While the first two episodes eschewed opening sketches that recreated news events, “Saturday Night Live” eventually found reality too glamorous. Houses of Parliament.
As the hearings began, committee chairman Keenan Thompson, who plays Rep. Benny Thompson of the Mississippi Democratic Party, made an important statement. “Jan. 6 was one of the most dramatic and important moments in our nation’s history,” he said. “So to fight back, we gathered a team of monotonous geeks and made a PowerPoint.”
Summarizing the meeting agenda before raising the tray of miniature cupcakes, he added:
He then turned the hearing over to Heidi Gardner, playing Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming and Vice Chair of the Commission. Gardner explained that the Commission’s evidence was directed at all Americans, saying, “Whether you’re a Republican you don’t see or a Democrat nodding your head so hard, There is one person responsible for this riot: Donald Trump,” she said. “And one person will suffer the consequences: me.”
For viewers wondering where her toughness came from, Gardner suggested it was genetic. Did you eat pizza with cheese or shoot a deer in the face with Dick Cheney?”
Thompson mostly acknowledged the eerily hot-headed Michael Longfellow, who plays California Democrat Adam Schiff, but reconsidered. Chloe Feynman (as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi) and Sarah Sherman (as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer) showed a video of their real-time reactions to the attack on the Capitol.
While Feynman as Pelosi was on a tense phone call with Mike Pence, Sherman as Schumer was also on the phone — on DoorDash for the missing lunch order. (She said it included “12 dill pickles still floating in juice and a hot pastrami sandwich with a very light mustard.”)
In another video, James Austin Johnson appeared as former President Donald J. Trump and made remarks that were said to have been made the day before the attack. Mr Johnson said by phone: What are polls? It’s just a piece of paper that you fold and put in your hat, and the man swings it around. After rambling about Apollo Creed, Ivan Drago and Obamacare, Johnson closed the call by nonchalantly asking, “Is Mike Pence dead yet?”
Thompson closed the meeting itself. “It was fun country while it lasted.”
Giiiiiiiiirrrrrl of the week
Can one joke, one graphic, make an entire sketch worthwhile? If so, “Girl Talk” might have been that sketch. With an introduction from the host, his Mo’nique Money Mo’nique Problems (Ego Nwodim), it started harmlessly. He described the program as “a talk show where women tell their problems and I keep my advice really simple.”
She and her guests (Megan Thee Stallion and Punky Johnson) discussed problems and solutions in dialogue consisting of different intonations of the word “girl.” And to help “any white or male in tune,” Nwodim provided subtitles for the discussion of the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, her two-syllable utterance of “girl” by Megan Thee Stallion produced the equivalent of a screen-wide crowd. A crammed (but educational!) text about the history of the conflict.
music video of the week
This filmed segment of an original song called “We Got Brought” spun laughs (and a really catchy tune) out of a decidedly stressful premise: Nwodim, Megan Thee Stallion, Bowen Yang met Played a guest along the tag of three longtime friends. We ditched the plus one at the club to hang out among them.
Now the three guests, who are strangers to each other, are stuck at the table and find nothing to talk about. So you just keep saying, ‘You’re crazy, you’re crazy.'” Yang’s personality insecurities — Yang’s character trying to make small talk by stating just that Twenty-five people have died at Disneyland since 1955.
Weekend Update Joke of the Week
On the Weekend Update desk, anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost continued to mention the January 6th Commission and its latest meeting results.
Jost started:
After the Jan. 6 committee served a subpoena to Donald Trump, Trump responded with a 14-page letter the next day. 14 pages. Alright, Yuna Bomber. I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but Trump wrote the letter the same day the FDA confirmed there was a shortage of Adderall in the country. He knows from his experience in college that overnight he was also taking a disturbing amount of Adderall whenever he wrote a 14-page paper.
He continued:
My favorite part of Trump’s letter is the opening part. It begins with “Dear President Thompson.” And the first line is just yelling. It’s like reading a Victorian love letter, “Dearest Winifred, who are you fucking with?”
Che picked up this thread:
The commission showed an unreleased Jan. 6 video of a desperate Nancy Pelosi talking on the phone with Mike Pence. Which counts as adultery for Pence? In the video, Pelosi said she wanted to punch Donald Trump and knew that if she did, she would go to jail and she would be happy because she has a private prison stake, she said. I think
Heartfelt musical performance of the week
It was a moment that passed almost as quickly as one of Megan Thee Stallion’s verses, but in the midst of a hectic night of comedy and costume changes, the rapper really touched with some of her songs. In her performance of “Anxiety,” Megan Thee Stallion mentioned her mother, Holly Thomas. who died from brain tumors in 2019As those lyrics flow:
If I could write a letter to heaven
I’d tell mama I should have listened
And I’m sorry to her that I was really out of control.
And ask her to forgive me.
And I ask, please, show me who was real
And if they’re all fake, get them from around me
It’s funny that I pray the same prayer to the Lord
and always amazed at who he takes
Megan Thee Stallion wasn’t so much about swallowing syllables, but the emotion in the lyrics was heard in her voice and seen in her face. On Friday, Megan Thee Stallion tweeted: she was thinking of taking a break Following “SNL,” she’s certainly earned it if she chooses to take it.