Courtesy of NBC. Photo credit: Will Heath.
Last night's episode of Saturday Night Live was an anticipated one to say the least. On top of this season continuing to celebrate the show's milestone 50th season, last night saw two notable aspects that had all comedy fans excited for last night's episode: Bill Burr, the renowned stand-up comedian & Bostonian, returned to host and this latest episode marked the first since this past Tuesday's election where Donald Trump got re-elected to become the 47th President of the United States.
All eyes were on Lorne Michaels, the cast & crew at studio 8H to see how they would handle acknowledging this pivotal moment in American history. Given the challenging circumstances surrounding this election and how tumultuous its been, the team gave everything they got and managed to bring a good amount of laughs and sanity for comedy fans looking to let lose following this intense election cycle. Some great sketches last night we recommend checking out included the Trauma Support Group & the Rorschach Test sketches. But here, we'll be taking a closer look at how SNL addressed the 2024 Presidential Election (including the Cold Open, Burr's monologue & Weekend Update).
SNL for Trump Cold Open
In 2016, Kate McKinnon kicked off the first show post-Donald Trump winning the election by sitting at the piano - dressed as his opponent, Hilary Clinton - and singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. This also was a tribute to Cohen - who passed away leading up to the episode. The cold open was rare in that it didn’t go for laughs, but instead, was meant to convey an uplifting message. “I’m not giving up, and you shouldn’t either,” she told the camera.
So in the days leading up to last night’s episode, many people jokingly wondered on social media “Can Maya Rudolph play the piano?”. Instead, we actually were treated to a non-Maya Rudolph appearance. We actually didn’t see any celebrity cameos outside of Dana Carvey debuting a new Elon Musk impression, who will reportedly be serving a role within the Trump cabinet.
Instead, the cast addressed the camera directly and talked about how they spent the last 8 years mocking Trump, and it’s clear that now that he’s in office, and implied that he may be going back after those who speak up. “That is why we at SNL would like to say to Donald Trump, we have been with you all along,” Kenan Thompson told Trump directly to the camera.
This call of support was done in clear jest, as was that of other cast members including Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Marcello Hernandez, Sarah Sherman, and Colin Jost, who kept throwing Michael Che under the bus. They also debuted a new jacked Donald Trump impression - played by James Austin Johnson - in addition to Carvey as Musk.
Bill Burr's Return Monologue
Many of us were waiting to see what Bill Burr would do with his monologue. Famously, Dave Chappelle hosted the 2016 and 2020 episodes directly after the elections. Both episodes had varying degrees of energy, with 2020 having the added boost of Biden winning the election literally hours before the episode aired. There was a real excitement that episode that - for many reasons - wasn’t quite matched in this overall episode.
While Chappelle sat out this year, Burr returned to host after first hosting in 2020. His monologue was what we were probably looking forward to most, and he teased us up front by insinuating that he wasn’t going to talk about the election. The first bit instead was about a guy who took his shoes off on the plane, which he related to his stance on vaccines.
Eventually, Burr came around to talk about the - Republican - elephant in the room that was the 2024 election results. He started off by talking about the role he feels pant suits played in elections, the polar opposites of the candidates, how Trump’s assassination attempt sealed the election, and why Trump going to McDonald’s was his favorite part of the campaign.
Weekend Update Recaps Donald Trump's Presidential Victory
Colin Jost & Michael Che took on recapping the 2024 Election this year for the post-election Weekend Update and had plenty to joke about when reporting on the facts of this year's election. Many opposing republicans, notably Trump, had speculated that the 2020 election was rigged in Joe Biden's favor and as it turned out, Trump won out the entire popular vote, electoral college, the swing states & won back the senate for the party.
Jost went on to describe Trump's victory "like we're living in a computer simulation, and whoever's controlling Trump has a cheat code, he's invincible. He's like a character in Grand Theft Auto who throws a prostitute out of a car and drives straight to the white House." Jost also poked fun at Trump's victory speech when he promised he would deliver "the golden age of America" because "things turn golden when the sun is setting on them."
Che on the other hand did not hold back on his remarks for this election while drinking live on air describing "white liberals" as having "goofy optimism" for believing Kamala ("the Jamaican Indian lady") could win the rural swing state of Pennsylvania. When reporting on the fact that Trump is the first convicted felon to be elected president, Che in astonishment decided that he wouldn't hide the fact that he'll continue listening to R. Kelly, another famous convicted felon. Che jokes, "if white people can elect their felons, I can dance to mine."
