Congratulations to Awkwafina, who hosted "Saturday Night Live" last month. She is the second Asian-American actress to appear on "Saturday Night Live" in 18 years, since Lucy Lui in 2000. Awkwafina even gave Lucy Lui a glowing tribute during her monologue, having waited outside 30 Rock, trying to get in the day her idol hosted.
Awkwafina, fresh off the success of "Crazy Rich Asians," has been killing it since the film's premiere. Her performance in the film proved that she is, in fact, hilarious, and the industry has been noticing, casting her in commercials and promos very quickly.
I was almost surprised to hear that she was going to host "Saturday Night Live," not because I didn't think she was amazing, but because it's just been such a long time. Her tribute was very touching and definitely worth mentioning.
Topical humor has been the gem on "Saturday Night Live," especially since Donald Trump was voted in as president. If he did anything, he did make "Saturday Night Live" great again. This was also seen with the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, which brought Matt Damon in to play him during the cold open, in what I thought was a very accurate sketch of what had happened.
Most of the political humor on "Saturday Night Live" has been on point. Politics usually are. They've been so ridiculous lately that the skits write themselves.
Although other "Saturday Night Live" sketches have sometimes been lacking, I felt Awkwafina was particularly underutilized in this episode.
Let's break it down and look at some of the sketches.
"Dance Battle" - This was the first sketch featuring Awkwafina, where two dance gangs meet and battle it out. Awkwafina played the leader of the gang, who dances to elevator music. I found this sketch to be lackluster. They really could have used Awkwafina's talent as a rapper. Travis Scott also made an appearance in this sketch, and they could have easily teamed them up musically.
"Cleopatra" - This had a "Queer Eye," makeover, vibe to it. It involved Keenan Thompson and Awkwafina giving Cleopatra his signature look. It was cute and quirky, but it didn't quite leave me in stitches.
"Emergency Alert" - A more topical sketch referring to Trump's emergency alerts that week was hilarious. Overall, a great job was done by all of the cast. They went from what actually happened and built on what Trump could potentially do — and, let's face it, probably will do.
"Ted Cruz" - I particularly liked this sketch, watching Awkwafina and Keenan Thompson play Ted Cruz's hype guys. It was a good setup for the notoriously uncool senator.
Overall, this episode has its ups and downs. The topical sketches were funny and relevant, whereas the others could have been more fleshed out. It takes a little more digging to make the day-to-day ideas work.
I thought they could have utilized Awkwafina better, but chalk it up to this being her first appearance hosting. Still, it was a proud moment for me to see Awkwafina on stage. Hopefully, we continue to see more of her.
