Ok, great cold open and Chapelle’s monologue was just what it needed to be.
This election night sketch is just a little too close to what the reality was for a lot of us I suspect.
Yeah, it was a great cold open, and dammit I’ve missed Dave Chapelle.
I liked the election night skit, and Weekend Update was good.
The cold open may actually have talked me off the ledge.
Agreed; did it remind anyone else of the cold open they did after the Paris attacks? I guess it’s still to soon for any Trump sketches.
I thought it was a great episode, and Chapelle was hilarious.
If nothing else, they have to figure out what to do about casting. Alec Baldwin is too expensive.
They might do what happened with W after Will Ferrell left and just experiment?
You can definitely tell that even though Chappelle may have not stayed in the spotlight recently, he didn’t stay out of practice. Hilarious standup and great little thoughtful words at the end.
The cold opening was good. I was nervous at first, worried they were going to “funny up” the song. But it was great.
But overall great. Like I got to watch another episode of the Chappelle show through an SNL prism.
Was anyone else briefly fooled by that skit with Leslie Jones where they go on to critique the mistakes on the skit? I thought for a second she was on something her timing was so off. She is one of my favorite cast members so far and I was worried for her.
There was nothing about this episode I did not like. I loved Chappelle and Ginsberg and A Tribe Called Quest and the white people reacting to the voting process was just like the folks in our election forum, I swear. But that opening was the best part.
Really excited that Tribe Called Quest was out there, too. They were scheduled well before the election results came in…but they totally nailed the songs. They would have nailed joyful songs too!
Kind of sad to see Q-Tip is finally an old man, tho. Sigh.
The episode as a whole was flat for me. It seemed pretty clear that they had to scrap the week’s game plan and start again late. Everything went on too long and with too much repetition: the skit about the New Yorkers watching the election results, the Ginsburg impression, the bar skit with the unlikable people hooking up, the skit with the meta-commentary.
I missed the opening monologue, so maybe he invested his time there, but Chapelle just seemed low-energy throughout. Chris Rock making a cameo gave that sketch a little life, but the fact that they brought him in makes me wonder if Lorne wasn’t happy with Chapelle in rehearsal.
Really? I thought it was spot on. It reminded me a lot of this MB, where that skit is still playing out.
Not being familiar with Dave Chappelle’s previous work a great deal of the show was over my head but I did think this was one of the better Weekend Updates in a long time.
The cold open made me wistful when it aired; then I watched it again the next day and got teary; then I watched it later in the day and actually cried at it. It was really perfect.
I though a couple of the skits were misses (the couple at the bar, the milk sketch) but it was helped by the fact that Keenan and Pete were having a hard time keeping a straight face. That’s the only thing that made the sketches funny.
Well, skits going on too long is like tthe classic complaint about SNL for 30 years. Didn’t think this was a particarly strong example but I see it.
If you like Chappelle before then definitely search out the monologue. It was a 10 minute standup set as good as any he’s done plus a few hopeful words at the end.
Really good episode. The Cold Open was a real nice dual tribute. Dave’s monologue was amazing. His story about being at the White House was wonderful. I really want to see him do a new comedy special.
The Election skit was perfect and spot on.
I have to admit my opinion of SNL is so low I thought the crappy skit at the beginning of the Sports Press Conference skit was just a crappy skit. I was about to start to Fast Forward when it took the turn.
I also liked the Chapelle Show Reunion.
SNL is kind of the definition of a long-running, cyclic show. They rotate comedians in and out of the cast, and they end up with a handful of really funny people who gel together, and the show’s really funny.
Then they typically leave for film careers, and the show sucks for a while afterward until the procedure repeats itself.
They seem to be a little bit on an upswing now- Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson and Leslie Jones are very funny, and the Weekend Update guys are good.
They need to throw Kyle Mooney out on his ear though; that guy mostly just sucks. Beck Bennett isn’t much better.
The cold open was amazing. I’ve been amazed by Kate McKinnon’s work before but I didn’t know that she could sing and play the piano as well. It threw me off a little bit though because she dressed like her Hillary Clinton character but played it straight right up until the end. I didn’t even think that the Clinton bit was needed for it but it was a very nice “Hey we’re not done yet, keep fighting” message. What an incredible piece.
Also a very good monologue from Chapelle.
Totally threw me as well but I loved how they turned it into the post sketch press conference. Jones is very funny and a great presence but her timing and line reading is not always the best (more so when she was first hired, she’s improved a lot in that department).
The timing was a little off for other sketches as well. That 10 to 1 sketch with the breastfeeding seemed a little stumbly plus they showed Leslie’s milk shooting gun when the blanket moved at one point. I wonder if that was intentional.
“Look, I liked the wig ok! I thought I’d be the next David S Pumpkins. I made a mistake”
I loved loved the cold opening. As mentioned earlier, it was a nice dual tribute and very wistful. I’d be curious if Hillary ever sees it and her reaction. (Future guest host? Why not!)
The opening monologue was fantastic. He slipped in the N-word here and then several times later in the evening. My local news ran just a few seconds long, so I wonder if a TV-MA - Language warning was posted at the start and it just got cut off.
The election-return watch party was great. “Hillary will get the most electoral votes, but Trump might win the popular vote. That would be the worst possible outcome!” “You think that’s the worst possible outcome??!?” Spot-on.
The poorly done sketch was really horrible, but the post-sketch analysis made it all make sense. They should do that for every sketch (instead of us doing it here for them).
Didn’t care for the breast-feeding sketch and the bar sketch; just too much bodily fluids for me. Can you still smoke in bars?
No mention of Chappelle as Negan from Walking Dead picking which of his characters he’s going to beat to death?