After a strong kickoff to season 42 last week, Saturday Night Live returned with another first timer as as a host. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is currently sitting atop of pop culture and stage after smashing all elements of expectation with the groundbreaking Broadway musical, Hamilton. LMM won multiple Tonys this year but as a native son of New York City, seemed incredibly excited about getting the chance to host an NY institution like SNL. He, along with musical guests Twenty One Pilots delivered a terrific evening of comedy where Lin-Manuel danced, sang, and hit every mark needed. Surprise, the guy knows how to handle himself in a live stage production. He even got the chance to call Donald Trump a “piece of sh*t.” Taking the most advantage of his shot, one might say.
Let’s dive in.
Cold Open: VP Debate
It appears even SNL doesn’t give a damn about the VP debate, as they opted to break from said debate in its cold open to allow Alec Baldwin to Monologue While taking one of Hamilton’s most popular songs our host rearranged the song, “My Shot” and danced through the studio, stopping to both reference Trump’s past hosting gig of the show last season. A decision that SNL was recently flamed for. Did this moment help curb those yells? Who knows.
Campfire This was one of the evening’s weakest sketches. Surprising that it was given such prime placement. If you turned your TV off right after this sketch, you were fooled int thinking this week’s episode was more in the same. Rather it was a passing sketch that seemed to exist only to have Miranda sing and Vanessa Bayer and Kyle Mooney get weird.
Crucible Cast Party Here’s the clip your theater friends from high school are most likely to share the next day. Why? Because it cuts a bit too close to home in how accurate life is at a play/musical wrap party.
Substitute Teacher It’s been 21 years since the movie Dangerous Minds was in theaters. Which means that premise is so old it can legally drink. But sending that trope up with a very self aware group of students and you have yourself a joke.
A Day Off It’s nearly impossible for Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway to have herself a day off isn’t it?
Twenty One Pilots “Heathens” Lin-Manuel Miranda, rocking a Legendary Roots Crew hoodie introduced Twenty One Pilots. It’s probably the most high profile performance by rod duo to date. Considering the band has two big hits currently running up and down the charts as their 2015 album went platinum earlier this year.
Weekend Update Once again, Weekend Update came out rapid fire with jokes between Jost and Che just nailing some hard hitting political jokes, particularly the new Trump scandal. Che is correct old white dudes, just assume you’re being recorded. Resident Young Person, Pete Davidson is getting ahead of going bald and he drops by the update desk to discuss it with Colin Jost. Colin Jost welcomed two undecided voters from suburban Philadelphia to the desk. And it turns out we get ourselves the fantastic Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon (both former Update anchors). They come as “Denise and Doreene,” to ladies wondering who they’re going to vote for this election. Fey pulled of a particularly inspired impression as a woman from Delco, Fallon still managed to break character a bit. As he fluctuated into and out of his accent, he seemingly kept resetting his accent by saying, “we brought you a hoagie.” One we’re sure came from Wawa. Fallon caught heat for “going easy” on Trump when he was recently on the Tonight Show and the writers must’ve thought bringing him in and mocking said moment would, in a way give him a bit of a redemption. “Have you ever been to [the Mummers Parade]? You should go, it’s terrible!”
Wells Fargo Wagon While we’re at the point where one too many musicals have happened in the show, the framing the Wells Fargo scandal within it is a pretty brilliant idea.
Diego Calls His Mom This sketch is a bit of a departure as it was delivered almost entirely in Spanish. It was performed entirely in a different language and being in a different language made it part of the punchline. Clocking in as easily the shortest bit of the evening, but also one of the most memorable.
Stranger Things One of the hottest shows of the summer was Stranger Things. So how do you pay homage to it? You wrap it in the big ol’ social political debate of Black Lives Matter.
Twenty One Pilots “Ride” Twenty One Pilots laying down a sweet reggae-influenced jam.
Melania Moments #78 Cecily Strong’s Melania Trump returns for more Deep Thoughts.
WWII Scene The 10-to-1 sketch of the evening was a solid metaphor for hiding your butt plugs. So, if you find yourself about to die, make sure you have a dedicated butt plug wrangler. And that’s a wrap for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live. He was fun, the musical guests were fun, the night was fun. Next week, it’s Emily Blunt and Bruno Mars setting up shop in studio 8H.
