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Videos: 'Saturday Night Live' Parodies Mueller Report, 'Us' & Jussie Smollett With Host Sandra Oh

Ben Yakas

Published Apr 1, 2019

Modified Apr 1, 2019

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Ben Yakas

Published Apr 1, 2019

Modified Apr 1, 2019

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Did you catch the HBO Veep marathon that was on all weekend leading up to the seventh season premiere on Sunday? Have you rewatched the season two episode "Helsinki" anytime recently, the one where Selina Meyers gets groped by the Finnish Prime Minister's husband? Holy moly is it incredible. Veep—especially the first four seasons, though the fifth season holds up as well—will go down as one of the best comedies of the last decade. Sadly, we are not here to toast to the enduring legacy of the show and Julia Louis-Dreyfus's sublime profanity, but summarize the latest mediocre episode of Saturday Night Live.

Host Sandra Oh, making her SNL hosting debut, had oodles of charisma to lend to an episode that featured bland, instantly forgettable political parodies. Thankfully, there were a couple of really weird, really lovable sketches featuring the best of the female cast members, as well. Would I have rather been watching Veep reruns? Probably—but then I wouldn't have seen Cecily Strong's incredible Jeanine Pirro impression on Weekend Update, in which she had multiple Trump-inspired explosive reactions that ejected her from her chair.

As for that lovably weird stuff: Future Self featured Oh's best performance of the night with Four Loko-loving Tishee, who inexplicably always has a broken arm. It felt like a spiritual cousin to the Larry David character Kevin Roberts, which is a very good thing.

Kate McKinnon took the spotlight in Louise's Birthday as a sly octogenarian with a very particular make-out fetish. Some men just want to watch the world burn, and some 85-year-olds just want to make their coworkers kiss.

While those were the best sketches of the night, there were a few strong ones along the way, including the pre-taped sketch The Duel, which combined florid period piece language and gratuitous violence, and was a great showcase for Oh (even as she lost limb and limb).

Kenan Thompson was charming and effusive as ever in Electric Shoes, which was completely in his wheelhouse—but it also made me wonder why oh why they didn't just bring back the superior "What's Up With That?"

Discover Card was an Us parody commercial that had tons of impressively accurate impressions and references to the film (even if it wasn't that funny).

So about the rest... the political material was mostly pretty bad, but Kremlin Meeting at least had a pretty good central idea (Putin is embarrassed that the Mueller Report revealed he doesn't control Trump), and Beck Bennett is always delightful as the shirtless Russian leader.

The Mueller Report-focused Cold Open, which shifted between Robert DeNiro's Robert Mueller, Aidy Bryant's William Barr and Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump, wasn't very good, but maybe you want to watch it anyway just for McKinnon's always-welcome Rudy Giuliani.

Check out the rest of the sketches below, including Oh's Monologue, which got a boost from Leslie Jones; Chris Redd played Jussie Smollett in the forgettable Network Meeting; Cheques was an enjoyable little cinematic short about...checks; and Test Prep was a suitably weird, if not quite hilarious, 10-to-1 sketch to end things on.

Check out the rest of Weekend Update below, including Aidy Bryant as would-be Moon Queen Astronaut Anne McClain.

Also, check out College Admissions, a cut-for-time live sketch that never quite takes off:

Tame Impala brought their psychedelic disco bongo music as the musical guest, performing new single "Patience" and unveiling "Borderline" from their upcoming new album.

Kit Harington will make his SNL hosting debut next weekend with musical guest Sara Bareilles.

Tagged

sandra oh

saturday night live

snl

tame impala

television

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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