'Saturday Night Live': Why is sketch comedy show not airing tonight? Here's what to expect when it returns
It is Saturday, November 14, and many might be waiting for the new episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’. Unfortunately, there’s no new episode of ‘SNL’ tonight. After airing back-to-back episodes every Saturday from October 3, the show seems to take a break. No announcement has been made yet about when the show will return. But since Thanksgiving is round the corner, there may be something special up their sleeves. It isn’t common for ‘SNL’ to have episode five Saturdays straight, but this time they and they even added another episode — the post-election episode on November 7.
The November 7 episode was hosted by Dave Chappelle. Interestingly, the comedian also hosted the 2016 post-poll episode. Last week, the show was delayed for almost half-an-hour due to the Clemson vs Notre Dame college football game. By the time it was on air, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were announced the president-elect and the vice-president-elect respectively and both of them had already given their first public speech. So, the cold open, without any surprise, focused on the election result. “I know I’m supposed to be a neutral news anchor, but god damn it, that feels good,” Beck Bennett as Wolf Blitzer exclaimed at the beginning of the cold open, before going to Jim Carrey as Biden, who was on a podium to address the nation.
They did not forget Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump either. Baldwin’s Trump said, “Of course they’re trying to steal the election! Stop the count! Stop the count…oh we’re behind! Count all the votes!…look at all that red.” The red he was referring to, which Chloe Fineman’s Kayleigh McEnany brought out to support that claim, was actually the map of “Covid-19 cases”. Then Baldwin’s Trump sat down at a piano and sang a subdued version of ‘Macho Man’, before saying, “This isn’t goodbye, America. I’m just going to say, ‘See you in court’.” One thing that people were impressed with though were how quickly they got an almost identical costume for Maya Rudolph’s Harris. The white suit that the real Harris wore during her first speech as VP-elect and the one that Rudolph wore, were quite similar.
Chappelle’s monologue also entertained the audience. His monologue started with him talking about his great-grandfather — a man he never met but heard about all his life. The comedian said his great-grandfather was a man who was a slave for 10 years of his life before learning to read and then dedicating his life to education, the freedom of Black people and Jesus Christ. He spoke about recent months during the pandemic and performing stand-up comedy in the cornfields in the small town in which he lives. Chappelle admitted that in some ways the shows have saved the town, he also pointed out that his neighbors have complained his shows are too noisy.
One sketch which was also talked about on Twitter was the one which focused on Rudolph’s Aunt Jemima and Kennan Thompson's Uncle Ben getting fired from representing the pancake mix and rice brand respectively. “This is ridiculous. If we can't work, how come the Allstate guy gets to work?" Thompson's Uncle Ben said as Rudolph's Aunt Jemima questioned: "Who doesn't love my pancakes?" Chappelle essayed the character of the ‘Allstate guy’. At one point, Chappelle lost his composure and started laughing, he quickly switched back to his character to answer Uncle Ben. He said, “I sell security. My deep Black voice makes white people feel safe. Like they are in good hands…If anything, why don't you fire Count Chocula, why is he still working?"
Pete Davidson entered as Count Chocula in full costume, including sporting a fang. Davidson said, “But I’m not even Black, I’m just made of chocolate.” “Look at those big chocolatey lips behind them fangs,” said Chappelle. But right after that he went off-script and said, "Seriously America look at Pete Davidson’s lip.” This made Davidson laugh and for a moment spit out his vampire fangs, before saying, “Ok, maybe I got some Italian in there somewhere.” Before Chappelle, the hosting duties were helmed by John Mulaney, Adele, Issa Rae, Bill Burr and the premiere episode on October 3 was hosted by Bill Burr.
‘Saturday Night Live’ airs on NBC at 11.30 pm ET.