In its 44th season, SNL has struggled to parody a presidential administration that’s already given to extreme bombast. Though Baldwin’s performance as Trump was initially startling and a much-needed jolt of energy during the 2016 campaign, Baldwin has grown increasingly listless in the role as Trump’s presidency drags on. Sketches about Trump’s cabinet members have felt similarly one-note, portraying them mostly as brainless simpletons rather than actively polarizing figures. In contrast, SNL’s take on cable news can be surprisingly pointed, and last night’s sketch was unafraid to present Fox News as a malevolent force, even as it threw in ludicrous jokes about the migrant caravan walking “at a normal pace of 300 miles a day.”

The Democratic “get out the vote” commercial was very much in SNL’s wheelhouse, mocking liberals who are afraid to make even the broadest guarantee of their party’s success, no matter what the polling says. “It’s a win we need, and a win we’re going to get, I’m sure of it,” said Beck Bennett’s office worker as he tried to sip coffee from his quaking hand. “They say don’t trust the polls, but I’m choosing to,” added McKinnon’s small-business owner, later screaming with enough anguish to shatter her shop windows.

Another segment, a monologue by Pete Davidson on Weekend Update mocking several Republican candidates for office, stirred up some controversy by targeting Dan Crenshaw, who is running for Congress in Texas and wears an eye patch after losing an eye in combat in Afghanistan. “This guy is kinda cool … You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas, and not a hitman in a porno movie,” Davidson said, adding, “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever,” with a trademark shrug. Davidson’s unvarnished approach to stand-up has felt particularly frayed in recent weeks (since his now-imploded relationship with Ariana Grande put him in the tabloid spotlight all summer), but it was still a joke along typical lines for him, and sheer shock value is never a particularly useful element to good satire.

Still, it was an altogether strong episode for SNL, held together by host Jonah Hill, who made his fifth appearance and was inducted into the “five-timers club” by other five-time hosts such as Tina Fey, Drew Barrymore, and Candice Bergen. Hill mostly dominated the show’s apolitical sketches, such as one featuring the return of his grandstanding 6-year-old comedian, Adam Grossman. Broadly silly material like that is a crucial part of the mix as the show fosters newer talent and tries to identify future stars.

Along those lines, this season has had a number of more absurd sketches that really sang, like the debut of Bayou Benny in Seth Meyers’s episode, or Adam Driver’s tour de force as a grumpy oil prospector in “Career Day.” If it can hone its political edge again, SNL will officially be on the rebound after a couple of years that leaned way too heavily on stunt casting and tired recurring characters. Maybe making fun of Donald Trump isn’t the way to do that—instead, the show can point the camera at the ways he’s warped political discourse beyond recognition.

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