Jerrod Carmichael could have been a refreshing host. But he was overshadowed by the altercation at the Oscars.
Six days after the Oscars Slap came to dominate America’s cultural conversation, Saturday Night Live joined the fray with not just one joke but a torrent of them. Perhaps this was inevitable: The now-infamous pop-culture moment—an attack on a comedian, no less—is clearly within SNL ’s wheelhouse, and the show latched on to the moment with zeal. But it was too much, too late. After a week in which every opinion has already circulated, SNL struggled to find anything fresh to say. It didn’t have to be this way. The host, Jerrod Carmichael, a thoughtful and sardonic stand-up comic who recently released his third HBO special, Rothaniel, launched into his monologue actually acknowledging America’s exhaustion with the Slap. “I’m not gonna talk about it,” he said, never once mentioning Will Smith, Chris Rock, or the Oscars. “I’m gonna be clear up top. I’ve talked about it enough, kept talking about it, kept thinking about it. I don’t wanna talk about it. And you can’t make me talk about it.” He seemed to grasp how the rapid churn of public debate nowadays obviated the urgency of any further discussion of the smack. “This happened a week ago. Doesn’t it feel like it happened years ago?” he said.
