‘SNL’ tried (at times) to be funny

At least we can be sure of one thing: The “Saturday Night Live” writers abided by the strike; they weren’t writing clever things in their spare time.
“SNL” returned Saturday after a 23-week gap, filling a key void in our humor landscape. A few moments were brilliant, but the rest were oddly ordinary.
We’ll have to see what happens next: “The Daily Show” finally returns this week (11 p.m. Monday through Friday, Oct. 16-19) on Comedy Central; “SNL” has its second new episode, at 11:29 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 21).
That one has Bad Bunny as host and music guest, which is OK but not promising. It was the host portion by Pete Davidson (shown here) that stood out this time.
There was Davidson in a cold opening, admitting that it seems strange to try to do comedy during a time of brutal warfare. But he reminded us of his own relationship to both: When he was 7, his father, a firefighter, was killed during the Sept. 11 attacks; when he was 8, it was comedy that began to pull him out of a deep depression.
During tragedy, he said, it makes sense “to try to be funny. Remember, I said ‘try.’”
He tried brilliantly, with an opening monolog that started with his tough childhood. “In Staten Island, the kids molest the priests.”
He described the opposite worlds that he and his sister inhabit. “She assists with brain surgery and I’m a drug addict.” And he told of bonding with her by watching ‘Game of Thrones’ … which, alas, happened to be all about brother-sister sex.
It was a great opening routine and there were a few good moments to follow, especially during “Weekend Update,” plus a few surprises. After a sketch about the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce obsession, Kelce showed up briefly … and then Swift was there to introduce the music guest, Ice Spice.
That would have been fine, except the sketch about the obsession was flat and one-note. Also, Ice Spice had little to offer, other than being really cute.
Other sketches were OK, but we’ll hope they sharpen up … or that “The Daily Show” does better. As Davidson said, we need to keep trying to find some humor.