Comedian Tiffany Haddish made her S.N.L. debut in the shadow of yet another week filled with sexual assault and misconduct allegations levied against powerful men. It was especially crucial that S.N.L. nail the latest batch of headlines, featuring the likes of Republican candidate Roy Moore, actor Ed Westwick, and George Takei, given the fourth big name to make the rounds this week: Louis C.K.
The comedian, who has admitted there is truth to the sexual misconduct claims against him, not only hosted Saturday Night Live four times, but also worked as a writer with Robert Smigel on its erstwhile “TV Funhouse” shorts. How would the show—which has been a little slow this season to address the late-breaking alleged misdeeds of moguls, politicians, and actors—treat one of its own? The answer: very gingerly.
C.K.’s name was only mentioned once over the course of the entire episode, during a cold-open sketch about Roy Moore. Beck Bennett, in character as Vice President Mike Pence, stumbled over the joke slightly, saying: “Even I heard about Louis C.K., and I’m not allowed to watch TV. I’m only allowed to listen to it.” Your mileage may vary over whether Kate McKinnon as Jeff Sessions was taking another swing at C.K. when she closed the sketch by saying “I love you, daddy”—the name of the comedian’s now-shelved feature film.
During her opening monologue, Haddish told the first of a series of jokes that were about C.K., but never once mentioned him by name. During a segment called “Tiff’s Tips,” Haddish referenced the recurring pattern of the C.K. allegations: “Listen, fellas. Listen. If you got your thing-thing out and she’s got all her clothes on, you’re wrong. You’re in the wrong.”
C.K. didn’t come up again until a “Weekend Update” segment, in which anchor Colin Jost made the most direct commentary about the comedian yet—though once again, without using his name. While flashing photos of C.K. on the screen, Jost called C.K. a “sex monster,” and said this: “Turns out the guy who joked about masturbating wasn’t joking about masturbating.” Those bits were followed by a prolonged segment in which Cecily Strong played a harried Human Resources director struggling to keep on top of the new rules she has to lay out about sexual harassment in the workplace. Alternately squirting Purell into her mouth and tossing out scenarios of what not to do (e.g. don’t have relations of any kind with a 14-year-old), Strong’s bit was more about Moore than it was C.K.
Still, despite the relatively mild handling of the C.K. allegations, this episode represented more commentary than S.N.L. has offered up on C.K. before. The last time he hosted the show, in April of this year, C.K. performed a pre-taped sketch titled “Birthday Clown.” At the time, comedian Tig Notaro accused C.K. of lifting the sketch from her before later saying that C.K. should “handle” the persistent sexual misconduct rumors swirling around him. (C.K. is a credited producer on Notaro’s Amazon show One Mississippi.) S.N.L. never responded to or commented on Notaro’s claims, but the series was clearly unable to stay silent on these latest, much more serious allegations. However awkwardly it was handled, S.N.L. did at last chime in.
