Saturday Night Live season 44 comes in screaming with Adam Driver, a Matt Damon cameo and a classic Kanye rant!

The season’s cold open just had to be the Brett Kavanaugh senate hearing – and in recent SNL fashion, Bret Kavanaugh had to be played by an A-list celebrity guest. This week, it was Matt Damon as the beer drinking, gym rat crybaby Brett Kavanaugh. Also, bonus special appearance from SNL alum Rachel Dratch!

 

This season is looking a lot like last season – literally, the gang’s all back save for one, and there’s only Ego Nwodim new to the cast. She appeared in several sketches, but didn’t get to say much – not uncommon for the newbie’s first episode. Hopefully there will be more for her to do in the coming weeks!

But despite the same-old cast, more or less, there’s a bit of a new dynamic – that being that people now know who Pete Davidson is due to his engagement to Ariana Grande. One can observe the applause cast members get in the cold open – for the past few seasons, it’s been Kate McKinnon winning on the applause-o-meter scale. But now that Pete Davidson is a tabloid darling, it’s hard not to notice the distinct change in the audience reaction to him. And cast member Kyle Mooney definitely saw this coming:

Davidson is a hilarious stand up in his own right, and a pretty good sketch comedian too (now). Hopefully his recent fall into massive celebrity doesn’t change him on the SNL front, because just about fit perfectly into the “stand-up guy who sometimes is in sketches” role.

Speaking of performers with personality disorders, Kanye “Look at me!” West had a lot to say on Saturday Night Live this weekend, even though he wasn’t invited to say anything, really. He was the musical guest – which he also used to make a statement about bottled water beverages?

Dressing up as a Perrier bottle with his Fiji buddy aside, at the end of the show after a uncommon third musical performance, West addressed the cast, crew and studio audience after the show went off the air. Caught on video by Chris Rock of all people, the MAGA hat wearing West voiced his support for Trump to a few stale claps, and even more boos. Kanye ranted about Democrats, Bill Cosby, and dismissed racism, saying “If I was concerned about racism, I would have moved out of America a long time ago”. Sure, it’s just Kanye being Kanye, but Kanye is, to say the least, arrogant for thinking that every camera on him is a platform. And at least he was speaking truth to power in 2005, v. George W. Bush.

Saturday Night Live returns live Oct 6 with host Awkwafina and musical guest Travis Scott. Be sure to catch Saturday Night Live airing Saturdays at 11.30 et/8.30 pt on Global, and watch the latest episodes online here on GlobalTV.com/SaturdayNightLive!