Felicity Jones, is the star of a little movie called Rogue One: A Star Wars Story perhaps you've heard of it. Jones came in and didn't exactly stake her claim in the evening. Not that she was a bad host, but she didn't really hold many leading bits in sketches and mostly served as support to the bit. Once again we saw the return of Alec Baldwin as our President-Elect. Usually after an election Saturday Night Live sketches tend to lighten on the political, but that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. Andy why not? Things are getting nuts out there politically. Let's run down how Jones did.
Cold Open: Drumpf Press Conference
With our President-elect holding one of the wackiest press conferences of recent memory this week, it's a wonder how writers were able to tackle it and pull something even wackier out of it. That's going to be one of the main writing issues when covering Drumpf, how to out crazy the crazy. Think about it, in one opening sketch they covered the golden shower conspiracy, Russia, calling news outlets fake, Steve Harvey, and the stacks of paper. All topics that could've easily be a sketch in and of themselves. There's a ton of ground to mine here, did anyone else notice the Russian flag on Baldwin's lapel?
Monologue
Felicity Jones is here and she's a bit nervous so her mentor Sol Guerrero drops in for some help. And, in paying a bit of homage to the late Carrie Fisher, Jones gets some comforting words from Tina Fey (who is kinda SNL's version of Princess Leia) about how to approach hosting the evening. Fey also drops a shot at how many outlets review SNL these days, did she have us in mind? Well, since she didn't name anyone by name, we're going to make our egos happy and say yes.
Beard Hunk
What happens when you frame the vapid simple nature of The Bachelor and toss in a man with a beard? You get Beard Hunk. While this seemed like a repeat of Farm Hunk from last year when Blake Shelton hosted.
Sondra & Malik
This sketch started off with a Key & Peele-style sketch pitting Kenan Thompson and Leslie Jones in the middle of a turf war. It then escalated, got a bit sweet, then the two enemies became rivals again. Then everyone blows up. Not sure of the moral of the story is but explosions are cool right?
Theatre Donor
Here's a fun sketch that didn't have anything to do with politics and should hit your newsfeed in the morning. Mikey Day gets to stretch his physical comedy muscle a bit and portray Albee Durberry. For a featured player Day is getting quite a bit of sketch time. Hopefully he'll bring more of that physical comedy to the show as it's not as prevalent on these days.
The Princess And the Curse
Here's another pre-recorded sketch with a curse princess revealing her curse to her suitor. A play on the impossible standards women must live up to. The twist being the Prince really doesn't have much a leg to stand on as the judge of said standards. "I don't think we can spare it."
Susan B. Anthony
When modern ladies get the chance to talk to one that paved the way for them, how much would they have to talk about before they lose interest and patronize a woman that did so much for them? While we're figuring out that answer, can we please ask the question, "why are they trying to call a cab and not just get an Uber?"
Sturgill Simpson "Keep It Between The Lines"
Sturgill Simpson earned a surprise Grammy nomination for his latest album. A country album that's a rebellious take on country music. Here he is with some horns.
Weekend Update
Since the election, both Michael Che and Colin Jost have really been on a roll with the political jokes. Particularly Che whose voice is a bit different than what we've seen on Update. As someone who frequents a decent amount of comedy podcasts, we're able to get a good idea of Che's opinion and if we had to describe it we'd say he's surprised at how surprised others are about the election results. Jost has gone from a mimic of Seth Meyers to a bit more playful. Often being the foil to some of Che's jokes.
Pete Davidson's new segment is taking aim at his famous lack of knowledge about politics with a segment about his first impressions of political figures.
Beck Bennett is contemplating quitting comedy and pursuing his career in pop music, he stops by the update desk to see if he has the goods.
Movie Interview
Was this a sponsored sketch by Fandango? Maybe, does it show that not every movie can have a heavy tone to it? Yes, even if the actors are vapid AF.
Sturgill Simpson "Call To Arms"
This is a rebellion song by Simpson a man fed up with the American Military complex. Simpson gives a rousing performance that ends with a justified guitar slam. When was the last time we had this rousing a live performance in studio 8H? It's been a damn long time. You might not be a fan of Simpson's country twang, but if this didn't get you going, you might just not be a fan of music.
Corporate Retreat
The 10-to-1 sketch gets weird and that's how we like it. When do housewives make some sexually charged jokes? When they're out to sea apparently.
And after a brief tribute to the late Tony Rosanto it's time to say goodbye. Next week, Aziz Ansari hosts the show for the first time. Ansari has some roots in sketch comedy (remember Human Giant?) let's hope he's ready to flex those muscles again.