There’s just no way around it: “Saturday Night Live” isn't as funny as real life.
It can’t be.
OK, “funny” might not be the right word. “Sad” might be closer to the mark when it comes to real life, but you get the idea. “SNL” returned from nearly a month off on Saturday and used its cold open to parody the Michigan “hearings” on election fraud. It was absurd and ridiculous and honestly just too silly to be believable.
Wait, that was the actual hearing, which wasn’t really a hearing, as witnesses weren’t sworn in so they could say whatever they wanted, and boy did they. Parody requires going a little farther than reality. How was “SNL” supposed to do that?
It can’t. It’s too hard to parody pathetic.
MORE: No self-respecting media should be covering Trump's absurd election claims
Cecily Strong's unhinged witness was spot on
The centerpiece of the opening skit was Cecily Strong’s spot-on portrayal of Melissa Carone, the witness in the Michigan meeting whose bizarre testimony went viral. Strong absolutely nailed Carone’s appearance, complete with slurred and mispronounced words and lunatic claims and accusations. Her version of Carone said she saw “hundreds, if not thousands, of dead people vote” and that she had signed “an after David.”
The funniest part was when Strong’s Carone said, “If you wanna talk about random, I voted for Trump, yet Biden won? Hmm. Maybe a little too random.”
Although again, there’s an element of this that isn’t funny because this is basically the argument Trump and his supporters are using to claim that the election was somehow rigged — they think they won, so they must have. Any argument to the contrary constitutes fraud. No credible proof necessary.
To be sure, “SNL” has botched its political satire for a while now — in the thankful-for-small-favors department, at least we weren’t subjected to Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump or, whew, Jim Carrey’s Joe Biden. It’s hard to imagine they won’t be back at some point, but you take the small victories where you find them.
The problem for 'SNL': How do you parody Rudy Giuliani?
But maybe it’s not all the show’s fault. Seriously, remember when Kate McKinnon playing Rudy Giuliani was kind of humorous because it was a step too far, a little too much? No more. Too far no longer exists with this bunch. Too much is a distant memory. And they didn’t even touch Giuliani’s dripping hair dye from a previous media briefing.
The show did hit hard the viral video in which Giuliani appears to fart during the Michigan hearing. Because why not? At almost any other time in human history it would have been the weirdest thing about his appearance at the meeting. And it would have been funny — once. But the show went to the fart well once too often, which is something you wouldn’t imagine saying in any context, including this one, but here we are. Or twice too often, or however many times they referenced it (including a bit during the “Weekend Update” segment).
The open also included Beck Bennett playing the My Pillow guy, Heidi Gardner as a witness who claimed to have eaten ballots (the rare claim that hasn’t been made — yet) and Chloe Fineman as Nicole Kidman’s character in “The Undoing” because … I’m not sure, really. At this point it was kind of a throw it at the wall and see what sticks situation. At least Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney showing up as dolts planning to kidnap Michigan’s governor made sense in context, sad though that context may be.
As much as any of this makes sense. Because right now, not much of it does.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.
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The Link LonkDecember 06, 2020 at 11:41PM
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The 'SNL' Michigan hearings cold open proved it's too hard to parody pathetic. Here's how - The Arizona Republic
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Funny
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