SNL: Step Up or Ship Out

The current season of Saturday Night Live has been it’s highest rated in many, many years – in part due to an above average level of craziness happening in politics and Alec Baldwin’s high profile stint as Trump.

This week’s episode though brought a trifecta of opportunity for NBC’s long running sketch show. Alec Baldwin was hosting, the momentum/fall out of Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impression, and an ever growing list of  funny woman willing to lend their talents to portray a number of key administration names. So what did we get?….. a typical SNL episode peppered with a few moments of alright.

Now, I’m hoping beyond hope that there is something really heavy brewing at 30 Rock, and they’re just waiting to spring it on us when we’re least expecting it since a lot of SNL‘s charm does comes from the element of surprise, à la McCarthy last week. The only probably with that though is the show is on hiatus until the Octavia Spencer hosted show on March 4th. Anything can happen in three weeks, especially with this President, so why didn’t you cease this opportunity and bring it?  HARD.

You opened with another Spicer sketch, which let’s face it was just a repeat of last week’s sketch with updated dialogue, but seeing Kate McKinnon’s Session pop up made it worth it. Then the monologue, yeah Baldwin’s hosted seventeen times, yada, yada, yada. A few more typically SNL filler sketches… we get it sure.. yeah funny ha ha..

THEN…

The People’s Court sketch, which was set up in the cold open actually – so nicely done, with Trump taking three judges to task on overturning his travel ban. At this point, my heart was filled with so much hope I thought I was going to have a stroke.. only to be let down by YET ANOTHER shirtless Putin appearance. I don’t get the mindset here. Even if you went the predictable route of having Rosie O’Donnell, who had campaigned all week to play Steve Bannon, turn up it still would have gone over huge… sorry, I mean YUUUUGE. You would have given the crowd, and so many people on the internet, what they wanted – Trump staff being played by woman! Dammit SNL, you were gifted with the golden opportunity to get under the skin of this administration and you bottled it. Or, at least, that’s how it looks. Especially since you stuck Leslie Jones’ HILARIOUS attempt at playing Trump sketch right at the end of the show. What the fuck are you doing?

I know many will try to argue that SNL is not a political sketch show, and that they are under no obligation to cover politics to any great degree, but I call bull-fucking-shit. This show started in the 70’s, and a great portion of those early years covered a wide range of what was happening in politics. Then along came Dana Carvey’s classic Ross Perot impression and culminated in the Bush/Gore years that birthed some of the funniest sketches in the show’s history. Face facts – SNL’s star shines brightest when there is political turmoil, and for whatever reason they’ve forgotten this…. or at least forgotten how to use it to their advantage.

The missed cameo opportunities of last night’s episode could have been overlooked if I could rely on Weekend Update to bring the pain, but again… it didn’t. In fact, I’m going to take this opportunity to beg, plea and barter with whoever is in charge of this segment to BRING BACK CECILY STRONG! Colin Joust and Michael Che, while I’m sure are wonderful people, ARE BORING AS FUCK! How about you just show a weekly round up of Seth Meyers’ “A Closer Look” from Late Night instead? Because Seth gets the job done! Okay… I’m getting off topic here, but honestly – sort that shit out people.

Right back at ya, Cecily. Right back at ya!

In the mean time SNL, take these three weeks off to assemble an absolute powerhouse of special guests, oh even crazier – put the seven funny women you have IN THE CAST to better use – and truly bring some top notch political satire. And if you have the gumption – give all the boys a week off from acting on the show and make it a total lady style take down. If you’re worried about alienating Trump voters, I can almost guarantee they aren’t watching and even if they are – WHO CARES!? It’s your duty as the leading comedy show in the US to be apolitical and pull no punches regardless of who’s watching.

I have faith in you SNL. I know somewhere buried deep beneath fart jokes, way too long Weekend Update segments, and  whatever the fuck THIS was..

……lies the SNL I grew up on. The one that was visceral, hilarious and ground breaking.

So do your fucking job.