Last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live saw the return of Dave Chappelle to the stage — and rumors that some of the show’s writers would sit the episode out to protest the comedian’s comments about transgender people. As has been the case with comedians hosting the show, the opening monologue was, essentially, 15 minutes of Chappelle doing stand-up, including covering recent controversies surrounding Kanye West and Kyrie Irving.
He wasn’t the only prominent figure to make a guest appearance; so too did Steve Kornacki, who turned up in a Please Don’t Destroy sketch. The surreal highlight of the night may well have come during Weekend Update, which hearkened back to one of last season’s brightest spots — namely, letting Sarah Sherman gleefully mock Colin Jost.
In a new segment titled Sarah News, Sherman continued roasting Jost, while also pondering John Fetterman’s sex appeal, the current state of Twitter and her own choice of haircut. Was it weird? Yes, but it was also regularly funny — and in tune with Sherman’s brand of comedy, which includes riffs on body horror and a fondness for avant-garde noise rock.
SNL is often at its best when it’s at its weirdest — one of my formative comedic experiences was watching Dan Ackroyd wearing a drool cup in The Adventures of Miles Cowperthwaite. Sherman picks up this tradition and runs with it, and it’s made for some of the show’s high points as of late.
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