In the cold open for the second episode of “SNL” Season 48, Bowen Yang proved that the show still had some impressive talent in the cast, when he somehow managed another “SNL run through recent current events”. The cold open sketch is hilarious and delightful, rather than tedious. Now you can see for yourself at the top of the page.
The lie was that Yang is the host of a game show called “So You Think You Won’t Snap”, exposing some recent news that he was “the only people in America who still haven’t spoken”. If they keep calm, they win money, but if they fight – by doing a strange-to-horrible thing – they lose.
Founded as a game show for a country full of people who have snapped, “and the only thing that can make us happy is a sexy show about Jeffrey Dahmer,” Yang rightly said. Demonstrated what it means to be a deadpan read with some really terrifying recent news.
First was Heidi Gardner as a “music professor and white yoga teacher”, who promised she was “just a cool person, so I promise you won’t get me.”
But Yang sets up “today’s show-size glass of wine,” at which point we learn that Gardner’s character has been sober for 15 years.
First Yang noted destruction of the bridge Connecting mainland Russia to Crimea which happened earlier today. Then he notes that Joe Biden has recently described our current situation as closer to nuclear war than at any other time. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis,
This didn’t work, so the next Yang mentioned several facts showing how old Biden is, culminating in his recent 60 Minutes interview in which he tried to answer a question about his mental cognition. Key – that broke Gardner’s character.
Next, Chloe Fineman played a “pickleball curious” mother who was given to a flight attendant to attack her if she blinked.
Yang brought up the Herschel Walker abortion scandal. When Fineman assumed he would return to damage his campaign, Yang said the day after the scandal was his best fundraising day ever. Then they brought up a recent survey showing how many kids want to be influential when they grow up. Mom was surprised because her kids love video games. So Yang recently played a clip of “Super Mario Bros.” Trailer. And when she heard Chris Pratt’s voice, she spoke.
Next was Kenan Thompson as an older man who should have been pretty comfortable, as he was both high on cannabis, and had sex just before going on a game show. But when he heard the name of Elon Musk, he cried.
In the end, Devon Walker plays a college student from Michigan who insists on what keeps her up at night “cute.” Yang flooded him with news about Kanye West — and Walker’s breaking point was the fact that West appeared as a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show.
It was all quite amusing, but the main reason Yang made every moment restless, especially with a delightfully quiet smug reveal of increasingly terrifying news that made a painful rehash funny.
Would have been nice if “SNL” could try something other than current events, cold jokes open up for a change, but if they had to, this was as good as it gets. From now on give this stuff to Bowen Yang, okay?