Congressman Dan Crenshaw Steals the Show from Liev Schreiber in This Week's 'SNL' Highlights

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 11, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 11, 2018 |

Cold Open — Jeff Sessions launched a last-minute racist attack on civil rights on his way out of office, so the least SNL and Kate McKinnon (with another cameo from Robert DeNiro as Mueller) can do on his way out the door is to call him a hate-filled racist elf a few more times. See ya, Sessions. (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Liev Schreiber Monologue — Schreiber admits he’s as shocked as any of us that he’s on tonight’s show, and uses his monologue to lower expectations (smart). He also took a moment to applaud voter turnout in the midterms. Seems like a nice, pleasant enough fella, but that’s about all I can say for the monologue. (Watch here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

Good Day Denver — Pitch meeting for this skit: It’s an interview with twin investors, but instead of referring to them as the “invest twins,” we’ll “accidentally” refer to them as the “incest twins” and put a lot of things in the chyron that suggests that these two brothers (and sometimes, their sister and grandmother) have sex with each other. It’s basically the SNL sketch equivalent of a “That’s what she said” joke. (They basically wrote it for you, Mat) (Watch here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

Unity — Though the country is divided, there are lots of things we all dislike, and the things we hate — like warm apples, the sound of a chip reader, etc. — can bring us all together. Here’s a song about it. It’s a Seinfeld bit in song form. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Ms. Rafferty — That great Kate McKinnon white trash character who had a terrible encounter with aliens is back after having had a terrible nonsense encounter with ghosts. There’s still a little left in the tank here, but it’s not paying nearly as many dividends as the first two go-arounds, regardless of all the great poop metaphors. Also, the best part about the sketch the first time was that Ryan Gosling couldn’t keep his shit together, and that’s sadly missing here. (Watch here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)

Booty Kings — Chris Redd, Pete Davidson, Future, Lil Wayne and Keenan perform what is basically “Baby Got Back” for the #MeToo era, and it’s fantastic. #RespectTheBooty (Score: 8 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Chost were OK this week — dumb, goofy jokes, some of which worked and some of which did not — but it did feel more relaxed, like the pressure was off because the midterms are over. Pete Davidson also reappeared to apologize to Dan Crenshaw, the war hero running for Congress he made fun of last week. Dan Crenshaw also made an appearance, and I’ll just say this: If Dan Crenshaw represented the entire Republican party instead of Trump, Democrats would be in deep shit. Seems like a good dude (and funny). I didn’t even know that Republicans were allowed to appear in public as humans anymore. (FWIW, I looked Crenshaw up last week, and he doesn’t seem to be a Trump Republican — he’s making efforts to reach out to young and more diverse people, and says that Trump doesn’t speak for them. I’m sure some Houston area readers will probably alert us to some horrible positions he has.). (Score: 5 out of 10 for “Update” and 8 out of 10 for Davidson/Crenshaw)

The Poddys — It’s an awards show for podcasts. Podcast jokes! I don’t even care that it’s a mediocre sketch, it’s about podcasts! I understand a good 30 percent of the references, too. Pod Saves America and Marc Maron get mocked — Maron is probably thrilled because this is the closest he’s ever gotten to appearing on SNL. (Watch here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

House Hunters — I’ll say this much for Liev Schreiber — I’ve barely noticed that he’s hosting tonight’s show, and he’s in a lot of the sketches. It’s not that he’s bad; he’s just kind of a straight-man nonfactor. Also, I might have appreciated this sketch more if I’d ever watched House Hunters, but I’m not sure. (Watch here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Brothers — When Mom and Dad have visitors over, two brothers can’t stop fighting, so Dad breaks out the water hose (in the house) to break it up. Oof. We’re in the dregs. (Watch here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Dave’s Outside the Women’s Bathroom — A guy posing as a reporter waits outside a women’s bathroom and interviews women. “How’d it go in there?” Tonight’s SNL can’t end soon enough. (Watch Here) (Score: 3 out of 10)