Amy Schumer Rocks With Kardashian Knocks As ‘Saturday Night Live’ Host

Amy Schumer’s monologue topics ranged from Bradley Cooper (he’s hot, she doesn’t care what you think, they’re engaged) to bathing her 18-month old niece (you don’t want to go there and neither, to be explicitly honest, did she) to equating her body with a Lava Lamp (which, given her peek-a-boo hostess outfit, seemed pretty much on-the-money). But her pretty darned funny 8-minute opener took flight when she set her aim on the Kardashians. Sure it was low-hanging fruit, but never underestimate the enduring comic value of the cheap shot. Mother-in-law jokes never die, they just morph into new bits, right? “We have to be a role model for these little girls,” Schumer said, earnestly. “Because who do they have? Who they have literally is the Kardashians. Is that a great message for little girls? A whole family of women who take the faces they were born with as a light suggestion?”

Later on, Schumer was nearly upstaged by Nicki Minaj’s surprise appearance as a welcome provocation — visually and lyrically — during musical guest Weeknd’s remix of “The Hills.” But the comet that is Schumer — her Apollo Theatre concert debuts next week on HBO — held her own even when the sketch material came up short.