Here’s Why ‘SNL’ Political Cold Opens Rarely Pack A Punch
It wasn’t hard to guess how the recent Saturday Night Live starring Mikey Madison would kick off last weekend. Surprise, surprise — the cold-open sketch skewered the week’s hottest political story, with Andrew Dismukes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unintentionally entering the group chat of a group of teenage girls.
Just another meh sketch in a long run of meh cold opens over the past, well, decade or so. Somewhere during the show’s run — was it Will Ferrell’s George Bush impression? Tina Fey as Sarah Palin? — Lorne Michaels decided that America demanded SNL’s political take to open every show. “A high-energy cold open is important to (Michaels), and he often has the writers start from scratch on Friday or even Saturday,” according to Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live. “The idea is, if you begin the show with a home run, then momentum will carry through the next 90 minutes.”
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Ironically, that opening sketch is often one of the show’s weakest links, beginning SNL with a whimper rather than a bang. Here are three reasons why political cold opens rarely pack a punch…
‘SNL’ Is Always Last to the Party
If viewers are truly hungry for a comedic take on the week’s political news, they don’t have to wait for Saturday night. Want jokes about that leaked group chat?
Jimmy, Jimmy, Stephen and Seth always get first crack at the turkey, gnawing the tastiest meat off the bone before SNL can get to the table. It’s a problem that Weekend Update has to deal with as well, but coming up with one original punchline is a lot easier than finding four minutes of jokes during that opening sketch. Late-night hosts had four nights to riff on Tuesday’s group-chat debacle, making the scandal feel like old news by Saturday night.
Latex Isn’t Intrinsically Funny
Whether or not Chevy Chase is your comedy cup of tea, his breakout performance as Gerald Ford during SNL’s inaugural season focused on finding the funny in Ford’s persona, not on a spot-on voice impression or lavish makeup.
But in recent seasons, several impressions like Kate McKinnon as Rudy Giuliani or Sarah Sherman as Matt Gaetz rely on layers of latex to deliver laughs. But check out Sherman’s Gaetz — once the audience obliges with the shock-laugh at that ludicrous makeup job, there’s not much left to the impression. If the wig is the joke, you probably have a problem.
The Novelty of Celebrity Cameos Wore Off Long Ago
Is Alec Baldwin even doing an impression here? In addition to being another example of “latex isn’t intrinsically funny,” the only reason to have Baldwin appear as Fox News’ Bret Baier is for the obligatory applause break that greets a celebrity making an “unexpected” appearance. The reaction is lazy and unearned. At least we appear to be past the era in the 2010s when every single week brought in Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Stiller, Brad Pitt or another big name — not for laughs but for “buzz.”
I agree with Michaels that beginning with a home run sketch is huge for a show’s momentum. That’s why I’d encourage him to take a look at how he ran the show in, say, Season Three, where a political sketch might be the lead if it was a killer idea. But in those days, the show could just as easily begin with John Belushi’s Godfather impression, a silent-movie parody or a spoof of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert introducing the Blues Brothers.
At its best, Saturday Night Live knew great episodes start with comedy, not a civics lesson.