Kristen Stewart is here to host the show for the first time. Stewart hasn't really been the jovial type, so having the YA movie star run point on the show is an interesting call. If Stewart would embrace the job, she could be a lot of fun. If not, we'd might be in for a long night. It turns out we ended up with an episode where Stewart wasn't really the star. The most buzzed about sketches literally had nothing to do with her and the ones where she led the charge suffered a bit from bad timing. In fact, if she hadn't accidentally dropped an f-bomb during her monologue we might not even have known she were on the show.
However we should note, presence of the host or not, this episode felt edgy in a way it hasn't in a long time. It felt live, like really live, like anything could happen. This was due to a few things - yes K-Stew dropped an f-bomb in the middle of a monologue about her literally not giving a f*ck, Michael Che's joke re-do on Update, Colin Jost tossing the ending to Update too soon, and the literal hurricane that was Melissa McCarthy; we got the impression that anything could happen. For a show that was originally a symbolic snarl of the counterculture, it's great to see that after 42 seasons, it can still flash those teeth.
Let's run it down.
Cold Open: Oval Office
Alec Baldwin returns as President Drumpf. While he's all set to host the show for a record breaking 17th time next week. There's still plenty of political action that happened this week to have him drop in for the cold open. Our commander in chief made some international phone calls this week and at the advice of his top adviser, Steve Bannon, they don't go well. It's easy to say that Baldwin has worn his welcome out impersonating the President, but he just keeps doing such wacky stuff it's become an incredible wealth of comedy fodder.
Monologue
Kristen Stewart runs with the "too cool for it" mentality when it comes to caring about things like hosting the show but she does take the monologue as an opportunity to discuss a certain politician who tends to tweet a lot and said politician's obsession with her ex boyfriend. It's cool, and Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon try to prove they're cool as well. So cool in fact, Stewart gave us a slip of the tongue and drops an f-bomb.
Welcome Video
With our President's executive order on the Muslim travel ban, SNL thought that US customs videos needed a bit of an update. This video seems like a kindred spirit to the TSA sketch from a few years back. Still very biting, and more than likely a sketch you'll see make the rounds on Monday.
Dry Fridays
Stewart's timing made this sketch jumbled. Which is unfortunate because the premise was good and the chance to see all the cast youngins working in a sketch together is something we like seeing. Stewart was unfortunately a touch too early on the reveal of the reverse mohawk as it was a gag referenced throughout the sketch. Had it initially hit harder first, it might've gotten bigger laughs as the sketch continued.
Totinos
This is an update of a previous sketch but instead of the joke being on the men watching the game, wifey gets her due. Her steamy steamy due. Stewart shined better in the pre-recorded sketches, which makes sense being a movie star and all.
Sean Spicer Press Conference
Here we have Melissa McCarthy debuting the character of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. As with most things McCarthy does, she attacked the character with ferocity, humor, and a heaping amount of physical humor. She managed to take all the nonsense of the recent White House press briefings and crank out this. Judging by audience applause, it even took them a moment to them to realize it was McCarthy. She channeled the spirit of the late, great Chris Farley and just knocked it out of the park. How anyone in the press pool kept a straight face as McCarthy slammed the podium into them many times over is beyond us. It’s weird how little physical humor is present on SNL these days, a fact that becomes evident even more when sketches like this emerge. It also seems this sketch quite possibly might’ve been the show’s original cold open. If it was, thankfully it wasn’t scraped and used because we have ourselves a new SNL classic.
Alessia Cara "Scars To Your Beautiful"
Fun fact, 5 years ago when Alessia Cara was 15, she stated in a tweet that she wanted to be on SNL one day. Congrats, Alessia your tweets came true. Now if our 15 year old us dream of being a member of Nirvana came true we'll all be good to go.
Weekend Update
Update had some great jokes but that's not what everyone will be be talking about this week. Rather Michael Che flubbed a joke and just redid it, which is pretty bad enough. Then, after Kenan's desk visit as David Ortiz, Colin Jost started to wrap up rather than kick it back to Jost. Flubs happen, and the report between Colin and Che did manage to pull them through the mess that was Weekend Update this week.
Here's Kenan Thompson talking Mofungo as David Ortiz.
Celebrity Family Feud Super Bowl Edition
Kristen Stewart probably felt most at home in this sketch. Getting the chance to portray Patriots quarterback wife, Gisele Bündchen. While that was an admirable pull, we were most compelled to wonder how Leslie Jones pulled off a Sam Jackson.
Meet Cute
Stewart definitely performed better with the pre-taped sketches of the night. This being the second of the two where she shined. It was a fun little piece where Pete Davidson was so enamored by meeting "Claire with the brown hair" that he forgot to get any sort of identifying details about her for.
Alessia Cara "River Of Tears"
10-to-1: Golden Ticket
Not sure whose decision was to mine an old movie like Willy Wanka And The Chocolate Factory for a sketch but that's what the 10-to-1 sketch is all about.
So there you have it, an episode of Saturday Night Live that we're sure had Lorne Michaels spinning on more than one occasion. Next week Alec Baldwin returns for his 17th time hosting the show.