Saturday Night Live: Donald Glover (Host), Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover (Musical Guest) with cameos from — Alec Baldwin, Stormy Daniels, Ben Stiller, Zoe Kravitz, Martin Short, Jimmy Fallon and Scarlett Johansson.
Host: Donald Glover
I want to start this out by saying that I love Donald Glover. I was a huge fan of Community, the Camp album, and his stand up special “Weirdo” (as well as his Comedy Central Presents). I was very excited about this episode and I feel like it mostly delivered. The usual format for this article has me name a best and worst sketch of the night, but instead I want to spotlight a few sketches that I think are especially funny. Sketches that you can show your friends on YouTube without boring them.
But, first, I want to take one moment to be critical. I was really disappointed by the monologue. Donald Glover is an incredible stand-up comedian and instead of doing a stand up set, he did a bit that had him play a fictional version of himself where he thinks he is good at everything, but is actually very bad at certain things like skateboarding and knowing when to drink liquid from a random pot (this make sense if you saw the monologe). Basically, the bit doesn’t work and the audience doesn’t seem to know how to take it. I found this disappointing because I wanted to see a new seven minutes (or so) of stand up from Glover. However, I get that with everything he is doing with music, acting, and writing that he might not have time to workshop a new stand up set.
I noticed during the monologue that he called himself a triple threat. When he listed the threats he didn’t say stand up comedian. Maybe that chapter of his career is over now.
Sketches to Watch:
“Friendos” and “80s Music Video”
These two sketches appear in sequence and fit really well next to each other. Friendos is a rap music video where the guys in the rap group go to therapy and work out their personal issues with each other. 80s Music Video is a sketch where an 80s R&B singer confronts a woman about cheating on him. Both videos really capture the vibe of the music genres that they are parodying. They both also have mini-story arcs that heighten the comedy rather than get in its way. Very worth watching.
“Dirty Talk:
I don’t know why, but I always find myself really rooting for Melissa Villasenor. I think she is incredibly talented, but she isn’t featured very often, so when she is, it makes me happy because I worry they will cut her if she doesn’t find a more prominent role in the show. This was a sketch where she is in bed with Don Glover and he wants her to dirty talk with him, but she keeps messing it up. It is very similar to a sketch she did with a Aziz, but I liked that sketch as well and I didn’t mind watching something very similar with Don.
Musical Guest: Childish Gambino
Glover is an incredibly talented musician and he really put a lot of effort into his musical performance. I actually found myself wanting to watch his performance of Saturday a second time, which is basically the only time I have ever wanted to re-watch a musicians performance on SNL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3x-LVkYhlA
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