Occasionally, Saturday Night Live treats us to a glimpse of what could have been. For those of you not in the know, there’s a three-hour dress rehearsal before the main episode begins at 11:30 sharp, barring any delays. This means that half of the material has to be shortened, or discarded outright. In cases where the sketch isn’t very good, we are grateful for the pared-down version. Still, in some cases—such as a forever-lost “The Falconer” sketch where Will Forte’s Falconer character discovers that he is, in fact, a fictional character in a sketch comedy show—it can be immensely disappointing.
Fortunately, in this new age of the Internet, SNL can put up deleted dress-rehearsal sketches on YouTube. They don’t do it for every episode, so I’ve learned to really enjoy it when they do appear.
“Establishment Shuffle” is a marvelous send-up of the GOP, as well as an amusing song. The style of the sketch itself is brilliant, as the main theme revolves around various Republican politicians boasting about how relevant they are... in the style of a Super Bowl dance from the eighties.
Highlights include Taran Killam’s Paul Ryan referring to himself as a "hot little mouse," Bobby Moynihan’s bespectacled Mitch McConnell doing his best impression of a turtle coming out of its shell, everyone in the video going from insulting Donald Trump to almost literally praying for him to "be their friend" within the space of a single line break, and the camera getting closer and closer to Kate McKinnon (as Lindsay Graham’s face) as he outright says that he hates Ted Cruz’s face and wants him to die.
To SNL’s credit, they do make fun of the recent proposed laws in North Carolina, but they don’t use any slurs to do it. Instead, Beck Bennett just portrays the governor as a wooden, boring idiot. This sketch definitely should have been in the most recent episode. It’s topical, charming, and catchy.
To sum it up, it’s a neat little music video and I hope that we see more like it in the remainder of this season. They definitely have a lot of parody (seeing as it’s an election year) and things are only getting weirder.
The promos are out for the next episode of Saturday Night Live! This week’s installments feature host Russell Crowe with cast member Leslie Jones. The promos seem shorter than usual, but they’re still funny.
You can catch the episode on Saturday at 11:30 pm, on NBC! Come for Russell Crowe's first-ever hosting of the show, stay for Margo Price as the musical guest, and clap politely for the inevitable Larry David-as-Bernie Sanders appearance. Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or the Harry Potter books.
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The promos are out for the next episode of Saturday Night Live! This week’s installments feature host Russell Crowe with cast member Leslie Jones. The promos seem shorter than usual, but they’re still funny.
You can catch the episode on Saturday at 11:30 pm, on NBC! Come for Russell Crowe's first-ever hosting of the show, stay for Margo Price as the musical guest, and clap politely for the inevitable Larry David-as-Bernie Sanders appearance. Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or the Harry Potter books.
