Saturday Night Live began its 44th season with a lengthy cold open featuring Matt Damon as embattled, embittered Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and let fly from there. Hosted by Star Wars baddie Adam Driver and featuring polarizing performances by Kanye West — including a show-ending pro-Donald Trump sermon that drew some boos from the Studio 8H crowd but a rave from POTUS — the episode had plenty of talked-about moments. Check out a few below. Teenagers and those bred them understand the power of Fortnite: And here is an amalgam of clips from “Weekend Update,” anchored by SNL head writers and Emmy hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost. They include Che talking about Bill Cosby, Leslie Jones coming out as Serena Williams, Kate McKinnon as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, more Kavanaugh talk and Pete Davidson’s summer. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to Update for the #SNLPremiere. pic.twitter.com/2TWSBETnlC — Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) September 30, 2018 Speaking of Davidson, SNL addressed his much-talked-about engagement to Ariana Grande and Kyle Mooney’s reactionary “New Look”: Considering Driver’s role in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, this Neo-Confederate sketch was appropriate: And in case you missed it, here is the cold open featuring Damon as Kavanaugh, Leslie Jones as Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and the ensemble as various and sundry members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:<doc-sep>Last week, Adam Driver hosted a rock-solid season opener of Saturday Night Live–with a headline-grabbing surprise appearance by Matt Damon. Tonight, Crazy Rich Asians scene-stealer Awkwafina hosted with musical guest Travis Scott on NBC. First up was the night’s cold open, an all-out, spirited locker-room celebration following the Senate’s vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as the 114th Supreme Court Justice. Kenan Thompson greeted us as CNN’s Don Lemon, then he sent us to D.C.’s winning team’s locker room, where Heidi Gardner‘s Dana Bash said the mood is “nothing short of euphoric,” and that a lot of pacemakers were being put to the test. Party goggles and many cans of beer were a part of the action. Kyle Mooney‘s John Kennedy was gung-ho to put it mildly. Beck Bennett‘s Mitch McConnell impression was oh-so on-point, in voice and in terms of information. After getting “red as a tomato” last week, Kate McKinnon‘s terrific Lindsey Graham returned (clever, painful #MeToo joke here), but Cecily Strong‘s Susan Collins upstaged everyone, even though she insists that she doesn’t want this to be all about her! Aidy Bryant‘s “Female Prosecutor” danced a bit, and was really jazzed about her ride home on Southwest. Pete Davidson‘s Jeff Flake got a pie in the face. We also spent some time with the losing team, namely a towel-draped Chuck Schumer (Alex Moffat) and a prankster Joe Manchin (Mikey Day). The Senate voted to confirm Kavanaugh today, meaning this six-minute cold open went from conception to live TV in a matter of hours. Pretty impressive. Next up was Awkwafina’s opening monologue. The Ocean’s 8 star and Queens native is the first woman of Asian descent to host SNL in 18 years. Only five Asian-American performers have hosted in total, including Jackie Chan, Aziz Ansari and Kumail Nanjiani. Awkwafina definitely had some fun with her monologue, saying she’s not a crazy rich Asian but rather a “rebuilding my credit Asian,” and that she’s easy to relate to because she’s just your average Asian trumpet player-turned-rapper-turned-actress. This one was from the heart, too. She dedicated tonight to her grandmother in Queens who thinks this show is called Comedy Central, and she told a touching story about waiting outside the building when Lucy Liu hosted 18 years ago, changing what young Awkwafina thought was possible for an Asian-American woman. Tonight, Awkwafina thanked her for opening the door. Our host also said, for obvious reasons, that she was considering showing up dressed as a water bottle tonight– but somebody (Kanye West) did that last week! In a bit of pure physical comedy, Awkwafina led a dance posse who are masters of their craft–their craft being dancing poorly to popular game show themes. Did you recognize the three music cues? They’re the themes from Family Feud, Match Game and The Price is Right. Tonight’s musical guest Travis Scott stepped in at the last minute to take the game-show dance-party fever up a few more degrees. Beck Bennett got some of the biggest laughs of the night as Ted Cruz, whose rally just can’t seem to get off the ground. It feels like this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Bennett’s Cruz. In a digital short, the ever-timely SNL had a lot of fun with the “Presidential Alert” that went out to U.S. cell users on Wednesday. Ultimately, this was a Cricket Wireless commercial in disguise. Zing! So You’re Willing to Date a Magician is about what it sounds like, a dating show where one lucky lady gets to date several men in a field. Leslie Jones had a hard time keeping a straight face as fellow cast members played everything up to a 12. Thompson can make anyone laugh with just a facial expression, the increasingly sad jokes at the expense of Mooney’s character really worked, and Moffat and Gardner were a high level of funny/gross. On Weekend Update, Michael Che and Colin Jost definitely didn’t hold back–which is always a good thing with these two. We got a Mario Kart reference and plenty about Kavanaugh. A mega-butchered, nine-second-long episode of Law & Order: SVU episode was a nice touch. Also, within a long list of political “trigger terms” was The Last Jedi. Hilarious. Che stood out tonight. His political analogy about horror movies was perfect. Also, he discovered his new favorite comedy line. He heard it on TV, and now he’s going to use it all the time! The Game of Thrones joke was equal parts funny and icky. But the highlights of tonight’s Weekend Update, and among the very best parts of the night, were the guests. First, Alex Moffat and Mikey Day reprised their much-beloved and always-hilarious Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr./Patrick Bateman. As usual, Don Jr. smooth-talked while Eric struggled with self-control–from verbal slips to motor skills. He was enchanted, stunned, by a puppet! Then, Pete Davidson upstaged everyone with a clap-back at last week’s musical guest Kanye West, who sort-of sabotaged that night’s curtain call after cameras stopped rolling. Among other things, Davidson makes a lot of jokes about his own mental health. Talk about a difficult topic–but the audience ate this up. At a New York Film Festival actress roundtable called “Me Too, Year Two: How We Doin’, Hollywood?”, McKinnon brought back old-school Hollywood treasure Debette Goldry. This was Goldry’s darkest outing yet (“party murders? !”), and one of her best. Awkwafina played recent Emmy nominee Sandra Oh, saying “it’s an honor to play women who give long speeches after getting out of a shower.” Gardner’s Allison Janney is spot-on. In a seasonal bit called The Pumpkin Patch, Mikey Day scolds Bennett, Awkwafina and Mooney for an American Pie tribute that went too far–like, way, way too far. The cast was so committed to this that it actually worked pretty well. Maybe the best touch was the music cue at the end, Family of the Year‘s “Hero.” It calls to mind Boyhood. A really dirty, weird, and wrong version of Boyhood. In a sketch set at a baby shower, Strong was hilarious as an absolutely terrible, selfish and astonishingly immature person who brings her enabling, aggressive dog-walker (Awkwafina), who ruins everything, along. One of the night’s pleasant surprises was a bizarre bit set in ancient Egypt. Cleopatra (Strong) got life-changing beauty tips from a beautician with an unfortunate name played by Awkwafina. This novelty was cute and weird–seemingly endless ancient Egypt puns and anachronisms galore! As well as appearing in the game-show dance-off, musical guest Travis Scott first performed a mash-up of his songs “Skeletons” and “Astrothunder”, then he performed “Sicko Mode.” Saturday Night Live returns Oct. 13 at 11:30 p.m. ET with host Seth Meyers and musical guest Paul Simon. What was your favorite sketch of the night? Let us know in the comments!<doc-sep>"Saturday Night Live" got right back to hot-button politics, opening with a Republican Senate victory party – in a male locker room. The senators cheered the successful confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court like they just won the World Series. The jubilant Republican senators, even Sen. Jeff Flake, were shown cheering the vote with goggles on, spraying each other in Miller High Life. There were casualties in the opening party segment. During the celebration, Flake (played by Pete Davidson) took a pie in the face from a jubilant Sen. Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon). "I really considered all the testimony," Flake said, before the pie covered his face. "OK, you got me, I stink," he added afterward. Related:Pete Davidson rips Kanye West's 'wrong' pro-Trump rant More:Travis Scott wins 'SNL' with sick moves to the 'Jeopardy!' theme song "This is about the fans, they have been out there cheering, screaming outside of our offices," McKinnon's Graham added. "I know they agree with us, because they were shouting out 'MeToo!' " Sen. Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) said, “Everyone’s pumped – from white men over 60 to white men over 70.” He put the victory in context: “It’s up there with Vietnam, for sure. This is historic." To cap the celebration, the senators turned to the upcoming elections in November. "Let's keep this horny male energy going until the mid-terms," a goggle-wearing Graham announced while cracking open a beer. More:'Saturday Night Live' taps Matt Damon to play an angry Brett Kavanaugh Also:Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Carrey and more celebrities react to Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation<doc-sep>
The confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh earlier in the day provided plenty of comedic material for "Saturday Night Live." On Saturday, the cold open of the NBC comedy show, which kicked off its 44th season the previous week by roasting a Senate hearing on Kavanaugh, recreated how a Republican victory party for for the jurist, sworn in just a few hours earlier, might unfold. "Republicans read the mood of the country and we could tell that people really wanted Kavanaugh," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, played by Beck Bennett, said during the festivities. "Everyone's pumped — from white men over 60 to white men over 70." Asked how he felt about Kavanaugh being sworn in, Sen. Lindsey Graham, played by Kate McKinnon, said, "I'm not getting pregnant, so I don't care." He also said, "Thank the male Lord" for Kavanaugh's ascent to the Supreme Court. The second episode of the season was hosted by "Crazy Rich Asians" actor Awkwafina (born Nora Lum), who told the New York audience she's from Queens. "I am not a crazy rich Asian," she said. "I'm more like a rebuilding-my-credit Asian." She took time during her monologue to thank Lucy Liu for opening doors for Asian Americans in Hollywood. She said that when Liu hosted "SNL" in 2000, she camped outside. "I just wanted to be near the building," Awkwafina said. Not long afterward, a faux commercial explored what would happen if President Donald Trump used the Federal Emergency Management Agency's cellphone "Presidential Alert" system to distribute his Twitter musings to Americans. The skit showed an alert that read: "Warning: White men are under attack." During "Weekend Update," performer Pete Davidson revisited Kanye West's appearance on the show last week. The rapper engaged in an improvised political screed after the broadcast ended, a move that generated international headlines. "What Kanye said after we went off the air last week was one of the worst, like, most awkward things I’ve ever seen here," Davidson said. "And I've seen Chevy Chase speak to an intern." Davidson said West wore a pro-President Trump "Make America Great Again" cap, seen at the end of the program, "all week" during writing and rehearsals. "Kanye said Democrats broke up black families with welfare and that slavery is not real," Davidson said. "Do you know how wrong about politics you have to be for, like, me to notice?" He mocked a West that wanted the world to see "the real me," but Davidson implored him to take whatever "meds" he might need. "There's no shame in the medicine game," he said. "I'm on 'em. ... Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass." "Weekend Update" also poked fun at the FBI supplemental investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The segment aired an edited clip from "Law & Order," in which a suspect is confronted by Det. Olivia Benson, who tells the man his fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime. "I have no idea what you're talking about," the suspect says. "You're free to go," Hargitay says. "Update" co-host Colin Jost described it as "what a 'Law & Order' episode based on this investigation would look like."