‘SNL’ Indulges Its Worst Tendencies With Weak ‘Wonderful Life’ Parody

Saturday Night Live took the ultimate liberal wish-fulfillment route for their final cold open of 2018, referencing It’s A Wonderful Life by turning Kenan Thompson into the Clarence to Donald Trump’s George Bailey, showing him (Alec Baldwin) what the world would be like if he had never been elected president.

Taking him to the White House Christmas party, his first question is: what are those things on everybody’s faces? Those are called smiles, he’s told, as he learns how the people around him have been affected by his losing the presidency. With Hillary Clinton in office, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Aidy Bryant) is a PR professional representing the likes of Ashley Madison and the romaine lettuce association, Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller) is still Trump’s best friend, and Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon) was allowed to take her soul back from the devil. Also, she speaks to her husband now.

On the family front, Eric Trump (Alex Moffat) is smarter, having taken adult education classes since he’s no longer running the Trump Organization, and Melania (Cecily Strong) has divorced him, developing her own real estate empire since she figured, if Donald can do it, anyone can. Donald himself is re-married to a suitcase girl from the Serbian “Deal or No Deal.” Robert De Niro is along for the ride as well, since Trump and his Robert Mueller have no reason to hate each other. Host Matt Damon also appeared as Brett Kavanaugh, as he had once before, and surprise, he’s talking about how much he loves beer.

The sketch was fine at best, uninspired and cookie-cutter at worst, and an appropriate end to 2018 for SNL‘s cold opens. Writing-wise, it felt a bit lazy, a bit fill-in-the-blanks, generating more light chuckles than outright laughs, and depending more on the familiarity of the characters than any new ideas that might generate laughs driven by surprise or recognition.

For SNL and its liberal audience, this cold open was comfort food, an attempt to engage in the fantasy of Trump’s disappearance from political relevance rather than finding new ways to address the reality of his governance. It was also a sign of SNL‘s determination to maintain the status quo, no matter how driven into the ground it feels. Baldwin as Trump, and the reliance on unnecessary celebrity cameos – this cold open had three – over innovative or thoughtful material is the show’s normal, and whatever happens in real life, 2019 holds no hope for evolution or growth for SNL on this front.   

Damon hosted for the second time, and his first since 2002 – for perspective, it was Fred Armisen’s first episode – and he kept the monologue short and sweet, telling a heartwarming story of how he stayed up watching SNL with his dad at eight years old, and how that tradition is now continuing in his family. It was an excellent monologue, and a reminder to SNL that forcing laughs through tired mechanisms like audience Q&As and song and dance numbers isn’t always necessary. Sometimes a good, simple story gets the job done.

The Westminster Dog Show gets a face lift, becoming the Westminster Daddy Show. The convoluted premise had something to do with the sexualization of a certain type of dad, and then the dads are paraded around like dogs. Some laughs from Thompson as the man trying to corral the dads – “Tweedy Daddy right here,” repeated several times, was pretty funny – and the prancing of Damon, called in as a last minute contestant, was a sight to behold.

In a video piece, Damon and Strong play a couple celebrating “the best Christmas ever,” which a series of flashbacks reveal to be anything but. This was a funny and touching look at how families can be the best and the worst at the same time, as a day of screaming kids, arguing relatives, and insensitive in-laws still creates warm memories for the couple.

Kyle Mooney and Melissa Villasenor decorate their Christmas tree, and the ugly ornaments relegated to the back commiserate on their depressing fate. Bennett plays the demoted Santa ornament; Thompson was purchased at an airport in Cleveland; Damon, appropriately, was a “For Your Consideration” ornament for “Good Will Hunting,” saddled with 20-year-old batteries and the inscription, “Happy Holidays from the Weinstein Company,” which must have been an awkward joke for Damon to make. Also on the sad side of the tree, Harry Potter (Mikey Day) with a broken Quidditch broom that makes it look like he’s gripping himself tight between the legs, an angel ornament (Strong) with half her face burned off, Bryant as a school-created abomination, and a 2001 America’s Mayor ornament featuring a younger Rudy Giuliani (McKinnon). Nothing hilarious here, but a few decent laughs.

One of my favorite SNL traditions is the audition reel, which allows the host and cast members to rattle off celebrity impressions under the guise of auditioning for a popular, and familiar, film role. Here. the premise gets a twist, as cast and Damon break out their impressions as auditions to serve as Oscar host. Part of what’s exciting about these sketches is watching a new generation of celebrities become impression-worthy. So, we get Strong as Rachel Brosnahan, Ego Nwodim as Tiffany Haddish, McKinnon as Michelle Wolf, Bryant as Hannah Gadsby, and Pete Davidson as Rami Malek, all of whom depicted their subjects well. Kudos to SNL for attempting a new approach here, but the lack of familiar lines for them to say detracted from the usual humor of the bit, as Nwodim simply uttered Haddish’s catch phrase, McKinnon’s Wolf mocked her voice, and many of the impressions relied on the predictable. Still, the quality of the impressions themselves was impressive, with the highlights including Bryant’s Gadsby, Damon’s Matthew McConaughey, and three always excellent takes, Villasenor as Sarah Silverman, Chris Redd as Kanye West, and Heidi Gardner’s Allison Janney. Also, I’m now convinced the best choice for Oscar host would be the pairing of Allison Janney and Matthew McConaughey. Make it happen, Academy!

Cheesy lounge singers have also long been SNL tradition, going back to Bill Murray’s Nick and Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks as The Sweeney Sisters, and Strong and Damon add their entry here as once-married NY performers who split because Damon is try-sexual, as in, he’ll try anything or anyone. Great character work here from Strong as the Jewish perpetual single carrying on with an overly-creative version of “Jingle Bells,” accompanied by the ex-husband who left her to screw a busboy. The sketch is missing an elevating element – it’s good, not great – but watching Strong lose herself in a character (with a strong assist here from Damon) is always a worthwhile few minutes.

Gardner returns to the Weekend Update desk as Angel, every boxer’s girlfriend from every boxing movie ever, there to give the week’s “Good News” report. I loved this character the first time Gardner played her, but it is the very definition of a one-note character: other than the line, “I’m taking my kids to my sister’s,” there’s just not much to Angel. The shift here is appearance of her beloved boxer Tommy, played by Damon. It’s always a hoot watching Damon hit that Boston accent, but as great as Gardner is, it might be Angel’s time to stay on the mat and enjoy retirement.

Michael Che and Colin Jost ended their 2018 at the Update desk with a segment where they each had to tell several jokes they had not seen before, with Che forcing Jost to read several jokes taking harsh approaches to race. The segment was hilarious, possibly the funniest of the season on Update. and the show should take a deep look at why this worked and try to replicate it more often. Surprise is a key element to comedy, and one often missing from SNL. Maybe watching performers wrestle with that surprise in real time is a tactic that could help bring the show out of the doldrums of familiarity it often finds itself mired in.

Three couples dine, with two Weezer fans among them, and all hell breaks loose when they disagree on the band’s peak era. Damon and Leslie Jones are the Weezer fans who think they know it all – and that the other knows nothing – in this sketch which takes down music know-it-alls, as Gardner speaks for all when she asks, “Is this a thing people care about?” The specifics here were irrelevant. Jones and Damon’s passion for the subject, equalled by the bafflement of their fellow diners, made this fun.

Cop Christmas finds Damon, Baldwin, Thompson, Bennett, and Mooney razzing each other at a bar. The mood shifts when the men present gifts to Mooney. Turns out the other men have done him wrong. Thompson is sleeping with his sister, and Bennett shot his wife at their wedding, causing her to leave. Still, for Mooney, it’s just breaking balls. This didn’t quite go anywhere, but made for a few warm and enjoyable minutes.

Live, from 10 Downing Street, here’s Theresa May’s “Happy Christmas, Britain.” McKinnon plays May, taking a break from her disastrous month to host a Christmas special. After an opening number with dancing bobbies, the sound of a brick being thrown threw her window signifies the presence of her first guest, Damon as David Cameron, the man who left May with the Brexit mess. The power of sheer silliness made this sketch work, as Cameron went on about his relaxing vacation, and the irony that May is more hated than him even though Brexit is his fault; then Sir Elton John (Bryant) came on to present May with gifts, which all turned out to be feces, then yelled at her when she tried to drop a “Yasss, Queen.” Finally, she brought out Lord Voldemort (Day), as he’s “the one person in Britain more reviled than me.” Still, Voldemort would appreciate if “you would not lump us together.” There was no overriding joke in this sketch and not much happened, but the spectacle of May trying to get someone, anyone, to like her resonated here for a few laughs.

That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading, and see you in 2019.

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.