Saturday Night Live: Nikki Haley cameo ruins otherwise strong episode

This week’s episode of Saturday Night Live opens with Donald Trump’s (James Austin Johnson) town hall on CNN. The former president answers questions from members of the audience about his chances against Joe Biden, Taylor Swift conspiracy theories, and his recent legal and financial troubles. These last points are brought up by none other than Trump’s lone Republican challenger, Nikki Haley, who is met with tepid applause (par the course for her).

Host Ayo Edebiri pops up and asks Haley “What would you say was the main cause of the civil war, and do you think it starts with an ‘s’ and ends with a ‘lavery’?” but all this does is give the former ambassador to the UN the chance to issue an insincere mea culpa, before being given the “Live, from New York …” sign-off.

The hypocrisy of SNL cozying up to Haley in order to bash Trump is so rich as to be sickening. There is zero daylight between the two. Haley’s record is just as full of racist, anti-democratic policy and rhetoric as her former boss’s, she is just outwardly less grotesque. Presenting her as a reasonable alternative to Trump reeks of liberal desperation, and, as with other examples of the show platforming despicable rightwingers – including Trump himself, along with Congressman Dan Crenshaw and Elon Musk – the show is never going to live this down.

Moving on to the monologue, Edebiri talks about her upbringing in Boston as part of a large immigrant family, her award-winning show The Bear, and her start as a standup comedian. She reads from a packet she once wrote in the hopes of submitting to SNL, which include ideas such as “White Jeopardy” and the catchphrase “hop on to it, now!” Edebiri’s energy is infectious, and she seems right at home on the Studio 8H stage.

First up is Why’d You Say It?, the gameshow where contestants are asked to explain comments they’ve left on Instagram. The players try to lie and rationalize about the cruel, horny, tasteless things they’ve written online, before eventually exposing their ids. Edebiri’s prolonged existential meltdown is particularly good – especially when it becomes very clear that this is a meta-comment about some of the insults she leveled at the night’s musical guest Jennifer Lopez on a podcast several years back. Kudos to her and the show for finding a clever way to address this (small) controversy.

Next up is an R&B song about a group of teenagers losing their virginity to the disturbingly phallic-looking promotional popcorn bucket for Dune 2. A one-joke idea, but credit to SNL for getting in on a viral meme while it’s still hot for a change.

From high school, we move on to college. At UC Irvine, a student casually admitting to microdosing shrooms leads to a major freakout from two of his straight-edge friends, who act all “1990s PSA about drugs”. Mikey Day and Edebiri have a good time going big.

Ahead of Valentines Day, a New York morning show reporter interviews couples on the street to learn their meet cute stories. The explanations – “we were both with other people and were cheating with each other,” “he was my professor and my Dad just died”, “this is my sister … and girlfriend as well”, “our marriage was arranged by our leader” – are not nearly as romantic as in the movies. A solid premise with the type of narrative thru-line these rolling character sketches so often lack.

Following the fiery first performance from Lopez – for which she’s joined by Latto and Redman – we’re on to Weekend Update. Their first and sole guest is CJ (Sarah Sherman), a teenage boy excited to have won tickets to the show and who is clearly Colin Jost’s illegitimate child. Jost and his “porcine penile maladaptation” come in for a lot of ribbing from his on-show nemesis.

On the game show Trivia Quest, the host (Ego Nwodim) hits it off with Edebiri’s contestant when she learns she attended the same college and is trying to pay off her student loans. She shows unfair favoritism to the girl, awarding her points for incorrect and incomplete answers, while showing open disdain for the other two. Nwodim and Edebiri teaming up to body Day’s bewildered runner-up is one of the moments of the night.

When a group of strangers find themselves stuck in an elevator, two members try to convince the others to hook up while they wait for rescue, arguing that “There’s two girls and three guys, the numbers are perfect … there’s enough food for the mouths.” Their horny pitch eventually turns utopian, culminating in a partially animated sequence and song-and-dance number. This one goes way off the rails about halfway through and never rights its course.

As reward for selling the most cookie dough in the school fundraiser, a class of kids is treated to a visit from a stage hypnotist. One of the kids, an awkward nerd played by Edebiri starts freaking out before he even gets started, admitting he’s bisexual and reciting Bible verses, before leading the entire class in a rendition of Jordin Sparks’s No Air. As with the previous sketch, this one goes wildly awry, although Edebiri’s gung-ho performance is very entertaining.

After Lopez’s second set, things wrap up with an episode of The People’s Court, where a woman is suing her hairdresser over a bad haircut. From the front, her hair looks fine, but when she spins around, she reveals the back of her skull is completely gone, exposing her brains. The sight gag is legitimately gross, while Edebiri delivers yet another hilarious performance, tearfully detailing her struggles since the injury: “It’s just embarrassing, and when it’s windy I can feel my memories being blown away.” Like most sketches these days, this one has no idea how to end, but it still makes for a strong closer.

It really is too bad that Haley’s presence leaves such a foul odor, because were it not for her inclusion, this would be one of the stronger, if the not the strongest, episode of season 49 thus far. Edebiri was fantastic and deserves to be a regular returning host. I have no doubt that she will be.