The moment we have all been waiting for has finally arrived! After a summer without Saturday Night Live, it returned last night with a bang.
Season 46 premiered with Jim Carrey’s as democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and the return of Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump. The two reenacted Tuesday’s presential debate moderated by Chris Wallace, who was portrayed by Beck Bennett. Maya Rudolph made an appearance as Kamala Harris trying to help the nominees work out their issues and claimed that America needs a ‘WAP,’ woman as president. “We thought it was important to see it again since it might be the only presidential debate,” the narrator said at the beginning of the sketch.
Chris Rock then returned to the SNL stage with his monologue as the first host back at Studio 8H since COVID. He started by addressing “the elephant in the room,” that President Trump is in the hospital after testing positive for the virus saying that his “heart goes out to COVID.” He briefly touched on new protocols in the studio, his canceled 2020 plans, including Coachella, & the broken system, all getting good laughs from the intimate live studio audience.
The show also included musical guest Megan Thee Stallion performing her hit, “Savage,” and powerful statements about violence toward Black women. “Protect Black Women” was written on the screens during her performance and included quotes from Malcolm X and Tamika Mallory, who called out the mishandling of Breonna Taylor’s death. Megan Thee Stallion also appeared in the show’s parody music video about dating with masks on, “Let me see the bottom of your face.”
Other skits from the season’s debut episode show Kate McKinnon paying tribute to RBG for the final time, Chris Rock as “Future Ghost”, Chloe Fineman’s impression of Drew Barrymore, Nicole Kidman & Reese Witherspoon, Chris Rock holding the “NBA Bubble Draft,” & more. And we can’t forget about everyone’s favorite “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost and Michael Che where they updated us on Trump, Tik Tok, Vin Diesel, and Mitch McConnell.
If you missed this episode, stream it here and tune in every Saturday at 11:30PM ET on NBC for a new SNL.
