Author: Dave Itzkoff / Source: New York Times
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There were no surprise celebrity guests to come to the rescue of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend — no return visits from Matt Damon as Judge Brett Kavanaugh or Alec Baldwin as President Trump.
So the show’s ensemble cast was on its own, for better or for worse, to address Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation to the Supreme Court in its cold opening, just a few hours after the narrow Senate vote.This broadcast, hosted by the comic actress Awkwafina (“Ocean’s 8,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) — one of the very few Asian women to host the show in its history — and featuring the musical guest Travis Scott, made an oblique acknowledgment of the representation issues that “S.N.L.” frequently faces. The episode also addressed, in comic fashion, a controversial speech that the rapper Kanye West made on set in support of Trump last week after the closing credits rolled.
But first, that cold open.
In a sketch purporting to be a TV broadcast from a raucous, revelry-filled Republican locker room, Heidi Gardner played the CNN correspondent Dana Bash, quizzing various senators who were cheering Kavanaugh’s appointment. “There a lot of pacemakers being put to the test tonight,” she said.
Beck Bennett, playing Mitch McConnell, declared, “Republicans read the mood of the country and we could tell that people really wanted Kavanaugh. Everyone’s pumped, from white men over 60 to white men over 70.”
Kate McKinnon, returning as Lindsey Graham, proudly asked, “How amazing is this? We made a lot of women real worried today, but I’m not getting pregnant so I don’t care.”
Cecily Strong appeared as Susan Collins, who announced her support for Kavanaugh in a speech on Friday afternoon. “Oh please, the last thing I wanted was to make this about me,” Strong said. “That’s why I told everyone to tune in at 3 p.m., so I could tell all my female supporters: Psych!” She added that she and her colleagues were “going to party like it’s 2020 when Susan Rice takes my seat.”
Representing the Democratic side of the aisle, Alex Moffat played Chuck Schumer, who observed, “We thought this time would be better than the Anita Hill hearing, because Dr. Ford was white. But then it turned out Brett Kavanaugh was white too, and we were completely blindsided by that.”
In other memorable moments from the show:
Kanye West Rebuttal of the Week
In a monologue delivered from the “Weekend Update” desk, cast member Pete Davidson responded to West’s off-air speech, in which the rapper wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat and said that Democrats planned “to take the fathers out the home and promote welfare.”
Pete dropped by the Weekend Update desk to talk about last week’s musical guest, Kanye West. #SNL pic.twitter.com/LFzJJFTnbV
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl)
Davidson stated that “what Kanye said after we went off the air last week was one of the worst, most awkward things I’ve ever seen here — and I’ve seen Chevy Chase speak to an intern.” He denied that anyone had discouraged West from wearing his MAGA hat, saying, “I wish I had bullied you. I wish I would have suggested that it might…
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