‘SNL’ Recap: Elizabeth Warren Promises Universal Healthcare Is Only Scary Until You Try It, “Like Sushi or Butt Stuff”

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Saturday Night Live

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HOST: Kristen Stewart
MUSICAL GUEST: Coldplay
EPISODE: SNL Season 45, Episode 5
DATE: November 2, 2019

BIG PICTURE: After a few unusually strong episodes, SNL reverted to a more familiar mundanity this week. A weirdly draggy cold open and monologue prefaced an episode that found occasional laughs scattered throughout largely unmemorable sketches.

MONOLOGUE/HOST: Host Kristen Stewart, after telling the studio audience she’s generally uncomfortable talking about herself, delved into an audience Q&A monologue with a twist, choosing to ask the crowd questions about themselves instead of vice versa. The reason she gave for this was that when she talks about herself, “I wind up sounding like an angsty teen at the dinner table.” This then went nowhere, and that description became an accurate assessment of her vibe throughout the night, her performances largely coming off tentative and reserved. She got a few laughs, but generally seemed backgrounded compared to the cast.

NOTABLE SKETCHES/PERFORMANCES: No single sketch stood out for me this week. The cold open highlighted Kate McKinnon’s Elizabeth Warren, who we’re sure to see more of in the coming months as Warren vies for front-runner status in the Democratic primary. McKinnon’s Warren is perky and on top of things, imbued with the common McKinnon trait of taking generally square characters and injecting them with a over-the-top badass hipness (see also: RBG). While McKinnon always brings the energy here, the premise, with voters asking her questions at a rally, felt lifeless at times, and ultimately served to take a shot at Warren’s Medicare-For-All plan, painting it as unrealistic. (Though her line, “We’re talking trillions. When the numbers are that big, it’s just pretend,” found some resonance.)

In trying to highlight a favorite or two, I find I had the exact same reaction to every sketch tonight, which is unusual. No sketch flat-out bombed, each one had a decent laugh or two, but none held together completely to the point where I’d recommend it or want to re-watch.

Aidy Bryant and McKinnon offered some laughs as boisterous factory workers during World War II, trying to be the poster women for the infamous Rosie the Riveter campaign.

A commercial parody for Duolingo, a translation app for kids that tells you when to say things like “Very cool, Bud” and “I like your backpack” was good for a few laughs, and a commercial for a British paint brand turned into a dramatic showdown between siblings Bryant and Beck Bennett after Bryant revealed she spent a fortune on the paint.

And while the overall sketch was C+ at best, I could watch more of Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson, an increasingly enjoyable team this season, as the middle-age couple just trying to enjoy eating their crab while Stewart awkwardly hits on them.

WEEKEND UPDATE: Enjoyed this line from Michael Che, on how New Yorkers have shown a visceral hatred for the president, and how awful you must be for New Yorkers to hate you given the shit we put up with every day: “Just today, I had a fella yell the N-word at me on the subway, with a hard ‘ER.’ Still, I don’t hate him. I just finished peeing and switched cars.”

Melissa Villasenor brought 5-year-old kid genius Riley Jenson to the desk to talk about space flight with her overly aggressive stage mom Heidi Gardner right behind her, taunting her with sentiments like “Make Mama love you.” A decent, if limited turn here.

McKinnon and Bryant brought back the owners of meat delivery service Smokery Farms to announce that, in response to all the cute animals in videos on the Internet that are stopping people from eating meat, they would only serve meat from animals found to be “stupid, bad, rude, and talent-free.” The result – including a flounder “as flat as he thought the earth was” and an eel who refused to “go down” – was less funny for the punchlines than for the reactions of everyone at the desk to how badly all the meat and fish smelled.

THE 10 TO 1 SLOT: Mikey Day leads a nature hike to the stars, but Bennett and Stewart, as a horny old couple who come off like a weak imitation of Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch’s classic “Lovahs,” can’t help but turn every constellation into a picture of people going down on each other.