Saturday Night Live returned last Saturday with four-time host Dave Chapelle and musical guest GoRilla. The first episode of the new year was highly anticipated and fans could expect Donald Trump’s Inauguration to be the hot topic of the show.
The show opens with a special MSNBC Report with Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman), who is back on TV for inauguration weekend. The group of political analysts promise to not chase every crazy Trump statement. But sure enough, they cannot resist — every statement from Trump distracts them. Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes) is “Woke Sheldon” and Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim) is calling out Chloe Fineman’s Stephanie Ruhle for trying to hook up. Marcello Hernandez keeps quoting old pop songs, including “The Real Slim Shady.” As Trump himself puts it, the anchors are awful, like Scooby Doo “All Velma.” They cut to James Austin Johnson’s Trump, who introduces the latest member of his cabinet, the pathological liar George Santos (Bowen Yang). This cold open was solid, but not ambitious or memorable by any means. I look forward to knowing what comedic tone the writers choose to use in Trump’s first couple weeks in office.
Chapelle delivers the longest monologue in SNL history. At a whopping 17-minutes long, Chappelle touched on topics such as Palestine and his hopes for the new Trump presidency. I was not extremely excited about Chapelle hosting, as his past monologues were riddled with transphobia, but his monologue here was solid. Smoking a cigarette and pulling up a stool, Chappelle reflects on the perfect storm of catastrophe that caused the apocalyptic California fires. “You have to at least consider the possibility that God hates these people.”
Chapelle pays homage to Jimmy Carter, telling a touching story of his visit to the Middle East around the same time as Carter. “While I was there, Jimmy Carter said, ‘I want to go to the Palestinian territory,’ and the Israeli government said, ‘It’s too dangerous, and if you go, we cannot protect you.’ And man, Jimmy Carter went anyway,” he said. “I will never forget the images of a former American president walking with little to no security while thousands of Palestinians were cheering him on.”
A highlight for me was Chapelle speaking on Sean “Diddy” Combs’s legal troubles, realizing the only reason he was never at the freak-offs was because he was too ugly to attend.“Can you imagine … everyone in Hollywood had an orgy behind your back … Carl Winslow from Family Matters was there, and I wasn’t invited?”
Chappelle ended with an earnest plea to President Elect Trump, asking him to do better. “Remember, whether people voted for you or not, they’re all counting on you. Whether they like you or not, they’re all counting on you. The whole world is counting on you,” he said. “Do not forget your humanity, and please have empathy for displaced people, whether they’re in the Palisades or Palestine.”
The first sketch returns from season 49 — Joaquin Antonio (Hernández) hosts a talk show as an immigrant father who dislikes his son. Chappelle joins him as “Black Neighbor Richard.” His son lost access to his bedroom door due to a porn addiction. His next guest is Mikey Day, a local guidance counselor. His relationship with his son Conor (Dismukes) is way too affectionate and close. Chapelle was definitely a stand out in this sketch. His reactions and expressions make the jokes from Day and Hernández even funnier.
The next sketch features a family who decides to evacuate the fires. The dad (Chappelle) has a secret, he takes a sledgehammer to the wall and reveals half a million dollars in cash, guns, and fake passports hidden in the walls. Things escalate, more secrets emerge, Chappelle says there’s no time to explain and ends up mercy killing the dog. This ended up being my favorite sketch of the night, even though there was no real payoff to any of the madness.
The multi-platinum-selling GoRilla performed “Yeah Glo!” The Memphis/crunk song is from her second mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang which was released last year. She later performed “Whatchu Kno About Me” and “Let Her Cook.” Her performance was energetic and served as a fun break between sketches.
Weekend update follows with Colin Jost scoring some big laughs with a dig at the expense of Mark Zuckerberg. “He flew down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and boy are his knees tired.” Michael Che invites cast member Michael Longfellow to make one final plea to save TikTok. Longfellow delivers my favorite performance of his this season, discarding concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership. “You know who else was Chinese? Jesus Christ … I saw it on a Tik Tok.” His vocal patterns and line delivery is great here. Later, Jost welcomes their second guest, the original Nosferatu (Sherman). The OG vampire is not happy with the new film’s redux. “He doesn’t even look like me … the guy is jacked and has a mustache; he looks like shirtless Ned Flanders.” Sherman takes several shots at Jost that are funny as usual. Their chemistry is some of my favorite from this cast.
At a police station, a man (Walker) reports his girlfriend missing. He gives a description of her to the cops, only to freeze when asked how much she weighs. An eavesdropping janitor (Kenan Thompson) is sympathetic to his cause, providing him with answers that will keep him out of trouble should his statements ever come to light. Thompson’s delivery here is the only thing saving this unfunny sketch that takes forever to play out. performed “Whatchu Kno About Me” and “Let Her Cook.”
The last sketch of the night is a spoof of social media dating shows, where women pop balloons on contestants. Legendary Chappelle Show pimp Silky Johnson appears, complete with Donnell Rawlings. Ashy Larry also participates. Asked if he’s some kind of sex trafficker, Silky retorts: “I don’t do traffic, I take helicopters, bitch.”
