December 17, 2016 – Casey Affleck / Chance the Rapper (S42 E10)

Cold Opening - Trump Christmas Ugh. I’m starting to get really annoyed by all of these political opens from SNL ALREADY, which obviously won’t bode well for the opens that I’ll cover in the 2nd half of the season. Kinda surprising that Kate just left the open just now, considering how big her Kellyanne impression …

December 10, 2016 – John Cena / Maren Morris (S42 E9)

Cold Opening - The Lead with Jake Tapper Good to see Beck’s Jake Tapper returning, as we’ll be getting some memorable shorts with him & Kate’s Kellyanne Conway throughout this season. Very random Bryan Cranston cameo, yet seeing him here reminds me of how much I disliked his season 36 hosting stint, particularly that horrific …

November 12, 2016 – Dave Chappelle / A Tribe Called Quest (S42 E6)

Cold Opening - Hallelujah Hoo, boy. Here comes an infamous cold opening. As unfortunate as Trump’s election was, this cold open was an embarrassment to witness, as this is one of the earliest examples of SNL’s preachy & desperate pandering to the so-called “resist!” crowd, which will get even more and more desperate and pandering …

November 5, 2016 – Benedict Cumberbatch / Solange (S42 E5)

Cold Opening - Erin Burnett OutFront Another CNN cold open this season. An interesting mention that Hillary Clinton’s support has been dropping these past few weeks, which is a departure from SNL’s smug, sure-to-be-president portrayal of Hillary in the episodes before this one. Yet, I’m sure that SNL, like many others, foolishly thought that Hillary …

October 15, 2016 – Emily Blunt / Bruno Mars (S42 E3)

Cold Opening - The Presidential Debate A good Martha Raddatz impression from Cecily. It is also the debut of Alex’s Anderson Cooper impression, which is already FAR better than whatever the hell Jon Rudnitsky was attempting with his supposed impression. Funny entrance from Kate & Alec. UGH at the whole part with Bobby’s Ken Bone, …

October 8, 2016 – Lin-Manuel Miranda / Twenty One Pilots (S42 E2)

Cold Opening - Vice Presidential Debate Good meta comment from Melissa early on, as this cold open begins. The debut of Beck’s Mike Pence impression, which is also one of the very few impressions in the Trumpwin era that I can tolerate, even though SNL would have it surrounded with DOZENS of homophobic, outdated jibes. …