In a highly entertaining episode, Chance the Rapper did a great job as host and musical guest. Here's everything that happened on Saturday Night Live this week.
The cold open
Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico and brought up a slew of special guests to help substantiate some of his more dubious claims. After a few deplorables (deluded fans from the crowd, Kate McKinnon's Senator Lindsey Graham) spouted off about the validity of their cult leader's conspiracy theories (including Pete Davidson, as a recently exonerated member of ISIS), Alex Moffatt's Mark Zuckerberg, whose real-life counterpart faced congressional grilling about Facebook's role in election tampering this past week, tried to appear as anything but the awkward and damaging social outcast he seems to be.
In a throwback, former cast member/new Don Pardo Darrell Hammond, who infamously vented about his Trump being replaced by Baldwin's, made a rare onscreen appearance to, oddly, reprise his Bill Clinton impression at a Trump rally, confusing the reasons for Trump's impeachment with those of his own. And finally, SNL Hall of Famer Fred Armisen turned up to play Turkish President Erdoğan, which, in spite of playing him like a riffing comedian, kind of fizzled.
The monologue
In honour of his second time hosting SNL, Chance the Rapper performed a Fresh Prince-esque rap, paying tribute to things that could generally be regarded as second best (i.e. Burger King, Pepsi, etc.). With Kyle Mooney joining him at one point to insist upon his unique brand of desperate hip-hop inclusion, this bit was more too-long product placement parade than conceptually funny comedy sketch, but it had a heartfelt conclusion, as Chance shouted out his family after also voicing his support for the currently striking Chicago Teachers Union.
League of Legends
The last time Chance was on, he played Lazlo Holmes, a Madison Square Gardens analyst for the Knicks who is helplessly assigned to cover a Rangers hockey game and has no idea what is going on. This time, Lazlo is placed out of his element again but this time he's covering a nerdy videogame tournament at MSG, and the jokes are that he feels superior to the tournament action and tries his best to fake his way through his coverage, while also simultaneously undercutting all of people in the involved. Props to Bowen Yang for playing a lusted-after gamer who couldn't care less about his groupies.
First Impressions Court
This amusing sketch found Chance playing the elderly Judge Barry, who presides over First Impressions Court. As cases and circumstances are announced via voiceover, Judge Barry fires off verdicts as soon as defendants walk into the court, based on the way they look or their names. Yang cracked Chance up as a male exotic dancer, and actor Jason Momoa made a cameo to flash his pecs (and accidentally misspeak by saying "paraplegic" instead of "paralegal"), and this quickly-paced sketch worked well.
Tasty Toaster Tarts
This clever, dark remote found Chance playing Jason, a high school student who brings his friends, played by Heidi Gardner, Melissa Villaseñor, and Mikey Day, home for a post-school snack. When he outlines the vast number of junk food options in his house, his friends begin to get suspicious that something terrible has happened to Jason's parents and it seems their instincts are right. Unfortunately, they can't investigate further because they're blinded by the delicious prospect of munching on some Tasty Toaster Tarts. With cool effects and a great performance by Chance, this was well-produced and funny.
How We Met Our Ends
A Halloween musical number of sorts, teenagers played by Heidi Gardner and Kyle Mooney are in a graveyard when four ghosts emerge to sing a death ditty about how they each lost their lives. Of the four, Chance played a ghost who is too embarrassed to discuss the circumstances of his own demise, but when he finally does, he was right to withhold the bizarre tale. This was funny.
Chance the Rapper
Introducing his own musical performance, Chance the Rapper tore into "Zanies and Fools" with tremendous energy and an eye-catching production full of live musicians and dancers. The politically charged rhymes were delivered remarkably, as Chance gave his all for this wondrous appearance.
Flashing his nipple again, Jason Momoa introduced the second Chance performance, throwing to a smoke-filled stage. Clad all in black, Chance began "Handsome" relatively low-key and maintained that pace until a cameo from Megan Thee Stallion bumped the energy up but this didn't match the majesty of "Zanies and Fools."
Weekend Update
Colin Jost and Michael Che delivered an error-prone, somewhat half-baked Weekend Update, going in after Trump news from the past week. Jost threw to a video clip that didn't start right away and Che got laughs and groans for describing Rudy Giuliani as going from "the mayor of 9/11 to the 9/11 of mayors."
Likely the best desk correspondents in recent years, Alex Moffatt and Mikey Day reprised their impressions of Eric and Donald Trump Jr. to respond to their recent assertions that nepotism (or "nipple-teasing") in politics is wrong. The glory of this is Moffatt's physically charismatic turn as Eric, as the dimmest of dim bulbs, while Day's Don Jr., gently enables him.
Che made a couple of funny jokes about Kanye West acting like an old, white lady but then just let the thing peter right out, which was odd, and the segment ended suddenly on Jost making a Frozen pun. Just a strange edition of this weekly centerpiece.
Love Hover
This physical display was pretty uproarious, as Chance and Cecily Strong played romantic interests suspended in mid-air for most of the sketch. At the mercy of their harnesses, they crashed and bumped into everything they could and the slapstick of it all made it hard for all involved to contain the joy they felt in this silly thing.
Space Mistakes
A very funny remote, Chance played an astronaut who is urged by all around him to make sure that he doesn't make a mistake on his next mission. Unfortunately, many mistakes are made and in space, mistakes are worse than non-space mistakes, which was explained via this amusing thing.
Dazzle Designs Choir Attire
Any time Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon get together for a nuanced satire of elderly women, their chemical reaction, as comedic collaborators, yields something magical. Here, they went after the world of choir directors by homing in on their silly leadership and the sartorial rules they impose upon teenage choir members. Chance, Pete Davidson, and Chris Redd bolstered this by playing awkward fashion models for choir outfits and this worked very well.
Dance Studio (1978)
A dance choreography class in 1978 taught by Kenan Thompson's Tony Chalice is disrupted by a full moon, which forces him to draw the curtains and blinds so he doesn't go full werewolf. With an excellent, over-the-top performance by Thompson and great writing overall, this Halloween sketch was funny and fully realized.
