It was a night of fresh faces at Saturday Night Live. In the illustrious half-century-and-counting history of the variety series, there have been a shocking lack of female stand-up hosts. Even during the height of the stand-up boom in the 80s and 90s, there were just three: Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr and Rosie O’Donnell. In the past decade, Amy Schumer and Tiffany Haddish serve as the only two examples. Now, Nikki Glaser joins the select group hot off her star-making roast of Tom Brady, which led to her acclaimed Golden Globes hosting gig, which she will return to in January. Last night, she made her debut in 8H alongside breakout musical guest and just-announced best new artist Grammy nominee sombr, who is the first SNL talent to be born after Kenan Thompson became a cast member. Feel old yet?
“Oh, hi! Didn’t see you there. Someone was dying in my office.” So far this season, the writers at SNL have been trying to skewer Donald Trump in a roundabout way. Recently, they plopped him in the middle of a Property Brothers gag on the East Wing renovations. In this episode, they zeroed in on the Thursday headlines when a man collapsed in the Oval Office during an event on drug prices. “A guy collapsing in the Oval Office, who would have thought it’d be not me,” James Austin Johnson’s ace Trump quips in a nod to past rumors concerning Trump’s health. “RFK Jr booked it out of here like someone was trying to give him a vaccine.” Johnson’s Trump has been less preachy and more biting than Alec Baldwin’s caricature of the man, with each line leaving no stone unturned. “They’re Stephen Miller’s policies,” Trump says of his agenda. “I don’t write that stuff.”
Don’t say Glaser didn’t face her monologue with guns blazing. Volleying between calling New York City “Epstein’s original island”, noting that she’s been “kind of obsessed with slavery lately” all before touching on “good old-fashioned rape”, the stand-up didn’t flinch when it came to her set that played on life’s taboos without taking as much of a breath, for better or worse. While most of Glaser’s most-watched stand-up is typically about celebrities (from the roast to the Golden Globes), here she shied away from pop culture and waded into controversial topics, cramming as much into what seemed like a sped-up version of her normal routine.
Glaser was front and center with another SNL fresh-face in the form of Tommy Brennan, the 31-year-old new cast member who marked his fifth-ever show. Brennan, who started out doing improv in Chicago’s Second City comedy theater before transitioning to stand-up (and previously opening for Glaser on the road), made for a curious brother to Glaser’s sister character. The two are siblings singing love songs to each other, among them I’ll Make Love To You. So, if the earlier molestation and pedophilia gags weren’t enough, how about some incest jokes?
While drug prices were making headlines last week and the fate of government health insurance remaining in doubt, SNL decided to go left-of-center and zeroed in on the real problem: people who are annoyed by the Jennifer Hudson Show’s gimmick of forcing celebrity guests to dance through a tunnel of chanting staffers. It was no Oops, I Crapped My Pants or even CouplaBeers from earlier this year with fellow stand-up Shane Gillis, but it was a clever way to highlight a cultural trend nonetheless.
Even those not chronically online know that MrBeast owns the internet with his consistently viral clips and insane challenges, so it was only a matter of time the powers-that-be at SNL skewered the curious online personality. Here, the conceit says it all: it’s Beauty and Mr Beast (get it?), with Glaser glowing as the hapless Belle. While the joke was essentially goofing on Beast’s wild challenges he regularly launches, at least we got a Be My Guest parody in the form of You’re Depressed.
It was a night of punchy, quick-moving and to-the-point sketches and American Girl XL continues that (proud?) tradition. Here, we have a commercial parody in which the dolls are lifesized. Cute right? Well, it all inadvertently attracts men who, well, want to have sex with them. Glaser is the host face of the proceedings, drawing on her skills hosting the ridiculous Max series F-Boy Island. Except, Johnson takes over hosting duties. While short and sweet is definitely a rule to usually follow, this one may have been too fast-moving, while Tina Fey’s Brownie Husband in 2010 was a tastier treat of a similar premise.
“I Went to UTI. Wait, sorry. I have a UTI.” Glaser played on her raunchy persona with one of the most inspired sketches in recent memory where she and Sarah Sherman (playing herself, as it was shouted out in the sketch) accidentally go on a magical adventure while drunk on a mechanical bull. It recalled the zaniest bits from SNL history and could have been at home in the 80s (Happy Fun Ball), combining a rootin’ tootin’ theme courtesy of a country-fied Johnson, classic Thompson cutaways, and time traveling through liminal space. They even dodged military missiles in a nod to the current administration’s penchant for blowing supposed drug boats out of the water. It was ridiculous. It was wide-spanning. It was very funny.
“Speaking of pharmaceuticals: whatever they have Trump on, I want some.” Weekend Update predictably zeroed in on the guy collapsing in the Oval Office, a modern gold mine for comedy akin to when Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man in 2006.
While the late vice-president eluded any mention, the segment came to life with a surprise appearance from Pete Davidson, who last appeared on the show during its 50th anniversary special. The mustachioed vet riffs on he and Jost’s much talked-about and derided purchase of their native Staten Island Ferry (which just was the focus of a blistering New York Times piece), as well as the news he’s going to be a father. “I’m just excited to be a dad and give it all of the energy and enthusiasm I never had for this show.” Here’s hoping he was not joking on that one.
Mikey Day takes centerstage as a sorority “sister” wearing a face mask while her fellow girls are oblivious. Again, it was another sketch that sped through its thin premise, but this one ended with a twist: Glaser is also wearing a female mask, pulling it off to reveal it was Andrew Dismukes all along. As Peggy Lee once sang: is that all there is?
The lack of air traffic controllers due to the government shutdown which are leading to delays and cancellations at airports across America entered SNL’s crosshairs in the rear of the show. But instead of tired plane jokes, they instead focused on a pilot who is taking advantage of the long delays by workshopping dating app replies. “Just sent her a risky text,” Johnson’s pilot says over the intercom. “She said: ‘Hopping in the shower. I said: ‘Without me?’ With a monkey covering his eyes.” It’s two usually hackneyed premises (dating and airplane humor) brought to fresh life. It won’t enter the pantheon of Total Bastard Airlines, but it was certainly good for a few inspired lines.
Starting with Beauty and Mr Beast, the solid show wrapped up with another whimsical fantasy turned on its head. Glaser plays Ana, a delightful young woman who has plenty of friends she made in the forrest, with gifts for each of them. However, two critters (Mikey Day and newcomer Jeremy Culhane) are transfixed by Ana’s pinwheels – perhaps a little too much. The highlight here was Bowen Yang, who is currently in the midst of the press tour for his sequel Wicked: For Good. In the sketch, he plays Mr Bunsy (yes, he’s a bunny) and hilariously vaults between demure and cutesy to loud and furious. You tell ‘em, bunny Bowen.
Source link
