‘Saturday Night Live’ Recap: Louis C.K. Hosts; Rihanna Performs

Saturday Night Live‘s final show of the season featured Louis C.K. as the host and Rihanna as the musical guest.

Saturday Night Live Recap

Summertime Cold Open: Bobby Moynihan, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson and Leslie Jones picnicking opened the sketch, singing a chorus about summertime. Enter, Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton. “My last vacation was in 1953,” she tells them. As for Kyle Mooney, Jay Pharoah and Beck Bennett as surfers, she greets them by their demographic, “Hey, 18 to 25 year olds males!” Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson play children making a sandcastle, saying it’s their dream house. “This is my dream house!” Hillary says, gesturing at her White House sandcastle.

 

Louis C.K. Monologue: The most talked about bit from last night’s Saturday Night Live was Louis C.K.’s monologue in which he used the 70s to frame his standup routine that covered racism, Israel and Palestine, and lastly, molestation. Talking about his mild racism, Louis said, “If I go into a pizzeria and it’s run by four black women, I’ll go hmmm.” As for the Middle East, where “things haven’t changed since the 70s” Louis talked about his kids. “My little one gets screwed. She’s like Palestine. She gets the worst deals,” he said. As for the molester bit, Louis quipped, “There’s nothing worse than being a caught child molester. It must be amazing – for them – to risk so much.”

 

The Shoemaker and The Elves: A shoemaker (Louis) is distressed because his elves (Bayer and Thompson) aren’t finishing the shoes. In fact, the two are intentionally failing at their jobs in the hopes of being taught a lesson. Though the shoemaker initially resists, Thompson finally does get his spanking. “I guess you’re going to go to the restroom on us now,” Bayer then says with a twinkle. Shoemaker Louis eventually confesses to them that he’d love to dominate them all day, but he does have a wife. At the end, he breaks the fourth wall and asks viewers to vote on whether he should be faithful to his wife or sexually dominate the elves.

This Is How I Talk: Louis plays a man who lands a much-needed job at a Sprint store and is advised, “Whatever you do, don’t piss off Brenda (Jones).” Sure enough, he soon earns her ire when he’s caught making fun of the way she talks. “That’s not my impression of you,” he pleads. “This is how I talk.” For five years he keeps up the act, saying things like, “Damn Brenda, where’d you get those nails did, they are on fleek!”

 

Weekend Update: Tom Brady (Taran Killam) weighs in on deflategate and his suspension – sort of. Mostly, he deflects all questions with his charm, which wins Jost over. Pete Davidson also stopped by on Weekend Update, promising to learn how to be on SNL over the summer. Riblet too had his moment, which included him saying that there would be no working at his “jorb” over the summer.

 

Cabana: Strong’s Gemma is back in Cabana. This time, instead of the Rock, she’s got Louis on her arm. Like the last time British wannabe singer Gemma was around, she bumps into Bayer and Thompson’s awkward couple. “Doctor said there’s a good chance he’s going to die in me,” Gemma tells them before singing her catchy song, “Vacay.” She then demands, “I want bubbles and shrimps. Shrimps and bubbles!”

Police Lineup: Four actors are called into a police line up, and mistake the serious legal matter for an audition. Killam shows his new headshot before reading the line of a menacing mugger that Davidson is trying to identify. “Love the script!” says Bennett. Louis, meanwhile, plays it like a woman. When they’re asked to do it again, Bennett admits the difficult of the line-reading, saying, “This character is really close to my real life experiences.” He’s advised to draw from that, which makes it all the more easy for Pete to identify his as his mugger.

Forgotten TV Gems: Whoops I Married a Lesbian: Host Reese De’What (Thompson) introduces the “groundbreaking 1950s sitcom” that only lasted one episode.  Louis C.K. and McKinnon play a married couple. When he gets home from work, she dodges the compulsory kiss and admits she’s in love with their friend Madge. After De’What concedes that the show was written by male writers who had no idea what they were doing, he shows the final clip of the show in which Kate says, “I might be a lesbian, but there’s nothing like the love of a good man,” after making out with Louis.

Rihanna: Rihanna performed “B—h Better Have My Money and “American Oxygen.”