SNL Review: Seth Meyers, Paul Simon 10/13/18

Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live aired the last show before their two-week hiatus. The host was fan-favorite and SNL alum, Seth Meyers. The hype for this particular show was even bigger than usual, since Meyers had been a favorite for 12 years. SNL’s social media wasted no time to hone in on the anticipation by creating playlists of Meyers’ sketches and doing hilarious promos and advertisements to catch the audience’s attention. Finally, the night of the show came and fans everywhere sat down to watch live from New York.

The show started as it usually does with a topical sketch, otherwise known as the cold open. It opened on a sketch spoofing Kanye West visiting the White House. Kanye and SNL have had tension after he performed on the show’s premiere and went on a Trump loving rant as the cast crew had to sit by and let him have his voice known. Since this incident, SNL has been relentless about West and taking jabs when they can, as they do with any celebrities in the media. They didn’t hold back on West or Trump when spoofing the meeting between the two. In the sketch, Kanye West, played by Chris Redd, was going on a crazy rant about mind control and Isis. Donald Trump, played by Alec Baldwin, had a voice-over that made him realize Kanye “was the black me.” Overall, the cold open was a great and hilarious sketch that set the tone for the rest of the show.

After the opening credits, fans finally got to see the reason they were watching: Seth Meyers. In his monologue, he reminisces on the good ole days and not ever being surprised by Kanye West. Meyers made the joke about how they did a sketch with West in 2007 where he interrupted people at an award show. Meyers then jokes saying: “In 2009 Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift. It was like he said ‘Ya know what would be really good? If continued that sketch right now.’” Once again, the monologue was just want fans wanted from Seth Meyers. It was sarcastic and heart-warming all in one. The show started off great.

The musical guest for the week was Paul Simon, an SNL favorite. He has been on dozens of times even being there the first year the show began in 1975. Simon sang “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Can’t Run But.” He did a pretty good job, however, many people noticed that he seemed to have just been talking with the music playing. That did not take away the fact that he is still an amazing and beautiful performer who has a passion for singing. This all showed on the SNL stage.

While I am a huge fan of SNL, I must admit that the show’s sketches did not blow me away in the way that I thought they would. Don’t get me wrong, they were funny, but I wasn’t losing air from laughter. It was more a slight chuckle than a thunderous laughter. It wasn’t until Weekend Update when I got really excited. Seth Meyers is known for being an old host on the segment so I and all the fans knew he would be back on, but for what? That was when he made is appearance for “Really?!?!,” a classic bit that Meyers did during his time with Weekend Update. This was the chance for all three of the hosts, Seth Meyers, Colin Jost and Michael Che, to take a deep dive at the West- Trump meeting happening in the White House the past week. The jokes landed beautifully and I found myself laughing hard and also thinking, “Wow they really did that.” The excitement I was looking for came with Update. However, it died down again with the sketches. Once again, the sketches were funny and enjoyable, but nothing groundbreaking or super memorable. Overall, as a fan I was happy enough with the show. Was it what I was expecting? No. Did I have fun watching? Absolutely.