Saturday Night Live recap: Donald Glover with musical guest Childish Gambino
Sometimes Saturday Night Live does something right. That something right this week was getting Donald Glover to host and be the musical guest.
Finally, after weeks away, Saturday Night Live has returned with quite the show. Donald Glover both hosted the late-night comedy show and performed as the musical guest. Thanks to Glover, much of the episode was weird and quirky and fun.
There were a ton of surprise guests, making this one of the best episodes thus far this season.
Cold Open
Ready for the most iconic cold open to ever exist on Saturday Night Live? Well this week, they pulled out all the stops. SNL brought back political character favorites like Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump and Leslie Jones as Omarosa. Ben Stiller returned for a second time as Michael Cohen.
However, the biggest gasp came when Stormy Daniels herself appeared. Yes, Stormy Daniels. It was both a welcomed surprise and a tad odd, but we soaked in every second of it.
Daniels ended the bit with this foretelling line, “I know you don’t believe in climate change, Donald, but a storm is coming.”
Monologue
Donald Glover is really good at everything, including talking about how he’s really good at everything even when he’s throwing up. He used to do sketch comedy before he “made it” and that means he auditioned for Saturday Night Live twice. So what did he want to talk about? His audition.
Going around the cast and asking them all how they auditioned, Donald shows that he’s really good at everything. But he also shows he’s not that good at other things and ends up getting sick and throwing up in his clarinet.
Courtroom
Some people think Jurassic World is a terrible idea because the dinosaurs always fight back. So what happens when someone who frequented the park loses his friends and family to the dinosaurs? Well, he takes them to court, of course!
Kenan Thompson couldn’t keep it together from the start but this was one of the best sketches of the night. Someone just wanted Jurassic World to take credit for the death of their brother and friend and everyone was on the same page except for the lawyer defending the park, played by Glover.
Friendos (featuring A$AP Rocky)
When rappers need to talk about their problems, they go to a therapist together. They may not listen to each other at first… but when they finally dom their relationship becomes more than the three of them just repeating the lyric “Lambo” over and over again.
This sketch was a very interesting retrospective on how we talk to our friends, and weirdly relatable. Three rappers see their friends in specific viewpoints rather than who they truly are and there’s a fun song to go along with it.
80’s Music Video
Sometimes, a sketch doesn’t have to make sense. You watch it, you love it, and you leave asking yourself what you just watched. This was one of those sketches. In the style of an 1980’s music video, Raz P. Berry sees his girlfriend with another guy. He thinks he caught her cheating… but it isn’t her.
There’s a cool song and Donald Glover is looking like a vampire so you know what? That’s enough to make this work.
A Kanye Place
In a world where monsters attack at the slightest sound, it is hard to get around it when Kanye keeps tweeting. Every new news update has someone exclaiming something and then the monster comes and takes them away. The only one who can possibly live? Glover.
Even in the end, he has to go hear Kanye’s new song and it ends up being his demise but really, what a way to go!
Dirty Talk
A man learns the hard way that asking for “dirty talk” doesn’t necessarily work. When his girlfriend doesn’t get that it is meant to be sexy, she goes from calling someone the “r-word” to pretending to be Bill Cosby. So, really not sexy.
That’s pretty much the entire point of the sketch. She doesn’t get sexy talk and it results in a weird sibling thing and bringing in a Bill Cosby voice. Yea…
Childish Gambino
Zoe Kravitz was there? And introduced Donald Glover? We’ll accept it.
Kravitz played games with others while Glover sang, offering a good-time summery vibe that got us in the mood to sit by a pool and just relax.
Daniel Kaluuya was next to introduce Childish Gambino and then kid dancers and a light display took everything to a whole new level. Not only is Donald an incredible performer but he takes all his work to the next level.
Weekend Update
Was it weird that Stormy Daniels was there and wasn’t on Weekend Update to talk? A little because the majority of the jokes were about the entire situation. There was a nice moment when Pete Davidson came on to wish Colin Jost and Michael Che good luck hosting the Emmys this year but other than that, it was all about Trump.
Well, and relationships. Leslie Jones came onto Weekend Update to sing a song about the men in her life who had done her wrong, including Colin Jost, who she said was gay. When he said he had a girlfriend, Leslie refused to believe it (which is ironic since Scarlett Johannson was there that night).
Lando’s Summit
Star Wars has never been known for its diversity. Recently, it has gotten much better, but not nearly enough. So how did Saturday Night Live decide to take it on? By praising the black people of the Star Wars universe. Meaning there were like 5.
Mace Windu wasn’t there (rest in peace) but Lando sang, Saw Gerrera spoke, and everyone else decided that they didn’t want to be a part of it. What the sketch gave us was a sneak peek at Glover as Lando. If that’s what his performance is going to be like in Solo, we’re in for quite the treat!
Barbie Instagram
Social media is hard, so when Mattel hires young kids to try and figure out an Instagram account for Barbie, it doesn’t go as well as they had planned. Especially when one man decides to come up with a backstory that results in Barbie’s death.
Obviously, no one gets the job. Still, Mattel does steal the idea from one of the kids for a post. This was a funny way to look at how companies have to market on social media and don’t really take people that seriously when they apply. It is Instagram, after all.
Prison Job
In this prison, I guess if you get really good customer service reviews you get parole? Like most of the sketches tonight, this was just weird enough to work. Beck Bennett as Hannibal Lecter comes in at the end as the manager and throws a wrench into whatever normalcy it had but still, we enjoyed it.
Thanks to this week’s episode of SNL, we got the best of Donald Glover — maybe he should have made it in those auditions. Bonus points: we’re even more excited about Solo: A Star Wars Story (for Lando moreso than Solo, though, just so we’re clear).
Next: Saturday Night Live: John Mulaney with musical guest Jack White
Check back here on Culturess every week for more news and recaps for Saturday Night Live.