SNL Scorecard: Dave Chappelle / Foo Fighters
Just as he did four years ago, Dave Chappelle hosted the post-election show of Saturday Night Live. Regardless of how the election would have played out, it would have been an inspired choice; Chappelle is one of the most respected comedians of the 21st century because of how much truth he weaves into his standup, and that serves a nation with at least half its population reeling from an election quite well. We saw this on full display in 2016, when the first episode after Donald Trump's election resulted in some of the most marvelous comedy this show has produced.
As such, it was hard not to compare this episode to that one, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2020 Chapelle episode did not compare all too favorably to the 2016 version. But it is unfair to do so, and not just because of the ridiculously high bar the predecessor set. Other than the involvement of Trump, who hasn't changed a whole lot from 2016, the context this time around could not be more different. This election was a week-long process, rather than a one-night, sudden event. It saw the defeat of, rather than the triumph of, Donald Trump. And of course, we have the greater context of a worldwide pandemic and a summer full of murders-by-police and ensuing protests. This last part especially might explain why we saw a Dave Chappelle who seemed more gruff, withdrawn and even fatigued than last time. Apart from the monologue-- which, as we'll get to, was by itself worth the price of admission, the host made minimal appearances throughout the night. The show didn't necessarily suffer as a result; for the second straight week, we had an episode without any bad sketches. But it certainly would have been nice to see what an episode with more of his influence on it would have looked like.
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 6th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
“Take Me Back”: 7/10
This combined three comedy ingredients I love: Beck Bennett, Ego Nwodim, and a 'well-meaning' white guy who just gets increasingly worse the more we learn about him.
The Good
“Monologue": 8/10
Wow. This was unlike any other monologue I've seen; not in terms of format, it's not like he ran out of the studio and started playing accordion. But, at 16 minutes, much of it felt raw and extemporaneous, and it really felt like a soul-baring homily as much as it did stand-up comedy. As I mentioned in my introduction, Chappelle seemed more weary and agitated than he did fresh off the 2016 election, but I'm happy he let us all hear what was on his mind.
“Weekend Update": 7.5/10
Che and Jost have been great all season, and that was no different in this episode, in which they seemed very much at ease throughout. Che's joke about taking off his clip-on tie and having a drink was either improvised, or was acted so well that we couldn't tell. But the real star of this Update was its sole guest: Kate McKinnon's Rudy Giuliani is and always will be my favorite political impression to come out of this god-forsaken administration, and armed with gold mines of comedic material from (the real) Giuliani's post-election meltdown of a press conference, she shone.
"Uncle Ben": 7/10
This was a funny take that did make an interesting point about the logos and mascots we choose to protest and rid ourselves of. But it ran the risk of being a pretty forgetful sketch by disclosing the main punchline right off the bat. Thankfully, Chappelle prevented that from happening, by bringing the funny with his own character, and also making Pete Davidson break by going off-script.
“Super Mario 35th Anniversary": 6/10
This certainly ended up being a one-joke sketch, and a juvenile one at that, but fortunately that joke was at least wildly original. The ongoing reactions of Kyle Mooney and Kenan Thompson made this a worthwhile endeavor.
“Hailstorm": 5.5/10
In addition to the above, this was the other sketch that had nothing to do with the election and— perhaps for that very reason —did not include the host. As a result, it felt pretty out of place tonally. But I still enjoyed this one; when you’ve got Kate and Kenan as older people, it’s hard to go wrong.
“Biden Victory Cold Open": 5.5/10
I don’t envy the writers this week. Not only were they tasked with figuring out how to get everyone laughing again after an extremely contentious election in an especially difficult year, they now had to wait, as we all did, until the day of the show to confirm who actually won(italics) the election. Likely as a result of this, the cold open felt extremely thrown-together, a series of half-baked ideas. That said, I’m gonna give them the grace I don’t usually extend due to the insane extenuating circumstances. And if we’re being honest, it was at least fun; it’s hard to mark a sketch down too much when the audience is clearly having such a good time.
“DC Morning”: 5/10
This sketch was the only one (other than the cold open) that didn’t really have a clear concept, but the snippets of audio from the getaway Trump car still made it mildly funny. Also, I’m wondering if perhaps this was a meta commentary on how the media would be treating Trump and his crimes if he were black like O.J. Simpson? Perhaps that’s a stretch, but I don’t think it’s an unfair guess with Chappelle involved.
Musical Performances
Foo Fighters: 7/10
Legendary rockers and old friends of the show Foo Fighters made their 8th appearance on Saturday Night Live last weekend. It's funny, Foo Fighters are one of the few musical artists I just genuinely don't have much of an opinion on. I don't know a lot of their material, I don't know anyone who knows a lot of their material, and am rarely ever wowed by what I do hear, but also generally think "yeah, this sounds all right!" In other words, their fame is not the rage-inducing type, like, oh I don't know, Nickelback.
This impression of the band sort of tracked with their first performance, of new song "Shame Shame." It had a fine, albeit fairly forgettable sound. But the second performance, of an old 2002 track "Times Like These," was particularly heartfelt and poignant in the wake of the election, which is I imagine why they chose to dust off this oldie.
OVERALL SCORE: 6.50 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.44)
As we enter our first break of the season, here are how the episodes of Season 46 stand:
John Mulaney/The Strokes - 6.85
Bill Burr/Jack White - 6.72
Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters - 6.50
Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion - 5.90
Issa Rae/Justin Bieber - 5.82
Adele/H.E.R. - 5.67
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