SNL Takes On Kavanaugh, Pete Davidson Takes on Kanye, and I Want to Lie Down

By Frida Garza  |  October 7, 2018 | 7:29pm
EntertainmentTV

The Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in the early evening on Saturday, and just hours later, Saturday Night Live’s cold open imagined Republican lawmakers partying to celebrate and openly admitting they don’t care about women, a portrayal of our political landscape that read (to me) as entirely too generous.

“We made a lot of women real worried today,” SNL’s Lindsey Graham (played by Kate McKinnon) tells Dana Bash (Heidi Gardner). “But I’m not getting pregnant so I don’t care!”

The tone of the sketch, as a whole, feels too gleeful, even as the jokes are written to make Republican men (and Senator Susan Collins, and Arizona state prosecutor Rachel Mitchell) look bad. It feels more entertaining than harsh. I understand this is SNL and not Meet the Press. I’m just saying it could have been bitchier, if Lorne Michaels really wants the show to serve as a mirror and criticism of this moment. Make these asshole look worse! They deserve it.

In other SNL news, Pete Davidson visited Colin Jost and Michael Che on Weekend Update to give a message to Kanye West, a sentence that makes me cringe every third to fifth word. There are no two people I want to hear less about right now than Davidson and West, but it is my bloggerly duty, and so I do it for you, reader. With this, Davidson has taken a stand in the culture wars and ignited, perhaps, a battle of the bros.

Davidson kicks things off by saying he’s talking about Kanye instead of Che because “Che’s black, but like, I’m crazy and we both know which side of Kanye’s at the wheel right now.” That’s fine!!!

Davidson then shows footage of him literally hiding his face in shame when West went on an ill-informed tirade about welfare and slavery last week on the SNL stage, and then running out because, he says, “I want a career!” He adds, “Do you know how wrong about politics you have to be for like, me to notice?” This is a pretty astute and self-aware assessment of the facts by Davidson, and I commend him for that.

Davidson urges West to go back on his meds, despite Ye’s declaration that he’s more himself without them. “Take ‘em! There’s no shame in the medicine game! I’m on ‘em. It’s great,” he says. A good point. “Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass,” Davidson says to applause. “I’m quoting my therapist, my mom, and my mailman.” I’ll admit, I chuckled.

On some basic level, I admire Davidson for speaking out because it means he’s doing something with his second-hand embarrassment instead of filing it away for a rainy day, never to examine it. I’m glad he said his piece, and hopefully, he’s done now. Maybe next time, West can just not be invited to the show and then we can avoid all of this.

 
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