41x04 Donald Trump with Sia

I don't really care about Trump from a political standpoint. Sure, I find a lot of what he has to say dumb or even repugnant, but he's not a real candidate, no matter how he's polling at the moment. He's a sideshow, sure to flame out as soon as the primary season gets real. But I do care about whether or not he'd be a good host for SNL, and despite the high ratings he pulled in on name alone, the problem is that he's barely suited to host the show as "Donald Trump, TV personality" and definitely not suited to host as "Donald Trump, presidential candidate."

The reasons are myriad. He's not an actor. Despite his stage presence and experience on television, he doesn't really have the range or timing to do live comedy. And most importantly of all, a good SNL host has to let themselves be a part of the joke, to be genuinely and not half-heartedly self-deprecating, which Trump just didn't do. All of those qualities made this a pretty poor episode, completely independently of how you feel about Trump as a politician.

The inexperience of the cast and crew didn't help. One of the SNL's longtime and important behind-the-scenes guys is gone, and the show's production has been a step behind ever since. A razor sharp cast and cracker jack production was necessary to work around Trump's limitations, and given the newness of the cast and the issues with production ("tweets" not appearing when needed, camera cuts being off), it just wasn't there.

On to sketch-by-sketch reviews!

• The cold open about the democratic debates was a highlight. I don't really get Cecily Strong's Rachel Maddow, but Kate McKinnon has absolutely found a character in her Hilary impression, and Larry David continues to give a breakout performance in his Bernie Sanders impression, where he can find the comedy in something as silly as vacuum pennies.

• The monologue, with Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond busting out their Trump impressions was pretty standard SNL stuff for celebrity walk-ons, and there wasn't much to it.

• The "President Trump, 2018" was one of the worst sketches I've seen in a while, less because of the subject matter, but more because the joke at its core "things are going just too well under Trump" is one of the most toothless, self-serving premises for a sketch I've ever seen on the show. Say what you will about appearances from John McCain, Sarah Palin, Steve Forbes, or others, but they were definitely willing to laugh at themselves in a way that Trump just wasn't. Sure, there were a few good lines here and there, but this was the antithesis of comedy, and portended how rough Trump's performance as host was going to be.

• The "Bad Girls" pretaped bit was fun enough, but the joke wore thin pretty quickly, and it feels like diminishing returns after the similar and superior "Twin Bed" and "Dongs All Over the World".

• The "Trump's Mean Tweets" sketch was a trainwreck. It's a weak idea for a sketch to begin with, but this was where timing and production were absolutely necessary to salvage anything of it, and instead it just died on the vine. The one tweet about "Kenan is a letter away from Kenyan" was a good one, but otherwise this was weak material with weak execution.

• I have to admit, the reference at the core of the Drake pretaped bit was over my head, but it was a nice little sketch that gives the performers a chance to succeed on pure silliness. Taran Killam and Beck Bennet tend to go a little broad for my tastes, especially in these sorts of roles, but it was inoffensive in context. The appearance of Ed Grimley was a nice surprise, and this seemed like one of the few points in the night where Trump was game to look legitimately silly. A minor highlight.

• Weekend Update continues to be plague by a conflict between solid material and weak execution. Jost & Che just don't seem comfortable out there, and their repartee isn't nearly as cute as they think it is. Leslie Jones's isn't my favorite performer at the update desk, but her amusing interactions with Jost (especially when they subvert them) do take some of the edge off her weaker (and loud) stand up routine. Drunk Uncle continues to be a superlative character, whose shtick should get old, but just doesn't. He was a necessary and hilarious part of a Trump hosting gig, and didn't disappoint.

• I don't know what the hell the "Band Introduction/Laser Harp" sketch was supposed to be, but again, timing and production were off, and a one-joke premise sketch could not get out of the starting gate.

• The Mr. Crocker pretaped bit was funny in that absurd/awkward humor sort of way. Again, Trump felt ill-suited to the role, but this was one of the few instances in which he kind of worked given the inherent weirdness of the tone of the sketch. Also, Beck Bennet did a superb comedic performance, playing the absurdity straight in a way that held the sketch together.

• The "Toots" introduction for Sia was an...ok premise, but again, came off really lame in the execution.

• I've never cared for the "Adult Film Star Pitch" line of sketches. They just never land for me and always hit the same beats with slightly different jokes. (SNL's never done that before, right?) This was no better (the only laugh being Cecily's "I haven't been at the Whitehouse since the 90's") and again, Trump just sort of plays himself and bloviates at the end. Nothing doing.

Overall, a pretty poor episode, largely thanks to an inexperienced group of performers and crew, and a Host who, whatever you think of him otherwise, did not have the skills or the attitude to make live comedy work.