‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Tina Fey back as Sarah Palin, Oscars diversity spoof, Ronda Rousey videos

Tonight, “Saturday Night Live” had a rather unique challenge: Bringing the comedy while there was all sorts of chaos happening outside. Of course, the show decided to kick off this weekend’s episode by ignoring all of that and focusing on something else that happened during the week: Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump for President.

Of course, this was an opportunity to bring out none other than Tina Fey once more for her impersonation of Palin. This is a rather nice gift for “SNL” to have, especially since Fey isn’t even a cast member anymore and has already hosted the show one other time this season with Amy Poehler. The impression still is great, and nobody else can do the voice quite like she can. One of the funnier things about this sketch was that some of the dialogue that Palin used was from the actual speech featuring Palin and Trump (played once again by Darrell Hammond).

The cold open’s biggest flaw? It went on for about two minutes to go. Get in, be funny, and get out. That’s all we ask.

Now, let’s move forward (with live updates) to the rest of the night.

[ot-video][/ot-video]

Ronda Rousey monologue – Basically, the show did not give Rousey a whole lot to do here, other than give some heavily-protected statements in the midst of a boxing theme. Instead, we leaned mostly on other cast members, Kate McKinnon as Justin Bieber, and then Selena Gomez at the end.

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

Oscars spoof – They had to do it, right? This was really biting and really funny. Sure, the whole #OscarsSoWhite movement has gotten a lot of play as of late, but we did enjoy the joke progression here. It made it more than just the obvious joke about Oscar voters ignoring minority candidates.

[ot-video][/ot-video]

The new girl – Unfortunately, a total miss, since the entire premise was just watching Rousey beat up a bully. It could’ve been funny, especially since Vanessa Bayer was almost the Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” It just didn’t go far enough.

[ot-video][/ot-video]

Bland man – It’s funny that we compared this show to the one with Blake Shelton as host going into the night, and this “Bachelor” spoof was last seen there. Good performances from Cecily Strong and Aidy Bryant, but Rousey once again fell flat while Gomez, who made an appearance at the end, got a bigger laugh.

[ot-video][/ot-video]

“Weekend Update” – Tonight, we had a little bit of a mixed bag in that some of the jokes during “Update” weren’t that funny (other than the Colin Jost – dad bit), but Leslie Jones got a few laughs over a ham sandwich and for some sad reason, Willie still makes us laugh despite us probably being in the vast minority with it.

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

HLN court case – This was moderately funny the first time we had it, but this time it was lazy. Also, we know that plenty of people out there are going to find the subject matter (a student / teacher threesome) uncomfortable.

[ot-video][/ot-video]

Superheroes – Another silly idea that could’ve been funnier with better timing. Basically, Rousey and Jay Pharoah played the only effective heroes in a whole crew of them who arrived to “save the day” from some nefarious criminals.

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

Rap song – With strong writing / The Lonely Island, this could have been a pretty genius song about a certain part of a guy’s manhood. Beck Bennett was the standout, mostly because we’re pretty sure that he comes from the Tobias school of being a never-nude.

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

Office party – The last we say about this terrible sketch, the better. The same goes about the City Council sketch before it.

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

[ot-video]

[/ot-video]

Here’s the sad thing about this episode: If it was just the cold open and the Oscar spoof, it’d be great. Unfortunately, two great sketches and some serious duds sink the show down dramatically. Also, this just isn’t Rousey’s thing … though it’s not like “SNL” gave her many chances, either. Grade: C-.

If you want to get some other news when it comes to “SNL,” including highlights from other shows, head over to the link here right now! Also, you can sign up over here in the event you want to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)