Dave do on cable. It also gives this monologue a bit of the feel of something you’d see in the earliest days of SNL’s original era. In fact, certain aspects of this episode in general, including the tone of and approach to this monologue, has always reminded me a little of the Richard Pryor episode from season 1, another important, memorable episode, much like this one.
— I really like the occasional serious, joke-less parts of this monologue, especially the history Dave tells of black people in the White House.
— Even Dave’s “I’m gonna give [Trump] a chance” announcement at the end doesn’t hurt this monologue for me, because, as poorly as it’s aged, Dave meant well at the time.
— An overall very lengthy monologue, but every minute of it was worth it to me.
STARS: *****
ELECTION NIGHT
unlike their white friends, (host) & (CSR) take election result in stride
— A very strong structure to this sketch’s format.
— Dave is fantastic as the only voice of reason in this group watching the election results. I especially love his facial expression after Beck’s “Florida’s goin’ blue. (*holds up his wine glass for a toast*) To Latinos!” line.
— Great progression to this, with the white characters increasingly stretching their reasoning for why Hillary is losing more and more states, as their mood slowly deflates while it becomes more and more obvious that Trump’s going to win the election.
— What’s with Chris Rock’s delivery? He seems like this is his very first time reading these lines, judging from the distractingly slow manner he’s reading them off the cue cards, and the fact that he keeps cracking up. Was he added to this sketch at literally the last minute? All that being said, he’s still making me laugh a lot here, and is still nailing his punchlines.
— Dave, after a distressed Aidy asks what’s going to happen to undocumented immigrants: “Come on, man, you act like everyone tryin’ to pick their own strawberries.”
— Perfect ending with Dave and Chris’ characters sharing a big, hearty, knowing laugh together after Beck cries out, “God, this is the most shameful thing America has ever done!”
STARS: *****
WALKING DEAD CHAPPELLE’S SHOW
host introduces clip featuring the return of Chappelle’s Show characters
The Walking Dead- Beautiful (Donnell Rawlings) & others fear Negan (host)
— Wow, a sketch starting out with a person introducing it on the home base stage (ala what Dave used to regularly do on Chappelle’s Show). You pretty much never that by this point of SNL’s run. That’s another thing about this episode that feels a little like a throwback to the earliest days of SNL’s original era.
— A very fun idea to this short, and a creative way to reprise Dave’s beloved Chappelle’s Show characters. This is a blast.
— Great, seamless editing to this, given how Dave is playing almost all of the characters.
— A very fitting and clever choice to make Dave’s Clayton Bigsby character a Trump supporter.
— Love the “Note to self: remind me to try crack!” line.
— Great sequence with Tyrone Biggums’ severed head giving a mock-inspirational speech to us.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We The People”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (KAM) is digging in to protect her Supreme Court spot
— Ah, here we are. For obvious reasons, Colin and Michael are DEFINITELY going to have lots of interesting things to say tonight.
— When Michael started his opening election-related joke by saying, “Well…it’s official…”, I was hoping it would go in a similar direction to Norm Macdonald’s legendary “Well, it’s official: murder is now legal in the state of California” joke from the beginning of the first Update after the O.J. Simpson verdict, but Michael’s joke unfortunately ended up going in a completely different, less-funny direction, though still had a good punchline.
— Colin: “America is like Leslie Jones: addicted to white guys.”
— A noteworthy moment with Michael’s classic “Che, I’m Mexican! / Che, I’m Puerto Rican!” flub. Priceless. Colin also gets in some great ad-libbing about that afterwards.
— So far, Colin and Michael are not disappointing me with the election-related jokes tonight.
— Another freakin’ fantastic ad-lib from Colin tonight, where, after Michael follows a Chris Christie slam from Colin by ad-libbing “You know you still gotta drive to New Jersey, right?”, Colin ad-libs “I just won’t take the bridge!”
— I’m not finding myself too excited about seeing another Ruth Bader Ginsburg commentary from Kate, as they’re usually so by-the-numbers and I’m worried it’ll slow down the momentum of this extremely strong Update.
— Okay, Kate’s RBG did get a big laugh from me just now when “taking her vitamins”. I also really like the ad-libbing between her and Colin afterwards. (Man, this Update is filled with terrific ad-libs.)
— Blah, cue all the “You just got Ginsburned” dance breaks that are always a chore for me to sit through.
— That Colin Kaepernick “slam” from Kate’s RBG wasn’t anywhere near good nor biting enough to even warrant a “Ginsburned” dance break.
— I do love Kate-as-RBG’s Mike Pence slams right now.
— I’m pretty disappointed that they ended tonight’s Update with the RBG commentary. I’m also surprised that this Update had only one guest commentary, though I do like how this Update focused mostly on Colin and Michael giving their take on the election results. I kinda feel that SNL should’ve had this be a rare commentary-less Update. If they did, this might’ve been the very first Update to receive a perfect five-star rating from me.
STARS: ****½
JHERI’S PLACE / INSIDE SNL
unruly hair of Jheri’s Place employees makes it a health inspector target
host & cast members address Jheri’s Place fiasco in post-sketch press conference
— When this originally aired, I cringed so much at that extremely awkward gaffe from Leslie early on in this sketch, thinking it was real and another moment like what notoriously happened with her in that season 40 sketch with her and Chris Rock as the arguing married couple. I ended up being relieved to eventually see that her “gaffe” in this Jheri’s Place sketch was part of the script.
— Kyle’s horrible accent is cracking me up.
— Oh, I absolutely LOVE the turn this sketch takes with the sports-like “post-sketch conference” occurring after the disastrous Jheri’s Place sketch. A terrific meta turn.
— It’s sad how rare it’s starting to become to see Bobby this season, given the fact that he’s, you know, STILL IN THE CAST, and still has quite a bit left to offer, unlike most cast members when they reach their 9th season.
— Leslie, in her defense of her flub during the Jheri’s Place sketch: “Look – SNL knew what they was gettin’ into when they hired me.”
— I also love Leslie’s “We talkin’ ’bout cue cards right now?!?” rant, which is even funnier when you’re aware that it’s spoofing Allen Iverson’s famous “We in here talkin’ ’bout practice?!?” rant from a press conference.
— Dave, on how he thought putting on the jheri curl wig would’ve been enough for him to sell the sketch: “I really thought I was gonna be the next David S. Pumpkins.”
— Mikey: “(very smugly) Uh, any questions for me – Mikey Day???” Reporters: “……….” Bobby, as one of the reporters: “No. (*immediately moves on to the next question*)”
— Kenan, right before angrily storming off of this press conference: “Live from New York, ya’ll can kiss my ass!”
— Nice touch ending this sketch with a slow-motion replay of Leslie’s flub, spoofing how sports broadcasts often precede a commercial break by showing a slow-motion replay of an athlete either scoring a point or making a blunder.
STARS: *****
KIDS TALK POLITICS
host’s daughter Sonal [real] drops some Trump truth
— Wow, I strangely forgot all about this segment until now. And I thought I had remembered every single segment from this memorable episode.
— An interesting use of Vanessa.
— Some funny lines from the last child, Dave’s daughter, especially what she says about cats.
— Cute how you can see a strong facial resemblance between Dave and his daughter.
— I’m surprised by how short this was, but that’s not a complaint. I’m glad this got in, told its joke, and didn’t belabor the point.
STARS: ***½
LAST CALL
union of Sheila Sovage & (host) is too much for bartender Anfernee (KET)
— A very rare instance of this recurring sketch NOT being the final sketch of the night.
— I laughed SO damn hard at one reaction shot of Kenan responding to a particularly disgusting comment of Kate’s by just sternly staring at her silently for a few seconds, then holding up a yellow card and angrily saying “Yellow card!”
— Dave, on what the sex position “66” is: “That’s you facing away from me while I just work on myself.”
— Some other great reaction shots from Kenan throughout this.
— Dave: “You gave me a hard-off.” I liked that line better when Tim Meadows said it in that lesbians sketch from the season 25 Joshua Jackson episode.
— The “gross make-out” sessions of each installment of this recurring sketch are starting to get a little old for me, but the one in tonight’s sketch gets saved by the hilarious “Bellagio” effect that Dave and Kate do with the drink dispensers during their making-out. I can’t blame Kenan for cracking up at that.
— We finally find out the name of Kenan’s bartender character in this recurring sketch: Anfernee. Lots of SNL episode guides, including SNL Archives, claim Kenan’s character name is actually Anthony, but I definitely heard the name Anfernee come from Kenan’s mouth in this sketch (and, yes, Anfernee’s a real name, if anyone’s wondering). I stand corrected if anyone can prove me wrong.
— Meh, that gun ending was trying too hard to top the previous endings of this recurring sketch, and didn’t succeed.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Busta Rhymes, Consequence [real] sing “The Space Program”
LOVE AND LESLIE
backstage romance helps LEJ gain a relationship & KYM lose his virginity
— The debut of the series of Leslie/Kyle relationship shorts, which I’ve always been a huge fan of.
— A legitimately touching beginning with a tender Leslie expressing unhappiness over how difficult it is for her to find a man, and how much that hurts.
— Interesting seeing several photos of Leslie when she was younger.
— A very funny reveal of Kyle, of all people, being Leslie’s mysterious new man.
— Interesting how this short is done in the same style as the strong Kyle Vs. Kanye short from the preceding season.
— A very funny sudden brief appearance from Lorne, just showing up to say in a confessional that it’s important for Kyle to lose his virginity.
— Now this already-fantastic short gets even funnier when Kyle brings up his feelings about the Leslie/Colin story arc from Weekend Update, complete with a highlight reel being shown of some of those Leslie/Colin moments.
— Excellent ending with Dave’s reaction to finding out Leslie and Kyle had just had sex in his dressing room. By the way, this has to be by far the episode with the most uses of the word “goddamn”. Also BY FAR the episode with the most uses of the N-word (though it’s not used in this particular short).
STARS: *****
FOOTBALL PARTY
43-year-old (host) lives with his mom (LEJ) & is still breastfeeding
— After not making any live appearances in the preceding two episodes, Pete finally makes one tonight, only for it to just be a straight man role in the final sketch of the night. Ironically, he got more airtime in previous seasons as a featured player than he’s been getting this season as a repertory player so far.
— A good laugh from the sudden breastfeeding reveal.
— I like Kyle as the only one of Dave’s friends who isn’t weirded-out by the breastfeeding thing.
— This episode in general is so damn strong that even this dumb, thin sketch is absolutely working for me, whereas I probably wouldn’t have been so big on it had it appeared in a lesser episode. Every time I worry that the main joke of this sketch might start to get old, there’s a silly charm that keeps bringing me back stronger than ever. Even the breaking from some of the performers and the accidental glimpse of the bottle that Leslie is spraying milk from is actually adding a lot to the fun, silly nature of this sketch.
— Poor, poor Sasheer, making her only appearance of such a significant episode in a measly small, non-comedic walk-on role towards the end of the final sketch of the night.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not only an absolutely phenomenal, all-timer episode, but a very important and meaningful one in relation to current events and the mood of the nation that week. A Tribe Called Quest’s epic musical performances also added to the important, meaningful, current events-driven feel of the episode. Hell, even the drawn-out manner in which Dave Chappelle delivered his goodnights speech had a meaningful feel that added to the “This is a really special, history-in-the-making episode I’m watching” vibe that I remember getting from this episode when it originally aired. And as expected, Dave Chappelle was a fantastic host, especially for what was hyped at the time as his big comeback.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
(Much like some particularly terrific episodes I’ve reviewed lately, there are way too many things to pick for this episode’s “Best Of”, so I’ll narrow it down to what I feel are the particularly best highlights)
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Jheri’s Place / Inside SNL
Election Night
Monologue
Love and Leslie
Walking Dead Chappelle’s Show
Weekend Update
Last Call
Football Party
Kids Talk Politics
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Benedict Cumberbatch)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Kristen Wiig