Chadwick Boseman, Cardi B Headline Saturday Night Live

The Host – Chadwick Boseman

Melissa: First of all, I’m super glad that they wasted absolutely no time in having Boseman call out the fact that he is hosting SNL two months after Black Panther came out, and that Sterling K. Brown instead got that prime slot right after the movie’s premiere. This to me felt like a huge oversight, although I understand that at the time Sterling K. Brown may have been a little bit more of a household name. He also bemoans the fact that by now, most of the good Black Panther ideas have been used, and all that will be left for him is the reject pile. Thankfully this isn’t entirely the case, but it’s a weird position to be in when you’re only NOW getting around to having the star of the third highest grossing film of all time host your show. The monologue was a bit of fun insanity, with Kenan Thompson’s cameo as Panthro from ThunderCats and Boseman taking a small dance break. 

Overall, his performance was so good that I was genuinely confused when I was looking at the list of sketches from to refresh myself and realized that many of the sketches were middle-of-the-road. It felt so much funnier and enjoyable when I was watching it! Which isn’t to say that the show was bad; the good sketches are GOOD and the bad ones are easily forgettable but (almost) never too offensive or tasteless.

Boseman’s having fun showcasing his various talents, like his aforementioned dancing, or singing in the “Restaurant Complaint” sketch. In true SNL fashion, this episode has some great sketches you’ll want to watch before the rest of the internet does, and the rest are so middling that you can completely get away with it if you only watched the highlights.

Mark: There was a very small moment in the monologue that I found really impressive. It was the part where Chadwick Boseman called for the band to back him while he did his famous James Brown impression that he employed in the movie Get On Up. It wasn’t particularly funny and it was very brief, but the fact that he could quickly and casually just whip out a world class James Brown impression was very impressive to me and really added to the spectacle of the episode. I came away from this episode of who Boseman is as a performer and a star. Which, I think is the goal over every host ever.

Best Sketch – Black Jeopardy

Melissa: An exception to my “every game show is bad” rule is Black Jeopardy – which, if we’ll allow me to have this hot take, is a much tighter and better-executed premise than the beloved “Celebrity Jeopardy” sketches that I totally would have hated if I was reviewing the show back then. I think what makes them so good is that they seem like ideas the writers have been very precious about up until the point that the right host comes by. Or maybe the choice of host inspires an instantaneous good idea, I don’t know. I’m mostly thinking back to Tom Hanks’ episode in which he plays a working class, government-hating, Trump-supporting Black Jeopardy contestant who ends up getting most of the answers right. It was a true highlight of that episode, and in hindsight it’s a shame that it got buried under David S. Pumpkins that week and then forever after that.

The game here is that the fish-out-of-water contestant is T’Challa (also known as The Black Panther from the movie Black Panther), whose answers are all more courteous and respectful than the host (Kenan Thompson) expects, to the point he ends up giving him credit for some of them despite being floored over the stark contrasts between the way things are in the US and life in Wakanda. T’Challa struggles, at one point answering that he would not only tell the police everything he knows about a crime but assist them in investigating it as well, before finally understanding the point of the game when it comes to a question about a white woman’s potato salad. There’s always a sociological undertone to Black Jeopardy that makes it so much more layered and thoughtful than the usual “shit, what else do we do” tone of a game show sketch, and the fact that there have been so few of them, good though they are, definitely works well for keeping the longevity of the premise. 

Mark: Black Jeopardy generally takes an affection look at our most negative impulses. It  lovingly revels in black stereotypes that are steeped in the parts of all of us that says “You think you are better than me?” That impulse is undercut in this sketch by the unflinching goodness of a great superhero character like the Black Panther. The thing I love about this sketch is that the host never berates or belittles T’Challa for wanting to do the right thing. The host demonstrates love for both our negative and positive impulses by endorsing the feelings of both T’Challa and the other contestants. 

Also, as a comic book fan, I endorse this portrayal of T’Challa and consider this appearance cannon.

Worst Sketch – Warehouse Fire

Melissa: I’m honestly shocked that they aired this. I’m positive that there had to be some behind-the-scenes discussion on whether or not to go through with airing this sketch, but how they ultimately landed on doing it I will never understand. I know that there are fires every day in New York City, but to air this only hours after the intense (and very high-profile) fire at Trump Tower that killed a resident and injured several others? And to perform the sketch in New York, to a New York audience?

The silence you hear for the majority of it should tell them everything they need to know about what an iffy idea it was to air something where a fireman leaves a blazing building because he has something better to do. Not to mention that the shots of the building burning and exploding were very realistic, which I’m not proud to say made me extremely uncomfortable. I don’t even remember what the game of the sketch was – something about the fireman that wanted to leave (Boseman) trying to put together life-size dolls to keep dogs company? It might have worked if the timing of it wasn’t so inopportune.

Honorable Mention – Nike Women’s Ad

Melissa: I can’t let this commercial parody go unrecognized. As I sat watching this in my leggings – which I wear as pajamas, when I leave the house to go to McDonalds (drive-thru only) and when I come home from work and want to change into my “comfy pants” – I felt extremely seen and maybe even a little attacked. It’s a genuinely good commercial parody, too: it commits extremely hard to the usual tone of a Nike or sports apparel ad, where the two women who are actual athletes are fully serious about discussing how the performance wear works for them, and the two women who are using the leggings as comfy pants are just as serious about why they need a heavy-duty pair of leggings to support them through watching TV on the couch all day. “Leggings can be pants, pajamas, and a napkin.” Yeah, they can. Nobody needs to tell ME what I already know.

Mark: I just wanted to take a moment to shout out Melissa and Heidi for their excellent work as straight women on this sketch. They exuded the energy that athletes in this type of commercial usually exude. Both of these women are newer cast members and have been doing good work this season. I just wanted to put that in writing.

Musical Guest – Cardi B

Melissa: When she came out performing “Bodak Yellow” I was a little disappointed because, like Boseman hosting so far after his movie came out, Cardi B singing last summer’s huge jam NOW felt like SNL really missed their opportunity. But then she turned it into a medley with “Bartier Cardi” which was pretty genius and completely melts away the fact that it took way too long for Cardi B to get here. I was also completely in love with the wardrobe choices in that number, with the black and white checkerboard theme and loved the backup dancers’ outfits as well as hers.

It was big and fluffy and over-the-top; literally immediately after her performance, a million articles popped up online with headlines like “Cardi B Wears Ridiculous Outfit on SNL to Cover Up Her Baby Bump.” I agree the outfit was ridiculous, and it was definitely being used to shield her from being too noticeably pregnant, but I can’t believe how quick the internet was to… Shame her for that? Kylie Jenner got to be pregnant in secret for the whole 9 months but Cardi can’t wear a feathery dress on live TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnFDvo113A

Not to mention the most important part of all those articles jumping the gun: in her second performance, “Be Careful,” Cardi wears a form-fitting white gown and begins her performance with a tight shot of her bust that slowly pans out to show her entire body, announcing without words that yes, she is pregnant. I don’t really care about celebrity pregnancies, so I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the reveal, but I did think it was really well-done and really smart to reveal it that way, and I also thought she gave a great performance that was a lot different that was much more subdued and emotional.

Mark: I had heard of the legend that is Cardi B, but had never actually heard any of her music before this episode of SNL. I was actually really excited to check out this artist that all the “kids” and New York City lesbian adults were talking about.

I started out unimpressed. During her first performance, I thought the sound mixing was weak because I could barely hear her vocals. She was also dressed like an alien and surrounded by background dancers and I just found her very unrelatablle. But that all turned around in her seco performance. In her second song, everything was a lot more stripped down and we got to see more of her personality and fire. I don’t know that I will listen to more of her going forward, but I think I saw what the hype was all about during that 2nd song.