By LAUREN KASZUBA
Staff Writer
NBC comedy sketch series “Saturday Night Live” is taking a two week break from live episodes, and frankly, they deserve it.
From Sam Rockwell dropping the f-bomb on national television to SZA’s spot-on performances, season 43 has been a whirlwind, to say the least. On April 21, NBC replayed Sam Rockwell’s episode featuring musical guest Halsey.
This was my second time seeing his episode and personally, nothing stood out to me greatly. It wasn’t my favorite episode of the season and unfortunately, I had a tough time watching it.
However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy Pete Davidson playing Lil Pump singing about Stanley Tucci. A parody of “Gucci Gang,” Davidson’s impression of Lil Pump is actually incredible. Sam Rockwell’s dance moves as Stanley Tucci in the music video can’t be beat, either. I highly recommend this sketch if you need a good laugh.
One major thing I believe stood out to everyone was Rockwell’s use of the f-word on live, national television. During a sketch where Rockwell plays a science teacher on a mock PBS kids program, he uttered the word, leaving cast members Cecily Strong and Mikey Day surprised (they played it off well, however, and kept the sketch going). If this wasn’t bad enough, Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost muttered “s—hole,” when they brought up a comment President Trump had made using that word.
“SNL” broadcasts live from coast-to-coast each night, meaning that some parts of the country heard the uncensored version of the show. The west coast feed of the show is delayed by a few seconds, thus the west coast feed was censored. The show airs during a safe harbor (a timeslot in television in which it is appropriate to broadcast programming aimed toward mature audiences) period in the Eastern and Central time zones. Despite this, Rockwell’s comment would’ve been heard between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. or 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. This would potentially subject NBC affiliates in those local regions to FCC fines for indecency, had it not been censored.
It is unclear if FCC imposed any fines due to these two slips.
“SNL” has three episodes left for season 43, with Donald Glover/Childish Gambino taking over as host/musical guest on May 5. Amy Schumer hosts on May 12 with musical guest Kacey Musgraves and Tina Fey hosts on May 19 with musical guest Nicki Minaj.
Personally, I believe that this is a great lineup to end the season with. I look forward to all the episodes despite not being a huge Amy Schumer fan. It’s the end of the season, after all, and who knows what’s in store for audiences.
Here’s to hoping “SNL” can finish strong.
