Great article. Minor correction: Trump's accomplishments during WU were: Gorsuch, Health Care???, Cake, Golf.

I think anyone expecting SNL to take down Trump is projecting their own frustrations onto a show that's generally about observational comedy, not advancing a political agenda. If SNL were truly brave and provocative, they wouldn't amp up the Trump bashing, they'd have Ann Coulter host.

I thought "Hunt for Hillary" was the funniest and most interesting sketch of the night, and made a few other points beyond, “Hey, Hillary’s been spotting hiking a lot" — 1. You don't know what you've got till it's gone, 2. These "hunter" shows are formulaic, too silly to take themselves so seriously, and end up being…

I was still laughing about "Qua" throughout Sunday. Spot-on concept, great timing and execution, hilarious performance by Vanessa and cute twist at the end by Emily Blunt.

Russell Crowe at least was more successful in his comedic delivery than Sasheer Zamata. "Why do they need our IDs all of a sudden? Usually they just skip that step and say, 'Ma'am, please step out of the vehicle.'" [dead silence from audience]

I thought that, too, bder19. I'd even go further and say Sasheer may have been better in that part than Leslie was, because that's right in Sasheer's sweet spot — playing straight to someone who's bothering her.

Kate McKinnon's generally great, but her portrayal of Hillary as mentally unhinged is getting uncomfortable to watch. And it seems to be coming not out of any insight about Hillary per se but, rather, out of McKinnon's desire to get immediate gratification from the audience. Why, if Hillary had the blues about voters…

Was Kristen known for not getting along with people? That would surprise me; she had plenty of nice recurring bits with Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis, and apparently was able to get the writers to work with her.

The Ted Cruz opener would've been more effective if they'd put him in a funny situation instead of just insulting him. It's obvious he's a weasel — maybe take that and do something fun with it, like when Jay introduced his Ben Carson in the flashback sketch.

Nasim was an under-rated gem. My favorite character she did was Heshy, the motivational speaker.

Sasheer is getting some great live television acting experience and will probably have a solid career in screen acting. But she's never done or said anything funny on SNL.

The cast members who played shooting targets did a fantastic job of physical comedy. Reminded me of the mechanical figures from the Merryville Brothers sketches, the first one of which was the first time I'd noticed how talented Taran Killam is.

I had this reaction to Jon's bit, too. Seemed like a consolation prize. I get the sense from this and the 12/12/15 pirate sketch that Jon isn't clicking with his colleagues. His cast mates seem to stand out of the way and let him be goofy, then get back to being an ensemble. That may be what's holding him back — you…

Moreover, sometimes he actually makes the audience stop laughing when he speaks. See "Super Crew" from this episode.

Apologies if it seemed I was trying to pit them against each other; that wasn't my intention. I just thought Leslie deserved some credit for trying to get the audience to laugh, and I compared her with the cast member I think tries the least to do that, and that's Sasheer. That they are women, and black, is immaterial…

I think we're saying compatible things. I just meant that her motive in hosting may have been to gain screen acting experience generally, as opposed to position herself as a comedian. That she will, in the future, be starring in a drama/thriller seems to be a "yes, and" statement, not a "so, no" statement.

So no? How so?

I see what you did there.

At least she's on air trying to take risks and go for the laugh, which is more than can be said for Sasheer, who seems content with being a capable live TV actor.

Rousey seemed impressively comfortable on camera. Think she used this as an opportunity to try out acting, not necessarily comedy.