Live from New York it’s … Kim Kardashian West! On Oct. 9, “Saturday Night Live,” the hit sketch comedy show, was hosted by reality television star, influencer and billionaire Kim Kardashian West. She does not exactly have acting or comedic experience, so wary expectations were the general reaction when her show was first announced. While this episode may not be classified as the greatest of all time, there were some laughs and excitement during the show.
She started her night with a monologue, as is tradition. Surprisingly, she had remarkable comedic timing. She made teasing remarks about her family, her career and her history. “You want me to host? Why? I haven’t had a movie premiere in a really long time. I actually had that one movie come out, and nobody even told me it was premiering,” she quipped. She was able to make fun of herself and have a sense of humor about her life story. That was what made the monologue very funny and better than one might expect. That being said, the true test of comedy would come when she had to act in the sketches. Her first sketch was a spoof on the movie Aladdin, with her playing Jasmine and Pete Davidson playing Aladdin. The joke played up the fact of Jasmine being far more richer and having a higher status than Aladdin, as if Jasmine was a representation of Kardashian herself. The sketch had a few laughs, but nothing extraordinary. It is possible the whole sketch was a ploy for Davidson to get an excuse to kiss Kardashian West. Next up came the first pre-tape of the night with Kardashian West, Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim and Punkie Johnson: a fun music video about what it is like to be a thirty-something woman going to the club, where naps happen more often, heels are harder to walk in and traffic is more of a concern. This was a charming sketch and it was very amusing and enjoyable.
Next sketch up was a stupidly humorous sketch about lottery numbers. Kardashian and Strong played two women calling out the winning lotto numbers during the local news. What started out with normal numbers continued on with items like meatballs and car keys being called out as the numbers. It was the type of timeless humor that you just have to laugh at. It was one of the highlights of the night for me. It was a sketch with simply funny jokes that did not have to try hard. Up next was a pre-tape with Kardashian West and Aidy Bryant. Kardashian West wants to know what it is like to live a normal life, and Bryant wants to know what it is like to be so cool and ultra famous. Ergo, they decide to switch bodies. With fun little jokes about each other’s lives and hilarious reactions from both of them, this was definitely a fun sketch. With special guest appearances from Kardashian West’s sister Khloe Kardashian and her mom Kris Jenner, this was a unique sketch that had a lot of laughs baked into it.
Up next came a bachelorette parody called “The Dream Guy” where Kardashian West had to pick her dream guy out of a group. This happened to be a particularly star studded group. With Blake Griffin, Chase Crawford, Chris Rock, Jesse Williams, John Cena and Tyler Cameron, featuring a special appearance by Amy Schumer, SNL pulled out all the stops for the cast of this sketch. This, unfortunately, did not lead to a funny sketch. Among the lineup of guys was cast member Kyle Mooney, playing the dorkish Zeke, who was supposed to be so obviously beneath all of these other men. The whole sketch centered around this one joke, so eventually the joke fell flat. There were some cute jokes in the sketch, but overall, there was nothing particularly special about it. SNL had the ability to get all of these celebrities, and it seemed they did not know where to go from there.
In the spirit of parody, Kardashian West did a sketch where she did an impression of her sister Kourtney Kardashian, as if she were a judge in “The People’s Kourt.” The premise of the sketch was that Kourtney was supposed to be solving problems in her family in a sketch that playfully teased the Kardashians and their catty lifestyles. With Kris and Khloe showing up once again, this was a fun sketch that made laugh-worthy jokes about the Kardashians. To close off the night, Kardashian West did a fake commercial for her new shapewear line, Skims. The joke of this sketch is that there is shapewear being made for big dogs. With various cast members holding cute dogs wearing dog-sized shapewear, it was definitely a cute sketch with a cute joke. This could have been a cheeky way for Kardashian West to remind people that she does have a shapewear line, but even so, this sketch was a fun idea and caused a few laughs.
For someone who is not known for their comedy, Kardashian West did a great job at holding her own. She had excellent timing, was able to make fun of herself and she meshed well with the other cast members. While not every sketch was amazing, this was an overall delightful episode with quite a few laughs and some memorable moments.