After the hoopla of last week’s Donald Trump episode, Saturday Night Live returned to normal with first-time host Elizabeth Banks. This episode felt looser and less tense, which was most likely helped by having a seasoned comedic actor like Banks as host, and not a presidential candidate prone to calling people “loser.”
Through five episodes this season, the cast and writers have been consistently putting together quality shows — even the Trump episode had its moments — from beginning to end. During his interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast last week, Lorne Michaels admitted that he never thinks SNL has a “perfect” episode. Maybe we as viewers should start feeling the same way because Saturday’s episode with Banks wasn’t perfect, but it was still very funny.
Cold Open: Message to Paris
With the tragic events in Paris on Friday night, SNL — as a New York City institution — used its cold open to stand in solidarity with the people of Paris. Cecily Strong read a statement in English and French before saying the classic “Live from New York” line.
SNL has done similar cold opens in the past. Most famously with the season 27 premiere which aired 18 days after the attacks in New York City on Sept. 11 and featured New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, along with members of the New York City Fire Department. More recently, the New York City Children’s Choir sang “Silent Night” in December 2012 after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Best Sketch: High School Theatre Show
The world’s most naive high school theatre troupe returned with “Mirror to America: A Reflection of You,” and contained more audience participation from Kenan Thompson and Vanessa Bayer than during previous sketches featuring the troupe.
Second Best Sketch: First Got Horny 2 U
For the second week in a row, the women of SNL — this time billed as Infinity + 5 — contributed a standout musical sketch. This time around, they reminisce about their first sexual crushes from the normal (Taylor Hanson) to the unusual (Robbie Sinclair, the teenage dinosaur son from the 1990’s TV show Dinosaurs).
Weekend Update Moment: Pete Davidson
Davidson discussed the recent rejection by voters of the anti-discrimination Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) vote. We find out that Davidson walks into bathrooms at home even if the doors are closed, and has been using the women’s room at SNL for two months because of the WiFi. Bruce Chandling (Kyle Mooney) and Olya Povlatsky (Kate McKinnon) also made appearances.
Colin Jost and Michael Che returned to form after an off week last week during the Donald Trump episode and put together a really good Weekend Update. Jost and Che were interviewed last week on NPR’s Fresh Air by Terry Gross and admitted that the writers were a little tense during the Trump episode.
Mistake of the Night: The Adventures of Young Ben Carson
There were actually quite a few mistakes during this episode. A mic can be spotted when Leslie Jones leaves the high school theatre sketch and “The Bureau” featured two camera miscues, but those are bound to happen with live television.
The biggest mistake comes from “The Adventures of Young Ben Carson” and was probably only noticeable to those of us with some knowledge of the skyline of Detroit. The Renaissance Center is featured behind Ben Carson (Jay Pharoah) in 1968 Detroit, but construction for the “RenCen” didn’t even start until 1973. Thankfully, this amazing takedown of the presidential candidate by using his own words isn’t diminished at all by the set design blunder.
Other Notes:
Former cast member and writer Mike O’Brien returned for the first time this season with “Uber for Jen.” It was announced before the season started that O’Brien would contribute occasional short films this season.
“Black Jeopardy!” addressed the “Is Tupac Shakur Alive?” conspiracy theory. He’s totally living in that Cuban Illuminati hotel.
Lorde responded through Twitter to accusations that she was lip-synching during her performance of “Magnets” with Disclosure:
wow – the fact that some people thought i was lip syncing on snl is an awesome compliment! goes without saying i have never/will never haha
— Lorde (@lordemusic) November 15, 2015
Saturday Night Live returns on Nov. 21 with host Matthew McConaughey and musical guest Adele.
