Saturday Night Live’s fall 2018 premiere, its 44th season on the air, featured skits with impersonations of Brett Kavanaugh by Matt Damon, of Lindsay Graham by Kate McKinnon, two performances by Kanye, one a bizarre thirst-quencher with Lil Pump and, Kanye in his MAGA hat does a MAGA rant.
It was quite the premiere mostly for what folks at home did not see. The TMZ video here was loading for some. Note: Just as this post was published, some videos of West’s comments were scrubbed form the Internet in particular, it seems, those from Chris Rock’s Instagram story. Some of the videos that were published on social media began buffering, failed to load and then a message that the media was no longer available. Heavy took some screenshots, transcribed a few lines and there were still images of the videos, with commentary, posted on social media, as readers will note below.
What TV Audiences Didn’t See: Kanye Pro-Trump Rant Gets Booed. SNL Shut Its Live Feed
Wearing his MAGA hat in the intro teaser with host Adam Driver and cast member Keenan Thompson from to days before, West went there with a speech about Trump and racism in America that led to loud boos and a ‘Oh, my God’ from the Studio 8H audience.
See the full video as posted by TMZ here.
A kid-sized handful of claps as West, backed by organ music and preaching like a pastor says, “There’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist,'” West says.
“‘Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”
Matt Damon Joins SNL Cast in Replay Skit of Senate Judiciary Committee Kavanaugh Hearing
In its cold opening, SNL mocks the Senate Judiciary Hearing with Matt Damon playing judge Brett Kavanaugh as he takes questions from Senators Chuck Grassley (Alex Moffat), Diane Feinstein (Cecily Strong), Amy Klobuchar (Rachel Dratch), Thom Tillis (Mikey Day), Cory Booker (Chris Redd), John Kennedy (Kyle Mooney), Sheldon Whitehouse (Pete Davidson), Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon) and prosecutor Rachel Mitchell (Aidy Bryant).
McKinnon nails Graham.
West’s Performance with Lil Pump Became Instant Meme Fodder
‘I Love It’ With Lil Pump and Adele Givens was described as one of West’s more evocative performances or one of his most ridiculous.
Kanye to SNL: “I want to dress up as a Perrier Bottle.”
SNL: “For a skit? Tell us more.”
Kanye: “No for my musical number.”
SNL….
Anyone who tries to tell you Kanye’s performance is brilliant ironic art knows nothing about irony, brilliance, or art, and they are trying way too hard.
West is in a Perrier lookalike plastic bottle costume and Lil Pump in a Fiji Water lookalike same. It’s just head-scratching, folks say.
LOL WTF IS KANYE DOING?!!!! He’s @Perrier 😂😂😂😂😂 #SNLPremiere
Just took a selfie with Kanye West!
#SNLpremiere
Kanye Also Performed ‘We Got Love’ Featuring Singer Teyana Taylor. Or, Singer Teyana Taylor Performed ‘We Got Love’ Featuring Kanye
There seems to be some confusion if this is actually Taylor’s song or if it’s being released by Kanye as some commenters in the SNL channel debate.
It’s reportedly Taylor’s song as produced by West for the album K.T.S.E. but it’s not on the track list on iTunes. Whatever.