Alec Baldwin returned to Saturday Night Live this weekend to portray Donald Trump, and to began the path toward figuring out how to play him now that he’s been elected president.

There’s been no word from the show on whether Trump’s election means that Baldwin is signing on for the long haul, but judging from last night’s cold opener, they have decided how they want to portray him for now, and so far, the answer is “dim.”

Last night, Baldwin took an approach to Trump similar to the comedy world’s take on Ronald Reagan in the 1980s – label him “dumb,” then portray him as a buffoon. The sketch found him in the Oval Office, getting feedback from a reluctant Kellyanne Conway, played by Kate McKinnon, as regretful of her role in his election, a wild mischaracterization. A general played by Mikey Day then effuses over Trump’s “secret plan” to defeat ISIS – which finds Trump panicked, Googling, “What is ISIS?”

The sketch was also intended to call Trump out for his campaign promises, showing him facing the reality of having to return coal jobs to West Virginia, or find and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

Making the phrase “big beautiful boobs and buildings” a calming mantra for Trump was a nice touch, as was the meeting with Mitt Romney, played by guest Jason Sudeikis, during which they shook hands, stared at each other, and realized it wasn’t going to work out without saying a word.

For now, given that much of what Trump will actually do in office remains a mystery, this approach is fine, if underwhelming. In the end, they show Trump conversing with Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), touching on this weekend’s Hamilton controversy, then realizing the things he promised in the campaign will be hard to execute, and saying, “let’s not do them, then.” Once Trump becomes president and begins to execute these things, the show will likely be forced to shift and deepen the portrayal.

Not surprisingly, President-Elect Trump hated it:

In her monologue, host Kristen Wiig attempted to create a classic Thanksgiving song with a tune telling the holiday’s story, complete with Vikings, Ben Franklin, and aliens. Surprise guests Steve Martin and Will Forte came out to alert her to her inaccuracies, leading her to conclude that Thanksgiving isn’t real; it was “in our hearts all along.”

The post-monologue commercial parody took a swing at liberals who learned in the election just how disconnected they are from certain aspects of the US populace, promoting The Bubble. “Coming January 2017, the Bubble is a planned community for like-minded free-thinkers – and no one else.” The Bubble is a place where the election never happened, with “things everybody loves, like hybrid cars, used bookstores, and small farms with the rawest milk you ever tasted…The Bubble – it’s Brooklyn, with a bubble on it. Coming 2017.” Anyone is welcome to join – 1 bedroom apartments start at $1.9 million.

The show brought back the game show parody “Secret Word,” featuring Wiig as self-involved former star Mindy Elise Grayson. As in the past, she can’t get two seconds into the game without bleating out the secret word, and launches unprompted into recreations of her horrible film career, including her role as a legless grape picker in “She Stoops to Concord.” (“The New York Times said, “Bad!”) Cecily Strong, who owned this episode, excels as an impassioned Sophia Loren-type siren. By the end of Wiig’s SNL tenure, this sketch was very much YMMV. Tonight, I enjoyed it, thinking they kept it tight enough to prevent it from wearing out its welcome.

Next came a short but incisive shot at CNN, although it was clearly intended to represent the mass media in general. A panel of CNN pundits, led by Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat), discusses Trump’s latest controversies. Panelists rant that what he’s doing isn’t normal, and that the media must hold him to account. They then move on without doing so, holding up the last outrage as business as usual, but saying that the newest outrage must be faced. After cycling the loop four times, they all freeze, and we learn they’re actually humanoid robots from HBO’s Westworld, forced to re-live the same lives over and over because their memories are wiped – an apt comparison.

A Target parody ad starring Strong positioned Target as a place to come when you’re visiting family for the first time since the election and need a few minutes to escape, with special features like, “A Big Empty Parking Lot You Can Just Come Sit In For a Sec,” and a hidden flask inside the blue Play-Doh.

Strong and Wiig then play friends taping separate audition reels for QVC, and playing out a rivalry through the tapes. Not much to this one, but a solid showcase for Wiig and Strong to have some fun playing up silly characters.

A particularly strong Weekend Update found Colin Jost and Michael Che delving into the more controversial aspects of Trump’s transition so far, including the selections of Steve Bannon as White House advisor and Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Jost noted that Trump’s picks seem lazy, merely rewarding whoever happens to be around him, like “he did a Yelp search with a radius of 10 feet.” He says that Trump is picking people, as he did on Celebrity Apprentice, who make him look better by comparison, noting that, “people think Trump’s a great businessman because he is, compared to Bret Michaels and Lou Ferrigno.”

We also saw a desk piece from Pete Davidson, who got in hot water a few weeks ago for saying, of his home borough of Staten Island, that Hurricane Sandy should have finished the job. First discussing Trump, he mentions how Trump ruined weed for him, since saying “President Donald Trump” was something he used to do while high, followed by laughing. Asked if he sees any upside to a Trump presidency, he says, “He’ll probably reduce crime in the real estate business by no longer working in the real estate business.” Of his home borough scandal, he mentions that Staten Island should share some of the blame, since, as he’s an SI native, it was a pretty Staten Island thing to say. He edges toward an apology, but stops short after showing the electoral map illustrating how the borough voted overwhelmingly for Trump. He then says if you’re angry about the election, you should hold on to that anger to release it at just the right moment – Thanksgiving. Which he’ll be spending in Staten Island. We also got a taste of Kenan Thompson’s Willie, sharing Thanksgiving memories including drinking “cider” from a bedpan, and hearing how his daddy framed O.J. Simpson for murder.

The next sketch showed the downside of having an incredible Manhattan apartment with a huge window from which to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. For reasons unknown, the parade balloons, including the scary clown from It, are bunching up outside the window and staring at the people watching them. By the end, Wiig’s Madeline drops Kristin Chenoweth from a dangerous height.

McKinnon brings back her cat lady lesbian, pairing with Wiig, who paws her throughout. Wiig is very mad at one of her cats right now; “he clawed up my sofa, and then he voted for Jill Stein.”

The final sketch saw the return of Wiig’s “can’t keep a surprise to herself” character, which basically gives her an excuse to act like a woman losing her mind with excitement, including lots of mugging and wild over-reacting.

SNL returns on December 3 with host Emma Stone, and musical guest Shawn Mendes.

[Watch Saturday Night Live on Hulu or Seeso]

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. His greatest wish is to see Stefon enjoy a cheeseburger at John Belushi’s diner. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.