‘SNL’ Recap: Donald Trump Is Visited By Mike Flynn, The Ghost of Witness Flipped

It’s the Christmas season on Saturday Night Live, so time for Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past – or, in this case, the Ghost of Witness Flipped, in the presence of a chain-rattling Michael Flynn (Mikey Day), come to warn POTUS that karma is coming for him.

After admitting to Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon), who got so drunk at the White House Christmas party that she “told the truth,” Trump was in “pouty baby mode” due to Flynn’s arrest and guilty plea. After asking Conway to get him $5 million and a fake passport, he takes “only a minute” to reflect on the good he’s done this year, when the apparition of Flynn appears.

After reviewing the many possible bad acts he could be taken down for, Flynn’s ghost tells him to “come clean for the good of the country,” a phrase so foreign to Trump he can’t pronounce it. Flynn then informs him he’ll be visited three times.

Visitor number one is Billy Bush (Alex Moffat), who can’t quite believe he’s out of a job “just for listening to you” on the Access Hollywood tape, while Trump became president. “I’m looking pretty good in the NBC News division right about now,” he says, before reminding Trump that “if you worked at NBC right now, you’d be fired.”

Melania (Cecily Strong) pops in briefly, describing her festive White House decorations of “dead branches and mysterious shadows” plus an elevator where when you open the doors, blood comes out, and then a shirtless Vladimir Putin (Beck Bennett) appears to tell Trump, “we put a lot of work into you, and you’re about to mess it up.”

His final visitor appears in a black death cloak, with Trump believing it’s Steve Bannon, but no – it’s Hillary Clinton (McKinnon), there to rub his difficulties in his face. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to say this,” she says. “Lock him up!”

Host Saoirse Ronan kept her monologue short and sweet, playing off her hard-to-pronounce first name by making up a song to help people get it right. The song, though, is nowhere near as easy as she thinks, as McKinnon makes all too clear. Bennett doesn’t help by adding in a song of his own, but really, how hard is it to pronounce “Beck?”

With so much heavy news to deal with this year, you can almost feel the SNL writing room’s collective sigh of relief from MTV’s announcement of Floribama Shore, a modern day attempt at Jersey Shore. The promo parody sketch feels like a return to simpler times, as the SNL cast play various trashy members of the reality show cast, plunged into a house together in the middle of Hurricane Irma.

The promo parody plays off the stereotypes you’d expect, with the housemates being young, extremely dumb, and ready to do stupid things on TV. The introductory video sets their characters, including Day’s Kyler, who introduces himself as “My name’s Kyler, and I’m a piece of shit”; the first genuine character appearance by new cast member Luke Null, playing a “who-wah!” exclaiming Pontoon; and Chris Redd’s Justin, the only non-freak of the bunch, merely saying in his introduction, “There’s a hurricane coming? We need to go y’all.” Given the hurricane, the sketch ends in disaster, as the announcer leaves off with, “Floribama Shore. Why do you make us do this?”

The next sketch was something of a sequel to the “Live Report” sketch from last year’s Margot Robbie episode, where Robbie and a nerdy Day played a couple being interviewed on TV by news anchor Kenan Thompson, who couldn’t believe they were married. Here, news anchor Thompson speaks to people outside an American Girl store, where there’s been an explosion. Day plays a creepy customer who claims to have been buying a doll as a gift, but soon makes clear it was his own. Playing off similar beats to the previous sketch, this didn’t work nearly as well, setting a basic premise of “he’s creepy” from the outset, then not finding anywhere to take it.

Next came a clever music video. “Welcome to Hell” featured Ronan, McKinnon, Strong, and Aidy Bryant, adorned in candy-colored adorableness on a set that could have worked for Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” video, singing about the recent sexual harassment revelations, and how women have been well aware of the dangers they face for hundreds of years while men are just realizing them now. To an upbeat, poppy soundtrack, they sang about the fear women face for things as basic as walking to their cars, and the incredible precautions they need to take to keep from being victimized by men. (Ronan: “My dad gave me a pink gun, so, there’s a lot there.”) Describing life as a “maze…all full of boners,” they’re accompanied by Melissa Villasenor portraying victimized women throughout the ages, from the Salem Witch trials to the suffragette and Mad Men eras, and Leslie Jones appearing at the end to emphasize how much worse women of color have it. While the studio audience reaction seemed subdued, this was a smart and funny way to deal with a heavy topic.

The next sketch brought a very “People of Walmart” vibe to rival Kmart, with various idiots returning items to a beleaguered Day, including Kyle Mooney, loudly exclaiming that Magnum condoms were too small for him, and Pete Davidson, who thought he was supposed to pee on the pregnancy test. Short, but a few solid laughs to this.

Next came a Bennett/Mooney video with the two as office workers in what appeared to be the 1970s or 80s (depending on whether you judge by the decor or the hairstyles). In this office, prestigious is determined by who can run through the office faster, and Bennett is the current champ, with Mooney the disgraced underdog. With Ronan as Mooney’s co-worker/trainer, and featuring an appearance by Greta Gerwig (who wrote and directed Ronan’s new film, Lady Bird) as the boss, the clip builds to a slo-mo Chariots of Fire resolution.

While a weak segment for the “Weekend Update” anchors, McKinnon brought on a new world-leader character, playing UK Prime Minister Theresa May commenting on the president’s retweeting of videos posted a British far-right figure. Her May was capable, but as it played off May’s essentially boring personality, she didn’t leave herself much room to develop a character (though her “would bang” tweet about Prince Harry was pretty funny).

They also brought back Jones and Day as a married couple who engage in the Kama Sutra, to Day’s violent detriment. Piece of advice – don’t try the “Broken Donkey” until you’re sure you’re both ready.

Next came a bachelor auction where Pete Davidson’s ignorant Chad character was the bachelor in question. For some reason, Chad, who says little but “OK” and makes up a dance called the “Doink Doink,” becomes the prize of the night, earning millions. But when John McEnroe comes on, he earns nothing. A funny, if baffling, guest appearance by McEnroe, who gamely performs the “Doink Doink.”

Next came one of the show’s more misguided sketches of late, and an unfortunate rare spotlight for Null, who played a student who insults his entire class in sexist, racist and classist ways. The sketch focused exclusively on Null for the first minute or so, and while it was the most consecutive screen time he’s had on the show so far, it was met with an eerily-stunned silence by the studio audience. The sketch recovered when Thompson, as the teacher, called him out, followed by all the students he insulted, but this looked terrible for Null, a new cast member utterly failing to find his place on the show while the two he joined with, Heidi Gardner and Redd, have become fully integrated members of the cast.

The last sketch featured Ronan and Strong as Irish flight attendants giving the directions for an Aer Lingus flight. They’re serving potatoes, strange dogs are roaming around the plane, and they warn against making rhyming jokes about the airline’s name. Hint: it rhymes with cunnilingus.

SNL returns next week with host James Franco and musical guest SZA.

Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. His greatest wish is to see Stefon enjoy a cheeseburger at John Belushi’s diner. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.

Watch the Saoirse Ronan/U2 episode of SNL on Hulu