‘Saturday Night Live’ Recap: Mika And Joe Take Their On-Air Flirtation To The Extreme

Saturday Night Live generally reserves its cold open for riffing on the activities of the president. While this week’s open took on the Republican health care bill – and, therefore, Trump, by proxy – the main target was one I’m surprised they haven’t mocked by now: MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

The pair announced their engagement this week, but due to their ever-flirtatious banter, viewers have long been wondering just what exactly is going on there.

Kate McKinnon and Alex Moffat took this over the top as Brzezinski and Scarborough, capturing the pair’s arguing-into-googly-eyes cycle as horrified reporters looked on. McKinnon, in particular, perfectly portrayed Brzezinski’s breathy, come hither scoldings, while Moffat nailed Scarborough’s paternal entreatments. Alec Baldwin makes a voice cameo on the phone as Trump’s old PR guy “John Miller” (Trump in disguise), but the open was all about the kissing news couple – who end each disagreement with their lips barely an inch from each other, ready to pounce. Let’s hope these two return.

Host Chris Pine riffed about the fact that many movie fans probably have no idea who he is, especially since Hollywood is awash with generically good-looking, well-built white guys named Chris who play superheroes. By the end, he brings out a chart comparing himself to Chris’ Evans, Hemsworth, and Pratt, and every complaint about the lack of diversity in Hollywood comes to the fore. Pine sings a song to the tune of “Uptown Girl” about the differences between the Chrises. It’s a short song.

The first sketch is a brief PBS game show parody, “Where in the World is Kellyanne Conway.” Based on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Sasheer Zamata hosts, with a singing group backing her up and Mikey Day as a co-host. They introduce two child contestants, but when Day asks them, “Are you guys ready to find Kellyanne Conway?” the response is, “We don’t want to find her.” Whatever your feelings on Conway – who disappeared from view after several months as the White House’s most public persona – this was a one-joke sketch. Comedically, there was little here.

My favorite Kyle Mooney character on SNL made just two minor appearances – MC Strategy of the Mythic Insides Crew, who wanted to bring Dutch underground hip-hop to a small town’s carnival. Here, he sort of returns, but stays in a background role for reasons I can’t comprehend.

The music video parody finds Beck Bennett playing Dutch rapper Slav D, with Mooney’s MC Strategy throwing in occasional accent words to punctuate Bennett’s talk/rap sentences. As for the song itself, Bennett, in a bald wig, goes on about the evils of the world, decrying the bad while invoking Martin Luther King Jr. in asking us to be better people. Chris Pine, over-emoting with a long-haired wig that recalls Michael Bolton’s old hairstyle, sings the refrain, “So much pain in the USA/So much pain in the world today.” But as Bennett goes on, the narrative takes a turn. He says, “Stop the greed/Stop the drugs/Stop your sexy internet pornography,” and from there, pornography takes over as the song’s subject. Slav D, it turns out, has a serious pornography addiction. Poor man just needs a break. But also, let’s get world peace happening, people. And next time, give MC Strategy some lines.

Next, Kenan Thompson and Bennett are law enforcement officers, surveilling suspected arms dealer Bobby Moynihan from across the street. When they swing their binoculars over to the apartment next store, though, they see Pine and Day having a dance party while eating cotton candy, and the officers are fascinated. The pair then switches from cotton candy to having a “backpack fashion show,” then Leslie Jones joins them dressed in a zoot suit, eating a teddy-bear-sized gummy bear. The sketch peters off as Moynihan, Bennett, then finally Thompson envy their free sense of fun so much, they join them. This was ridiculous, and, Morning Joe aside, had me laughing harder than anything in the episode so far.

The next sketch finds Vanessa Bayer and Aidy Bryant playing two women in a company’s HR department preparing to have a talk with employee Pine. At first, Pine wonders what he’s done wrong, but then Bayer and Bryant lay it out – his looks and come hither glances (which don’t exist) have been driving them crazy, and they have to know which of the two he chooses – despite his not really knowing either of them. The business-attired women then go into a “seductive” duet of “The Boy is Mine,” trying to dance sexily on the desk – more like squirming – as Pine, who has no idea what they’re talking about, tries to take it all in. I loved this sketch as an opportunity for Bayer and Bryant to cut loose. Favorite line (to the music): Bryant: “So boy, who’s it gonna be, a diabetic mother of two…” Bayer: “…or a childless MILF with an eye for design.” (Editor’s Note: This sketch is nowhere to be found online, presumably because of a music clearance issue.)

Next, Bennett, Mooney, and Pine play three contestants in a Real World-type house, arguing over Margarita Night. In effect, Mooney and Bennett are fighting over who is better friends with Pine. The sketch captures the rhythm of shows like The Real World, shuttling between watching action (such as it is) unfold, then talking about it to the camera. The sketch got laughs, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why this exists in 2017, since we saw countless parodies of these shows, including some that had a point, back when they were new and fresh. A last-minute twist, with Pete Davidson playing an armed robber, added nothing.

Weekend Update focused its first segment on the new health care bill. Michael Che had a few of the better lines. On a picture of Trump with Congressional Republicans behind him from the press conference about the bill’s passing the House – a picture featuring all white men – Che called it “chilling,” then said, “No minority can see all these old white dudes smiling and think, yeah, I think this is gonna be great news for us. They look like they just invented sickle cell.” Then mentioning that the bill allows insurance companies to consider 243 different medical conditions as pre-existing conditions, Che said, “Here’s what 243 pre-existing conditions looks like,” then showed a picture of Steve Bannon.

The Update desk introduced a new meteorologist, with Bayer playing a contest winner who nervously talks in jumbles, eventually inventing a hurricane because she’s nervous. The crowd in the studio laughed. I found this pointless.

Then, Leslie Jones appeared at the desk, and her usual flirtatiousness with Colin Jost was gone. Jones, she came to announce, is “no longer thirsty,” because she went to Jamaica and got laid. There wasn’t much comedy in the story itself, but her giddiness carried the bit.

Next, Pine, Thompson, Bennett, Moynihan and Moffat play blue-collar guys – mechanics – talking about RuPaul’s Drag Race. Smartly avoiding the “awkwardness of men admitting they watch this” joke, the sketch evolved quickly to Pine and Moynihan putting on their own vogueing competition. A quick, fun, slice-of-life sketch.

Given the strength of some of SNL’s political videos over the past few years – with wins like “The Day Beyonce Turned Black” – a take on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale seemed almost inevitable, and certainly welcome. This makes what they did with it all the more baffling. Bryant, Bayer (sans eye), Zamata, and Cecily Strong play captured handmaids who run into dude/bro friends Day, Pine, and Moffat, who are oblivious to the changes in society that led to their subjugation. While there’s something of a point snuck in here – when Moffat asks, “Wasn’t there a protest or something,” Zamata replies, “Yeah. Several years ago.” – overall, this says little and goes nowhere.

Taking advantage of having Captain Kirk host, TV Land’s Future Classics, hosted by Thompson as Neil deGrasse Tyson, shows a special lost episode of Star Trek, from a late season when the show’s quality had deteriorated. In addition to letting Pine play William Shatner’s version of Kirk, the episode, titled “Spock’s Secret,” introduces Moynihan as Dr. Spock’s long-lost half-brother, Spock-O, who comes from the planet Vulcan via Queens. When something exciting happens, he looks right into the camera and says, “Now THAT’S a Star Trek!” Spock-O, we learn, was played by “actor and nightclub crooner Sal Delabate,” who had a 1968 hit with the song “Pizza Beach,” for which the show mocked up an album cover of Moynihan with a pompadour haircut, shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, surfing while holding two slices of pizza. Since he had a hit at the time, his casting, we learn, was a ratings grab. Moynihan has been a sadly scarce presence on the show this year, and given his casting in a CBS pilot, is likely in his final SNL season. This sketch shows why he’ll be missed, as he crudely leans into the character’s fish out of water aspects. As Spock-O says, “Live Long and Party!”

The final sketch of the night finds three couples playing a board game where they sing a TV theme song, and the other couples have to guess which show it’s from. The other couples grow concerned when Pine, there with a permed Strong, pulls out a synthesizer, and the couple puts on a melodramatic, Broadway-style rendition of what they insist is the theme from Frasier. By sketch’s end, Pine is so worked up by the drama of his invented song that he puts his hand through a window. All in all, not much here.

SNL returns next week with host Melissa McCarthy, and musical guest Haim.

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.

Watch the Chris Pine/LCD Soundsystem episode of Saturday Night Live on Hulu