Tina Fey Returns To ‘SNL’ To Mock Sarah Palin’s Crazytown Endorsement Of Donald Trump — Plus Ronda Rousey!

While New York City was buried under the second worst snowstorm in its history, Saturday Night Live hit the air on time like the reliable institution it has long been, the only game in a town shut down.

Just as reliably, given that Sarah Palin made big news earlier in the week when she endorsed Donald Trump for president while seemingly speaking Esperanto, or Klingon, or whatever made-up language passes for coherence in her world, Tina Fey made a “surprise” appearance re-creating that endorsement in the cold open, turning Palin’s already impressive word salad into even more of a feast for linguistic detectives of all stripes.

Fey had previously mocked the former VP candidate by bouncing her own words right back at her. Here, she combines segments of Palin’s speech with scripted mumbo-jumbo, having Palin take a break from her regular job of “writin’ things on Facebook” to make the endorsement. Darrell Hammond’s Trump calls her, “The total package: Smart. Legs. Yelling. Everything.” (He then added the tag, “I haven’t seen a woman this impressive since Jeb Bush.” Zing!)

Throughout Fey’s diatribe, Hammond’s Trump reacted with what anyone watching the real speech, where Trump listened to Palin with an inscrutable smile on his face, probably believed he was thinking – marveling at how “her mouth starts driving before her brain gets in the car,” and pretending she’s “fun” before finally admitting, “she’s crazy, isn’t she?”

Fey’s Palin laments how “so many of us have lost our jobs, at the factory, or on reality shows about Alaska,” and how her kids keep getting arrested just for having committed some crimes. By the end, she’s shooting finger-pistols at the sky while making screeching noises – how many of us, I’d imagine, picture Palin most of the time. For bonus points, she somehow shoehorns the phrase “works the balls” into the speech, as well as the Lorax.

This week’s host was fighter Ronda Rousey, marking her first time ever on TV “without getting punched in the face.” After congratulating Holly Holm for her recent victory over Rousey, her monologue became a prizefight, with Kenan Thompson playing her corner man, coaching her through each step as Beck Bennett and Taran Killam passed judgment as ring announcers. The bit showed Rousey to be loose, all smiles and energy.

The episode’s first post-monologue sketch dove right back into current events by taking on the current #OscarsSoWhite controversy. It was an unusually blunt sketch for SNL, prioritizing advocacy over comedy. The fake “Screen Guild Awards” were presented for Best Actor. Presenter Cecily Strong set the scene, saying, “there are so many great performances this year, it’s a shame we couldn’t nominate more.” If you spent any time at all this past week on social media, you had a pretty good idea of what was coming next.

The nominees were, of course, all white. The twist was that for each nominee, a clip from their film was shown, and each of their scenes was played with black co-stars. Increasingly, the white actor’s parts grew smaller and smaller, less significant to the scene (and, presumably, the film) being shown, while the black actors served more and more as the heart of the drama. The knocks on Creed, for which only Sylvester Stallone was nominated, and Straight Outta Compton, nominated for its white screenwriters, were pointed. By the end, white actors were nominated for the roles “white man with camera” and “unseen voice on phone.”

The sketch’s most clever touch came when, after four of the films were subtly-altered parody versions of real films featuring snubbed black actors, the final entry was, “Redline, a story of discriminatory hiring practices against African-Americans in Chicago.” By the end, when Strong announced the winner as a five-way tie, holding up the card reading “All The White Guys,” the point had been driven home with a sledgehammer.

Michael Che had a sharper take on the Oscar controversy during Weekend Update, including this: “The producers of this year’s Oscars are reportedly trying to find black presenters to counter a boycott by black actors. So the Oscars are solving racism by making black people present white people with gold.”

Rousey got to shine the brightest when current events took a back seat. In the pre-taped bit “Love Struck,” she was endearing as a student being taken for a special date in the school gym by top jock Bennett, only to find herself the victim of a Carrie like prank by the cool kids, led by Vanessa Bayer. After Bayer revealed Rousey was secretly eating dog food and that Bennett was in on the joke, Rousey got her revenge by being Ronda Rousey, and beating the living crap out of her tormentors.

Other episode highlights included Bennett’s rap in a pre-taped bit about his lack of physical endowment (or anything else to offer women), and the return of Pete Davidson testifying at the trial of the teachers who slept with him, leaving him with nicknames like “The Chosen One” and “Three’s Humpany.”

While the recurring small town city council sketches are strictly post-12:30 material, Kyle Mooney’s Dutch rapper MC Strategy might be his funniest, most unique character. I’d love to see if he’s just as funny in his own sketch at some point.

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. His greatest wish is to see Stefon enjoy a cheeseburger at John Belushi’s diner. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.