Alec Baldwin broke the record for the number of times anyone has hosted the show since its inception. (This last time made Baldwin’s time number 17.) The monologue was brilliant, made all the more so because Pete Davidson came on to comically mock the host. “Tell me, does everyone’s head expand after a certain age?”
The host reprised his role as Trump not for the cold open but he did show up later in a gag. Once again it was Melissa McCarthy who stole the show with her impression of Sean Spicer. Everything about the cold open was spot on, the doll show – showing how vetting would work and Kate McKinnon’s cameo as Jeff Sessions was priceless.
McCarthy’s Spicer is nigh on perfect. Her aggression and OTT reactions to the press’s questions were brilliantly funny. The cameo by McKinnon as Sessions was also a comedic highlight.
The Spicer cold open was hilarious but the show’s comic highlight was a toss up between the Kellyanne Conway “Fatal Attraction” and “Ring” style gag with Jake Tapper being stalked and hunted by the publicity mad Conway.
This was comedy of the sublime and sadly, it seemed that the younger “hip” audience missed some of the punch lines. McKinnon quoting Alex Forrest’s lines seemed to go over the heads of the audience. They did eventually catch-up and get the joke but it took a little time.
The final bit, where Kellyanne falls out of the window and falls to the street below, only to get back up and readjust her broken and misshapen limbs, was evocative of a J Horror “moment” and was simply perfect.
SNL made the most of Baldwin but the episode belonged to the ladies. In an apparent answer to Trump’s displeasure at women portraying men in his cabinet, a lot of the female players took potshots at the POTUS.
Leslie Jones with her dream of playing Trump when Alec Baldwin takes off the wig was brilliant. The confrontation between Jones and SNL creator Lorne Michaels was funny, with all the physical comedy taking place in front of the cast.
It was the Vanessa Bayer punchline that killed it however. With a blond coiffed Bayer wearing the POTUS costume to stab Jones in the back at the last moment. This was just priceless.
It was not just the impressions by the female SNL members who socked it to Trump and his cabinet. Another skit, which built on an earlier sketch with Baldwin as Trump, had the president taking the three judges to “People’s Court” to challenge their ruling and their right to stop his ban.
Once again, a female slammed the POTUS, the judge was played by Cecily Strong as a younger version of a Judge Judy type. Trump’s appeal is squashed yet again this time by a “TV” court. “That’s okay,” Baldwin’s Trump replies, ” I’m a TV president.”
The skit ends with Trump going on to another People’s Court case.
Other skits on the night that were spot on was the Russell Stover gag about Black History Month chocolates, the Cheetos pitches for new adverts (both these were brilliant) and the drill sergeant sketch.
Weekend Update was, as usual, topical and amusing but this week it was not the comic highlight of the show. Ed Sheeran killed it. The lad from Framlingham, Suffolk in England proved again just how talented he really is.
SNL continues to hammer away at the latest POTUS and his swamp filled cabinet. Congrats to all the ladies of SNL, and Melissa McCarthy, for ripping it up on the night. Since this was Alec Baldwin’s big night, we will leave you with his opening monologue.
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