‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Hillary Clinton, ‘Empire,’ Thor, Iggy Azalea in Chris Hemsworth show (video)
“Saturday Night Live” loves to talk politics, and for their cold open this weekend, we had a new iteration of Hillary Clinton! Previously, this was a woman played by Amy Poehler, and she and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin had plenty of fun together.
Kate McKinnon played the new version of the former First Lady tonight, and did a sketch about the stories that she used a personal email account while she was Secretary of State. She was extremely funny in the role, even if Poehler has that nostalgia factor to it. The best part of this? “Hillary” repeatedly acting like she was being coy about whether or not she would actually run for President. She slowly and surely descended into madness on the Presidential subject as time went by.
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Now, check out our take on some other highlights from the show. We’ll add more as the night goes on, with a series of videos in the morning.
Chris Hemsworth monologue – If you had an appearance from Liam in the pool, you win! Obviously, this was going to happen. This was a pretty lame monologue humor-wise, mostly because Kenan’s Australian accent was so terrible, it’s hard to even write about. Then again, it may be as good as many of his other accents.
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American Express ad – We get it, “SNL.” Chris is really, really good-looking. This sketch came from the Derek Zoolander collection. It was entirely predictable, but his narration at least gave us a few laughs. Better than we expected going in.
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Brother 2 Brother – Everyone loves the Disney Channel spoofs, right? Well, it was okay. This was at least the first sign of what became a recurring theme throughout the night: Chris being willing to openly mock himself.
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“Empire” spoof – Really fun. We love “Empire,” and introducing the “white man in khakis” Chip into the fray ended up making this a million times more entertaining. None of the impressions were otherwise that great, but this was Hemsworth best work of the night as Chip.
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Space sketch – Well, Chris was right when he said that this would be more embarrassing than “Dancing with the Stars Australia.” He basically had a lengthy confrontation with his chicken love from out of space before his fellow travelers decided to eat her. So silly and stupid, but we kind of liked it!
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Iggy Azalea – This was so random, but McKinnon was so good as the rapper that we didn’t mind having it in here. It was basically a great way to include Hemsworth as a great / terrible Australian rapper. Since we’ve never actually heard Azalea Banks speak, we have no clue how good Sasheer Zamata actually was in the role.
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Weekend Update – A very funny segment tonight. We really loved Colin Jost screwing up a joke, and turning that into a bit. Also, the political jokes were wonderful, and we always love the Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party. The same for Leslie Jones, even if this was the billionth time we’ve seen her this year.
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“Avengers” – Hilarious. There’s just something about seeing Hemsworth goof off as Thor and do the running man that we absolutely loved. Great use of Taran Killam as Iron Man and Beck Bennett as a stick-in-the-mud Captain America. Our favorite of the night.
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Soap Sketch – Is Kate required to be the female lead in almost every sketch? We really enjoyed the random inflections and the big performances, even if this was basically that “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” movie director game with Kenan Thompson as Colin Mochrie.
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Reality Show Spoof – We really liked the idea of this new Beck Bennett / Kyle Mooney creation. We just wish it was funnier.
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Dolce & Gabbana – It’s the return of our favorite pitchwomen! We should be getting tired of this sketch, but this was so dirty and out there that we really couldn’t. This was a whole lot of fun, and a perfect way to close the show. Also, was this the only Vanessa Bayer appearance of the night?
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We’re not going to say that this show was perfect, since it started week and both Bayer and Bobby Moynihan were vastly underused. With that being said, Hemsworth was great and this show definitely exceeded expectations. Grade: B+.
If you want to see some other updates from “Saturday Night Live,” including videos from last week’s show, head over here! Also, you can sign up now if interested in getting some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)