Kerry Washington hosted Saturday Night Live last Saturday and she made quite a splash. Because she was the only African-American female on the show, she had to make up for the limited amount of female minority roles that have been missing on the show.

On the episode, it seemed that race was a major underlying tone. There were episodes focused on how she was a black woman, where she played stereotypes and even an episode about the black vote. It was difficult to appreciate Washington as a host because it seemed the writers were just using her for her skin color.

Some of the skits in the episode were downright offensive, such as the ‘Miss Universe’ and others, like ‘Ice Cream’ simply weren’t funny. The skits in the episode were either really funny or not funny at all.

Overall, it was a disappointment except for a few stellar skits. It is clear that the writers ruined a chance to have a great show with Washington as a host and, instead, focused too much on her race rather than her acting. Having no black female cast member isn’t funny and SNL made a mistake trying to make their serious problem into a punchline.

5. Weekend Update

I love Kate McKinnon. She is outrageous and wonderful. While this week’s ‘Weekend Update’ was bogged down by lame basketball players and puns that weren’t funny, McKinnon saved it. The part about the German chancellor and her phone being tapped was the best. Though, who hasn’t googled “Jason Segel shirtless” before?

4. How’s He Doing

This skit mocked President Barack Obama’s approval rating downfall and tried to joke that, no matter what he did, he would still have the black vote. In the skit, they made fun of white people and what they like. The skit seemed to play a lot off stereotypes but it worked because they were being so outrageous and covering everyone.

3. Career Week Speaker

Let’s ignore the fact that they had Washington playing an ignorant, slightly offensive stereotype. But, Nasim Pedrad was on her A-game in this skit. Plus, who doesn’t love good sound affect?

2. Cold Open

This episode of SNL explored the fact that there was, not only a lack of diversity in the cast of SNL but also the fact that they do not currently have a woman of color as a cast member. The Cold Open showed Washington playing all of the African-American women that are in popular culture that haven’t been shown on SNL because of the lack-of diversity.


1. My Girl

This could probably be one of the funniest digital shorts of the season. This skit was mocking the popular ‘The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)’ music video by Ylvis. Washington plays the woman who catches her boyfriend cheating on her.

What was your favorite skit from Kerry Washington episode?