Some big guest stars come out for a cold open set at a LGBTQ Presidential Town Hall. Moderator Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat) and guest host Billy Porter (the Broadway and TV actor playing himself) welcome Cory Booker (Chris Redd), “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg (Colin Jost in a rare appearance away from the Weekend Update desk), and the night’s clear winner, Elizabeth Warren (Kate McKinnon).
Warren’s snappy retort to a question concerning supporters of “traditional marriage” earns her the adulation of gays worldwide, among them Porter, who declares “Oh snap, the library’s open and Miss Thing is about to get read!”
Next, Julían Castro (Lin-Manuel Miranda) takes the stage, apologizing for not being gay and promising to do better. He attempts to brand himself #LatinoObama and reminds everyone to “Vote for me for Vice-President – President! Dammit!”
Finally, close-talker Joe Biden (Woody Harrelson, reprising a role from two weeks ago) puts everyone on edge by making a jumbled pitch for equality (“Whether you’re gay, lesby, transgential or queef, you’re OK with Joe!”), detailing a “false memory” about discovering what homosexuality was, and kissing Cooper on the lips.
It’s an average dose of celebrity-skewering without any giant laughs, but it’s a welcome break from the unfunny Trump or Fox News sketches that so often kick things off.
David Harbour, of Stranger Things fame, hosts for the first time. He refuses to partake in a Stranger Things monologue, insisting instead on doing “one of those walk around the studio ones”. Much to his chagrin, as soon as he gets backstage he discovers a portal to the Upside Down. There, he encounters Aidy Bryant, who he mistakes for Barb, a returning Pete Davidson and Lorne Michaels, now a page working under boss Kennan Thompson. It’s rather one-note, but it gets props for trying something different.
Little Miss Teacher’s Friend is a middle-school pageant made up of awkward pre-teen tattletales and brown-nosers, all vying for the affection of their teacher, who finds the whole thing deeply uncomfortable. The funniest bits are two bookends in which Harbour, playing the principle and pageant host, loses his temper at an excited student for no reason.
Grouch is a note-perfect parody of Joker, the latest “gritty anti-hero origin story”. The trailer promises a disturbing, Taxi-Driver-esque reimagining of Sesame Street in which Big Bird is a stripper, the Count is a junkie, Cookie Monster is a schizophrenic and Oscar the Grouch is an angry garbageman turned crazed vigilante. It’s the best movie parody the show has done in a long time.
Soul Cycle is yet another competition sketch. This one sees four contestants – a sassy optimist, a coked-up struggling actor, a self-pitying supermodel and a lazy Scientology reject – vying to be a spin instructor at a trendy gym. It’s a funny showcase for all involved (especially Harbour, who has a penchant for playing high-strung buffoons), but the set-up feels tired.
Musical guest Camilla Cabello, decked out in 18th-century French finery and surrounded by almost a dozen similarly-costumed dancers, performs Cry for Me.
Weekend Update opens on the Trump impeachment. Jost and Michael Che unload on recently arrested Giuliani associates and “thumb breakers” Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who “were somehow not killed by John Wick”. Jokes about Trump’s probable allegiance to Nazis during the second world war, Abraham Lincoln’s sexual orientation and a ban on child sex dolls land hard, making this a stronger-than-usual effort.
The first guest is teen movie critic Bailey Gismert (Heidi Gardner), who covers It: Chapter 2, Judy and Joker. She admits to having a crush on Joker (or Arthur, as she insists he be called), which leads to the inevitable mini-breakdown over her teenage woes. She signs off with a shout out to Todd Phillips: “The Joker director was right! Comedy is too woke!”
Davidson joins to discuss the recent spike in sexually transmitted diseases: “I get tested all the time because, you know, I look like I have all of them.” He takes the glass-half-full view, suggesting an upsurge in curable STDs is a fair trade for the desegregating effects of modern dating, although he does lament the return of forgotten diseases, asking: “Does everything in my generation have to be a reboot? Like, the clap and Rambo came back in the same year, and neither of them were wanted.”
Folk of the Past is a 60s TV performance from trio Peter, Paula and Murray. Their song Five Long Years recounts the time and money spent on various failures and humiliations: “Three years thinking Maine was a town in Vermont”, “Four years holding in farts in public”, “One, two, three years trying to impress my therapist”, “Three-thou on a fine for exposing my junk at a little league game”, “12 hours standing over a bridge saying, ‘Do it, you coward!’” It’s legitimately impressive – catchy, twisted and filled with surprising pathos. It’s the best sketch of the season.
Later, Harbour and McKinnon play horny Italian grandparents (Harbour the grandmother, McKinnon the grandfather) whose open, shameless sensuality deeply disturbs their grandkids. The sketch is simple and juvenile and very funny. Harbour is particularly charming in his willingness to go broad.
Cabello returns and performs Easy. Dog Court is a reality TV show centering around canine cases. In a dog park, Judge Connie Schaumberg (Cecily Strong) presides over a dispute between two dirtbag dog owners (Harbour and McKinnon, continuing to show off their chemistry). The pups are real, which causes things to go adorably off the rails as a squirrelly pug wriggles all over Strong’s face.
It’s the perfect cap to a surprisingly strong episode. Harbour’s charisma makes him an ace at live comedy and thankfully, the writing was there to meet him.
