 by Julian Spivey Few cast members in the great history of “Saturday Night Live” have ever been as lovable as Tracy Morgan. Sure, there have been a handful of cast members funnier than Morgan, whose greatest comedic achievement is actually his Emmy-nominated performance on the great sitcom “30 Rock,” but as far as sheer lovable-ness goes few really top him. Those people who like Morgan seem to really love him and you can count me among that crowd. As almost everybody knows Tracy Morgan was severely injured in an accident in 2014 when his limo was hit by a Walmart big wheeler. Morgan was left in a coma for a couple of weeks and with multiple broken bones and brain damage. He was unheard of for nearly a year while recuperating from his injuries. When it was announced more than a month ago that Morgan would restart his comedy career by essentially returning home to host ‘SNL’ it was a moment that instantaneously turned into one of the few must-see television moments of the year for me. Morgan did not disappoint. In fact, he hosted one of the best all-around episodes of ‘SNL’ in quite some time that might prove to be the best episode of the entire season come spring time. There were two things the country was talking about following Morgan’s hosting stint on ‘SNL’ after Saturday. One was obviously his return to comedy after such a devastating tragedy. The other thing had absolutely nothing to do with Morgan, but with a surprise cameo in the cold opening mocking the first Democratic Nominee Debate last week when actor/comedian/writer Larry David, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld” fame, impersonated Bernie Sanders. It’s almost as if David was born to play Sanders. The only issue with this being can ‘SNL’ actually get David to portray Sanders every single time they want to use him? ‘SNL’ is almost always at its best when dealing with election season and this opening was up to par with many of the great debate sketches of the past with David as Sanders, Kate McKinnon doing the greatest Hilary Clinton impression in ‘SNL’ history (no disrespect meant to Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer or Jan Hooks) and another surprise cameo with Alec Baldwin impersonating candidate Jim Webb. The cold opening was a great start to what would be a terrific show and would turn out to be water cooler fodder for a couple of days after, but the moment I was truly waiting for was Morgan’s monologue. The monologue was made all the more entertaining and special as it was done as a lost “30 Rock” episode where the cast of the show pays tribute to Morgan’s character Tracy Jordan thought to be deceased. This bit included Morgan’s “30 Rock” buddies Baldwin, Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer and it was an almost tear inducing moment watching them welcome him back to comedy. There are two things you always want from a Tracy Morgan hosted episode of ‘SNL’ (Saturday was his second hosting stint since leaving the show as a cast member in 2003): Brian Fellow and Astronaut Jones. Brian Fellow and Astronaut Jones were Morgan’s two most famous recurring characters during his eight seasons as a cast member on ‘SNL’. Morgan brought back Fellow early on in the episode and it was a sight for sore eyes with his immature man-child host of an animal show who actually knows nothing about animals getting into arguments with not only actual animal experts, but their animals – which happened to be a beaver and a real-life camel that managed to hilariously block the camera toward the end of the sketch leading to Morgan’s fantastic ad-lib, “I can’t see, camel!” It was great to not only see Morgan hasn’t lost his humor, but is also still quick enough mentally to throw in a perfect ad-lib. Astronaut Jones made a reoccurrence at the very end of the episode and really was the moment that made me the most excited and also made me realize that Morgan is going to be just fine in his return to comedy and acting. Astronaut Jones is basically a funny, catchy theme song with one punchline – he makes some raunchy come-on to a sexy femalien, played in this sketch by the week’s musical guest Demi Lovato. It’s the same thing every time Morgan has ever done it, but it’s so uniquely him and so funny in the manner he delivers the punchline that it leaves you in stitches every single time. The one memorable thing, other than the political cold opening, on the show that wasn’t related to Morgan was Weekend Update. Co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che have been a little shaky in the past over their first year doing Update, but I’ve got to say that the chemistry between the two is starting to get really good and it’s really showing in the ad-libbed moments between the two. This makes Update all the more intriguing and fun to watch going forward. The funniest sketch of the entire night was likely a digital short that showed off another of Morgan’s comedy strong suits – turning a stereotypical tough black guy character on its head. The digital short was called “Standoff” and featured Taran Killam wanting to stand up to a thug, played by Morgan, who had offended his girlfriend played by Sasheer Zamata with catcalls. Killam goes up to Morgan and asks him “would you like to dance” (as in fight) and Morgan wants to take him up on an actual dance. It’s made into the funniest bit of the entire episode by Morgan’s performance as the tough guy who just wants to be twirled and dipped. It was great to see Morgan back on Saturday night doing what it is he loves to do and his ‘SNL’ homecoming certainly made for one of the better episodes of the long-running sketch comedy series in a few years.
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