We thought Kate McKinnon was through with the fourth-wall breaking schtick after last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
Then again, we thought Hillary Clinton would win the US presidential election.
For the post-election show’s cold open, a visibly affected McKinnon-as-Clinton sat behind a piano and played Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, totally straight. It was unexpected. It was bizarre. Yet, despite likely being the most-covered song of all time, those factors made her rendition oddly moving.
Instead of awkwardly jumping through narrative hoops trying to link the beloved muso’s death to the pain many are feeling after Donald Trump’s election win, the show just threw those emotive elements together and let the audience come to its own conclusions.
Our take: this one has flipped all the way back from contrived to gut-punchingly sincere. Well up with McKinnon below:
Tonight’s cold open with Kate McKinnon. #ChappelleOnSNL pic.twitter.com/zZhQOLhKXY
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) November 13, 2016
Source and photo: Saturday Night Live / Twitter.
