Saturday Night Live returns from a three-week hiatus to find the world very much changed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the war still in its early days, people aren’t in much of a laughing mood, let alone ready to see the show attempt to mine it for comedy (even if you don’t think satirists should blink in the face of fresh tragedy, it’s been clear for years that SNL in its current state is simply not up to that task).
Thankfully, the show doesn’t even try to use the war for fodder, opting instead to hand the cold open over to the Ukrainian Choir Dumka of New York, who perform Prayer for Ukraine. Their moving performance is weighted with sadness, but also strength and resolve. SNL hasn’t always succeeded when taking the somber approach – see the cold opens that followed 9/11 or Trump’s election for examples of how bad they can be – but in this case, they 100% made the right call.
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