“Saturday Night Live” (SNL) is an American institution. Since 1975, an expansive cast of comedians go live from New York at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night with a show that was written that week, rotating hosts and keeping the same creator all these years, Lorne Michaels. It is an immensely stressful format but remains comedy royalty to young people and new comedians alike. Though reviews of the show have been inconsistent for years, it is still going strong, with the season 51 premiere going live last Saturday, Oct. 3. SNL continues to be what it has been for years, fine.
With the turn to the 51st season, Michaels made some big changes to the cast. Given the show’s format has remained largely unchanged for its entire life span, this is the only real way to shake things up. Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Ego Nwodim all left the cast for various and mostly undisclosed reasons. This is the largest upset since Season 47, which saw many major cast members exit voluntarily. Longfellow, Walker and Wakim were new, but Michaels is known to make cuts at any time. Gardner and Nwodim were mainstays of the cast; thus, while their leaving was devastating, it was expected. Before the season aired, it was also announced that Please Don’t Destroy, SNL’s digital comedy group would be leaving the show. Ben Marshall was promoted to cast, Martin Herlihy stayed on as writer and John Higgins left the show.
The new cast members in addition to Marshall include Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska. Save Brennan, all of these new cast members were fairly popular with online comedy groups. Culhane is known as a cast member on the comedy channel Dropout, Patterson was a regular on the “Kill Tony” comedy podcast, Marshall had Please Don’t Destroy before SNL and Slowikowska is both an actress and instagram-famous act. It is interesting to see how SNL sources their talent, and while all these comedians are talented, it is notable to see the shift in discovery.
Despite the major shake-up, the bulk of the show remained the same. Cold open, monologue and musical guest with sketches interspersed—rinse and repeat. James Austin Johnson brings back his stellar President Donald Trump impersonation with another interruption of the Cold Open in which his Trump just rambles through current events. Given how Trump has been inserting himself into political comedy recently, it is extremely topical. This style is slowly becoming a staple for SNL, and I cannot complain. In a slight departure from the norm, all new cast members appeared in the premiere, with Patterson having a featured spot on Weekend Update. This is almost unheard of, but it played out well, and it was nice to see the new cast featured in varying, but non-zero, degrees. In fact, every cast member was featured in some way, with the exception of Jane Wickline. Again, for the first episode, it is not unheard of to have cast members missing, so this absence is likely unimportant.
Following the Cold Open, Bad Bunny’s monologue delivered. This appearance marked his second time hosting the show, with his characteristic charisma adding the charm it always does. His monologue touched on his career trajectory and the current state of America, giving a hopeful message to the Latino community and refusing to participate in censorship. Further centering his heritage, SNL ran a parody of beloved televisa sitcom “El Chavo.” Leaning into the slapstick style of the show, the sketch is hilarious and quite sweet. Though the show choice was unexpected, SNL’s decision to parody a Spanish show is not new, with “Sábado Gigante” playing well last season. It was a hit, so it makes sense that show runners would want to continue this trend.
Weekend Update continues to be a stand out of the show. Hosts Colin Jost and Micheal Che play well off of each other, giving enough edge to keep the show interesting and hold its own in the space of late night political comedy. In addition to Patterson’s appearance and the usual rapid fire political jokes, Bowen Yang brought back his character work. Yang came out in full prosthetics as Dobby the House Elf from the Harry Potter series. Standing as a representative of the author of the series and well known transphobe, J.K. Rowling, Yang pokes fun at her deeply hateful actions toward the queer community. Sporting a shirt emblazoned with “They. K. Rowling,” Yang draws eyes to her hate while retaining levity. This is where SNL shines, creating unserious comedy about serious topics.
As a fan of the show since before I should’ve started watching, I cannot endorse choosing to watch the show live over other plans, unless, of course, a favorite celebrity is hosting. However, it is worth watching on YouTube–for free–at your leisure. Most of the sketches are funny, but very rarely does SNL hit on something special outside of Update, the Cold Open or the monologue. The rest of the show has hidden gems, but nothing particularly groundbreaking. SNL is not the end-all-be-all of comedy, but there is something deeply American about watching perpetually-stressed mostly-liberals try to make light of the state of our country. If this sounds like it can be the constant to help you get through the week, tune in.