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As the hour nears, I am pre-exhausted.
Points toSNLfor avoiding both.
Knowing wherenotto go doesnt make you funny, but it at least prevents you from being horrific.
But that choice is crucial, and its the place where the showmost often whiffs.
The Kavanaugh sketch did a bit of both.
Ever thirsty for celebrity, they brought in Matt Damon to play Kavanaugh.
and Tobin and Squi, the I didnt have sex for many, many, many years … Let nobody argue that Matt Damon doesnt understand the fragile interior of the douche bro; he went there.
But he went there more empty-handed than should have been the case.
I dont know the meaning of the word stop.
But the sketch didnt build so much as persist; it kept distracting itself from itself.
The sketch was unusually long it clocked in at a lumbering, replay-unfriendly, everybody-into-the-minivan 13 minutes.
I wish theyd found one.)
A great comic actor, with the right material, can use impeccable imitation to reveal deeper truths.
But Fey was an exception.
More often than not with political figures,SNLsettles for imitative gestures: This is how he talks.
This is that weird thing he does with his face.
This is that word he says funny.
This is that odd physical gesture weve all seen before.
But things work differently now: Two days is a year.
By the timeSNLaired, it was bringing up the rear.
Jimmy Kimmel had gone after Kavanaughsfrat out of hell attitude.
WithSNL, you dont.
You even know the punchline, since all cold opens must eventually narrow to the same seven words.
Maybe, at this point, that familiarity qualifies as a comfort.
And maybe, in year 44 ofSaturday Night Live, familiarity is the only expectation we can reasonably have.
Still, ifSNLcan somehow muster it, itd be nice to be shocked.
Its been a while.
