Worst Moments from 'SNL' Post-Election Episode

by Julian Spivey
The post-election episode of “Saturday Night Live,” hosted by comedian Bill Burr, was a disappointment of the highest level. 

Many viewers had a hard week and are uncertain about where this country and the world are headed, and we needed some laughs. 

I was dreading the episode but I thought there would be enough laughs to outweigh the obvious election-related portions of the show. What I saw instead was a cast and writing staff that likely phoned it in as much as many of us did at our jobs this week and a host who made things worse with a tone-deaf monologue. 

There wasn’t much to discuss regarding the best of the week in SNL. 
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Here’s the worst of the worst. 

Photo: NBC

The cold open featured much of the cast jokingly sucking up to the former and future President of the United States, saying they’ve been on his side the entire time and they didn’t mean any harm with their past jokes. The cast did yeoman’s work, but it felt almost like they were lined up for a firing squad, begging for their lives. 
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Much of the talk in America this week has been about the treatment of women in this country, so to see Bill Burr on the stage saying misogynistic bullshit about how women need to whore it up next time they run for President was the exact opposite of what many of us wanted and needed to hear. I understand that Burr is a comedian who gets a lot of laughs offensively poking fun at serious topics, and that’s all well and good most of the time - but read the room this week. It was dreadful. 

Bowen Yang seemed to have fun as a douchebag who talks about inane issues in his life while complaining about the boring important issues in other’s lives during a trauma support group. That’s going to be America in the next half-decade or longer.

Ashley Padilla as a woman among friends at dinner trying to tell a funny joke and bombing and then attempting to repeat the joke was a huge waste of time. The show barely featured Padilla in the first quarter of the season, and based on what I’ve seen, I’m not sure I want to see any more from her.

What exactly was the bald guy musical? Maybe bald guys would dig it?

Season 50 of ‘SNL’ might be a celebration of the show, but the show is going to do what it always does – have good episodes and bad episodes. That should be expected. But I didn’t quite expect one of the worst episodes in the show’s history.

I sincerely hope ‘SNL’ puts more effort into next week’s episode, which will be hosted by pop singer Charli XCX, who also serves as musical guest. I usually worry about the quality of episodes hosted by the week’s musical guest.