When Rudy Giuliani posted up in an alleyway outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping, nestled lovingly between a sex shop and crematorium, to talk about the legal efforts of Donald Trump’s campaign, more than one person in my Twitter feed called his press conference the “death of comedy.” How could anyone spoof something so inherently comic? So intrinsically and unbelievable bizarre? The premise itself seemed like a remnant from a Saturday Night Live sketch gone by.
This has been a problem for a while now, particularly at SNL. For eight years, the show struggled to lampoon the cool steadiness of President Barack Obama. Then, in the dawning days of the Trump presidency, SNL went all in on the gift to comedy that was Trump and his merry band of messy bitches. In those first heady years, Alec Baldwin and his impressions became a staple at 30 Rock. The show’s waning ratings got a massive shot in the arm, and SNL became the toast of the Emmy awards. More importantly, bits like Melissa McCarthy’s furious take on Sean Spicer and Scarlett Johansson’s Ivanka starring in a commercial for a perfume called “Complicit” gave SNL a shot of relevance, making it feel once more like a vital cultural voice.
But for some viewers, this one included, SNL’s response to the Trump era grew tired fairly quickly. The show soon fell into the same trap many of us did over the last four years: everything became about Trump. An overcommitment to Baldwin and his bit came at the expense of the backbone of what made SNL a decades-long enduring icon.
A talented cast was often pushed aside for a roster of celebrity cameos, and recurring character sketches—once a mainstay of the show—were all but eliminated. As the cost of four years of Trump became increasingly unbelievable and more horrifying—kids in cages, COVID deaths—it all became much harder to laugh at. Even John Mulaney, one of the very best hosts the show has ever had, couldn’t rescue SNL from its quality nosedive last week.
But this weekend, everything changed.
I honestly can’t tell if the show was actually sharper than usual, or whether the energy came from a cast buoyed up by relief over the election results. Maybe I was just ready to laugh again. Maybe it’s some combination of all three. Whatever the reason, while Saturday’s episode may not have been the best SNL episode of all time, it was often genuinely, side-splittingly funny, in a way the show rarely has been since the Trump era began.
True, its cold open—like all of the election-themed cold opens since Jim Carrey began playing Biden—was pretty skippable, and host Dave Chappelle’s long stand-up monologue was hit or miss. The show really got cooking afterward, though, with a fairly silly post-monologue sketch that had nothing to do with Trump, went easy on celebrity stunt-casting, and was only tangentially political—a strong indicator of what might be in store as it moves into its next phase.
Packed with SNL veterans and Pete Davidson, the sketch centered on several iconic marketing figures like Aunt Jemima (Maya Rudolph), Uncle Ben (Kenan Thompson), and the Allstate guy, a.k.a. TV’s Dennis Haysbert (Chappelle) being fired for being racially problematic. It was a simple sketch buoyed by two simple facts. The first: I could listen to Thompson read a phone book, let alone rattle off different kinds of rice. The second? Everyone broke. Especially Chappelle, who also took an excuse to poke fun at Pete Davidson on air.
That giddy break-the-fourth-wall attitude carried over into Kate McKinnon’s genuinely hilarious appearance as Giuliani on “Weekend Update.” She’s done this impression before, and she’s even broke down at the desk before—most recently, a few weeks ago during a COVID-inspired bit. In that episode, “Update” host Colin Jost broke character to ask McKinnon if she was okay. Speaking for the nation, McKinnon answered that of course she wasn’t. That was chaotic SNL at its most despairing. This was Giuliani chaos at its most inspired.
The Link LonkNovember 10, 2020 at 03:03AM
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With Trump Done, Is Saturday Night Live Actually Funny Again? - Vanity Fair
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Funny
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