‘Saturday Night Live’ Highlights: Host Chris Rock Reunites with Adam Sandler
‘Saturday Night Live,’ Gracie Abrams, Chris Rock, Heidi Gardner
Rosalind O’Connor/NBC
It wouldn’t be Chris Rock hosting “Saturday Night Live” without some buttons being pushed, right?
The former cast member returned to host for the fourth time and wasted no time in taking jabs at everyone from Jake Paul to Elon Musk and even Jennifer Lopez. But before he got into all that, the episode kicked off with a cold open led by Sarah Sherman as legal commentator (and rabble-rouser) Nancy Grace. In the sketch, Grace hosts her crime-related YouTube show where she discusses the current circumstances surrounding the alleged United Healthcare CEO shooter, Luigi Mangione, and the internet’s overt infatuation with his good looks. While mainly skewering the support being garnered for Mangione and his actions, the cold open also does a great job of poking fun of social media itself and the cesspool its become.
As with many stand-up comics who host, Rock’s monologue essentially doubles as one of his sets, with his trademark biting humor being directed towards Mangione, as well as Donald Trump’s assassination attempt in July and the strict deportation policy that he’s likely to put in place upon taking office next month. Many of the jokes were aimed at offending one person or another, but a universally funny bit in the monologue involved Rock criticizing boxer Jake Paul for beating up on a 60 year-old Mike Tyson. Rock pointed to the Netflix special as a low point for white men and wondered if Paul would consider fighting Morgan Freeman next. The last on Rock’s list of grievances was Joe Biden himself and the pardon he recently gave to his son Hunter Biden. The actor and comedian completely understood why Biden would make a choice such as this, but still found it an awkward denouement to his presidency.
In the only pre-taped skit of the night, “SNL 50” made light of everyone’s least favorite holiday pastime: The office Christmas party. Shot and edited like a commercial from the ’90s or early 2000s or promotional video for a huge fight, the sketch hilariously juxtaposes the blandness of the traditional office setting with the intensity of a raucous rager. Making light of all the issues that can come about at these functions, from the warm beer and soggy food to the extended secret Santas that no one wants to participate in, it’s a perfect encapsulation of what it feels like to be forced to celebrate with people you really don’t know all that well.
Later in the evening, Rock reunited with his former cast-mate and longtime friend Adam Sandler, who appears in a sketch as a hospital patient who’s supposed to be having his appendix removed, but due to a clerical error made by a careless nurse played by Sherman, the doctors have removed his gallbladder instead. As the doctors start to freak out and throw blame around, Sandler wakes up from the anesthesia to calm them down. This would be a lot more effective if he wasn’t squirting blood in everyone’s faces, but he still manages to get his point across amidst the gore.
