As Hillary Clinton made her first appearance for the “Saturday Night Live” season as a bartender named Val, I felt all my political butterflies flutter with excitement.
“Saturday Night Live” debuted its 41st season Saturday night with a dedication to the last 40 years of comedy, and the show proved it is still as relevant as it was when it began in 1975.
Before the show premiered the new season, a heartwarming, nostalgic documentary, “Live From New York,” paid tribute to the original not-ready-for-primetime players and the last 40 years of sketch comedy.
As the documentary declared, SNL has not just reflected culture — it has defined culture. The show has created a platform to discuss the things plaguing the United States in popular culture and politics, in a lighthearted, informative way, defining generations.
SNL has documented history through satire, often exploiting the social ills of our country while still mocking pop culture.
Through Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, the Californians and so many other sketches we have seen our culture depicted in a humorous way, but we learned about society without really realizing it.
With so many people tuning into SNL to see how a cast will mock our political players, we receive a subtle transfusion of political knowledge.
“Saturday Night Live” has been vital in this way.
Season 41 appears to be no different.
In a return to the show’s excellence in political commentary, the season began with many sketches commenting on the circus that is the 2016 presidential race.
From sketches mocking Donald Trump to a Weekend Update segment calling Kim Davis a homophobic Forrest Gump, the premiere, commenting on the political landscape, made up for lost time.
Even with Miley Cyrus as the hostess, and behaving well in her capacity, the episode made strides to attempt hard-hitting satire that reflected what is actually going on in America.
The past few seasons have taken some serious hits. Through the loss of many critical cast members, SNL has suffered deeply. The comedy just hasn’t been very funny, and the hosts have struggled.
But finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
A presidential election always helps.
I was instantly attracted to two stand-out players on Saturday’s show, Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones.
Davidson, as the resident young person on the show, stood out in his second year on SNL. He seems to be a fresh addition, at only 21 years old, and he will be able to create great characters with his young age.
Jones is just plain fabulous. In a sketch mocking the orgasm scene from “When Harry Met Sally,” she took it to another level of stomach-aching laughter.
Her rendition of the scene was simply fabulous and her special text-etiquette commentary on weekend update was perfectly on point.
As Will Ferrell described it in “Live From New York,” SNL has been a “living, breathing time capsule.”
With that in mind, I can’t wait to see how this season documents the landscape and status of our country during such a vital time of change.
