October 10th SNL Review — Bill Burr and Jack White
This past Saturday, SNL returned with it’s second episode of the season, starring headliner Bill Burr and musical guest Jack White. Though this episode probably didn’t have the massive appeal of the season opener, it was still a huge upgrade from anything we saw last season, and an impressive debut for Burr.
As anyone could have guessed, the cold open kicked the show off with Beck Bennett and Maya Rudolph playing Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in a feaux Vice Presidential debate. Here, there were no surprises. Rudolph killed it per usual, and the writers had to poke fun at the fly that landed on Pence’s head, having Jim Carey make an appearance as the fly. It was light-hearted, uncontroversial, and a good start to the show.
As far as light-heartedness, the same cannot be said for Burr’s opening monologue. Burr gave his fans what they wanted, and the standard SNL audience who may not be familiar with his work a real shock to the system. He came at his monologue like it was a stand-up set, putting a new spin on a fairly familiar bit he’s relied on over the years about white women, which most certainly took the in-person audience by surprise. This portion of the monologue was accompanied by as many laughs as groans, but Burr was able to win over the audience by the end of the monologue to start the show.
From this point on, it was smooth sailing, and Burr shined in quite a few sketches, which was impressive given that he’s never really done live sketch comedy before. Highlights include a Don Pauly sketch, where Burr plays a mob boss who returns from a 20 year prison stint only to realize that the world is much more sensitive then it was when he was put away, and a sports commentator sketch, which I’ll let you watch for yourself, but is certainly worth your time.
The Weekend Update crew did what they usually do, with a fully loaded arsenal of material with Trump’s COVID “recovery” and all the other madness in the news today, they did not dissappoint. Jack White followed with two exceptional performances, which is especially impressive given that he wasn’t even scheduled to be the musical guest until a few days before. All in all, SNL kept up the pace with a strong follow up to a great debut, but one monologue may have turned a few viewers away.
Score: 7.5/10
