‘Saturday Night Live’ Recap: Melissa McCarthy Cruises Into the Five-Timers Club
Melissa McCarthy sealed her status as the reigning champ of Saturday Night Live‘s 42nd season with a kiss. Reprising her role as bush-hiding White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for the fourth time, McCarthy and Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump took their professional relationship to the next level with a serious lip lock. It was Trump’s forceful way of showing ol’ Spicey that, despite recent headlines, he wasn’t going to be shoved off the podium in favor of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “She doesn’t have your special spice,” POTUS said lovingly, before pulling his spokesman — who had just ridden his podium through the streets of Manhattan — in close. Based on all the applause (and ink) she’s generated this year, you can bet that Lorne Michaels will find a way to keep McCarthy’s Spicer coming back even if her real world counterpart does wind up vanishing into the bushes by the unemployment office.
This was a week where SNL‘s writing staff almost couldn’t top the unintentional comedy flowing out of Washington. First came Comeygate, followed, in no particular order, by Tapegate, Priming the Pump-gate and Two Scoops-gate. And those headline-grabbing incidents were all namechecked in the cold open, where Baldwin’s Trump sat across from Michael Che’s Lester Holt, who tried and failed to use some journalistic jiu-jitsu to pin the President down on obstruction of justice charges. “Did I get him? Is this all over? No, I didn’t — nothing matters. Absolutely nothing matters anymore,” Holt sighed resignedly, as Paul Ryan (in the form of Mikey Day) gleefully served Trump his ice cream. But it wasn’t all POTUS related this week. Read on for the best and worst sketches:
Best Sketch: “Kyle and Leslie”
SNL pays off one of its longest-running jokes—the simmering romantic tension between Leslie Jones and Colin Jost—with a super-meta filmed piece depicting the strain that flirtation puts on the show’s “real” love story: Leslie and Kyle Mooney. Pushed to the breaking point, Kyle shoots Colin in the leg. Eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed that they seemingly carried the gag into the goodbyes when Jost appeared onstage sporting crutches and a cast.
Runner-Up: “First Birthday”
A newly transplanted suburban mom learns that the secret to life in the sticks is discovering your inner animal. It’s kind of like David Lynch’s version of The Stepford Wives, which is a remake we now desperately want to see.
Wasted Cameo Alert:
While escorting one lucky mom, June, through the SNL hallways, McCarthy crossed paths with the impossibly attractive power couple of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. Unfortunately, some banal chit-chat was all we got out of this “accidental” meeting. We’re betting June is a massive Deadpool fan—you should’ve suited up, Reynolds.
Getting a Pie-ful: “Game Show”
Pieing is a venerable comedy tradition that many try and only few excel at. After getting creamed by multiple pastries in this dessert-themed game show sketch, you can put McCarthy — arguably the best physical comedian working today anyway — in the rarefied air of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy as a master of pie-based humor.
Best Pair of Broads: “Film Panel”
Kate McKinnon’s aged screen siren, Debette Goldry, returned to share more warped memories of Old Hollywood, joined this time by McCarthy’s equally daffy Gaye Fontaine. Move over Bette and Joan–these lead paint-drinking ladies need to be the subject of Feud, Season 3.
Episode MVP: Donna from “Production Logo”
In her funniest non-Spicer role of the night, McCarthy played the shambling star of a series of proposed logos for a kid-friendly production company. Poor Donna is “going through a rough patch,” which is why she assumes it’s okay to pop kids’ balloons with cigarettes and steamroll over child-sized basketball hoops. Consider this a vote in favor of bringing Donna back when McCarthy returns to host for a sixth time.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of SNL for free on Yahoo View.
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