Saturday Night Live review: White House intern – Jim Acosta spoof; Liev Schreiber highlights

Tonight, Liev Schreiber is the host for Saturday Night Live, and entering the installment, we had no real idea as to how this was going to play out. The Ray Donovan star isn’t someone we personally know very well for comedy and this was a total grab bag mostly because of that alone. Yet, we were sure that he would come in game to have some fun, even if it came at his own expense. Why do the show otherwise?

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Liev Schreiber monologue – In the opening, Liev basically made it clear that he is not a naturally funny person and with that, he wanted to manage expectations. Yet, he also made it clear that this has been a long-term dream of his to be a part of the show. He also spoke briefly about the midterm elections and how over 100 million people actually got out and voted — the highest voter turnout in the history of America.

Incent Twins – This entire sketch featured Schreiber playing a news interview — basically, being the straight man for two business titans who may also be too close for comfort. This entire sketch was all about seeing how far the writers could push things when it comes to innuendo during the middle of a faux newscast. We’ve seen similar things on the show in the past; yet, these sorts of things are still oddly funny.

What we all hate – This entire sketch was about things that bind us all together in the midst of political chaos, including the word “moist” and the sound of a chip reader. Consider this SNL being political without being too political in the process.

Paranormal activity – Yep, it’s official that SNL is giving Liev the Ryan Gosling treatment tonight — not giving him any super-challenging material comedic and having him instead compliment some other cast members. This was the same sort of sketch we’ve seen with Kate McKinnon on the show before, one that also leads to her talking about her anatomy.

Booty Kings – At first, this started about a typical rap video featuring people talking about butts — yet, it turns out that Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd’s characters actually were respectful guys who honored permission. This was about rappers with good lifestyles, and there was a fun drop-in from Lil Wayne at the same time. Nice to see him in a sketch!

Weekend Update – One of the most surprising parts of this week’s segment (there were of course many midterm and Florida election jokes) was the presence of Cecily Strong as the White House press intern … who tried to take Colin Jost’s pencil away from him and then claim she was punched. This was a bizarre spoof of what happened to Jim Acosta, but effective. As for Dan Crenshaw and the powerful moment that unfolded there, you can read more about it over at the link here.

The Poddy’s – This was, by most indication, for around 3% of the show’s audience who really likes podcasts and wants to see a sketch making fun of them. It’s clear that the writers do listen to a TON of podcasts. We liked this, but we’re not sure a whole lot of other people do.

House Hunters – We don’t know if this was a great spoof of the original show or not, but we definitely thought it was pretty funny insofar as an SNL sketch went, mostly because things just got more and more absurd as they went along.

Fighting – We don’t know how we can really describe this sketch other than seeing Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney play kids that distracted a dinner party with constant fighting in their underwear … before they kissed to apologize. This was weird, this was juvenile, and this was an end-of-night sketch at its finest for the most part.

Talking to women outside the bathroom – This was the final sketch of the night, and apparently Schreiber’s character wanted to host a talk show outside of the women’s bathroom. This was … weird. The idea of it was creative enough, but the execution was questionable and we just wonder if a better host could have done that … but that may be our takeaway for most of the show.

Related – Be sure to check out more of our coverage from tonight’s SNL episode right now!

What did you think about this week’s Saturday Night Live episode? Be sure to share right away in the attached comments! (Photo: NBC.)