Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda hosted Saturday Night Live this week, and he wasted no time launching into one of the songs from his hit musical, segueing smoothly from his opening monologue into an SNL-themed performance of “My Shot.” He led a phalanx of dancers into the audience before going on a tracking-shot tour of Saturday Night Live’s back hallways, with costumed extras seemingly waiting to go on stage in sketches that turned out not to exist. Honestly, if you’re going to go to the trouble of casting and costuming red, white, and blue showgirls, Abraham Lincoln, and what appeared to be a live llama, how hard can it be to throw them on stage during a musical number or something?
Miranda’s SNL lyrics were pretty good—extra points for imitating the way Don Pardo used to punch Larraine Newman’s name—but the highlight was Miranda all but calling Donald Trump a “piece of shit” before going into a brief “never going to be president” victory dance. Lorne Michaels showed up for a not-super-funny joke about Hamilton tickets but offered no explanation for the warm reception he gave Trump last season. Come on, Lin-Manuel Miranda—it’s live television, you can do whatever you want! Tear the Trump photo off the wall, ask Lorne Michaels what he was thinking, or at the very least, insist that the llama gets more screen time. Anything less would be wasting your shot.
