Kumail Nanjiani was likable and Kate McKinnon shone as usual. But in the dispiriting America of Harvey and Donald, the best tactic was to keep it surreal

Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick, Silicon Valley – is in charge tonight. But first: Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump giving an address in a hangar. This week, he explains, he’s been reversing everything Obama did: Obamacare, the nuclear deal with Iran … and ‘We’re ripping out all of the vegetables in Michelle Obama’s garden and planting McNuggets.’



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There’s something less funny about Baldwin’s performance than, say a year ago, and that thing is that now Trump is the president. Sad!

Nanjiani comes out in a chic grey suit. Hosting is a big deal, he says. As a kid, “My whole family in Pakistan would get together on Saturday night and watch Star Trek“ – since SNL wasn’t available. His monologue on racism is nimble and acute. Many online reviews for his recent film, The Big Sick, were racist, he explains. One complained of “race-mixing”. “First of all, nobody good ever uses the phrase ‘race-mixing.’ Even if someone said, ‘I’m pro race-mixing,’ I’d be like … are you an undercover KKK dragon?”

His real gripe with racists, he concludes, is their ignorance. If a racist person tells him to “Go back to Pakistan, which was part of India until 1947, and is now home to the world’s largest salt mine, then I’d be like: ‘That guy seems to know what he’s talking about, I’ll pack my bags.’”

Next is a game show sketch, Bank Breakers, that is so dull and unfunny it doesn’t feel worth writing about except to say: it existed.

There follows an Anderson Cooper–It mashup. Alex Moffat is Cooper, who ventures out on a dark night in a jaunty yellow rain slicker and finds Kellyanne Conway, played by Kate McKinnon, in the sewer. She wants him to put her back on TV, to spread her alternative facts. “Puerto Rico actually was worse before Hurricane Maria and the hurricane did blow some buildings back together.” Then she turns into Hillary Clinton, lures Cooper into the sewer and bites his arm off.

Puerto Rico actually was worse before Hurricane Maria and the hurricane did blow some buildings back together Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon)

Another low-concept sketch: most of the ensemble in Halloween costumes, playing coworkers at an office party who learn their boss has tainted the cake with Hepatitis A. It’s another dud, even though Nanjiani is dressed as Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.

Last week, the show was slammed in the press for ignoring the Weinstein story. Now, it begins to make up for it. Aidy Bryant plays a moderator at the New York Film Festival, leading a “Women’s Round Table” with Viola Davis (Leslie Jones), Marion Cotillard (Cecily Strong) and Kate McKinnon as an ancient, fictional actress called Debette Goldry. Jones and Strong are the straight women, really, setting up McKinnon. On the subject of whisper networks, McKinnon explains: “We had a secret code among us actresses to warn each other about creeps. The code was: ‘He raped me.’ And if the men were listening, they tuned us right out.”

Pink comes out and sings What About Us, wearing a long tweed coat which is a little bit Oliver! But she crushes it, like the veteran she is.

Weekend Update also hits Weinstein. “It’s so easy to make jokes about a guy who looks like this,” Michael Che says, pointing to a photo. “He looks like chewed bubble gum rolled in cat hair.” Weinstein claims he has made a mistake, Che continues, but Weinstein’s actions were not a mistake. “You assaulted dozens of women. That’s not a mistake, that’s a full season of Law & Order.”

Colin Jost talks about the president’s week of ridiculous things. The executive order undercutting healthcare “…brings the number of things Trump has destabilized up to … all of them.” Strong joins as Ivana Trump, wearing a red power suit and binging on Ferrero Rocher.

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Nanjiani is back next, playing opposite Mikey Day in a gentle sketch in which Nanjiani is a slightly irritating hotel receptionist and Day is a guest staying courtesy the American government, having been rescued from North Korea. It’s a hilarious set up! It’s not really hilarious at all! Nanjiani is a little bit wasted here.

He’s less wasted in the next sketch, where he’s the doctor in a nursing home, talking to Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner, who are visiting their promiscuous grandmother, who is played by a silent but expressive McKinnon. “How did this happen?” the distraught grandchildren ask. “We think sex,” Nanjiani replies, while McKinnon grimaces in an easy chair.

Pink comes out again to sing Beautiful Trauma. She’s wearing a metallic pink puffa vest over a dress that seems to be made out of a Thai flag and an old plaid blanket. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s what she’s wearing.

They save the best sketch for last: Nanjiani plays a Pakistani call center worker dealing with American customers and bullied by his colleagues. Strong plays noted anti-bullying campaigner Melania Trump. They’re brought together by her online shopping addiction and he becomes her “confidante, dream journal, and one true friend”. Their friendship culminates in Melania paying a visit to the call center and shouting at the bullies.

“I should go before they find out that I’m not asleep,” she says, wistfully. The camera cuts to a maid discovering her bed stuffed with handbags. It’s a surreal conclusion: fitting for a surreal week in America.