S46.E06: Dave Chappelle / The Foo Fighters

[chitowngirl]

9 hours ago, Psychobunny said:

They should be using the actual cast more instead of relying on guest stars

Exactly. They have 15 cast members and 5 featured players. Give them a chance to make their mark! 
eta-they didn’t need Maya Rudolph and Alec Baldwin in the Aunt Jemima/Uncle Ben sketch.  Others could have filled those roles.

Edited November 8, 2020 by chitowngirl

[Silly Angel]

I'd like the next male host not be an asshole about women. Between Chapelle conflating all women into Trump toadies and "joking" that we all deserve far less money than the fraction we are paid (and that was especially rich after he spoke movingly of his slave great-grandfather) and that dude I've never heard of a couple of weeks ago making hilarious jokes about how hysterical women run around accusing black men of rape when they're...I don't remember, unhappy about something?--I'm over this shit-talking. Not sure if I'll tune in again for another male comedian. It seems the misogyny problem among comics isn't coming along apace.

[Pike Ludwell]

.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Pike Ludwell

[Crashcourse]

2 hours ago, rejnel said:

Bless you. I've been feeling like I'm the only one who doesn't find him funny. Not funny, no particular talent in any area, just somehow famous. "Garden variety prick" sums it up nicely.

Hopefully, his 15 minutes are almost over.  

I don't find him funny either.  Never did.  There's nothing "brilliant" about his "comedy."  I tuned him out after about 10 minutes of his crap, then I tuned back in to the show when he was done. 

[vb68]

2 hours ago, MrWhyt said:

this episode: felt off. Though probably because of the football delay.

Also possibly because it was the 6th live show in a row, and everyone is ready for a break.

 

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

I tend to agree that Alec's appearance in the Aunt Jemima sketch was a way of saying "I'm back to just being Alec Baldwin now" and he won't reappear as Trump. But time will tell.

Perhaps, but I'm always skeptical when Alec decides he is done with a role. It wouldn't be the first time he's decided he was done playing Trump. If Lorne wants him to do it again for any reason, he'll be back.

I still think Alec's "You're Welcome" sign in the goodbyes was rather odd. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Yeah, now we know why they picked Jim Carrey to play Biden. It was leading to the moment when he could do his loser bit. Have to admit it though, I laughed out loud.

Ditto comments upthread, Chappelle smoking in that small studio in the middle of a worldwide epidemic of a virus that attacks the respiratory system was all kinds of ugh to me. I can't even imagine why Lorne/TPTB allowed him to do that. Does Chappelle really have that kind of clout in show business? And even if he does, why be so disrespectful to the people who have died or are still suffering?  

The opening monologue was horrible, IMO. Chappelle should've gotten the hook just for the Freddie Mercury joke. Guess he decided to double-down on the awfulness of his 2016 monologue. Apparently he can't do his act without flaunting his misogyny and homophobia.

[cpcathy]

Hopefully Trump won’t do anything too unhinged that we won’t need Alec back to comment on it. Fingers crossed.

it was an unusual episode, have we ever seen a host in only two full sketches?? Did Dave not want to do more than that? 
 

[cambridgeguy]

27 minutes ago, cpcathy said:

it was an unusual episode, have we ever seen a host in only two full sketches?? Did Dave not want to do more than that? 

He also had a 15 minute solo act in his monologue - that's the equivalent of 2-3 sketches, so his total airtime probably worked out to be within the norms for a host.  To be honest I don't think he would have added anything to the sketches he wasn't in as those were pretty generic ones.

[rejnel]

2 hours ago, Silly Angel said:

I'd like the next male host not be an asshole about women. Between Chapelle conflating all women into Trump toadies and "joking" that we all deserve far less money than the fraction we are paid (and that was especially rich after he spoke movingly of his slave great-grandfather) and that dude I've never heard of a couple of weeks ago making hilarious jokes about how hysterical women run around accusing black men of rape when they're...I don't remember, unhappy about something?--I'm over this shit-talking. Not sure if I'll tune in again for another male comedian. It seems the misogyny problem among comics isn't coming along apace.

Yeah, thanks. Chapelle's highly touted special of last summer relied heavily on referring to women he doesn't like as "cunts" and speculating on the smell of various women's vaginas. I've got no space for the misogyny. If he has something important to say about race relations, I look forward to hearing it from someone who doesn't hate women. (I'm not even sure he truly hates women. His whole presentation and affect remind me of the 10-year-old boy who's learned he can get a reaction by using certain words.) 

[Macbeth]

5 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

Che's analogies are the best. 

I have been really enjoying Michael "Give no fs" Che this season.

I thought his plan to kidnap Jost if Trump won was ludicrous and funny.

[wonderwoman]

have to wonder if the show get a heads up about what kamala harris was going to wear. her speech was only a few hours before the show was scheduled start (damned football), and the costume people absolutely naled it.. 

[heatherchandler]

9 hours ago, Psychobunny said:

I was underwhelmed by the political stuff. Not a huge fan of the cold open. I thought that the loser line was an easy cop out. They could have done so much more. I get that Chapelle is controversial but he lost me with the sexism. The smoking was jarring and I did note the length of the monologue which is not necessarily a good thing. WU was still pretty much on fire and I liked both the hailstorm and Ford. Bronco skits. 
My end thoughts:

I am not Chapelle’s target audience 

Still hate Carrey as Biden

They should be using the actual cast more instead of relying on guest stars

The political content was as expected and not at all creative or inspired 

 

I usually love Chapelle, but this monologue was not good.  The audience seemed to agree, they groaned a few times.

The political content was awful imo.

Overall this was a terrible show, after a string of bad shows.  They need new writers.

2 hours ago, vb68 said:

Also possibly because it was the 6th live show in a row, and everyone is ready for a break.

 

Most people work for all-weeks-in-a-row without a month break.. they can’t work 6 weeks in a row without total exhaustion?

[vb68]

24 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Most people work for all-weeks-in-a-row without a month break.. they can’t work 6 weeks in a row without total exhaustion?

No doubt. But working on this show isn't a typical job  for any of the staff and crew. It's widely acknowledged the schedule and structure of it is brutal. There's a reason they almost always get a break after three shows.

[Pete Martell]

24 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Most people work for all-weeks-in-a-row without a month break.. they can’t work 6 weeks in a row without total exhaustion?

There's probably a reason they never have until now. Even 4 week runs have tended to exhaust past casts and crews. They have streamlined the process this season, which probably helped, but I would guess it's still very draining. 

I think most of the writers on the show are talented. There's probably only two right now that I just don't care for much at all. The main problem for me is the headwriting continues to not allow for proper execution of ideas; one thing or another seems to be off, or feels too long, etc. The pre-tapes this season have also felt a bit unfinished at times (oddly almost always starring Beck). Still, I have liked more of this season than I haven't, even though I think that's partly down to them getting away a bit from how samey the material was before (the same Streeter/Mikey "funny name" sketches, the same Kate/Aidy sketches, and so on). I will enjoy that while I can as I imagine we will be back to Kate/Aidy stuff when the break is over (and James Anderson is coming back to the writing room at some point this season so that probably means more of the "Cecily can't remember the name of a song" type sketches...)

 

[Galileo908]

14 hours ago, ruby24 said:

I don't think Carrey should continue with him though, but the LOSER line probably made it all worth it.

I'm dead certain that this six week set up was why he was cast.

Because that was incredible satisfying.

[MrWhyt]

1 hour ago, heatherchandler said:

Most people work for all-weeks-in-a-row without a month break.. they can’t work 6 weeks in a row without total exhaustion?

Most people don't put on a live TV show. Apples and oranges.

[Jody]

13 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I saw someone say 16 minutes.

 

          By Te Way, I Think Week End Update Was Maybe Around SEVEN Minutes Long And ONE Commentary  Which OF Course Was Kate As Rudy ! I Think This IS THE Shortest That Week End Update Has Ever Been !

[BusyOctober]

Can we please be done with Alec as Trump , Jim Carrey as Biden and Kate as Giuliani forever, please? I am not pro-Trump, but the election is essentially over.  Biden/Harris ticket won.  For all the weekly mocking and  reminding the audience “Trump is eeeeviiil! Trump is so stupid!! Trump needs to be thrown out/impeached/imprisoned” over the past 4 years, can SNL (& America) just drop it? Why continue to make him a point of conversation?  Isn’t at least 50% of the country satisfied that Trump is out? He will be gone from politics as of Jan20.  Until then, he is a lame duck with very little power and even less respect from his own party.  I am tired of the negativity, especially in this COVID shit show of a year.  I want to escape from the world when I choose to watch SNL or a comedy.  If I want to drive my anxiety and stress levels up, I would turn on the news. I get SNL’s foundation is political satire, and I have enjoyed it since 1975.  I am just over the repetition of the same thing week in and week out.

[Jody]

12 hours ago, Psychobunny said:

I was underwhelmed by the political stuff. Not a huge fan of the cold open. I thought that the loser line was an easy cop out. They could have done so much more. I get that Chapelle is controversial but he lost me with the sexism. The smoking was jarring and I did note the length of the monologue which is not necessarily a good thing. WU was still pretty much on fire and I liked both the hailstorm and Ford. Bronco skits. 
My end thoughts:

I am not Chapelle’s target audience 

Still hate Carrey as Biden

They should be using the actual cast more instead of relying on guest stars

The political content was as expected and not at all creative or inspired 

Ego was MVP by a mile

Why was everyone in black at the goodnights? They looked like they were all in mourning.

Foo Fighters we’re awesome.

 

 

 

 

            I Bet IF They Had Jason Sudekis Come Be Joe Biden, You Wouldn't Care Or Want The Actual Cast To Be Joe Biden !

[juno]

26 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

Can we please be done with Alec as Trump , Jim Carrey as Biden and Kate as Giuliani forever, please? I am not pro-Trump, but the election is essentially over.  Biden/Harris ticket won.  For all the weekly mocking and  reminding the audience “Trump is eeeeviiil! Trump is so stupid!! Trump needs to be thrown out/impeached/imprisoned” over the past 4 years, can SNL (& America) just drop it? Why continue to make him a point of conversation?  Isn’t at least 50% of the country satisfied that Trump is out? He will be gone from politics as of Jan20.  Until then, he is a lame duck with very little power and even less respect from his own party.  I am tired of the negativity, especially in this COVID shit show of a year.  I want to escape from the world when I choose to watch SNL or a comedy.  If I want to drive my anxiety and stress levels up, I would turn on the news. I get SNL’s foundation is political satire, and I have enjoyed it since 1975.  I am just over the repetition of the same thing week in and week out.

Thank you. Standing ovation for you and your post.

[shapeshifter]

Chappelle's monologue had a lot of high points for me--both laughs and truth-to-power bits--and he nearly reined in his mysogyny by hanging a lantern on it when he asked if he'd "triggered," but then he immediately pretty much walked that back by saying it was just comedy.
The script of his monologue is here: https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2020/11/08/dave-chappelle-snl-monologue-2020-transcript/
The video is available on Peacock for free.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, mikem said:

When Maya Rudolph said how Kamala Harris was the first Black/female/Indian-American/biracial Vice-President, it looked like she (Maya, not the character) was really moved by the amount of audience cheering.  

 I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the term "biracial" is Maya's preferred self-identifier rather than Kamala's.

[anna0852]

I was really hoping that the cold open would just be Alec coming out in his street clothes and saying that he was never so glad to lose a job in his life.

[helenamonster]

Whelp, they can say they did six shows in a row. And hopefully they never do it again. You could tell everybody was ready for a break.

Found the whole episode pretty weak. I'm ready for a break too.

A white Ford Bronco joke? In 2020? My mom was pregnant with me during the OJ chase so that reference is, quite literally, older than I am.

I was also weirded out by Dave smoking. It's illegal to smoke indoors in New York (and I imagine everywhere else in the US), so I wondered if it was a prop cigarette. But then like, why would he do it? It added nothing to the monologue and actually resulted in a very awkward, stilted cadence.

I've always been rather neutral on Foo Fighters (they feel like the consolation prize for not getting to have Nirvana anymore), but I've come to appreciate "Times Like These" this year as it became something of an anthem in the early days of quarantine, and I was happy they performed it. Dave Grohl seems like a good dude.

[heatherchandler]

3 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Can we please be done with Alec as Trump , Jim Carrey as Biden and Kate as Giuliani forever, please? I am not pro-Trump, but the election is essentially over.  Biden/Harris ticket won.  For all the weekly mocking and  reminding the audience “Trump is eeeeviiil! Trump is so stupid!! Trump needs to be thrown out/impeached/imprisoned” over the past 4 years, can SNL (& America) just drop it?

Thank you!!!  Yes oh my god I’m so with you!

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, anna0852 said:

I was really hoping that the cold open would just be Alec coming out in his street clothes and saying that he was never so glad to lose a job in his life.

Maybe “the best is yet to come”?

[Robert Lynch]

11 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Can we please be done with Alec as Trump , Jim Carrey as Biden and Kate as Giuliani forever, please? I am not pro-Trump, but the election is essentially over.  Biden/Harris ticket won.  For all the weekly mocking and  reminding the audience “Trump is eeeeviiil! Trump is so stupid!! Trump needs to be thrown out/impeached/imprisoned” over the past 4 years, can SNL (& America) just drop it? Why continue to make him a point of conversation?  Isn’t at least 50% of the country satisfied that Trump is out? He will be gone from politics as of Jan20.  Until then, he is a lame duck with very little power and even less respect from his own party.  I am tired of the negativity, especially in this COVID shit show of a year.  I want to escape from the world when I choose to watch SNL or a comedy.  If I want to drive my anxiety and stress levels up, I would turn on the news. I get SNL’s foundation is political satire, and I have enjoyed it since 1975.  I am just over the repetition of the same thing week in and week out.

Absolutely! In the past, SNL, In Living Color, and Mad TV made fun of political people at various times, but it wasn't like overboard or to the point of repeating the same mantra again. I think the problem us the writing itself.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Very uneven show.  Some good skits, some lame skits, and a weak musical guest. For having three (3!!) guitarists, the Foos sounded listless and thin.  

[Delphi]

I'm all sorts of blown that weekend update ended up gutted so that Chapelle could talk his trash for what seemed to be twenty minutes, like not sure why this guy is still relevant. 

Also,  as a guy with a drinking problem I'm wondering if maybe Che has a drinking problem. 

[alexa]

I didn't watch the host--I could tell it went on for very long....ugh.  Anyway, my favorite parts were -- in the opening when they brought out the Covid map, not the electoral map for the Trump part.  I loved how in the skit with Count Chocula, how everyone was almost cracking up in the skit.  I just found it funny, and I got the vibe that the whole cast was just really feeling happy that night.  And weekend update was great-- I loved the joke about being cheered for losing in your own hometown, and I liked when Che expressed how nice it would be to hear less from Trump overall as noone ever cared about the worst real estate developer, etc before.  I just enjoyed some of those funny bits.  

I can't stand Carrey as Biden.  He makes me so uncomfortable.  I just feel he is missing the mark.  I do still like Baldwin as Trump.  

[monakane]

The thing that impressed me the most was the costumes in the cold open.  Joe and Kamala were on tv at 8:30 that evening and Jim and Maya were dressed almost exactly the same way.  Joe's suit appeared to be black on my tv and Jim's looked blue, but other than that it was spot on.  How do they do that in such a short amount of time?  Did they know in advance what the would be wearing?

Edited November 9, 2020 by monakane

[cleo]

$ I assume. I also just don't find Chapelle funny at all. 

I love Maya Rudolph and her Kamala impersonation is very good, her voice sounds identical. I thought she was going to cry during the cold open when she was going through firsts.

The breaking- it really depends on the circumstances how much it bothers me, with Chapelle it just comes across as unprofessional and lazy, like he just doesn't DGAF. 

And smoking on stage, seriously dude it's like 20 minutes and you can go backstage and have a cigarette. Do you think it makes you look like a badass? Honestly he just seems like an overall asshole to me with the occasional mildly funny joke.

Edited November 9, 2020 by cleo

[Writing Wrongs]

Are Aidy and Cecily still on the show? I see they are still in the opening credits.

I think the monologue went on too long and I like Chapelle, although some of his content makes me cringe a bit.

Back in the day, I used to always skip WU but now it's my favorite part.

 

[VartanFan]

I think they missed the opportunity to have Kate/Rudy 'tuck in his shirt' as he's leaving the update desk.  

[wknt3]

5 hours ago, monakane said:

The thing that impressed me the most was the costumes in the cold open.  Joe and Kamala were on tv at 8:30 that evening and Jim and Maya were dressed almost exactly the same way.  Joe's suit appeared to be black on my tv and Jim's looked blue, but other than that it was spot on.  How do they do that in such a short amount of time?  Did they know in advance what the would be wearing?

I highly doubt they knew in advance. The technical departments on SNL are some of the best in the business and most likely it is a combination of political figures having certain styles (even if Kamala Harris isn't quite as distinctive as Hillary Clinton where they pretty much only had to have the same outfit in 5 different colors) and being able to come up with something very quickly if need be. And luckily wardrobe isn't something where the decline in live television production and changing technologies mean that things aren't quite up to the same standards as they used to be (I notice more camera errors these days and the sound quality on the musical performances is sometimes uneven.)

[monakane]

3 hours ago, cleo said:

nd smoking on stage, seriously dude it's like 20 minutes and you can go backstage and have a cigarette. Do you think it makes you look like a badass? Honestly he just seems like an overall asshole to me with the occasional mildly funny joke

I like Dave's humor, but the smoking onstage seems like an entitled douchebag move.

[SoMuchTV]

7 hours ago, monakane said:

The thing that impressed me the most was the costumes in the cold open.  Joe and Kamala were on tv at 8:30 that evening and Jim and Maya were dressed almost exactly the same way.  Joe's suit appeared to be black on my tv and Jim's looked blue, but other than that it was spot on.  How do they do that in such a short amount of time?  Did they know in advance what the would be wearing?

I may be imagining things, but I thought I read (here? Not sure) that for one of the debate cold opens, the SNL “moderator” was wearing the actual moderator’s outfit. Did I dream that?

[helenamonster]

4 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

Are Aidy and Cecily still on the show? I see they are still in the opening credits.

They are both filming shows that were originally supposed to shoot over the summer but got pushed back to fall because of covid (Aidy's in Portland and Cecily's in Vancouver). They are scheduled to only appear sporadically/remotely at least through the end of 2020.

[JZL]

I love Chappelle and Carrey-- usually. 

I wanted this show to lift me up, sort of the way the 2016 post-election show did, and it just didn't.

They need Kyle Mooney to play Joe Biden!

[VartanFan]

An article about what we were wondering with the Kamala suit:  https://pagesix.com/2020/11/10/how-snl-recreated-kamala-harris-white-suit-in-under-90-minutes/?_ga=2.263669452.1500423708.1604932747-24431074.1553028989

[TheOtherOne]

10 minutes ago, VartanFan said:

An article about what we were wondering with the Kamala suit:  https://pagesix.com/2020/11/10/how-snl-recreated-kamala-harris-white-suit-in-under-90-minutes/?_ga=2.263669452.1500423708.1604932747-24431074.1553028989

Here's the original article on Popsugar PageSix is referring to:

SNL Had 85 Minutes to Re-Create Kamala Harris's White Pantsuit For Maya Rudolph — Here's How They Did It

Edited November 10, 2020 by TheOtherOne

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, TheOtherOne said:

1 hour ago, VartanFan said:

An article about what we were wondering with the Kamala suit:  https://pagesix.com/2020/11/10/how-snl-recreated-kamala-harris-white-suit-in-under-90-minutes/?_ga=2.263669452.1500423708.1604932747-24431074.1553028989

Here's the original article on Popsugar PageSix is referring to:

SNL Had 85 Minutes to Re-Create Kamala Harris's White Pantsuit For Maya Rudolph — Here's How They Did It

For reasons too numerous to list, I loved reading this, especially: 

Quote

"They put the jacket on Maya's mannequin form in the office and went to work, just like in the movie Cinderella. Eighty minutes later, and four tailors exhausted, Maya did a fitting." 

https://animationscreencaps.com/cinderella-1950/25

[Neurochick]

On 11/8/2020 at 1:20 PM, Silly Angel said:

I'd like the next male host not be an asshole about women. Between Chapelle conflating all women into Trump toadies and "joking" that we all deserve far less money than the fraction we are paid (and that was especially rich after he spoke movingly of his slave great-grandfather) and that dude I've never heard of a couple of weeks ago making hilarious jokes about how hysterical women run around accusing black men of rape when they're...I don't remember, unhappy about something?--I'm over this shit-talking. Not sure if I'll tune in again for another male comedian. It seems the misogyny problem among comics isn't coming along apace.

I really don't like the things Chapelle says about women, but he's spot on about black/white relations though.  

As for hysterical women accusing black men of rape...well that's really happened, and black men have been murdered because of it.  Something like that happened recently in NYC when a white woman called the police on a black man who was just asking her to leash her dog.  He got her on camera saying "There's an African American man threatening me...."  Please girl.  So that part is real IMO.

[Crashcourse]

1 hour ago, Neurochick said:

So that part is real IMO.

It damn sure is.

[kib]

On 11/9/2020 at 8:57 AM, monakane said:

The thing that impressed me the most was the costumes in the cold open.  Joe and Kamala were on tv at 8:30 that evening and Jim and Maya were dressed almost exactly the same way.  Joe's suit appeared to be black on my tv and Jim's looked blue, but other than that it was spot on.  How do they do that in such a short amount of time?  Did they know in advance what the would be wearing?

Pretty good story about this on HuffPost:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-snl-pulled-off-recreating-kamala-harris-pantsuit-with-a-melania-twist_n_5faabc38c5b66009569eb747

As mentioned, they had about 80 minutes to create the Kamala wardrobe.  No advance notice, all in-house.  Even in NYC, shopping for a Carolina Herrera knock-off suit can't be done at 10:00pm on a Saturday night.

These folks are the best in the business.

[Jody]

19 hours ago, JZL said:

I love Chappelle and Carrey-- usually. 

I wanted this show to lift me up, sort of the way the 2016 post-election show did, and it just didn't.

They need Kyle Mooney to play Joe Biden!

 

       I Could NOT Picture Jim Carrey As Joe Biden, But I Can NOT Picture Kyle As Joe Biden Either ! IT Might Turn Out That Kyle Would Be Real Good As Joe Biden, But I Just Don't Think Kyle Would Be Very Good As Joe Biden ! I STILL Think Jason Sudekis IS THE Best Joe Biden ! I KNOW Jason Is On That Show Being A Coach On A Soccer Team, But Maybe He Could Do Both Shows ! !

[shapeshifter]

I'm not sure if I'm getting used to Jim Carrey as Biden, or if Carrey is getting a better handle on the Biden persona, but based upon just this thread, I guess it's the former.

 

[Pete Martell]

On 11/9/2020 at 7:17 AM, Robert Lynch said:

Absolutely! In the past, SNL, In Living Color, and Mad TV made fun of political people at various times, but it wasn't like overboard or to the point of repeating the same mantra again. I think the problem us the writing itself.

When Darrell Hammond played Clinton, he was all over the show, repeating the same jokes over and over - cold opens, sketches, Update, on top of the many Update jokes about both Clintons, etc. I found it draining then and I still do now, even though it's more limited to just the cold opens and Update. I think the cold opens being so long most weeks and the inability to ever get away from Trump news anywhere makes it feel worse today. I can't see them getting as much material out of Biden, and Baldwin is clearly done with the role, so maybe things are looking up. 

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm not sure if I'm getting used to Jim Carrey as Biden, or if Carrey is getting a better handle on the Biden persona, but based upon just this thread, I guess it's the former.

This was the episode where I finally understood what Carrey has been doing all along. And it wasn't just because he delivered a great "loser." 

Carrey has the ability to mimic Biden more realistically--to capture the haltingness, the occasional lack of vigor and stamina, the fumbling with words. He could have done that. But he chose instead, from the beginning, to present us with a vision of the inner Biden. The Biden not hampered by age, that's still inside that body somewhere. The cool Biden. Why? Because he wanted Biden to win! Of course you don't present a caricature week after week that plants an idea in the public mind of a man perhaps not up to the job. You create an alternate version that puts people in touch with the spirit of the man, and gives them hope.

[vb68]

19 hours ago, Pete Martell said:

I think the cold opens being so long most weeks and the inability to ever get away from Trump news anywhere makes it feel worse today.

Thinking about it, having longer cold opens had to be a deliberate choice in dealing with the pandemic as much if not more than the content of the sketches. For that reason, I can't be too critical. No, it wasn't ideal, but I think it's understandable.  

[shapeshifter]

7 minutes ago, vb68 said:

Thinking about it, having longer cold opens had to be a deliberate choice in dealing with the pandemic as much if not more than the content of the sketches. For that reason, I can't be too critical. No, it wasn't ideal, but I think it's understandable.  

You mean because of set-up time/efforts?