Okay, here's my review. This show is certain to age better than Chappelle's previous post-election episode of SNL did as it felt much less "of the moment" as a whole, but this one was WAY more uneven. This is most likely due to this being their sixth consecutive show in a row taking place on the week of an election where the results were dragged out for four whole days after words. Chappelle only making his presence known in his monologue and no more than two additional sketches also contributed to that feeling. This is understandable when you consider he was literally flying back and forth between New York and Atlanta throughout the week doing standup shows (and presumably working on his monologue in the process). I can understand why this felt like an early period Ebersol era episode as that period made the least use of its hosts possible. At times, it felt like Chappelle may have been working on a whole new show of his own that was an entirely different show than what the regular SNL staff was putting together. I say this because the sheer pacing of this episode was the thing that screamed "burnout" the most to me (they pretty much just gave Chappelle free reign for his monologue and went for small amounts of long segments) but hey, I applaud SNL for managing to put on six consecutive shows in the middle of a pandemic as safely as possible. Speaking of which, it seemed to be a good night for everyone cast-wise except for Chris Redd, the new featured players (even Punkie shockingly) and the two women who were absent due to conflicting shooting schedules. Anyway, let's break it down, shall we?
CNN Election Results Continuation 2020 - Beck had plenty of good lines as Wolf Blitzer. I'd like to think he would've made a better John King if they didn't need him in the Wolf Blitzer role but I did like Alexs' hand prosthetics as John King. With the way this elections been dragged out, it's pretty much impossible to tell exactly how much of this cold open (if any) was rewritten since this morning. I'd like to think SNL learned their lesson on smugness from season 42 (around the last time Chappelle hosted, incidentally) but considering the election was literally called the morning of this show they may not have had the time to think much about that if it just dawned on them this week. That's good because it didn't look like the results of THIS election were going to backfire and bite them in the ass nearly as hard as 2016 did. Speaking of which, Carrey’s Biden still needs some serious work if they're actually going to stick with him for even the rest of this year let alone the next four but for all the unnecessary Carrey-isms he sneaks into his Biden, this was the only time a little Ace Ventura fan service felt appropriate. Maya did fine even though most of her lines seemed designed to milk as much applause from the audience as possible. Her wardrobe and the set dressing are the only things that even vaguely suggest they saw any of the victory speech but the fact that it aired live at a time when their own dress rehearsal was scheduled to be in progress says to me that they may have YouTubed it while waiting for the game to end. Baldwin's portion seems like it could've been written at any point in the week but I have to hand it to them because having his Trump sing "Hallelujah But It's Actually Just Macho Man" at the piano may have been the only genuinely funny thing they've done with the character. It was a fitting (hopefully) final performance for him but it certainly doesn't excuse him for holding up that sign at the goodnights saying "you're welcome." It's just too bad Chloe only got to debut her Kayleigh McEnenay (sp?) impression on the air at the literal last moment of its relevancy. Overall, the writing of this had enough of an "all-purpose" feeling to it to suggest there wasn't a massive overhaul of what they had planned. B-
Monologue - Well, I honestly didn't expect this Chappelle set to feel more somber than the one he did four years ago at the START of the Trump era but I can kinda see why they let him ramble on for approximately 28 minutes at the top of their sixth consecutive show. There's no way the writers' didn't hit their wall this week. It looks like the only people this may offend are racist whites and some women and gay men (at the pay gap/Freddie Mercury lines). I appreciated him telling us about his great grandfather even though it was such a long walk to that "bought and sold" punchline it got the monologue off to a weird start. I did like the "lock up the murderous whites" comments as well as the "farmers only/did I say it or you?/wear your Klan hood as a mask at Walmart" comments. He bought up a good point with the Reagan/stimulus comparisons but he started to lose focus a bit at that point (especially since he veered toward some just OK Trump/Covid/Christie material that seemed to be a jumping off point to some mild shock laughs and then came back to it at the end). The "black niceness conspiracy" seemed like something he could've cut altogether if he didn't need it to transition into the "lessons" callback as his conclusions. All in all, I liked this monologue but it felt far too uneven in a way that I was not expecting. C+
Black Mascots - This was genuinely funny but it had its issues. It felt a little long and sloppy but again, hey...sixth show in a row. This also felt a little dated since the Aunt Jemima/Uncle Ben story was in the news over the summer (possibly late May around the time of the George Floyd protests, IIRC) but I can overlook that for a few reasons. First of all, this felt like an idea that someone had this summer that they just couldn't use until now. Maybe Micheal Che or Bryan Tucker came up with this but couldn't get it on the air until now and needed Chappelle to champion this to make it past the table read. Maybe Chappelle originally thought of this as a standup bit but found it just wasn't working on stage so he worked with Neal Brennan to rewrite it as a sketch. It does seem more like a Chappelle's show sketch (especially with him introducing it) than an SNL sketch. Chappelle's general performance and the "breast milk" line were enough to suggest to me this was the case. Plus, this was written in such a way that only Chappelle and Rudolph had the talent to put it over (although it was kind of a bummer that Chappelle had to rely on a voice modulator to pull off a Dennis Haysbert impression which he really should've wore a wig for but I totally get why he broke before even delivering his first line). Some assists from Kenan (who sadly kinda got washed off the screen for me) and a fourth wall breaking Pete helped too. As for Baldwin, well...after bring bombarded with portraying Trump both on (and seemingly off at times) the SNL stage it may take some time for me to come around to the idea of even seeing him do non-Trump/non-political material on the show. B+
Mario Memories - Well, I never thought I'd see a sketch where other cast members react in disgust to something Mikey overexplained but I guess he and Steeter wanted to try a different approach for once. That actually seemed to work in this sketches' favor seeing as the disgusted reactions from Kenan, Ego, Melissa and Bowen really made this for me. Other than that, it felt like it went on longer and felt more bogged down in unnecessary details than I would've liked. Also, congratulations to Cecily on getting another voiceover check this week. C+
Take Me Back - This felt like Beck playing a type of character we see him play frequently but Ego's reactions to his increasingly dire revelations were what sold this for me. Ego really has a knack for finding a strong chemistry with this show's male cast members. B+
Update felt pretty short because they only really talked about one thing. Maybe they were just too exhausted to write jokes about anything else or they had to write all of it on Friday. Either way, I had no problem with the material they came up with. It was nice to see Colin use international celebration footage to subtly gloat without really gloating and it was even better to see Colin devolve into unclipped tie drinking for happy reasons rather than soul crushing ones. Kate's Guiliani is more watchable as the lead character in her own standalone segment as opposed to a larger Trump related sketch even if the material is about the same (the cut for time piece from David Harbours' episode also proved this). B-
Albany Hailstorm - This was a premise that almost felt a little too low key (and vaguely familiar) for its own good. The performances really heightened that. It felt like it was gonna go on longer than it did at first but it seemed like they knew when to end it. Surprisingly, Ego had less onscreen chemistry here with Alex than she did with Beck in the pretape. C-
DC Morning - Wow, Ego plays two different local anchor women in live sketches in a row. It's fitting that Chappelle was in this because it feels just like something Chappelle's show would do. Maybe this was another standup bit he reworked into a sketch? I can understand if it's not because it feels a little Jost/Che-ish as well. Also, congrats to SNL for not only getting two G-D bombs on the air but getting it on the air in print once as well even though it doesn't even touch his previous record. C+
Now, for my updated rankings of this season so far…
1. Issa Rae/Justin Beiber (10.17.20)
2. John Mulaney/The Strokes (10.31.20)
3. Dave Chappelle/Foo Fighters (11.7.2020)
4. Adele/H.E.R. (10.24.20)
5. Chris Rock/Megan Thee Stallion (10.3.20)
6. Bill Burr/Morgan Wallen Jack White (10.10.20)
Well, that was a fitting end to SNLs' longest consecutive run of shows. Next week is their first week off and as of this writing, no one knows when they'll be back. Some are speculating December 5th but I think we can all agree they've more than earned the next two months off at least. See you soon!
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