As you may have heard, SNL’s been under fire recently for the lack of black female comedian representation among its cast. And if you hadn’t heard that, then the cold open to last night’s episode may not have made as much sense to you as it would have otherwise. Scandal star Kerry Washington hosted the episode, and though it’s not common for the host to appear in the cold open, it seems they were willing to make an exception if it meant being able to have Michelle Obama, Oprah and Beyonce (kind of) in the same sketch. The producers were sure to add a formal apology to Kerry Washington "for the number of black women she will be asked to play tonight."
This appears to be Saturday Night Live’s way of addressing the controversy as they tend to address just about everything else — with humor.
Many of us are used to seeing Washington as the poised and passionate Washington DC fixer Olivia Pope in Scandal, so it was really fun getting to see her diversity as an actor and her sense of humor throughout some of the better sketches last night. That includes this one, where Nasim Pedrad plays Heshy Farahat, a Career Week Speaker and Washington plays her… assistant?
And then there’s the “What Does the Fox Say?” spoof about what a guy’s girlfriend says:
Seems like the girl gets the last laugh there. Attention teachers-and-students: Washington also reminds people to “know your history” in this “Fall Carnival” sketch:
It doesn’t look like NBC has Eminem’s performances up online yet, but here’s the full episode:
