'SNL' packs a wallop with R. Kelly fiasco, Gwyneth Paltrow and Idris Elba

From the department of gifts that keep on giving (and giving) was last week's R. Kelly fiasco — and along with the rest of late night TV, "Saturday Night Live" wasn't about to ignore it either. Kelly forced politics from the cold open, and gave Pete Davidson — who's had his own share of troubles — his most memorable "Weekend Update" appearance since his apology to Rep. Dan Crenshaw back in November.

Add to this an effective surprise appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow, along with an unusual "who knew?" opening monologue by host Idris Elba — who knew he was once a bouncer at Caroline's who sold weed on the side? — and "SNL," just like that, had a good edition for the second week in a row.

Umm, thank you, R. Kelly?

In that cold open, Kenan Thompson — playing pop culture's bumbling blowhard of the moment — reminded viewers why he is "SNL's" most valuable player.  (Leslie Jones played Gayle King). His Kelly was was mostly a benign jelly roll in comparison to the real thing, but what he lacked in malice he made up for in a few good lines. The best of those:

"I gave you all 'Trapped in the Closet,' "Feelin' on Yo Booty," and "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number' and so many other clues and this is how you treat me?"

"Age," in fact was Aaliyah's song and album, but Kelly produced it, so the joke still works.

"SNL" cold opens do occasionally abandon politics, sometimes effectively and at other times with head-shaking ineffectiveness — most notably the Jeff Bezos one from the recent Halsey-hosted edition that couldn't stop tittering about his sexting habits. Last night's was effective. 

During his "Update" appearance, Davidson courted a little controversy by equating the Catholic Church with R. Kelly — "If you support the Catholic Church isn't that the same thing as being an R. Kelly fan? I don't see the difference."

But both Church and flock have withstood a lot worse in recent days, notably the publication of "In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy" by Frédéric Martel. What's one more throwaway line by a late-night comic?

Davidson had a few good ones.  At least. The gist of his comments — with so many talented people outed as creeps, how does a person begin to separate their work from the ethical responsibility of continuing to support, or to boycott, that work?

Or as Davidson put it, "you don't know how good someone's music is until they're accused as a pedophile. If I found out Macklemore was a pedophile I'd be happy to free up some space on my iphone."

He had a solution (of course). Anytime anyone supported the accused, they need to first acknowledge it:

"The full sentence should be, 'Mark Wahlberg beat up an old Asian dude,' (followed by) and 'I'd like one ticket to 'Daddy's Home 3' please!'"

Oh, and Gwyneth.

Heidi Gardner's funny character, Baskin Johns — the easily confused spokesperson for Paltrow's "modern lifestyle brand," Goop — returned last night, and after stumbling around a bit, her "supervisor" arrived, played by Paltrow herself. She  told Johns that their boss doesn't actually fire people for incompetence, so she had nothing to worry about. (Instead, "it's called conscious unemploying...")

And what does "Goop" stand for?

"Gwyneth Opens Our Checks."